← On Strategy Showcase
On Strategy Showcase
The story behind Heineken's brilliant Pub Succession and Pub Museums initiatives
00:46:10
Loading summary
Transcript98 lines
- [00:00]
A
Welcome to OnStrategy Showcase. I'm Fergus O' Carroll in Chicago. Hope your summer continues to go well. It's that time of year when kids are going back to school and I've got my twin daughters going to college tomorrow, so I have to drive them to college. Can't say I'm not a little excited to be an empty nester. Our older girl is 23 and she's graduated, but she's back in Chicago living relatively close to us. So we're kind of empty nesters, but not really. So that's happening tomorrow. One of the other interesting things, I don't know if you know, we've just recently got on YouTube about six weeks ago, roughly. And I've noticed that on YouTube when I record my intro, which is at a different time from when I record my actual episode, that I'm dressed differently. So when you go from edit to edit and clip to clip, it looks like my intro. Like when you go from my intro to the main episode, I'm dressed differently and it looks like I've changed my shirt. So it's kind of a new thing now. I have to track what I'm wearing to see if I can match it up to what I was actually wearing when I interviewed the person. So that's one of the small dramas of my week. I know that's a first world problem. Anyway, upcoming episodes, we have super bowl in Summertime, which is an episode with High Dive, which is sort of America's super bowl agency. We've also got Polaroid. Great campaign out of Polaroid. It's an internal agency. They're out of Europe and we had a great conversation that should be out in the next week or two. Also Instagram and this great case in the UK called Till I Died. It's the British Heart Foundation Foundation. We're going to have that coming up soon. Joe Burns out of Brooklyn is with Quality Meats. He heads up strategy and we're going to be having a conversation about the state of strategy. We also have the CMO of Athletic Brewing Company coming on the show. This will be out, I think in a week or two. And we had a great conversation about that whole alcohol free category and what they're doing there. And Neutrogena, which is out of BBDO New York. Great, great work coming out of those guys. And we should have that out in the next two or three weeks. And then one other I wanted to point out is, as many of you may know, Adult London, Adam and Eve, ddb, Martin Beverly and Rick Brim left Adam and Eve DDB a couple of months ago and they've just opened up their new shop alongside Polly McMurro, who joined them from, I believe, McCann in London. It's called Ace of Hearts. So the three of them are on the show with me in a couple of weeks and I will get that episode out to you. So I'm excited about that. Our live tour, which is sponsored by the Effies worldwide and our great friends at Tracksuit, starts up in September. It's going to be first September 18th in Dallas, Texas. We're going to be talking about ideas that were born in Texas. There's a lot of great things happening there. I don't think enough people know about it. So we're going to be at The Richards Group TRG, the Richards Group, September 18th. Then we're in New York City at Mischief. Mischief has this great new office space in Brooklyn. We're gonna be there September 25th. It's a Thursday and we're gonna be talking about Our theme is has what matters most ever changed? Has what matters most ever changed? And with nothing but chatter about change and uncertainty in the industry, it's hard to feel great about what we're doing. And so we're having an AI free evening. No convers AI. We're just going to reconnect around the passions that we have and get re energized about what we're doing and talk about this topic of has what matters most ever changed? And we're going to be joined by Tas Testopoulos of Wyden and Kennedy. Jeff McCrory, he's chief strategy officer of Mischief. Annabel Casso is chief strategy Officer of Ogilvy North America. And Emily Portnoy is chief strategy Officer of BBDO in New York. You can get tickets for all of our live events on our website under the Live Tour tab on the homepage. And we'd be honored to have you join us. It's going to be a lot of fun. I think we go on to some different cities after that, but we'll talk about that in future episodes. So back to today. We're going to be talking about Heineken. They have a brand platform for an aspect of their business for more of the I suppose it's more of the corporate aspects of the brand. That's not even right either. It's not a product focused campaign, but it's about more of the corporate social responsibility, we might say, although I'm not even comfortable saying that. But I can't think of an alternative, but they've had a platform for the love of pubs. There's been a heritage crisis in both the England and in Ireland about family pubs, and so many of them are closing down each month in the UK and Ireland. So Heineken has developed this initiative for the love of pubs in Ireland and it's done big initiatives. So we've had Mark Noble, marketing manager for Heineken, he's out of Dublin, Ireland, and Jer Rowe, board creative director for Publicis in Dublin, joined me. And we're going to talk today about three of those initiatives with a focus on two of them. One is pub museums and the other is pub succession. These are brilliant initiatives and they're examples of what we always talk about, of brands building brand outside of advertising or communications. This really wonderful example of a confluence of what we always talk about as marketing as opposed to advertising. So I hope you enjoyed this. These are terrific, terrific guides. It's a conversation we had a few weeks ago and I hope you'll enjoy it. Jer Rowe and Mark Noble. Enjoy.
