For a while I have been on Guiness' mailing list, intrigued by how they could make such a thing of any ongoing interest, and whether ultimately it might make me drink any more Guiness.

Usually, to be honest, I delete the e-mail without reading it and somehow don't get round to un-subscribing from the list. Today, however, I was intrigued by the subject line 'THE GUINESS ad you nearly didn't see'.

I was intrigued a) because I assumed they were talking about a TV ad and this was the web - were they tip-toeing towards broadband? and b) did they really think I was going to go to their site and voluntarily choose to watch an advert?

Just too irresistible not to go and have a look...

Sure enough on the site ( http://www.guinness.com ) you can view the censored version of the ad as well as the aired version. The title of this post should give some clue as to the difference between the two. You need Quicktime 4 and depending on just how broad your band is, things are still pretty slow. There must have been an e-visionary around when Guinness came up with their 'Good things come to those who wait' slogan.

Still, a nice example of an integrated cross-channel advertising campaign exploiting both eCRM-type techniques (using the regular newsletter vehicle to get to their target market) and using richer media content on the web. Campaigns of this sort are also ideal for promoting TV programming and films, live events (gigs, concerts, club nights), holidays etc. but such campaigns are only now beginning to realise their potential a) as the media owners need to know who their user base is and how to contact them and b) as connections speeds increase it is increasingly possible to carry passable quality video and audio over the web.

I also told several friends about the online ad, and quite fancy a pint of Guiness...