It is an unavoidable fact that the headline sponsor of the imminent Six Nations international rugby tournament is Guinness – but operators and other brands are optimistic that the human tide filling pubs and bars to enjoy these high profile matches will ‘lift all boats’.
So while there will undoubtedly be a lot of Guinness sold, past experience has taught Signature Group business development director Louise MacLean to expect big sales numbers in all categories of food and drink across the Six Nations weekends.
But asked for her specific rugby crowd recommendation, Louise did not hesitate in highlighting Cold Town House’s ‘Doddie Beir’, the pilsner style lager created with the help of Motor Neurone Disease campaigner and ex-Scotland rugby internationalist, Doddie Weir.
“In our venues across Scotland, January to March is all about maximising sales of Doddie Beir to allow us to donate the maximum revenue to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation,” said Louise.
“For every pint we sell, we donate to the charity to allow them to further research to finding a cure for MND. We have several new customers of Cold Town Beer this year who are pouring Doddie Beir during the 6 Nations to help maintain awareness and keep the dream alive of one day finding that cure.
“We’re pulling out all the stops and doing our bit to help give as much exposure to the foundation as possible. Our staff will all be in Doddie Beir t-shirts with the Doddie Foundation’s logo on the back and our Doddie Beir branding will be plastered all over the key venues showing the games.”
A more general tip from Louise is that match days customers will mainly be getting rounds in, and doing so over an extended period of time, as some of the dates feature back-to-back fixtures.
“Six Nations days are long days – and as my late dad used to say, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint, Louise’, so lower ABV beers are always popular, and lighter-flavoured beers made for sessions are often those that flow throughout the day.
“We have a new beer, Nitro XPA, this year, and it’s a really good session-able extra pale ale that we launched in Autumn 24. Since launching, demand has massively exceeded supply, which is great.”
Kenny Gray, on trade director for Tennent’s, is confident that volume drinking occasions like the Six Nations games will see ‘Scotland’s most popular lager’ being the number one choice on the bar, especially given its affiliation with Scottish Rugby.
“Tennent’s will also appeal to travelling fans keen to sample our national pint and we’d expect this to be a firm choice amongst Italian rugby fans given the affinity with Tennent’s brand in Italy,” said Kenny.
“We look forward to welcoming the Irish fans, which is always a great weekend, and we’d expect Guinness and Magners to be in demand,” he added.
“With outlets busy and those watching the game often out for extended periods, we would expect to see consumers stick to their ‘usual’ drink and be less likely to experiment.”
Echoing Louise at Signature, he noted: “Drinks will likely be ordered in rounds during a match, which often sees consumers favouring the same options as their friends.”
Characteristically, BrewDog disagreed with this diagnosis, and invoked the nationalist sentiment stirred up by sport to call for Ireland’s Guinness to be given a bloody nose.
“Scotland’s answer to the black stuff is of course, BrewDog’s Black Heart, a beer that asks the simple question of drinkers spending their time splitting the G ‘But what if it’s better?’.
“For Scottish Rugby fans keen to support their nation, especially on the 9th of February when the Scots face the Irish, it is important to drink a pint brewed in your own country.”
BrewDog admits that its main objective with Black Heart is simply getting set-in-their-ways consumers to give it an honest try.
“We know we brew an amazing stout, but people need to try it to believe it. We specifically run trial mechanics in bar to encourage this, breaking consumers out of their go-to.
“Within the off-trade we also focus our pricing activity around the match days. Again the goal is trial – if we can show match fans there are alternatives to the incumbent, they may add us to their repertoire.”
To that end, throughout the Six Nations tournament, BrewDog will be offering ‘first Black Heart pint on us’ for booked tables of four or more in its own bars, plus Black Heart loyalty cards, and match route sampling to rugby fans in Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.
In the same challenging spirit, Fiona Matheson, senior brand manager for Belhaven Brewery said that there was ‘definitely room’ for all beer categories to thrive on matchdays, given the right visibility and incentives to drive interest.
“This year, for the rugby tournament we will be activating our ‘Spin to Win’ promotion in pubs that sell Belhaven Best and Belhaven Black,” said Fiona.
“Anyone who buys a pint of either beer will receive a QR code that enters them into a random draw to win branded glassware, clothing and shopping vouchers.
“We launched the same activity during the Autumn Internationals last year and on average had 800 consumers engaged with the activity per week so we know that we can grab people’s attention with this promotion and add something further to the experience.”
Amidst all this beery fun, Kenny at Tennent’s noted that rugby tends to be an inclusive sporting occasion, and while beer will doubtless dominate the match weekends, pubs, bars and restaurants will benefit from the big influx of varied customers, and enjoy a great opportunity to show off the best Scotland has to offer in terms of its amazing whiskies, innovative cocktails and well-stocked wine cellars.
He also added that the availability of no-and-low match day options would always be important.
Louise at Signature agreed: “I’m keeping an eye on our Cold Town Alcohol-Free Pale Ale sales this Spring because we keep hearing that this is a category of growth in Scotland!”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a sporting occasion without a fair old dose of decoration within venues screening the matches. Star Pubs is promising its biggest ever package of free Six Nations support for pubs, including staff training on rugby union rules.
Following what it described as ‘unprecedented demand’ for its Six Nations 2024 Championship rugby materials, Star Pubs is investing over £60,000 in 1400 promotional kits and an in-house digital game to help licensees enhance the customer experience.
These kits will include large inflatable rugby balls, championship and fixtures posters, a fixtures flip chart, and bunting and stickers, all backed up with guides for staff.
“With many staff uncertain about the rules of rugby, the guides will contain key facts on the Six Nations plus an explanation of rugby union rules to enable licensees to upskill their teams so that they can engage more with fans,” said Star Pubs retail director Cathy Olver.
“Star Pubs retail kits and social media support helped our pubs to outperform the market in 2024,” said Olver. “Our research shows that point of sale and marketing made a real difference to the bottom line, with those pubs using it benefitting by as much as £1300.
“In the end, it’s people who create that all-important buzz and establish a pub as the go-to destination for sports. To this end, we’re widening our support to incorporate training and competitive socialising that will make the tournament more fun for customers and staff as well as encourage return visits.”
Six Nations Matches:
Saturday 8th February 2025:
Italy v Wales (Stadio Olimpico, Rome) – Kick-off: 2:15pm
England v France (Allianz Stadium, Twickenham) – Kick-off: 4:45pm
Sunday 9th February 2025:
Scotland v Ireland (Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh) – Kick-off: 3:00pm
Saturday 22nd February 2025:
Wales v Ireland (Principality Stadium, Cardiff) – Kick-off: 2:15pm
England v Scotland (Allianz Stadium, Twickenham) – Kick-off: 4:45pm
Sunday 23rd February 2025:
Italy v France (Stadio Olimpico, Rome) – Kick-off: 3:00pm
Saturday 8th March 2025:
Ireland v France (Aviva Stadium, Dublin) – Kick-off: 2:15pm
Scotland v Wales (Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh) – Kick-off: 4:45pm
Sunday 9th March 2025:
England v Italy (Allianz Stadium, Twickenham) – Kick-off: 3:00pm
Saturday 15th March 2025:
Italy v Ireland (Stadio Olimpico, Rome – Kick-off: 2:15pm
Wales v England (Principality Stadium, Cardiff) – Kick-off: 4:45pm
France v Scotland (Stade de France, Paris) – Kick-off: 8:00pm