- [05:57]
B
Thanks so much for having us. It's such a famous on strategy. I just went over to the strategy department and just went, we're doing a thing. And they were like, what? It's really nice to make the strategy department really jealous. You know, it's the best thing ever. It's probably. It made my day.
- [06:19]
A
I love it. I wanted to start off and talk a little bit, Mark, about the. The beer category. Obviously, I was born in Dublin, Ireland, myself. Tell us about what. What's going on in the category, who's leading it? What are the implications for other beer brands? And just give us something from 10,000ft.
- [06:37]
C
Yeah, I'll give you a bit of a flavor. And I'll preempt this by saying I am really biased. So I would say that the beer market in Ireland, whilst it's a small market, it's the greatest beer market. And I think when I reflect a little bit in terms of the pubs that we have, sometimes I joke to say that the Irish pub is the biggest franchise in the world and the best franchise in the world. But when I think of our consumers, just how discerning consumers are in Ireland around quality and around the brands that they enjoy, it's genuinely. I think it's the greatest beer market in the world, but that makes it super competitive. Right. So all the big players are here. Ironically and maybe a little bit surprisingly, it's a market that is dominated by lager, which people might be a little bit surprised at. So about 54, 55% of the volume of beer sold and consumed in Ireland is lager, followed by, you know, style, about a third of the category and insider, about 10%. The big brands are here. Heineken as a brand has been the biggest lager brand since 1987. So for a whole generation of people, Heineken has been the most popular lager of choice in the market. But there's so many new brands, I guess it's transitioned over the last decade or so. What used to be a very traditional market with maybe a few players, you know, has really exploded over the last sort of seven, eight, nine years where it just makes it so much more competitive and so much more, I guess with the, with, with the dynamics of, of the world and changes around, around consumerism, it just makes it much more harder to, to stay on top. It's easy to get on top and it's hard to stay on top, I guess.
- [08:23]
A
What do you, what have you seen there, Jer?
- [08:25]
B
Certainly when I started working on him, you know, in the Heineken brand, I think one of the interesting things for me was how embedded a brand it's become in Ireland, you know. Yes, obviously Guinness, you know, came from Ireland, but if you think about Heineken, like it's all brewed in Cork, it's, it's extraordinary. Like there's a, there's a huge operation down there and I think they're pretty much famous for, you know, giving those varieties to pubs. So if Ireland started out drinking stout, it was actually almost the quality of the premium option actually came from Heineken, which was just kind of, so it really kind of embedded itself in the pub as that variety are another option to stout, you know.
- [09:09]
A
So Mark, let's talk a little bit about the. What's talked about is the heritage crisis in Irish pubs. It's not dissimilar to what's happening in the uk. It just seems to be that maybe the way people are drinking is very different than it was in the past. And as there's huge impact on these family owned pubs, particularly in Ireland. So tell us about what's the state of the pubs, the pub culture in Ireland?
- [09:38]
C
Yeah, I think the way I describe it, it's certainly in transition and certainly in a bit of a state of flux, you know, so no different to other sort of industries, you know, particularly post Covid with, I guess the cost of living rise, you know, immigration of younger people away from the country and, and I suppose consumer attitudes and behaviors with alcohol has changed and it's evolved. So it just requires pubs to. To kind of go through that journey. And I think it's just we're in the middle of it right now where it feels very tough. And I think, you know, since. I think since 2005, about, about a quarter of pubs in Ireland have closed, which is a real shame. And I think things like that, it requires maybe new thinking. It requires publicans. And in fairness, the publicans in Ireland are the best of the best operators and they're supported so well by the kind of vintner associations, the LVA and the vfi, who are giving publicans, I guess, new opportunities and ideas and strategies to kind of repurpose what the pub means in communities. Because it's not just a place where you go for a pint anymore, and it shouldn't be. Because I guess to thrive and to stay open and to stay relevant, they have to almost constantly reinvent themselves. And the good ones are. And the good ones are continue to do that. And I think what I find interesting is you can sort of get stuck in this spiral of negativity because on one hand, you know, you can say that, you know, there's a lot of pubs have closed. And the same token, when we think of tourism, you know, we get about 9 million people come to Ireland every year. That's nearly double the population of Ireland. And whenever they're spending, say 40% of their money when they come to Ireland in the hospitality industry, and then you said that 2,000 of these, these kind of institutions have posed in the last 20 years. That's, that's quite tough. And it's a very, very, very, very challenging place to be.
