Tasty £2m push for black stuff

Diageo is investing £2m in a new advertising campaign for Guinness to highlight how the black stuff tastes.

The push will include the latest TV commercial in the brand's long list of iconic adverts, which displays the words the company uses to describe the beer, such as "velvety", "beautifully crafted" and "genius", as it is poured into a glass. The words then turn into a pint of Guinness. The advert will be complemented by press, outdoor and digital advertising from now until August.

Diageo is also investing £600,000 on in-bar point-of-sale (PoS) items and a promotional campaign for Guinness. The PoS is focused on educating bar staff about how to serve Guinness, which it hopes will ensure that customers actually receive a tasty pint.

The company said research shows that consumers judge the standard of an outlet by its beer, adding that the quality of Guinness is the main yardstick. Diageo is concerned that a recent mystery-shopper survey reveals only 48% of pubs and bars were achieving the Guinness perfect pour.

The main areas where bars were not meeting the Guinness team's standards included failing to hold the glass at the correct 45-degree angle; not achieving the correct head size; not using branded glassware and not using the two-part pour.

Guinness senior brand manager at Diageo GB Rob Newlan said: "We were quite surprised by these survey results.

"Many pub and bar staff pride themselves on being able to pour a great pint of Guinness correctly, but obviously there are others who have still to perfect their Guinness-pouring techniques."