A craic-er of an idea for St Patrick’s Day

St Patrick’s Day has been home to some craic-ing campaigns, and SHOOK’s co-founder Gemma Moroney, reckons this year is no different

I absolutely loved Kahlua’s ‘Schneaky’ campaign for Paddy’s Day (March 17th), following on from last year’s idea that an espresso martini is a better drink of the black stuff than a stout.

Once again, it featured TikTok’s Tadgh and Derry Fleming and you couldn’t have asked for ‘more passion, more energy’ when it comes to novel ideas than a pint glass that’s actually a martini glass.

But another campaign won this [100% plastic] Colleen’s heart this week, and that’s Heineken’s ‘Pub Succession’. 

No, it’s not an awful parody of a privileged media-family saga. It’s based on a sweet, simple insight that Irish pubs carry family names, because that was the law in 1872.

Just like one James Moroney Family Grocer (now Moroney’s) in Ennis Co. Clare, the town my husband’s family is from but no longer lives in. And which, I must admit, I listed as my address on ticketmaster.ie as part of my (unsuccessful) strategy to secure Oasis tickets for Croke Park. Don’t get me arrested, I didn’t get any tickets.

Anyway, ‘Pub Succession’…Basically, there’s a pub called McLoughlin’s on Achill Island and the fourth-generation landlord Josie wants to retire. He was born there, upstairs, like his father before him. With Heineken, he’s searching for someone to take over. The one catch: they need the name ‘McLoughlin’.

It’s a charming lovechild of two campaigns: the classic ‘name change’ story, which has delivered for Heineken before (yes I am old enough to remember Julia Carling becoming Julia Heineken). It also reminds me of the, also classic, ‘best job in the world’ campaign, which has worked for hundreds of brands from TUI’s recent slide tester to the, I believe, OG example for Tourism Queensland.

This lovechild delivers a fun, fresh version. I think it’s an idea that initially seems small and unassuming but is absolutely, massively huge.

It’s got worldwide relevance (the Irish diaspora is estimated to be one of the biggest globally, with more people – 80 million living outside of Ireland than in Ireland). I can literally see it being talked about in every city and town (as the Brian Flynn song goes, ‘wherever you go around the world, you’ll find an Irish pub’).

Someone will right now be pointing the story out to a McLoughlin they know, or ruing the fact they’re a ‘McGovern’ (like my Kildare family). Now *that’s* getting into conversations in the pub.

But the campaign needn't be a ‘one and done’ wonder. I can see some fun ways of extending the theme.

Perhaps a McLaughlin could claim it’s their right to be involved and they shouldn’t be unfairly denied due to a transcribing error… Or maybe an O’Loughlin argues their name is near-enough.

Targeted social media ads could be employed too, showing what hyper-targeting means. Punters could even start changing their name by deed poll so they can move to Mayo? Maybe even Craig MacLachlan from ‘Neighbours’ chancing his arm?

This is a lovely example of how going small can go really big, like last week’s Walkers x Lea & Perrins comeback…in one corner shop.

It would be a pot of gold idea whether it launched this week or not, and I can’t wait to see it run and run. I've briefly stopped checking @cheapirishhouses on Instagram to investigate a name change...