- [11:43]
A
The pubs are closing because they don't have enough business. But is this initiative designed to drive business or just keep failing pubs from closing?
- [11:53]
C
You know, be very, very clear and honest. It's in our best interest for pubs, for many pubs to stay open. And we won't shy away from the fact, you know, when Jer mentions 80% of the value in the market is through the pubs. Every pub that closes is definitely not something we like to see. So there's definitely an element of, of keeping these institutions open, showcasing what makes them special and maybe getting people just to reappraise what they think when they, when they think about, I guess, going to their local or going to the kind of the pub itself. I think then beyond that, then that's where it becomes that for me, that's where it moves from being an initiative to a strategic thought that we need pubs to kind of we need to help them kind of attract people in beyond just the Friday or Saturday night. And how do they do it and how do they use their space as that kind of third space where people kind of come together with not the sole objective of having a pint or having a glass of wine. I think that's the long term kind of the hope and ambition is that you keep them open, but then you help them thrive.
- [13:01]
A
Let's talk about where this all starts for Heineken. How does it start, Mark? Is this something that you guys come up with in terms of we need to do xyz more of xyz or does. Does Jaron Publicis come to you guys with an idea that sparks everything initially? So.
- [13:18]
C
So I think it's. It's something that really, really accelerated as the. As the bars reopened just after Covid. And I think there was a. There was a massive conversation not only, not only in Ireland, but also with our teams in Amsterdam and different markets around the world, where I guess the need to support kind of our customers was never at its kind of highest, just immediately after, I guess after the reopening. And for us, I suppose we took that as a starting point in terms of what can we do to showcase our support. But it has evolved as well. So again, we, you know, I suppose the latest buzzword that you hear kind of banded around is how do you anchor a brand and culture? And from an Irish perspective, what we were trying not to do is just jump on trends or jump on things that kind of seem to be of the moment and maybe go a layer beneath and kind of going into something that actually means something to people. And again, one of the big trigger points for us was when we saw there's a beautiful pub in Dublin called the Cobblestone. And at one stage or 18 months ago, it looked like it was going to close. And people took to the streets. People took to the streets in protest, but this was an institution and they didn't want to see this be demolished and replaced with a block of flats or apartments or anything else. And that kind of triggered a sense within us is to say, well, this is the type of things that matter to people. And I suppose in the conversation with Jer and the publicist team, I guess really accelerated beyond just how do we support pubs, but also how do we anchor ourselves in something that means something to people across the country of all different age groups and beliefs and all the rest. So I guess, Jerry, that's where we started, wasn't it?
- [15:09]
B
Yeah, completely. The guys had launched, as Mark said during COVID back, the bars in Europe, which was a rig clever initiative about sort of like using the shutters, the shutter ads for ad space to actually give the revenue back to the bar owners. At the same time we, we found ourselves in a position where during COVID all these pubs had all this alcohol and all this beer. And so we were chatting about this, you know, brainstorming and as you call, we were chatting about the problem, about what was going to be done about it and the guys actually managed to reverse the model and, and brought actually all the, all the beer back, which was a, a case we, we'd called unwasted beer.
- [15:57]
C
Now you can imagine the level of devastation there is across the hospitality industry. Bars and restaurants are being forced to.
- [16:05]
A
Throw out old beer, which is causing.
- [16:06]
C
Concern for sewage systems.
- [16:08]
B
Our treatment plans could fail, could result in a fish killer or it could result in prosecution. If you can't serve 19 million points, what else do you do with it? We took in 5,000 tonnes of Heineglin beer. We produced biogas from our digester and harnessed this through our combined heat and power plant, enough to power 1,000 homes per day and heat a care home in the local community.
- [16:49]
A
We would never have thought that we.
- [16:51]
C
Were producing kegs of beer to feed animals and to create biogas.
- [16:55]
B
One of the by products from the beer, which is called digested, is a valuable nutrient rich fertiliser spread on local farmland. Almost as Mark says, since then this hasn't, you know, because, because these are kind of two business problems in terms of getting more people to, to go to the pub more. And then the second thing, making sure the pubs don't close and get, and making sure that, you know, Heineken is there to support, preserve them. This is an ongoing brief that's sort of a, you know, almost a, a long term goal and objective from the brand. So it's, it's, it's sort of, it's something that comes up, you know, we'd be talking about it, you know, very regularly.
- [17:35]
A
Go ahead.
