DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
HEINEKEN
By TeamSystem
Timothy Cronin, Paul Griffin, Patrick Maher
The Heineken Story began in 1864 when Gerard Adriaan Heineken
acquired a small brewery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Heineken is
one of the global leading brewers and to this day is still headquartered in
Amsterdam. The brand is named after the founder’s name and can be
found all over the world. The premium position of the Heineken brand is
crucial to the growth strategy. Maintaining this positioning requires a
combination of the highest quality brewing process delivering the highest
quality beer and creative and compelling digital marketing. As the brand
extends its global market share, and its positioning becomes more
consistent, its digital marketing has become more international. A key
strength for Heineken is the fact that the product is produced to be the
same, no matter which of the breweries it was produced at. Throughout
Heineken’s digital marketing, there is the visual reference to their
attractive packaging and red star which are recognisable nearly anywhere
in the world. Below are Heineken’s beer products as displayed on their
website:
Because Heineken is a beer brand, it can only sell to people who are older
than a certain age. That age is set by the governments. The general age
set by the governments for people to buy beer and other alcoholic drinks
is set at 16 years in and older to 21 years and older. Therefore the target
market of Heineken is everyone older than the age set by the government
and a lot of their emphasis on this targeting is done through their digital
marketing practices.
When visiting Heineken’s website, you are requested to enter your date of
birth as proof of age. Afterwards you have the opportunity to enter the
website of your country or the Heineken global site. Upon entering the
global site, you will immediately see an advertisement for the new James
Bond film, Spectre, featuring Daniel Craig. There is also a link to watch an
advertisement in relation to it.
Heineken has just begun a $100m campaign capitalising on its sponsorship
of the film. This advertisement was released on Facebook on September
21, 2015.1 When watching the advertisement video, a lady ends up foiling
the villains for Bond and manages to acquire to a couple of bottles to
boot. Heineken has been a commercial partner of the James Bond films
since 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. As part of this, Heineken is inviting a
handful of people to attend their screening of Spectre in November. It has
put in place technology for these competition winners to take the world’s
first selfie in space, which the brand is dubbing the “spyfie”. To accomplish
this, Heineken has partnered with Urthecast to take pictures using a
1
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/21/daniel­craig­stars­in­heineken­campaign­ahead­of­new­james­bond­fil
m camera onboard, Deimos, an earth mapping satellite. The very nature of
Heineken’s links to the Bond film franchise gives them opportunities to
take a cutting edge and pioneering approach that both excites and adds
real value to film fans and bring them into the Heineken customer net.
Heineken has also distributed half a billion limited edition Heineken Light
bottles and packaging featuring the Spectre logo. The Bond themed
bottles also include a unique scannable logo and codes. By using a mobile
phone, visiting the Heineken website and scanning the front of one of the
limited edition bottles, consumers will be able to find out if they have won
free movie tickets as well as unlock Spectre content.2
In the “We are Heineken” section of the website, there is an “Enjoy
Responsibly” section as a header. On this page we see the motto “Dance
More, Drink Slow” which is Heineken’s campaign to deliver the
responsible drinking message by focusing on moderate drinking as an
aspiration when enjoying a night out, highlighting the importance of
staying in control and showing a genuine concern for the customer’s
well-being. The purpose is to make the customer feel they have a vibe of
importance coming from Heineken. The campaign builds on Heineken’s
long-term “Enjoy Heineken Responsibly” message which has been seen on
TV through Heineken’s sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League and
Rugby World Cup. To measure the success of the “Dance More, Drink
Slow” concept, Heineken follow a dedicated hashtag #DMDS across
2
http://www.comingsoon.net/extras/news/615315­james­bond­heineken­commercial#/slide/1 Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to track its progress.
In “The Sub” section of the website, there is a choice of whether to watch
an advertisement in relation to it or click on “Enter The Sub” which is an
external site in its own right. The Sub is a beer dispenser and is so far only
available in Italy, France, The Netherlands, and Spain. According to
Heineken, The Sub is intended to “enable the quality pour at home” and
therefore it is aimed at the at-home market. The key to the Sub system is
the Torp, which is a 2 litre aluminium keg that is designed to work with
the Sub. The Torp holds about eight glasses of beer and can keep it fresh
for 15 days after opening.3 Using the Sub’s website, Torps can be ordered
online and delivered to your door when available. Even though the Sub is
not available in Ireland, Heineken put particular emphasis on saying “the
Sub is coming to you soon.” You can pre-register for this on the Sub
website and Heineken encourage you to be kept informed about it by the
interesting intrigue they have around this.
3
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014­11­20/heineken­krups­launch­sub­beer­dispenser­in­europe Heineken have dedicated Facebook and Twitter accounts for the Sub but it
isn’t being kept up to date with regular content and there doesn’t seem to
be an outgoing approach on social media at getting the product promoted
to the public. For instance, on Facebook, nothing has been posted since
January 2015 while there has been no tweets on Twitter since June 30.
