Rockshore, the Diageo-owned Irish lager and cider brand, has hired pop star Ronan Keating for its new Christmas campaign, ‘The most refreshing time for a beer’. Created by M&C Saatchi London, the campaign is designed to build on Rockshore’s summer activity in creating a fame-driving piece of work offering a ‘Refreshingly Irish’ take on the festive season and thereby engage with lager drinkers in the 25 to 40 age cohort.
While Christmas Day is traditionally the focal point of the festive season, as a brand that celebrates playful banter between mates, December 26th – St Stephen’s Day – was identified as the day when many young people go to the pub with friends, as an occasion that Rockshore could own. To build on the idea, Rockshore is rolling out its first ever festive anthem, performed by Ronan Keating, who first shot to fame with Boyzone.
A series of humorous films show Keating with a nostalgic remix of the Christmas classic ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’. The producer behind the mixing desk interjects and subverts the lyrics at Keating’s expense, while the singer dishes out his own banter, before the group head off to the pub to socialise together over a few drinks.
Mates
Research commissioned by Diageo found that one in three Irish adults are anxious to reunite with their lifelong mates over the holidays. So, it’s unsurprising that 48 per cent of them rank St Stephen’s Day and Christmas Eve above Christmas Day as the most popular days for celebrations over the holidays. One in four people would even rather do all of the Christmas tidying up than miss Stephen’s Day pints with their mates.
During the countdown to December 26, Diageo will bring the St. Stephen’s Day vibes to selected pubs in Dublin, Cork and Galway, where patrons can expect sing-a-longs, leftover Christmas dinner sandwiches, games and pints of Rockshore. The brand will also feature at the Winterval Christmas market in Waterford. The other agencies behind Rockshore’s first Christmas campaign are OMD, Wilson Hartnell PR and Verve.
Watch the Rockshore Christmas ad here
