Guinness LoVely campaign turns harp into the 'v'

Guinness has launched LoVely, a new campaign that literally slots its harp into the word “Lovely” by replacing the letter “v” with the brand mark. It goes live first in Ireland and Great Britain and is already being used in festival and sports partnerships — a small design move with big reach for music fans.

Why it matters

The trick is simple and strategic: instead of redesigning the harp or inventing a new logo, Guinness has found a fresh context for a heritage asset. That matters for concerts and festivals because the same visual device can run across high-impact out‑of‑home, stage signage and digital ads without feeling like a different campaign in each setting.

Heritage in one cut

• Guinness didn’t advertise at all for the first 170 years of its history; advertising began after a post‑First World War sales slump, under the condition that ads match the beer’s quality.
• The harp has been on the bottle for over 160 years, so the mark is already embedded in the brand’s visual memory.
• The campaign echoes the long-running line “Lovely Day for a Guinness,” which originated in the 1930s and was revived last year.

The campaign was created by AMV BBDO, with photography by Dan Burn-Forti and Peter Franklyn Banks. Shots lean on tightly cropped, everyday moments — muddy wellies, crowd shoulders, a can under a poncho — images that translate naturally from festival fields to stadium terraces.

“Sometimes the best ideas are right in front of you.” — George Hackforth-Jones, global creative director at AMV BBDO

Stephen O’Kelly, global brand director for Guinness at Diageo, frames LoVely as a refresh rather than a reinvention, saying the device “gives new life to one of our most famous advertising lines.” That restraint is the point: the harp’s silhouette already reads like a “v,” so the swap feels effortless rather than engineered.

For music fans, the payoff is practical. The visual system scales from sponsorships such as Electric Picnic to the Premier League while keeping a consistent, recognisable through‑line. In short: you’ll see it on posters, on-site banners and screens, and it’s designed to feel at home at gigs and festivals as much as on the bottle.