Most of its content seems to be along the lines of interaction with
customers and answering queries on their part. While this is good, there is
very little done on a promotional manner with the product. This is very
surprising considering the Sub is a main header in the navigation menu
section of Heineken’s official website. It’s even more so considering
Heineken have big plans for expanding this product in other countries as
can be seen on their website and in their last post on Facebook in
response to this enquiry:
Heineken have an “Open Your City” header in the navigation menu of
their homepage. In 2014, Heineken launched a global campaign, “Open
Your City”, aiming to inspire their audience to get out of their comfort
zone and get the most from their city.
From Heineken’s perspective, their task was to make Heineken more
relevant to UK drinkers by delivering the “Open Your City” campaign in a
compelling way, with a major focus on London. Heineken’s digital
marketing campaign targeted “men of the world” and who in reality might
not always make the most of their city. When launching this, Heineken
was a small brand in the UK. Its aim with the help of digital marketing and
TV advertisement, is to become the premium beer of choice in the face of
strong competition from Stella Artois and Peroni. Heineken by their
involvement with this gave their target audience a reason to engage with
Heineken across a range of online touchpoints. At the heart of this was a
partnership with the Metro newspaper which included a weekly planner
full of unique events which would help their target audience to step out of
their comfort zone and discover a new part of London.4 The content was
seeded online and transformed into an appealing animation across the
London Underground. There were Heineken branded “Star Cabs” that
took winners on journeys to new parts of London.
4
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1303188/heineken­unveils­open­city­drive­metro­men­world The audience was let known about this through interactive Video on
Demand units, digital and interactive out of home. Consumers had to
download the Star Cabs app and use it to buy a Heineken at one of thirty
destinations across London.5 What makes the “Open Your City” campaign
so effective is that Heineken positioned it to be a platform, not to be
one-off commercial venture. With each edition of the series, Heineken
created digital appendages that bolster the campaign’s messaging and
reach new consumers on social media.
As can be seen on the “Open Your City” page on Heineken’s website,
there’s also the Twitter handle @WhereNext. This Twitter account aids
consumers by helping them unlock secrets of their city by providing
restaurant, bar and cafe suggestions based on their location. In the
Twitter bio, the account is given a description of a being a bot service.
5
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1306325/heineken­star­cabs­competition­offers­drinkers­free­london­taxi­
rides And they have a pinned tweet describing how the procedure works.
The tool works by using an algorithm that listens to social media activity,
such as tweets, photos across Twitter, and Instagram and analyses which
locations are trending.6 A plus side of this, is that this has its own Twitter
account and is not used under the Heineken Twitter handle. This helps the
service have more credibility to it. People become wary of social media
6
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/07/14/heineken­develops­social­tool­wherenext­shuns­brand­name­provide­more­
credibility techniques and it may not have made the progress it has, had it been
more about finding Heineken related products. With this method used by
Heineken, it has a much more meaningful use for consumers to avail of.
Heineken is a sponsor of the Champions League. One of Heineken’s largest
digital marketing procedures was its “Share the Sofa” campaign during the
2012 UEFA Champions League season. With the high viewing figures
associated with such an event, Heineken’s strategy was based on how it
could join its consumers at home and to target them on their devices. Its
partnership to Europe’s most prestigious club football competition
through digital marketing has helped Heineken build brand awareness in
European and African markets and boost its presence in emerging markets
in Central America and Asia. According to Heineken, 65% of Champions
League viewers use a second screen during matches and so the target of
their digital marketing strategy was focused on tablets or smartphones.7
To join fans, Heineken created the #SharetheSofa hashtag.
As part of this campaign, consumers were given the opportunity to have
questions answered by soccer stars or even watch a match with a
Champions League star. Ruud Gullit, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Owen
Hargreaves and Hernan Crespo are some of the big stars who were on
7
http://www.oliver.agency/en/news/4­innovative­sports­sponsorship­campaigns/ hand to respond by tweet, photo or Vine video. The credibility of this
technique is given by the high level guests and the wide audience that
they will attract, which ultimately will result in brand exposure that boosts
perception. By using the hashtag during games, Heineken can see in
real-time who’s engaging with them and who are the biggest influencers.
Last season in the Champions League, Heineken moved on to the hashtag
#Championthematch which is Heineken’s aim to achieve the ambition of
being the main beer associated with the Champions League.
It aims to build on the success of the #SharetheSofa campaign. Instead of
just focusing on the 90 minute game, “Champion The Match” content is
being pushed out the entire evening. Fans can chat and have the chance
to win prizes. All this takes place before, during and after a game.
Heineken hope these additional features will encourage fans to host their
own Champions League nights which centre around football and the drink
itself. Heineken have used the former Dutch international and winner of
the Champions League, Patrick Kluivert in a YouTube video to push this
thinking.