- [17:36]
C
I was just gonna say I love it as well because, you know, it's an ongoing brief and that there are moments over the course of a year whether, you know, Jer and the guys will come to us with an idea unprompted, almost this, that it can happen as organically as that. And I think some of the best ideas that we've even discussed, we've been literally sitting in some of the pubs that we've then partnered with. And so this will be quite an interesting way of bringing this story to life. Or you hear a little, a little bit of information that a bartender passes on to a tourist about the history of the pub. And like, I didn't even know that. And I come to this pub every week. But you're trying, you're. You almost unpick and you, you hear little things that kind of act as. As inspiration. And then I kind of finish my drink and go home and I. And I kind of think Jerusalem hasn't been listening. And then two weeks later he comes back in his dream of that thing that we had in the.
- [18:24]
A
In.
- [18:25]
C
In owners pub. We've got an idea of how we can bring that to life as part of this ongoing process. So it happens as much as that as it does, you know, at the start of a year where you sit and you have your big set piece briefs and you've got your, your, your, I guess, more traditional way of doing it. And it has to be both.
- [18:42]
A
So where does pub museums come from, Jer?
- [18:46]
B
Yes. So again, it's just, it's back to that business problem where we've been basically talking about how do we get people to come to the, to the pub for more than just going for a pint. Is there anything else? And I think it's back to that piece around that. The second business problem. How do we stop pubs closing? How do we stop pubs shooting? And it's about giving them much more value. It's about protecting and preserving them. Because you know what? We were kind of finding it. Museums don't shut. Museums don't close, but pubs do. So how do we actually, when we were looking around, you know, in terms of the walls and most of these traditional Irish pubs, like if you take even Sean's bar, where. And we turned it into museum, like there's stuff there, you know, from the seventh century, you know, like you've got a fireplace that actually came from one of the monasteries, you know, and it's a bit like what Mark said. There was a. There's another photograph of one of the. Because it's beside the River Shannon, of one of the ferrymen there who actually, if you ever watch the movie Goodfellas, you know, where Joe Pesci and. And De Niro, they arrive into the kitchen and the mom takes out a painting. It's actually the painting is of the boatman that the director of the movie, his mother had painted. So she must have been over on holidays in Ireland, gone in and took a photograph and then did a painting of it. It's an extraordinary story.
- [20:17]
A
That's a great one.
- [20:18]
B
It's amazing. So all these kind of stories start to unravel and even just talking, you know, to some of the, you know, the history buffs and, and the museum professionals who we. Who we would have worked along with, what their biggest concern was, that a lot of this history can die or can fade away if it's not recorded in some form. So this almost gave us another shot in the arm to sort of say this is actually just. It's not just about even getting people here, but it's about actually having a record of these stories that they're, you know, almost not lost, you know.
- [20:55]
A
But does it come from a conversation with you and Mark sitting in a. In a pub having a pint and looking at these artifacts? Or where does the idea of the. The fact that these are, in essence, museums come from? Does it come from one of your team members?
- [21:10]
B
I think the big dawning for us was the repositioning, right, that moment of not judging these as all pubs, of actually judging them as historic ones. The minute that opened almost a door for us creatively, that strategic reposition opened the door for us creatively, went, oh, wait a second, there's something really powerful here. This isn't just old, it's historic. In other words, it's moved from something that's out of touch to something that has a huge amount of value.
- [21:45]
A
And the beauty of it all, from what I've read, is that museums, which you mentioned earlier, Jer, museums get subsidies from the government.
- [21:56]
B
Exactly.
- [21:57]
A
Don't. So if you define pubs as legitimately museums, then they'll get more financial support from the government. Right?
- [22:06]
B
Correct.
- [22:06]
A
Yeah.
- [22:07]
B
So, so. And. And it's also about, you know, back just back to that point, is like, how many museums have you seen short. You just don't shut museums. But if you have a collection, if you actually have an authentic collection in this pub that is ratified, it's impossible for it to actually be closed or showed because almost it. It has an identification as a museum.
- [22:32]
C
Roughly the same time as well, which we find quite inspiring, was that there was an article in the Irish Times where there was a call for the Irish pub to be recognized as a UNESCO having UNESCO status. That these are more, as you say, Fergus, these are more where people go for pints. These are institutions. These are places where people have come together for generations. This is where stories have been told. This is where, you know, celebrities have mixed with the common man for. For years and years and years. And alongside each Other, and they're special. And I think that was the bit when we were then speaking with the. The kind of trade bodies around. You know, they're all. The media kind of, you know, furor was around how many are closing. Well, actually, if you reframe the kind of narrative again to actually celebrate what makes these the best pubs in the world, then it becomes a different kind of conversation. And then for a brand like Heineken, who is. Who is kind of so eager to, I guess, look to the future as well, rather than just looking to the past, it's kind of. How do you kind of take those stories and keep them alive for many more years? So that's where it became really powerful. We're currently in a very challenging environment. Rising costs, rising utilities, rising cost of materials. The closure of a traditional Irish pub impacts the community immensely. And once it's gone, it's gone.
