Heineken® Ireland continues its strong run at Cannes Lions 2025, picking up a silver in Brand Experience for its powerful Pub Succession campaign. This latest win follows earlier success at this year’s festival and builds on the brand’s record-breaking eight-award sweep in 2024 for ‘Pub Museums’. At its heart, Pub Succession was about safeguarding the soul of Irish pub culture by championing the people and stories that give it life. By putting community, heritage, and genuine connection at the forefront. Heineken® Ireland set out to make a lasting difference, proving that when work is truly meaningful, recognition follows as a natural consequence. This campaign stands as a proud testament to the power of purposeful creativity to inspire real-world impact and lasting legacy.
Heineken® Ireland has been a standout contender at this year’s Cannes, having already scooped a second silver (Media) and two bronze (Direct) category for Pub Succession and two bronze (Creative Strategy and Media) for Pub Museums. Awarding the team with seven Cannes Lions to date for 2025.
The Pub Succession campaign has also been put forward for a Titanium Lion, which is due to be announced this Friday 20th June. The Titanium Lion celebrates boundary-breaking ideas that create new benchmarks for creativity. Heineken® Ireland are up against some of the world’s biggest brands in the Titanium Lion category including Unilever, Spotify, Ikea, Axa and E.L.F Beauty.
With Pub Succession in 2025, Heineken® launched a worldwide recruitment campaign across 128 countries to find a McLoughlin to carry on one retiring Irish publican’s legacy - Josie McLoughlin, a fourth-generation publican whose idyllic family pub on Achill Island means so much to the local community and visitors alike. The campaign was inspired by a striking insight that highlighted that Josie McLoughlin is not alone: 84% of publicans said their family members had ‘no interest in taking over the pub’. In response, Heineken® created an online tool to help other publicans find a potential successor who shared, not just their passion but, their surname. The campaign is designed to keep Irish pub’s family name above the door and their legacy alive.
Created by Heineken®, Publicis Dublin and Le Pub with support from THINKHOUSE, The Romans, and Dentsu Red Star, the campaign is part of Heineken® Ireland’s ongoing ‘For the Love of Pubs’ platform - a long-term initiative to safeguard Irish pub culture.
Fiona Curtin, Marketing Director, Heineken® Ireland, commented:
"From the west of Ireland to Times Square, the idea resonated because it was honest, human, and urgent — a story centered around publicans; those who make the pub industry in Ireland what it is. To be recognised with multiple awards at Cannes is a testament to the collaboration between our global and local Heineken® brand teams, and the real customer insight that powered this campaign."
Geraldine Jones, Managing Director, Publicis Dublin, added:
“The success at Cannes is a remarkable acknowledgment of how powerful creativity can be when driven by purpose. This campaign was about more than marketing; it was about legacy, identity, and ensuring the heart of Ireland’s pub culture beats on. We’re proud to have developed an important campaign with such a rich and important message. It was a trojan effort by Heineken® Ireland and all of the brilliant partner agencies we worked with.”
