Heineken is giving its US Open sponsorship a unique twist this year with a mobile and social component that leverages Instagram to dole out tickets.

The beer brand?s ?Crack the US Open? campaign uses Instagram?s grid feature to create a massive picture that serves as a photo scavenger hunt that is orchestrated through mobile and social media. Heineken?s campaign began yesterday and will run through Thursday.

?Our objective was to drive awareness of Heineken?s US Open sponsorship by engaging tennis fans in the digital space in a way that was innovative but convenient to our fans,? said Pattie Falch, brand director of sponsorships and events marketing at Heineken USA, White Plains, NY.

?The US Open is a premium event of the summer where every New Yorker wants to be,? she said. ?Its prestigious scene and who's who attendance created the perfect springboard for our experience and what we wanted to create.?

Cracking into mobile, social
Heineken created the @Crack_the_US_Open Instagram account to include more than 200 photos. The photos create a mosaic of a scene at a stadium.

When consumers view the Instagram account, they are instructed to flip their mobile device into a horizontal position to view a panoramic view of the stadium.

Each photo is captioned with a clue about the fans that leads consumers to a pair of tickets to the US Open next week.

On Tuesday, Heineken United States posted the first clue for the sweepstakes on its Instagram and Twitter accounts.

The clue read, ?Remember the codeword ?#SHHH,? follow the clues you could win a pair of #tickets to the #USOpen.?

The clue correlated to a picture of a man wearing a t-shirt that said ?Shhh? found in the Instagram mosaic. Once consumers found him, a series of riddles led consumers to find several other people within the scene.

Once consumers find the final photo in the scavenger hunt, they must comment on the photo with the keyword that was included in the original clue. The first consumer to do so will win a pair of tickets to the US Open men?s final championship on Sept. 9.

After a consumer leaves the correct comment on the winning photo, Heineken posts a message on its Twitter and Instagram account announcing a winner and another clue for a new round.

Consumers must be 21 years or older to participate in the campaign.

The Instagram post after a round was won

Mobile, social activations
Mobile and social media play a big role in how Heineken has been activating its events and sponsorships over the past few years.

For example, the brand rolled out a mobile app for its sponsorship of the Ultra Music Festival earlier this year (see story).

Heineken also incorporated a location-based mobile app into its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League soccer tournament (see story).

In this case, the amount of work that Heineken put into creating the Instagram mosaic differentiates its approach to the mobile and social platform from other brands.

Heineken claims that the entire mosaic required more than 1,000 positions to be determined and was shot 32 feet in the air to capture the entire group.

?We approach events like the US Open from a platform native standpoint because that is where they are,? Ms. Falch said.

?We also focus our social media and mobile efforts on providing access to our consumers in ways that have never been done before,? she said.

?Crack the US Open is another example of how we are utilizing social media and mobile in new and innovative ways.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York