The news that Guinness is moving its advertising account from UK agency HCCL and that two other international agencies have been invited to pitch for it ends year-long speculation that when the brand finally moves, it will be back - in some form at least - to an Irish agency.
McConnell's has been working on several secret Guinness projects in the past year and it had been generally thought that because the UK creative work was so out of touch, not just with the Irish market - but with the core values of the brand, that there would have been some local input into any new creative pitch.
McConnell's already has some Guinness business - it handles Smithwicks and was responsible for the advertising behind the ill-fated Breo brand. This is the first time Guinness has sought to appoint a global agency to cover its 150 markets. The company's global ad and promotional budget is worth £230 million sterling (€380 million).
The new agency selection process will be led by Mr Jon Potter, global brand director for Guinness, and the two agencies under consideration are Saatchi & Saatchi (currently handling Guinness advertising across Africa and the Caribbean) and Abbot Mead Vickers/BBDO (currently handling Guinness advertising in the UK).
One of the firm's criteria for selection will be that the winning agency "has a global network which complements Guinness Ltd priority markets".
The move towards globalisation will not, according to Mr Potter, necessarily lead to a single creative execution globally. This could be good news for Irish International, the Irish agency wholly owned by one of the bidders, the AMV/BBDO group. It almost certainly means the St James's Gate management will still have a strong input into the advertising style and content for the Irish market.
It has been known for some time that the creative work devised by HHCL, which included the disastrous Big Pint strategy and the current and equally dismal £6 million (€7.6 million) "Live Life to the Power of Guinness" campaign, was both unpopular with punters and with the Dublin management. Despite the estimated £20 million spent on advertising and marketing in Ireland last year, consumption fell by 2.8 per cent.
Mr Potter acknowledges the need to devise campaigns that consumers can identify with. "Our priority is to build a strong partnership with an agency which can deliver excellent creative work that really connects with our consumers in all our major markets."
The pitch does not include media. In Ireland the £9 million Diageo media account moved last year to Initiative and the standoff between the company and RTE over rates resulted in Guinness advertising being off the air for most of the first half of this year.
