The Guinness Book of Records
Guinness1955
The Guinness Book of Records is a 1955 brand-built institution (promotional book) for Guinness.
Why it works
A pub-argument settler that became one of the best-selling books in history. After a shooting party in County Wexford argued about Europe's fastest game bird and no reference book could say, Guinness managing director Sir Hugh Beaver reasoned that the same kind of dispute was being fought nightly across Britain and Ireland's 81,400 pubs. He hired Fleet Street fact-finders Norris and Ross McWhirter, and in August 1955 the brewery published The Guinness Book of Records, printing 50,000 copies with waterproof covers to give to pubs as promotional material. A retail edition followed that autumn and topped the UK bestseller list by Christmas; by 1974 it was the biggest-selling copyright book in history, and by 2019 it had sold more than 143 million copies in over 100 countries. It is studied alongside the Michelin Guide as a brand-built institution: a promotion so genuinely useful that it outgrew its sponsor, and has had no tie to the brewery since 2001.
Techniques
- Ethos Positions the brewery as the trusted source for settling pub arguments, with professional fact-finders compiling the records.
- Purpose and cause Gives pubs a genuinely useful reference book as promotional material, so useful that it outgrows its sponsor.
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