Guinness finds a new idea hiding inside the word ‘lovely’

Guinness has found a remarkably simple way to extend one of its oldest advertising lines, turning the word “Lovely” into a new global design device.

Created by AMV BBDO, LoVely takes ‘Lovely Day for a Guinness’ – a line with roots stretching back to the brand’s famous 1930s advertising – and subs the V for the iconic harp.

The platform, shared by creative director George Hackforth-Jones, was developed to give Guinness a flexible visual system that can be adapted across markets, occasions and different versions of the “Lovely Day” platform.

It first appeared in an outdoor campaign in Ireland over the summer and is now being rolled into Guinness’ Premier League activity, with further work planned across Africa and Asia.

There’s not much more to explain, which is probably the point.

For a brand with more distinctive assets than most, the clever bit is resisting the temptation to invent another one. Instead, AMV has found something new hiding inside an existing piece of Guinness language and turned it into a device capable of carrying plenty of different messages.

It also fits a wider creative direction we’ve been seeing this year: the most recognisable brands doing more with less.

Guinness previously reduced itself to the silhouette of a pint for its Pints of View work, trusting people to recognise the brand without needing to spell everything out.

Sometimes the new brand asset was sitting inside the old one all along.

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