There has been an explosion of branded entertainment/content in the UK and Ireland over the last few of years. There are heavy restrictions on what can be done in the form of branded entertainment on television, but the online media environment has matured, ensuring that there are now many more opportunities to drive branded content at scale in the UK and Ireland.

However, whilst branded entertainment is produced in its droves, it is a fair observation to make that not all of it is produced with the craft and attention to ensure that it is watched, loved, enjoyed and shared. And because of the competitive media environment, it is even harder to ensure your content will be seen unless you are investing a significant amount of money in it. There are few examples of branded entertainment campaigns in the UK and Ireland than can be held up as an exemplar of great content that can be truly considered to have successfully landed in culture. And even fewer examples of those who have done this without media support.

Congo-Brazzaville is a war torn African country emerging from a decades long civil war, so it is with some nervousness when your casting brief reads “street casting in the Congo”. But that was the challenge we faced with the Sapeurs. When we decided to use real Sapeurs instead of actors there was an immediate reaction. There is no production infrastructure on the ground, communication is difficult, we would have to go there ourselves, but then experts told us we would have a 48 hour window in Brazzaville before we would have to leave. And if we found them, we were told that many of the Sapeurs would not have passports and wouldn’t be able to travel.

But we went to Brazzaville, and began the process of street casting to track down the Sapeurs who would become the stars of the new UK & Ireland Guinness commercial.

None of the Sapeurs we found could speak English (they speak French Congolese), none of them (except one) had been outside the country, and none of them had ever been on a film set, behind the camera, taking direction and being asked to act, and perform choreographed moves over and over again. But all of the Sapeurs we found had one thing: an irrepressible spirit, which lit up the screen. These non-actors, non English Speakers being barked at by Directors, Assistant Directors, Art Directors, DOPs, Hair and Make-up found a way to let their dignity and individual personalities shine through.

Whilst it is still very early days in the campaign, the indicative results indicate that the Sapeurs’ documentary and campaign has been a huge success.

- Thus far, the documentary has been enjoyed by 2 million people (1.6 million people online).

- Guinness sales and marketing teams were inundated with calls from pub owners across Ireland and the UK requesting permission to hold their very own ‘Sapeurs nights in pubs’.

- Numerous groups including a Dublin City University’s fashion society have parodied the campaign.

- Creatively the documentary has won awards at the British Arrows and the Grand Award in the Branded Entertainment section at the New York Festival.

- Early results have seen Guinness grow their share by 1.2% (a huge amount for the beer category)