Major spikes occur on Twitter generated around Heineken during
Champions League evenings with peaks of around 3,000 as can be seen in
the two graphs below:
8
8
http://www.crimsonhexagon.com/blog/opinion/quantifying­the­impact­of­a­social­media­campaign­heineken­the­cham
pions­of­the­champions­league/ Heineken has a long association with international rugby and is the main
sponsor of the Rugby World Cup that is currently going on. For this
tournament, the rugby authorities have agreed for Heineken to bring in
one person for the coin toss between the two team captains, that decides
which end the teams will start playing from.9 Heineken have driven sales
by running this contest on social media, where it will also engage with
rugby fans throughout the tournament, featuring famous rugby figures
discussing matches. Heineken have signed up former stars like Will
Carling, Jonah Lomu, Matt Dawson, Shane Horgan and Scott Quinnell.
Fans can take part in the competitions and chat to the stars using the
hashtag #ItsYourCall. Much like the #SharetheSofa campaign, having big
stars involved brings a lot of credibility to this social media procedure and
bring fans in its droves to get involved and who wish to interact with the
ex-players. This can be only good for brand awareness.
Will Carling answering fans’ questions:
9
http://rugby.heineken.com/ Earlier this year, Heineken teamed up with Blippar (smartphone app) to
launch a digital campaign that taps into the consumer interest into
sustainability and a desire to understand more about the ingredients of
the beer. This campaign is called the “Legendary 7” and it’s to highlight
Heineken’s commitment to buying 50% of its raw materials from
sustainable sources by 2020. There is also hashtag use by Heineken with
Legendary 7 as can be seen on their website:
Legendary 7 tells the story of seven farmers who produce the sustainable
barley and hops used to brew Heineken. This is a complex issue for
customers to understand and so Heineken wants to help customers
appreciate the sustainability thinking and what ingredients go into the
making of the beer. Blippar uses the camera function in your smartphone,
or tablet to recognise images that are “blippable” and return a response.
To meet the Legendary 7 farmers, all consumers need is access to Blippar
(free on iTunes and Google Play Store) and a Heineken bottle. You then
scan the Heineken label with the Blippar app as can be seen in the
illustration below:
By doing this, it will unlock exclusive content including an animated film
introducing the farmers, information on Heineken’s sustainability
commitments and 7elfie - create your own Legendary 7 selfie and share it
on social media.10
Heineken Ireland’s main offices are in Cork where they are in the
development stages of building a conference centre at the old Beamish
and Crawford brewery premises:
10
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1344968/heineken­creates­sustainability­campaign­blippar This will really move the Heineken brand forward with concerts and
fulfilling not alone as a conference centre but also as a tourist attraction
that will have to be digitally marketed.
Rivals Budweiser released a downloadable app for smartphones, the
hotter the cheaper the pint. Not to be outdone, Heineken Ireland’s sister
company Murphys stout with the Irish weather released the “When it
Rains it Pours” app. Whenever Met Eireann tells us that it’s been raining in
Cork, you can claim a free pint.
As with everything else, you have to see the new trends, such as survey
monkey to sign up with monthly. At the moment, the new trend is Craft
beer. This is a new market for the audience that is marketing behind the
scenes. Heineken Ireland has invested in a big way with one of these
breweries in the city centre. We think one of the main flaws digitally with
Heineken is that it doesn’t have its own blog. If done strategically it will
produce fantastic results. As everybody knows technology is expanding.
Rapidly gone are the days of the two year plan. Realistically you need to
have a six week plan where people are ahead of their game employed in
the digital age.
Heineken brand digital marketing strategy is smart strategy in that it has
been quick out of the block and streets ahead of it nearest rivals. The
fundamentals supporting the strategy are cerebral, based on the
interaction between the mind and the bodies of its customers and the
targeting of its audience in a clear manner. Certainly for the Heineken
brand, an authentic voice is present and for the consumer an immediate
association becomes apparent when contacting any form of its brand
voice, whether it’s an advertising hoarding, TV commercial, YouTube
video, Twitter or Facebook. Heineken it appears has gone to the greatest
lengths to genuinely connect with its market voice and accomplishes this
by appealing to people in their personal models of the world, whilst
simultaneously installing the concept of the value of having fun in the
company of other people in a relaxed thought up tempo setting as a
reward for hard work. Heineken in their use of YouTube videos captures,
captivates and entertains its viewers in a particularly unique fashion
bridging that gap between fantasy and imagination, reminiscent of the
earliest classic and mega Hollywood movies. Heineken’s YouTube videos
convey in no small way the concept that by being a Heineken brand
associate, the user is young, fun orientated and to a thrill seeker so to
speak without going over the top and this again sends the message that
the product is to be enjoyed sensibly which is a relatively new associated
concept within the drinks industry generally. There is a seamless
integration theme running through the digital marketing strategy of the
Heineken brand, with almost 20 million likes on Facebook, 130,000
Twitter followers and the connection between sporting brand (Champions
League and Rugby World Cup)