WORKS
|
42% of Guinness volume came from the top 20% of CRM.
|
1.7x increase in weekly consumption.
|
11% eDM response rate showed content-led engagement beats reminder emails.
|
9.3% consumption lift from The Guinness Insider.
|
89% felt personally valued.
|
25,929 unique visitors re-engaged through digital storytelling.
|
88% brand health agreement.
|
36% of all recruits came via referral
| 42% of Guinness volume came from the top 20% of CRM. | 1.7x increase in weekly consumption. | 11% eDM response rate showed content-led engagement beats reminder emails. | 9.3% consumption lift from The Guinness Insider. | 89% felt personally valued. | 25,929 unique visitors re-engaged through digital storytelling. | 88% brand health agreement. | 36% of all recruits came via referral
|
A Bronze in Echo.
|
Two Bronzes and Two Merits in DMA Malaysia.
|
Awarded for cultural precision, strategic CRM design, and proof that deep beats were wide.
| A Bronze in Echo. | Two Bronzes and Two Merits in DMA Malaysia. | Awarded for cultural precision, strategic CRM design, and proof that deep beats were wide.
Business-Driven & Tech Leadership Campaign
The B2 Spirit 3.0:
The Duo-Bunkers Stealth.
-
Role:
Brand Creative LeaderMarket:
MalaysiaObjective:
Stabilise brand loyalty and trial under a 30% price increase from RM15 to RM23. Ensuring belief in Guinness remained strong and justified the higher price, despite the absence of traditional media.Key Actions & Strategy:
Deployed two CRM bunkers targeting loyalists and newbies to synchronise belief with behaviour:Loyalist B2 Strikes:
Four cultural strikes reinforced pride, ritual, and status, keeping existing drinkers loyal despite the price hike.Codename: Iron Shield – The Guinness Insider 2.0: Bi-monthly newsletter reinforcing pride, cultural relevance, and ritual; kept loyalists engaged, leading to a 9.3% weekly consumption uplift.
Codename: Sentinel – Shower of Prosperity: Festive direct mail celebrating loyalty and cultural symbolism, generating RM300,000 uplift during CNY.
Codename: Eternal – The Longevity Recipe: The birthday mailer deepened the ritual and emotional connection, resulting in a 1.7x increase in weekly consumption.
Codename: Starling – The Call to Arms: Member-get-member program turns loyalists into advocates, yielding an average of 6 referrals per member and reinforcing brand advocacy organically.
Newbie B2 Strikes:
Two digital strikes engaged curious younger drinkers, making discovery self-directed, belief-led, and the product palatable without the need for persuasion.Codename: Stormbreaker – Ride The Waves: Interactive webisode series guiding self-directed discovery; 14,510 recruits joined the CRM program.
Codename: Nightfall – Discover the Dark Mystery of Guinness: A tactical eDM series that drives re-entry into Guinness City, engaging 25,929 unique visitors through storytelling without direct persuasion.
Results & P&L Impact:
Secured Guinness as the No. 1 stout in Malaysia, for the forth year in a row.
Six precision strikes justified belief at RM23 per bottle.
42% of Guinness volume came from the top 20% of CRM — precision paid off.
1.7x increase in weekly consumption.
RM300,000 uplift during CNY.
9.3% consumption lift from The Guinness Insider.
88% brand health agreement; 89% felt personally valued.
36% of recruits via referral; 11% eDM response rate.
Awards & Recognition:
Bronze Direct Mail Campaign, Echo 2007
Bronze B2C Direct Marketing Campaign, DMA Malaysia 2007
Bronze High Volume Direct Marketing Campaign, DMA Malaysia 2007
Merit, Direct Mail High Volume Campaign, DMA Malaysia 2007 (The Secret Recipe for Longevity & Zhu Long Ru Shui)
Technical & Creative Innovation:
Self-directed digital storytelling built in HTML and early JavaScript, optimised for low bandwidth (56kbps). No video. No Flash. Just a looping GIF under 80KB.
Hybrid analogue-digital invitation and engagement system driving loyalty and advocacy without paid advertising.
CRM precision architecture transforming belief into behaviour, advocacy, and measurable volume.
Mission Log
Two years on the roll, the B2 Spirit CRM strategy had defended Guinness in a market gone dark. The B2 Spirit. 1.0, securing loyal drinkers. The B2 Spirit. 2.0, capturing curious new ones. Segmented. Sustained. Strategic. A new kind of CRM warfare.
This year, Guinness entered its third and most demanding chapter. A 30% price increase, driven by duty hikes, raised the price of a single bottle from RM15 to RM23.
No TV. No radio. No outdoor. The bunkers were all that stood between us and decline.
Loyalists still believed in the brand, but their wallets could no longer follow.
New Drinkers remained curious, but at RM23 a pour, trial made no sense for a taste they didn’t yet enjoy.