- [23:58]
B
There are many other historical areas which.
- [24:02]
A
Get huge support from the government.
- [24:03]
C
For example, museums, grant aided tax exemptions.
- [24:09]
A
Welcome to Sean's Bar, the oldest pub.
- [24:11]
B
In Ireland, Europe, and perhaps even the world.
- [24:14]
A
Join the innumerable, Innumerable number of visitors who have been stopping here for a drink and a chat for more than a thousand years.
- [24:21]
C
As it stands, I think we are living museums.
- [24:24]
B
I think virtual is just the next.
- [24:26]
C
Innovative step into bringing us out there.
- [24:29]
A
Tolar's Pub here in Bagstood is a living museum. I am the curator of that museum. So what happens as a result of pub museums?
- [24:42]
B
So I can tell you what's happening now, which we're very excited about. We're talking about a pub museum tour. Are we allowed to talk about this?
- [24:49]
C
Yeah, we'll see. I'll shut you down at the right moment.
- [24:53]
A
I love it. Is this like the Dublin poets thing that I. Every tourist goes on in the poets tour. What is it called? The poets Tour. What the hell is it?
- [25:02]
C
But I. Yeah, just a literary tour is what.
- [25:04]
A
The literary pub tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead, Derek.
- [25:07]
B
Yeah, so essentially it's about, you know, given. Given tourists and. And even, you know, people within our own country, you know, something else to, like, an actual pub museum tour. So in other words, you can go from pub to pub and you can decide. But this is, you know, with your apps, you can decide and find out all the different information and you can uncover beautiful, different things. So, for example, if you're interested in music, you know, all the different artifacts that are connected to music, or if it's literary or if it's, you know, back around history or about the Rebellion or any other rising, all these kind of different things. You can actually select which ones will, will jump out based on the different pubs within the tour. So we're pretty excited about that. We're in the, in the process of, of research at the minute Pub museums.
- [25:59]
C
The first iteration of it was, it was special, but it was small in terms of the kind of, I guess the scale of the initiative. So I think what gave us confidence was both the reaction of consumers who experienced it, but also from our customers. And I think we have something that we kind of we track which is super important to us as a business. Our NPS scores or our net promoter score, which is twice as high as our nearest competitor, which shows just the trust that the trade put in us as an organization. So again, what was really important to us as a business was showcasing support to our business partners. And I think that was the thing, I guess from a commercial perspective, which took this from a nice marketing idea to something that as strategically important as a way we do business and as a way we conduct ourselves in partnering with pubs across the country. And I suppose that I guess led the foundation for what we've now called for the love of pubs, which is the overarching sort of strategic thought which all of these initiatives kind of form part of. To guess again, really reinforce not only our commitment and our support to the, to the pubs, but also I guess reminding consumers and maybe re educating consumers why they're so special. So that's, that's kind of the long term sort of play is, is this kind of. It's not just a oneand done sort of initiative, but it has to be a long term strategic play.
- [27:28]
A
So Jerry, you can go into the one last point on this before we start talking about pub succession. But for pub museums, when you go into these particular pubs that are on the tour or are included in the definition of being a museum, when you go in, there's a series of QR codes that you can scan throughout the entire premise on that pub. And you can hear stories about the antiques that are on the wall or the fireplace that you mentioned earlier. So the whole story can come to life through QR codes throughout the pub, right?
- [28:02]
B
That's right, Jeff, you have it spot on. So you can use the QR code and where what it will do. So the original one will actually direct you around to the various different artifacts and it has the technology for it, for you to have it audibly or you can read and uncover all the different kind of history and maybe some of the, you Know, salacious stories that were connected with a particular artifact or, or, you know, some of, some of the fun things that. So it's, it's basically, you know, it's everything from, you know, almost the historic right into, you know, you know, fun kind of derivative, different little stories that we kind of picked up along the.
- [28:44]
A
Way, you know, so the. Let's turn the corner and talk about succession. So, so I'm super interesting, interested in where this idea comes from. There's so many ways that it could have come to life. But how does it all start, Jer? How does pub succession start? And what is it in simple terms?
