Have a look at this beautiful short film about the Sapeurs, a society of men in the Democratic Republic of Congo bound together by a shared moral code and a passion for creativity and stylish dressing. The DRC is one of the most underdeveloped and war-torn regions of Africa, but the Sapeurs overcome their difficult circumstances to find joy, friendship, style and personal meaning in their lives.
Almost as surprising as the film itself was the brand behind it: Guinness.
What is an Irish beer company doing telling a story that has nothing to do with beer? Guinness has a history of connecting its brand with stories that resonate on an emotional level. Last year, the company hit a marketing home run with its “Friendship” TV ad about a group of wheelchair basketball players, in which only one of the players turns out to be paralyzed.
The Sapeurs takes this same philosophy and extends it a step further, fully into the realm of video content marketing. The Sapeurs short film doesn’t even mention Guinness and shows no product placement. Guinness is confident, however, that the content will resonate with its audience and that connecting its brand with people who are “Made of More,” as Guinness calls it, will translate into more people ordering beers with a golden harp on the pint glass.
Another piece of best practice here is that Guinness created a dedicated landing page on its website devoted to the Sapeurs. The page includes photos and text explaining about the central value that the society embodies: to defy circumstance and live with joie de vivre.
In order to capture more eyeballs, the company also created a minute-long ad that directly mentions Guinness in the final few frames. The ad has more than 3 million views as of this posting, the independent short film more than 1.5 million, as well as media attention on many of the biggest outlets in Great Britain.