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Bronze Award
FanFair
Guinness
Ireland
2025
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Entrant Company
Catapult
Entry Type
Product/Service
Program
Clio Sports 2025
Medium Type
Professional
Medium
Fan Engagement
Category
Experience/Activation
Guinness is more than a beer brand in Ireland—it’s a cultural institution, deeply embedded in national identity and ritual. Nowhere is this more evident than in its longstanding association with rugby, the only major sport played by a team that represents the entire island of Ireland. In recent years, it has recognised a shift in its role—from celebration to transformation. Our research showed that too often, visually impaired fans are absent from the full match-day experience, with only 0.1% of fans in the 52,000-seat national stadium identify as visually impaired. In collaboration with assistive tech start-up Field of Vision, a new haptic language was developed to translate real-time rugby data into touch, enabling visually impaired fans to feel the intensity and momentum of the game. The experience was co-designed with the community it served, ensuring the result was authentic, meaningful, and built to last. We combined empathy-led design with technological innovation. A hybrid of AI-powered pitch tracking and manual observation ensured accurate, real-time data capture. Central to the campaign was a long-form film following real fan Martin Gordon, with audio description crafted not as an afterthought, but as the lead version — combining clarity with emotion. A creative step towards systemic change in how sport can be experienced, driving awareness, deepening brand trust, and building a more equitable fan culture. • Legacy Commitment: Guinness has committed to scaling the initiative to all Irish home games in 2026, and stadiums across the Six Nations in Europe by 2027 • Awareness Shift: Post-campaign, a shift from -82% to +85% of those exposed reported increased awareness of accessibility issues in sport. • Cultural Perception: Before the campaign, 83% of respondents were unaware of any brand tackling visual impairment in sport. Post-launch, Guinness was firmly associated with driving change. • Brand Impact: 68% of people who had seen the campaign were “much more likely” to support or purchase Guinness products as a result. • Social Engagement: Our film earned over 1.8 million engagements (+5,400% on average branded content on Guinness channels) on social media, sparking national conversations about inclusion in sport. • Behavioural Impact: Only 1% of respondents believed initiatives like FanFair would “not at all” improve the experience for visually impaired fans.
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