- [29:06]
B
Yeah, I mean, I suppose what it really is is we've sort of reinvented the Pope succession. It's a tool that. It's really a tool or a platform to reinvent pop succession. That's what that's what it really is.
- [29:24]
A
What is pub succession?
- [29:26]
B
So essentially, pop succession is if we, if we look at the law of having to have your name above the door of a pub.
- [29:37]
A
Just on that. So in 1872, there was something called the Licensing act, where the, the pub had to be family name owned or family owned and the name needed to be above the door, right?
- [29:48]
B
Yeah, that's right. Because essentially what was done in terms of that law was that then you're responsible, Fergus, your name is above the door. You're responsible for what's going on within that public house. And what that created to this day is some of the most kind of famous traditional, historic pubs. That culture of pubs, as, you know, well, all around Ireland, you know, are the best pubs are actually the family pubs. Right. And the reason for it, as we sort of talked about a little bit earlier in the podcast, is that there's an expectation when you walk in the door for that most authentic pub is that the owner is going to be there, are going to be in charge or the family are going to be around that pub and they know everybody in the local kind of community. But what we started to see in terms of some of the, the results coming true from, from the guys was that I think it was something like 37% of, of these family owners were, were coming close to retirement. As you know, everybody's getting a bit older in Europe and certainly in Ireland as well in terms of the population and that all. And also, even if you look at what's kind of going on in the farming community where younger people are not taking over the farms, it's exactly the same, you know, at pubs because, you know, people want to reach out and do various different things. So they don't automatically want to take over the pub as well.
- [31:15]
A
So. But let's, let's start there just so people, the listeners understand. So there's a publican called Josie McLaughlin.
- [31:22]
B
That's right, yeah.
- [31:22]
A
He lives on an island off the coast of Ireland. His family. He doesn't have anybody in his family who wants to take over the pub. How does Josie get on your radar?
- [31:34]
B
Through the trade, through the guys in the trade. They're amazing relationship. Mark will tell you a bit about it.
- [31:39]
C
Yeah, it comes back. It could just come back to our super strength as a business or the relationships we have with the trade. And our, our rep is sort of on. On that side of the country. You know, calls into Josie every couple of weeks and was aware that he was aware that he was looking to retire Josie. Hopefully what Miami said, he's kind of. He's the other side of 70. He and his partner kind of literally are still, you know, they are still the people who take in the orders in the morning. They're setting up, they're pulling pints, they're booking entertainment, they're. They're doing everything. And I suppose, I think the way he described it was, I think I deserve a rest. And Josie's kids kind of again, as Jerry kind of said, had decided that their. Their future lies in kind of different sort of industries. So when we found out that. That Josie had put his pub up for sale, and this is on an island again, Akal island is a very small sort of community. There's, you know, three or four pubs on the island. I think there are four McLoughlins on the island now, of which, obviously Josie's one of them. So his options were relatively limited in terms of, I guess, finding a kind of a positive outcome to keep the pub open. And that was his dream. You know, he told the story that, you know, he was born upstairs in the pub. His father before him was born in the room across the hallway in the pub. And he said, so the history and the heritage of. And the importance, I think that's, that's, that's his family's legacy. And I suppose the worst thing that could have happened for him would have been the pub to be bought by people who weren't interested in kind of keeping it as a pub or wanted to change it.
- [33:30]
A
So, Jared, then you hear this. And for you, as you said earlier, you want something that's got broad reach, so you don't make it because the instinct might be, well, then let's make this an Irish campaign. You deliberately make this an international campaign. I mean, there was shit going on in, in, in Times Square in New York City about this campaign. Right?
- [33:51]
B
But I've got, I've got to explain why, because. And, and, and you're the perfect example. This is like we've, we've, we've made this up now because you're the. So if we look at the Irish diaspora where, you know, people don't realize that the Irish are absolutely everywhere, there's like, I think the figure is something like people who claim to be Irish or have, you know, Irish in their blood or their second generation or what. I think the figure is something like 88 to, to 90 million people around the world. And we were, we were proven right because, you know, when we started to push the, the campaign out, it's like it went viral and we, we were kind of smart enough that we went, when is the one day, right, the one day where everybody feels they want to be Irish or they feel this kind of emotional, really emotional attachment to, to, to, to Ireland and at St Patrick's Day. So we went, okay, this is the perfect day to launch this campaign. And of course it. Then it just got picked up and it got it. You know, you're like, what? All these Irish groups and all in different parts of the States and different parts of the world, they tend to all be in some kind of a social group, be it WhatsApp group or Facebook groups or wherever. And so it ended up kind of landing in all these type of groups and then people from home or pass it to people, you know, in the States and in different parts around the country, Australia, London, wherever. And they were sending it back to people. So it just kind of exploded then got picked up in a lot of the TV shows and it just, it just kept carrying on and getting bigger and bigger. We're here at McLoughlin's Bar here in Ecclestone. A family publisher since 1870. I'm the fourth generation McLaughlin. I was born here. My father was born upstairs as well. Be helping my mother in the bar, you know, packing shelves, giving her a hand. I'd hope whatever happens that the McLachlan.
