Where better to kick start any celebration than at a showcase event watched live by 80,000 and 445,000 on TV?

2009 marks 250 years of GUINNESS® brewing heritage and this year the Synergy team were tasked with bringing the anniversary celebrations to life at the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP Final.

The GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP Final is the culmination of nine months of hard fought rugby on the pitch and even harder fought supporting off the pitch as fans follow their teams across the country come wind, rain, snow or sun. This year was no different with the top four teams taking it right down to the wire to win a spot to run out on the hallowed turf at Twickenham.

Behind the scenes, the planning which goes into organising the world’s largest rugby premiership match is no mean feat and to add to all the excitement of the rugby, the Synergy team were challenged to develop an engaging integrated PR and experiential campaign.

With a number of key considerations, including promoting the 250 celebrations, the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP Final and the core brand message – Bring It To Life - our ‘Raise a Pint to Arthur Guinness’ campaign worked across multiple platforms.

The activity encouraged players and fans to change their middle name to Arthur Guinness. Players from the two finalist teams, Mike Catt (London Irish) and Martin Corry (Leicester Tigers) lead the way by undertaking the name change by deed poll and by doing so, GUINNESS made a donation to the PRA Benevolent Fund. Interviews and photography with the two iconic players promoted the 250 message and increased the media coverage in the week running up to the Final.

Mike Arthur Guinness Catt and Martin Arthur Guinness Corry

 

This experience was bought to life for the fans in the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP village at Twickenham where over 200 rugby die-hards adopted the new middle name and for their troubles they were rewarded with a free pint of the black stuff!

I now pronounce you John 'Arthur Guinness' Brown

 

 

Although the fans watching from their sofas weren’t able to join in the name-changing fun, the 250 message was brought to life with new post pads and dynamic LED boards. It was a hard fought game but when the final whistle blew Leicester came out victorious and it was up to Club Captain Martin ‘Arthur Guinness’ Corry to lift the Trophy for the Tigers.

Martin Arthur Guinness Corry lifts the Guinness Premiership trophy

 

 

Keep an eye out for more Guinness 250 celebrations later in the year!

By Caroline Ayling on May 28th, 2009

Tags: Brand marketing, Event management consultants, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Public relations, Synergy

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Imagine the prospect of a rugby training session with a coach who is feared by players for his army style drills and envied by other coaches for the results he yields from his team. Guinness Club Together, a grassroots rugby initiative, gave one lucky club the chance to be put through their paces in a unique training session, tailored specifically for the club, by the Wales Defence Coach Shaun Edwards.

Shaun gave up his only day off this year, in his busy schedule training the Welsh National Squad and the Wasps Guinness Premiership team, to head to Nottingham Casuals RFC, currently 5^th in Midlands 4 (East – North), for a once in a lifetime training session.

Oli Mott, winner of the Guinness Club Together competition, claimed he’d never seen so many players turn up for mid-week training and with such excitement and enthusiasm – they were even all on time! Shaun lived up to his trade-mark terrifying approach and took no pity on the Nottingham Casuals Team, undertaking a series of training drills and practices, which would have put a professional player through their paces. Shaun showed his true passion for the development of rugby by spending time with the club coaches as well as with the players. Judging by all the exhausted faces at the end I think it’s safe to say they had never experienced anything like it.

Despite Shaun’s gruelling schedule, he found time to share a pint of ‘the black stuff’ with the team after the training session, along with sharing some amusing anecdotes of life off the pitch in the professional game. The hard work and sweat truly paid off as the Nottingham Casuals won their next match 81-0! Shaun Edwards obviously left a lasting impression and turned out to be not so intimidating as originally thought.

To round up the 2008-9 rugby season Guinness Club Together is offering one member club the chance to play on the hallowed turf at Twickenham on the day of the Guinness Premiership Final. To enter visit www.guinness-clubtogether.com.

By Georgina Taylor on March 25th, 2009

Tags: Alcohol, Event management service, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, community, grass roots sport

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December saw James Haskell of London Wasps and Steve Borthwick of Saracens switch the pitch for the pool by playing a game of rugby in the underwater tank at Pinewood Studios. Submerging themselves in 1.2 millions litres of water, the England duo were promoting the GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP Drinkaware Weekend and highlighting the importance of staying refreshed by drinking water in-between alcoholic beverages. 

Have a look at the behind-the-scenes footage to see how the players avoided sinking in their size thirteens:

By Nick Stocker on January 6th, 2009

Tags: Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Public relations, Rugby

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Congratulations to the Guinness team who picked up their fourth award last night for the title sponsorship of rugby’s Guinness Premiership. The sponsorship, managed on behalf of Guinness by Synergy, won the Rugby Business Award for Rugby Sponsor of the Year (over $500k).

The judges particularly commended the ground breaking work on the Guinness Club Together campaign across 2007/8. Synergy manages all aspects of the sponsorship from strategic consulting to experiential events and PR.

