The Storehouse was four years in development, during which time Imagination worked closely with Guinness and a wide range of stakeholders.
For example Imagination hosted a mini-conference where anticipated users of Storehouse, both within and outside Guinness, were invited to share their thoughts. These included Guinness corporate affairs, HR, retail, training and sales people as well as local residents and representatives of key local and tourist organisations. The conference aimed to get all the necessary stakeholders on board, and find out if there actually was an answer to the key question: why not?
In effect, this meant that Storehouse was born out of a network, with ownership of the project spread among many different departments at Guinness. Ralph Ardill explains that this ‘was very different from the predominant principle at Guinness at that time. In a way, it was a cultural experiment. It was always a network of cross-functional teams, never just a marketing project: corporate affairs, trade licensing, finance, operations and building services all worked together.’
And this way of working has had a lasting effect on the business. Ardill comments that ‘Diageo now encourages cross-functional teams to provide new ways of thinking about its brands.’
So even though Guinness didn’t know what it wanted, it got what it needed. Storehouse is a brand home for Guinness that’s an award-winning visitor attraction, a fully functioning learning centre that sees 100,000 Diageo employees a year pass through its doors, and a new icon for Dublin in the shape of the gravity bar. It’s not just for tourists – fashion shows and events in the gallery spaces mean that young Dubliners also use the space and so connect with the brand in a meaningful way, and even Bill Clinton has enjoyed a pint there.
Since opening in November 2000, the Guinness Storehouse has welcomed over 3 million visitors and, according to a study by Economic Research Associates, is the fifth most popular brand experience in the world.
2006 saw the launch of its latest permanent visitor attraction, the ‘Brewing Experience’, which brings the public closer to the Guinness brewing process than ever before, even allowing a few lucky visitors the chance to ‘start the brew’. ‘The St James’s Gate Brewery is now the largest stout exporter in Europe,’ says Cindy Martin, Operations Manager at Guinness Storehouse. ‘In line with this we have developed this exciting Brewing Experience to provide visitors with a rare insight into the brewing process while bringing them even closer to the Guinness brand.’