- [36:01]
A
Itself still stay the same name over the door. You know, Heineken have just launched a.
- [36:14]
B
Worldwide recruitment drive helping a retiring Irish.
- [36:16]
C
Publican, one McLaughlin, take over a family catch.
- [36:20]
A
You've got to be a McLaughlin.
- [36:22]
B
For me, it's easily one of the most beautiful Irish Fatima pubs in the world. When you have all this, his potential in one spot in one of the most Irish places in Ireland.
- [36:33]
A
I wish I was a McLaughlin's bare knuckle sound.
- [36:38]
B
That said, I'd love to have over.
- [36:40]
A
The door for the next 155 years.
- [36:42]
B
I die very, very happy. Yeah. And so we ended up, I think getting. Which was a bit of a shock to us, you know, we ended up getting thousands of applications in and they sort of had to be screened and vetted. And then within the process is. Is Joey's. Josie's. I'm calling him Joey. Josie's Realtor, I think in America they call it. So Josie's a state agent. So what we had to do was kind of have this sort of short list, but at the same time he was getting phone calls and mails and. And let's call it. There was some very imaginative people, let's not use a. The word crazy.
- [37:24]
A
Creative people.
- [37:25]
B
Yeah, there was very creative people getting in touch as well, saying that they wanted to take over the pub. So. So.
- [37:33]
A
But they had to have the last name McLaughlin. Right? That was. That's what at the heart of it. They had to be a McLaughlin.
- [37:39]
B
Yeah. And because. Because like, what? Exactly like we said, you're just kind of. That legacy is lost, that four generations of. Of McLaughlins that are there is gone, you know, and then the. The name has gone over the door. So it just. It had to. It had to. It had to remain. And so I think, you know, for. For Sharon, who is, you know, CEO of Heineken, she's probably more excited by, you know, the sustainable succession too, because that is something that's more than just a PR bank. That's the sort of thing that kind of can keep going. That's the thing that can help all those other pub owners who are. Who are looking into retirement over a period of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years, you know, and linking them up. And I think the beauty about it that sort of excites, you know, Sharon is probably the potential for new relationships, you know, and the potential for Heineken to have those kind of the start of those relationships for, you know, the Heineken portfolio, for, you know, for Heineken to help out with those consultancy, you know, all of those aspects of it. I think that probably the business more the commercial side, we're probably excited about the creative side of it, you know, but I think as a. As an overall idea, it just works so well that you can have the creative and the innovation together, you know.
- [39:01]
A
So when you look at this Mark, do you think that most of the energy came from paid or from earned media. Do you guys have a sense of that? Because this. Obviously there was a ton of buzz.
- [39:12]
C
So I think maybe I go back to the first conversation when Jer and the guys kind of came in and we kind of signed off the approach. We kind of said, wouldn't it be amazing if we had won? Do you think we'd get one application? Do you think we'd get one person? And I remember saying to Jerry, chair, I don't know, this is all a bit mental. And do you think we'll get one? And I think that's where it started from our side as well. So to get literally thousands of people getting in contact was scary. And I think, I suppose the intentional side through the paid media. So the things with Times Squares and the New York Times and those sort of placements, I guess they got the ball rolling. But anybody can do that, right? Anybody with a bit of cash can do that. I think the energy and the excitement came from the iron side of things where people were actually, you know, the first question I got, you know, is, first, is it real? And you're like, yeah, this is 100% real. And then the second question is, can I change my name to McLaughlin if I do that? Can I. No, no, don't be doing anything silly. But this is just for McLaughlins only. But the energy and the enthusiasm that people got from the word of mouth and that kind of the earned sort of side of stuff, that's where I think that's where we sometimes talk about, you know, the little sprinkling of fairy dust on initiatives or programs or platforms. For me, that's where this became something really, really special. When you could see the excitement of people and the reaction through the earn sort of reach that we got.
