As part of the Guinness Summer Festival campaign, GrowthStory partnered Guinness with How To Gael to connect with festival-goers across Ireland during the summer season.
Recognising the podcast’s unique format and predominantly female audience, the campaign used bespoke host-read advertisements in both Irish and English to position Guinness within authentic conversations around Irish culture and festival experiences. The campaign ran across key festival weekends, aligning the brand with moments when audiences were most engaged.
Guinness wanted to broaden its reach beyond its traditional audience while reinforcing its connection to Irish culture during the country’s busiest festival period.
The challenge was to deliver this message in a way that felt authentic, avoiding conventional advertising in favour of trusted voices and culturally relevant content.
Objectives
GrowthStory identified How To Gael as the ideal partner due to its bilingual format, engaged audience and distinctive three-host dynamic.
Custom host-read advertisements were produced in both Irish and English, with each presenter contributing to the reads in their own voice. Rather than interrupting the listening experience, the ads were integrated naturally into the show, allowing Guinness’ messaging to feel conversational and authentic.
Episodes were scheduled around Ireland’s major summer festivals, ensuring the campaign reached listeners during key cultural moments throughout the season.
The campaign demonstrated how podcast advertising can become more impactful when tailored to both the audience and the format. By embracing the bilingual identity of How To Gael, Guinness strengthened its connection to Irish culture while reaching an audience beyond its traditional demographic.
The result was a campaign that felt authentic to listeners, aligned naturally with the festival season and reinforced Guinness’ position as a brand rooted in contemporary Irish culture.
