The Industry Column – Cheltenham & Guinness

As the first race gets underway, Peter McNeile, Director of Sponsorship for Cheltenham Racecourse, discusses the association that Guinness has with the Cheltenham Festival. 

This week, the Guinness Village returns as Cheltenham’s perennial party location for the duration of the Cheltenham Festival. But what does this venue – and Guinness’ other activities at The Festival – tell us about the brand’s marketing strategy?

For many years now, Guinness advertising campaigns have been associated with creativity and innovation, generating excitement among the consumers and the marketing community alike. While less high profile than the advertising campaigns, Guinness as a brand and Diageo as a brand owner have been equally innovative in their approach to sponsorship and experiential marketing. 

Guinness was the first brand to sponsor the creation of a purpose built facility at a racecourse, with the launch of the Guinness Village at Cheltenham in 1990. The Village comprises a temporary grandstand, erected for the duration of the Festival, and an entertainment facility where people can try – and inevitably go on to buy – Guinness, with live contemporary Irish music playing all day. We know from research that 43% of people tasting Guinness at Cheltenham do not normally drink stout; they do so in The Village because “It’s what people do at Cheltenham”. 

Guinness’ involvement has a marked impact on consumers’ habits – every second pint sunk at Cheltenham is Guinness, giving it a market share of 50% when Guinness’ national market penetration is more like 7%.  Nearly a quarter of a million pints of Guinness are drunk at the racecourse itself during the month of March, and several times that volume at the pubs, restaurants and hotels around Cheltenham. 

This year, Guinness has continued to innovate in its involvement with Cheltenham in a way that is fully integrated with its overall marketing and business strategy.

For example, Guinness will use The Village as part of its social media campaign. A photographer will be present to take pictures of people enjoying Guinness, as they invariably do. The pictures, capturing the spirit and fun of The Festival, will be uploaded to Guinness’ Facebook page and the subjects will be encouraged to visit the page to share and send their photos to their friends. Given that many people access Facebook from mobile devices, I am sure they will be quick to go online and share their photos from the venue almost immediately. It will be a huge success.

Guinness has also become more innovative in using The Festival as part of its corporate social responsibility strategy, entering into a new agreement to sponsor the traffic news on Cheltenham Radio.  This event radio channel, available for the duration of the Festival, is a key source of news and information for racegoers so the Guinness “Drink responsibly” and “Don’t drink and drive” messages will gain repeated exposure. This is such a logical step I really don’t know why it hasn’t been done before at Cheltenham. It also reaches an online audience that often tops 150,000 listeners each day.

In The Village, when it is nearly time for last orders, Guinness has implemented a strategy (for several years now) where bar staff ask customers whether they really do want another pint before they leave and remind them that they cannot take drinks off-site. Again, this ties in neatly with the “Drink responsibly” message that is displayed prominently at point-of-sale and will be reiterated on Cheltenham Radio.

Taken as a whole, Guinness’ activities at Cheltenham tell racegoers:

–         Guinness is central to The Festival, even if the brand doesn’t sponsor a particular race

–         Guinness wants you to have fun and to share the fantastic experience of being at Cheltenham and having a Guinness

–         We want you to select Guinness as your drink of choice – but please drink sensibly. 

Such an innovative, integrated strategy – that delivers results and ties in with the brand’s overall business strategy – is typically Guinness. This slick approach to marketing, the association with premium events like the Cheltenham Festival and Guinness’ ability to deliver a premium service in venues like the Guinness Village all help to ensure that the brand continues to be seen as a premium product. 

I’ll see you in the bar!