By Dominic Curran on November 18th, 2008

Tags: Experiential marketing, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Public relations, Rugby, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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20 men in a room hugging was the scene last Wednesday night at Harlequins at the Guinness Club Together, ‘Rugby Essentials’, event. Guinness Club Together is a grassroots initiative developed to work with rugby clubs. It is free to join and in exchange for collecting and sending in Guinness keg caps, clubs are able to redeem a host of prizes, merchandise and other sought after items from the online catalogue.

The events are being hosted by Guinness Premiership referees, players and coaches demonstrating training techniques, warm-up drills as well as offering advice on the new and controversial Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) . Wayne Barnes, a Guinness Premiership referee, provided an interactive session on the ELVs. Clubs have now been playing the new laws for a few months and this gave them a chance to discuss how they are being interpreted by both the players and referees. It was the coaching portion of the evening that prompted a group of fully grown men to get up and hug each other as Colin Osborne, the Quins coach, demonstrated the wrestling techniques that the squad use to warm up.  The events have been kept small and intimate to ensure that the attendees get an opportunity to interact and really get what they want out of the session.

I am a rugby fan but last week some of the jargon really took it to the next level and I did wonder at times had it been in a foreign language I might have had more chance of interpreting it! It was really great to see the audience so fully engaged and, at times, mesmerised.

The purpose of the ‘Rugby Essentials’ events is for Guinness to target the core rugby audience and club opinion formers and to engage them in their passion giving them a valuable rugby insight that they can take back to their respective clubs. This is a really great way for Guinness to offer a unique brand experience whilst spreading the wealth of its Premiership sponsorship assets.

The Guinness Club Together Rugby Essential events are travelling around the UK in the next month:

Newcastle Falcons - 29^th October (18.00 – 21.00)
Sale Sharks - 5^th November (18.00 – 21.00)
Northampton Saints - 12^th November (18.00 – 21.00)
Saracens - 19^th November (18.00 – 21.00) 

I would love to be a fly on the flood lights when the guests from last week go back to their clubs and attempt to cajole the players into a bit of a wrestle!

By Lisa Woodward on October 29th, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Experiential marketing, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, grass roots sport

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A week before this year’s Guinness Premiership Final, Guinness proudly hosted a lunch and an opportunity for the country’s top sports journalists to sit down and chat with two giants of the English game who are walking away after a quarter century of service - Lawrence Dallalgio and Richard Hill.

Whilst Richard Hill has regularly been described as a linchpin for both club and country, it is Lawrence Bruno Nero Dallaglio who has captured the hearts of the nation. And as he entered the restaurant last week, his presence filled the room and it was easy to understand why.

For Lawrence, playing rugby was like going into battle. Whether he was playing in the Guinness Premiership or on the international stage, he always brought to the table that fearless Churchillian spirit. He was never afraid to put other players in their place, he always spoke his mind, both on and off the pitch, and when on international duty he bellowed out the national anthem with more pride than the entire England football team.

So it seemed fitting that on Saturday, Lawrence played his 339^th and final game of competitive rugby in front of a world-record crowd for a domestic game. Once again he played at Twickenham, once again he shed tears in the tunnel and once again, as expected, he led his team to victory.

For Lawrence his charisma and natural aura stands him in good stead for the next stage of his career and can be summed-up in the words of another staunchly proud Englishman: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Something tells me we will be seeing Lawrence again.

By Nick Stocker on June 5th, 2008

Tags: Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby

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With 82,000 fans attending this year’s Guinness Premiership Final, this was the biggest domestic game the world had ever seen and it was up to us to ensure that everyone left with a smile.

As tradition dictates, fans flocked to the Guinness Village on arrival for a pre-match pint of the black stuff and were immediately greeted by the Guinness Honesty Bar. This was a simple concept designed to reward fans by entrusting them to deposit their money in an ‘honesty box’ before collecting their pints from the bar. As anticipated, queues were cut, allowing fans more time to enjoy the day. Judging by the amount of Guinness being poured, the PRA Benevolent Fund were also delighted as they received a donation of £1 from each pint sold.

For those with quick hands, the Guinness Power Pass tested how fast you could pass a rugby ball. Leicester Tiger’s Harry Ellis or London Wasps’ Eoin Reddan needn’t worry just yet, but with each entrant being rewarded with a Guinness headband, it was certainly very popular.

Your Shout gave fans an opportunity to explain why they loved this year’s Guinness Premiership season and with winning entries being relayed on Twickenham’s giant screens at half time, the sell-out crowd were enlightened to some rather excitable views…

However, despite all this activity, perhaps the biggest winners on the day were amateur side Highley Rugby Club who were given the chance to play on Twickenham’s hallowed turf after winning the Guinness Club Together initiative. Gloucester Rugby’s Dean Ryan surprised the team with a pre-match training session before the team ran out to club anthem “Come on Eileen.” English rugby, it seems, is in a very good place!

With the Guinness blimp majestically floated around Rugby HQ parading the message “Seconds from Greatness” for all 82,000 fans to see before the game, the match, it seemed, was the only thing out of our control. By the end of the day even Prince Harry was raising his pint of Guinness as winning team London Wasps paraded the trophy under a banner that simply read “Greatness.”

By Nick Stocker on June 5th, 2008

Tags: Event management consultants, Event management service, Experiential marketing, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, Sales promotion, Sponsorship

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