31 Jan 2025 What’s behind Guinness’s skyrocketing popularity?
Celebrity endorsements and video trends have helped frame the Irish pint as the cool and coveted drink among young consumers….
Guinness started as a small brewery in Ireland in the mid-18th century, and it’s since expanded to roughly 50 countries worldwide. Now the brand is experiencing an unprecedented surge in popularity.
According to Guinness’s parent company Diageo, its sales in the UK increased by 23.2 percent from July to October of 2024. Additionally, Guinness saw a 15 percent increase in global net sales across the fiscal year.
What could be the cause of this sudden boom? According to CNN, younger drinkers and women have recently taken a liking to the Irish stout. In Great Britain alone, Guinness consumption among women rose by 27 percent from 2022 to 2023.
Anecdotal evidence from business owners also indicates that more Millennials and members of Gen Z are going out to the pub.
TikTok and rebranding
Once commonly associated with older male drinkers, Guinness has widened its appeal thanks to TikTok. According to Morning Brew, the app introduced many young people to “splitting the G”.
Essentially this refers to the act of taking your first, likely large, sip of Guinness. The goal is to sip enough to allow the beer to then settle right between the “G” on the glass.
This challenge is harder than it might sound, as you must sip the perfect amount of beer out to split the G correctly. TikTok has gone feral over this challenge, and it has become a fun, or some might say, highly competitive, game whilst sippin’ on stout.
On St Patrick’s Day in March 2023, Kim Kardashian helped kick off the Guinness craze with her Instagram Story sharing a series of photos from inside a pub where she and her friends enjoyed pints of Guinness as well as ‘baby Guinness’ shots – which, for those unfamiliar, is a shot made up of coffee liqueur and Bailey’s (much tastier than actual Guinness!).
Olivia Rodrigo was the next star to promote the stout by sporting a “Guinness is Good 4 U” shirt – marrying one of Guinness’s original slogans with one of her song titles – during her May 2024 performance in Dublin.
Others credit the international popularity of Irish celebrities like Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Hozier, and Barry Keoghan with the recent interest in Irish culture.
Diageo has also worked to rebrand Guinness as a lighter, lower-calorie beer. Although it’s assumed to be high in calories because of its dark colour and full-bodied flavour, one 12-ounce glass (354ml) of Guinness is only 125 calories (a regular 12-ounce beer is about 153 calories).
To prevent a shortage ahead of the UK Christmas, Guinness’s owners planned to set allocation limits on the beer to ensure it lasted through the holidays — which is usually the busiest time of year for pubs in the UK. Some establishments also rationed pints.
Source: The Harris Poll, Cosmopolitan