Guinness was becoming too expensive to stay loyal to — and too irrational to try.
The mission was clear:
Stabilise both fronts. Justify the price through sustained belief without ATL. To prove that Guinness is not too costly to stay loyal to, nor too senseless to try.
The Doctrine
The B2 Spirit. 3.0 would fly again — this time we deployed two.
Both fortified with psychological payloads — to cut through the radar of doubt and drift. To reinforce the belief that had begun to slip.
Undeterred by noise. Fully felt.
We held the line for the loyalists. Men aged 35 and above — proud, traditional, men of substance. Four cultural strikes, each engineered to have ritual, pride, and presence, proving that RM23 a bottle was still a preference of choice and that quality still mattered.
New drinkers aged 21 to 34 — digital, social, fluid in their choices — didn’t see enough reason to try. We struck two key points that resonated with their perceptions and curiosity, demonstrating that RM23 could be worth the leap.
All timed. All placed with precision.
Just enough to keep belief intact — and price justified.
Loyalist B2 Strikes
Four cultural strikes to hold pride, ritual, and presence of Guinness.
Belief didn’t vanish. It retreated.
Strike One
Codename: Greatness 3
Payload: The Guinness Insider 2.0
A bi-monthly print newspaper engineered to reaffirm belief, not drive volume. It delivered pride, cultural relevance, and ritual back into the hands of loyal drinkers, keeping them seen, included, and superior.
9.3% sustained uplift in weekly consumption.
-
Each edition mirrored the rhythms of its readers — bite-sized news, life insights, Chinese heritage, and seasonal promotions.
Crafted in a tone of one-upmanship, it kept Guinness present in kopitiam tables, uncle circles, and festive gatherings, not through ads, but through conversation.
A stealth channel passed from hand to hand, unreadable to competitors and untraceable by mainstream media.
It equipped drinkers with status-coded knowledge, helping them look sharp among their peers. The belief was never pushed. It was delivered with honour.
Strike Two
Codename: Greatness 4
Payload: Shower of prosperity
A festive direct mail strike disguised as a Chinese idiom of fortune, engineered to preserve relevance, reward loyalty, and reassert Guinness as the drink of prosperity.
RM300,000 in sales uplift | 84% of recipients felt personally valued.
-
The name came from a classic idiom: zhu long ru shui — wealth flowing endlessly from a pig cage. Inside the red packet mailer, Guinness reimagined it as a blessing: prosperity flows to those who make wise choices.
A cascade of offers was hidden in poetic form — discount vouchers, auspicious gifts, lucky draws, and festive retail promotions — crafted to deepen ritual and strengthen cultural bonds during Chinese New Year.
The design fused symbolic cues with celebration logic, making it a gift worth sharing among peers.
Not just a promotion. A moment of shared affirmation. -
Bronze, Direct Mail Campaign and Merit, High Volume Campaign in DMA Malaysia
Strike Three
Codename: Greatness 5
Payload: The Longevity Recipe
A birthday strike crafted with cultural depth — engineered to trigger emotion, revive the tradition, and reframe Guinness as a drink of lifelong honour.
1.7x uplift in weekly consumption
-
In Chinese tradition, longevity noodles are cooked by loved ones as a blessing for health and long life. Guinness tapped into this ritual, delivering a Secret Recipe birthday mailer that felt both personal and precious.
Each message was timed to arrive just before their birthday, addressed directly to the member. Inside: a traditional recipe, a heartfelt wish, and a reward to enjoy Guinness with their circle.
This wasn’t just CRM. It was a cultural echo, reviving memory, care, and meaning.
Loyalty didn’t just feel remembered. It felt honoured.
-
Merit, Direct Mail High Volume Campaign in DMA Malaysia
Strike Four
Codename: Greatness 6
Payload: The Call to Arms
A member-get-member strike disguised as a symbol of brotherhood — engineered to convert pride into recruitment. It turned loyalists into advocates and referrals into a force.
Avg. 6 referrals per member. Recruits of 36% came from loyalist referrals.
-
Inspired by ancient jian bamboo scrolls — messages once passed in secrecy among sworn brothers — the invitation unfolded in accordion folds, calling on drinkers to summon someone worthy to stand beside them.
The scroll’s language echoed tradition, not as a promotion, but as a code of honour.
It called each drinker a 豪客 (háo kè) — a man admired for his boldness and sense of honour, like a respected patron or valiant figure from traditional Chinese storytelling.
One loyalist summoned. A tribe is formed.
Each successful referral unlocked exclusive privileges, preferred pricing, and access to prestige-only gatherings — from festive feasts to surprise giveaways, such as the Sony Ericsson K800i.
With every scroll passed, the message spread — not just about Guinness, but about the kind of man who drinks it.
