Guinness and Marmite Crossover

From Coolhunting:

"In time for St. Patrick's Day, Guinness yeast extract will be used to make a special spread, limited to 300,000 jars. It's available today 19 February 2007 for around 2.49 from supermarkets in the UK."

Cheryl Calverley, of Marmite, said: "This is the most unusual innovation in our history. We will be watching carefully to see if customers want this as a permanent option."

Here's their post on Flickr:

"Some say it’s madness, others say it’s genius, but this year’s must-have for St Patrick’s Day is new limited edition Guinness™ Marmite Yeast Extract Spread.

Hot on the heels of our recent launch of Guinness Red which you seem to love loads we are launching the iconic Marmite glass jar filled with darker ‘Guinness Marmite’ spread. The glass now appears black when full and together with the white lid replicates a pint of Guinness.

This is a special edition launch with only 300,000 jars being created which means this will be the must have edition to any St Patrick's party.

This unique product has been created using a special recipe with 30% Guinness yeast (a specific strain of yeast used only to make Guinness), giving it a subtle Guinness flavour, without the alcohol.

The limited edition 250g jars of Guinness Marmite (RRSP £2.49) will be on-shelf from 18th February, in time for St. Patrick’s day on the 17th March, for around six weeks. Stockists include Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons, and Co-op."

If you look at the Marmite Forum you'll see a post and link to Wikipedia's page on Guinness Yeast Extract and suggesting a tie in. Who needs focus groups! All our brands should have this model built into them. A brand that has a forum and a string of wikipedia entries by definition is a brand people are talking about. These aren't consumers they are enthusiasts.

Good example of 2 brands embarking on a tie in that's mutually beneficial for both of their brand molecules. Great timing, great idea and great innovation. They have also got all of their 2.0 bases covered: Flickr, wikipedia backstory, forum seeding etc. Have they used any paid for media?