- [40:51]
A
Yeah, I love the. I mean, the idea is brilliant. And the fact that it can just keep going and going and going, and we'll get to that in a second. But to this point of getting thousands of responses, so you get all of these responses. These are from people. They're not entering a sweepstakes. They're entering for the chance to buy this pub from Josie McLaughlin. I assume that there's in some process where, I mean, he's got to be just overwhelmed beyond belief. Right? He's got a couple of thousand pitches from people to try and make this happen. Did that realtor that Jer mentioned earlier, was it sort of winnowed down for him? He had to probably talk to the people. He had to make a huge decision to get the right person. Right.
- [41:35]
B
We did it. We did a ton of interviews. And I think the. The easiest way, I think for us was also to. To find out with people who had kind of hospitality and who had experience, you know, that was probably.
- [41:49]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [41:50]
B
Able to, you know, to try and tighten that, Tighten that up for him. But. But certainly, it's funny, we can only. We could only bring it as far to the estate agent and then to Josie, and then it becomes really about their decision because they're. They're getting then into the sort of the whole legality of a purchase of a pub and all that. So that's almost as far as Heineken. Heineken Come, come, come back in after that, you know, with it, with a new owner. And then they have a. A program, an amazing program where Mark will tell you, tell you more about it, but just in terms of consultancy and training and all those aspects where they, where the, where the, where the role kind of comes in again.
- [42:31]
C
You know, I think one point, one point which I quite liked was when speaking to Josie, he. Because it is overwhelming, right? Again, you go back, you put yourself in the mindset of, you know, a guy approaching retirement on a small island on the west coast of Ireland, and then just to. To become, for a moment in time, the most famous publican in the world, like that is. That's a lot to contend with it. And I think one of the things that he kind of said was, you know, in terms of his. The hierarchy of his decision was basically was back to that point around. He wanted his surname, he wanted his family name to be over the pub for generations to come. So that was really important and really nicely. And again, this is a lovely little layer on top. When we were sharing and we were discussing with our global colleagues in Amsterdam, you know, one person kind of just kind of sat back in his chair and he said, well, if there's any company in the world that knows how important it is to keep your family name over the door, it's us. And I think there was a lot of kind of, I guess the result.
- [43:34]
A
Because Heineken is a family name.
- [43:35]
C
Heineken is a. Found the family name, you know, after our founders. So it's still. That's important to us. That's our identity, that's our kind of. That's in our DNA. So I think that was. That was a lovely kind of piece. And then Jer kind of mentioned, you know, once, once we get out the other side, then the conversations with the new owners, well, how do we. Again, Back to your point, it's no good keeping a pub open if it's not going to be good or if it's not going to succeed in the future. So how do we use our skills and expertise to offer consultancy kind of work to offer any upgrades in the bar that's needed. So those kind of support packages. And also, which is, I think Josie was very interesting as well as we've. And we've made a, we've made a commitment that this pub would also then become a pub museum as part of our wider program. So there's a lovely sort of full circle moment, hopefully at that, at the end of the process as well. So it's one of those things like, I think we've all worked on campaigns and initiatives and platforms where you, you're, you're obviously very focused on the hard metrics. It's not very often you just, you have something that just makes you smile and makes you quite kind of happy that you're making, you're making a positive difference as well. So these little things help too, when.
- [44:46]
A
You look at what happens next. Mark, talk to the listeners about what's planned. I've heard something that there's 40 more pubs that need new owners and this is how it's going to be extended over time.
- [44:58]
C
Yes. So on our kind of. The website that we kind of created and on the landing page there was a sort of a form for anybody else who's interested to kind of, I guess share their details with us. And that I guess triggers then sort of kind of two ways in one. Again, back to our reps on the ground. The reps on the ground will know their customers who are kind of either outwardly kind of had made the decision that they want to sell or are maybe considering it. And I think that's kind of the first part where they're giving a gentle nudge. Well, why don't you put your name in the hat here and kind of see what comes through and then what that then triggers from us in the back end back to the tech whiz kids and Jerus teams to kind of, to understand the kind of. The opportunity and how we might approach it.
- [45:43]
A
Yeah, it's Jer Rowe, board creative director at Publicis in Dublin and Mark Noble is marketing manager for Heineken. He's also in Dublin. Thanks you guys for coming on to talk about it. This actual. I know this thing will win, Fes. You gotta submit it, Mark. That's what you gotta start with to begin with.
- [46:00]
B
Yeah.
- [46:00]
A
Mark, get your finger, get that thing in for the goddamn Effies. It's been great having you both on. Thanks for your time.
- [46:05]
B
Thanks so much.
- [46:06]
A
All right, you guys take care, and we'll see everybody on the next episode.