Newbies B2 Strikes
Two strategic strikes to pique curiosity about Guinness are still alive.
Belief can be discovered.
Strike One
Codename: Greatness 1
Payload: Ride The Waves
An interactive webisode series engineered to reframe Guinness as a drink for the self-directed, not the socially swayed. It gave new drinkers the space to try the belief before trying the drink.
14,510 new members joined the CRM program.
-
The experience mimicked a Guinness pour. The scroll-triggered motion pulled visitors downward through waves that led not to product features, but to values and choices.
Each forked path mirrored a decision between two beliefs: a shortcut or a conviction, blending in or standing firm. Webisodes are loaded based on the time of day, designed to catch different states of mind. No two entries felt the same.
Choices shaped outcomes. The drink was never pushed — it appeared only when earned.
-
The entire site was coded in HTML with early JavaScript — no Flash was used.
Sprites and vector layers were preloaded to deliver seamless motion, optimised for low RAM machines and 56kbps speeds.
A fully animated belief journey — built before scroll storytelling became standard.
Strike Two
Codename: Greatness 2
Payload: Discover the Dark Mystery of Guinness
A tactical eDM series designed to reignite curiosity and push re-entry into Guinness City. It deepened belief not through persuasion, but interaction, pulling new drinkers back into the digital world on their terms.
Attracted 25,929 unique visitors
-
The headline “Discover the Dark Mystery of Guinness” appeared above a subtly animated Guinness pour inside the email. Each message revealed just enough — a hidden truth, a brewing secret, a mystery worth chasing. The product wasn’t explained. It was hinted at.
One click led somewhere new: a refreshed Master Brewer, a hidden Black Quest path, or a real-world Guinness event.
The eDMs ran year-round, syncing with the calendar of brand activations. When events peaked — like St. Patrick’s Day or payday promos — they pushed footfall.
When the world went quiet, they pulled belief back into Guinness City. -
No video. No Flash. Just a looping GIF under 80KB — layered to mimic pour motion, tested across Hotmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. Built entirely in HTML tables, with fallback alt text when images failed.
Guinness rewarded the curious, wherever they landed.
Mission Debrief
The B‑2 Spirit. 3.0 stabilised growth, and protected Guinness against inflation fatigue by syncing belief with behaviour, not age.
Two fully operational CRM bunkers took flight:
Loyalist B2 Strikes cultural stronghold of pride and consumption roar.
Newbies B2 Strikes the digital realm, making belief discoverable — and the drink, palatable. Together, six precision strikes justified the price of belief at RM23 a bottle.
42% of Guinness volume came from the top 20% of CRM, proving precision pays off.
1.7x increase in weekly consumption — loyalty made visible in behaviour.
Each loyalist recruited an average of 6, a CRM multiplier effect with no paid incentive.
RM300,000 uplift during CNY — proof that ritual still drives retail.
9.3% consumption lift from The Guinness Insider — a print strike with pint impact.
88% brand health agreement — Guinness stayed strong under pressure.
89% felt personally valued — CRM became cultural recognition.
14,510 recruits proved that belief could be built without ever pouring a pint.
25,929 unique visitors re-engaged through digital storytelling — no ad push required.
11% eDM response rate showed content-led engagement beats reminder emails.
36% of all recruits came via referral — belief is still best when passed on.
Industry leaders and juries recognised.
A Bronze in Echo, two Bronzes and two Merits in DMA Malaysia — awarded for cultural precision, strategic CRM design, and proof that deep beats were wide.
The B‑2 Spirit. 3.0 A CRM war machine was operational, sustained and effective, even though the terrain had changed. It outperformed traditional advertising — even in a market with limited visibility.
It turned belief into segmentation. Segmentation into strikes. Strikes into sustained business. In a time of retreat, the B2 Spirit proved that depth and strategic strikes win.
-
Bronze Direct Mail Campaign, Echo 2007
Bronze B2C Direct Marketing Campaign, DMA Malaysia 2007
Bronze High Volume Direct Marketing Campaign, DMA Malaysia 2007
Testimonial
// Nicki is committed to the brands she works on and has the 360-degree experience to add value to the strategy. I will miss working with Nicki: her sense of humour and tenacity for her craft made the experience enjoyable //
Selina Ang
Executive Director, OgilvyOne Malaysia
What’s Next
We stole the drinkers from beers, and the sales target stabilised.
Guinness's proactive approach lands as targeted.
The learnings from B2 1.0 to 3.0 sparked new stealth strikes.
The B‑2 Spirit 4.0: The Duo-Bunkers 4X4X4 Stealth will reach a new evolutionary stage, reimagining a belief in permanence and celebration.
Flying under the same code: Greatness is a choice.
If you are interested in seeing how The B2 Spirit started and stretched across the year and impacted, secured the business, and helped Guinness stay as the No. 1 Brand Stout in the country, here:
