Diageo-Owned Brand Guinness Launches ‘Taste Of Black’ Campaign As It Aims To Win Over South Korea’s Beer Market Dominated By Local Lagers

Guinness recently launched its "Taste of Black" campaign in the hopes that it will help them win over South Korea's beer market that is currently ruled by local lagers, The Drum noted Oct. 11.

The "Taste of Black" television commercial has more than 38,000 views ten days after it was uploaded on Youtube on October 4. The TV campaign was created by iris and was directed by John S. Park, who worked closely with production company The Sweet Shop.

Guinness is considered one of the biggest global brands owned by Diageo. Despite of this, Guinness "is still in relative terms a small player" in South Korea's beer market, as reported by Campaign Brief Asia on the same day.

"Over the past five or so years, Diageo Korea has done a great job of 'seeding' the Guinness brand at the top end of the beer market in Korea, leading to it becoming one of the most premium positioned and admired international beer brands in the market," said Diageo Korea's marketing and innovation director Dougal McGeorge.

McGeorge added that the real challenge for them right now is to take it up another notch.

"To do this we needed to make a step-change in the way we communicate about and activate Guinness, and as such we sought a partner who could help us to do this."

He went on, "In iris we found both a strategically strong and creatively gifted team, with a great can-do attitude and proactivity, which enabled us jointly to develop and execute this striking new campaign in a remarkably short time frame, overcoming a number of complexities and challenges along the way."

Further reports have revealed that the campaign aims change the perception of South Koreans that Guinness is too strong, hence the campaign introduces the six different flavors of Guiness and its distinctions.

On the other hand, iris managing director Christopher Lyons considers South Korea as an "incredibly interesting marketplace."

"Agencies and clients often talk about being category disruptive. I believe this campaign truly does just that. It is a testament to the Diageo Korea Guinness brand team and the team at iris who had a bold ambition to engage consumers, drive participation, and create a platform - not just a campaign - so that consumers could engage with Guinness, participate with the work, and share their experience."

Here's the video of "Taste of Black" campaign of Guinness.