Heineken has sought out the most influential men on social media to show off a suitcase it has developed with lifestyle brand TUMI in a realistic fashion. 

The #Heineken100 campaign is promoting the new bag, co-branded between TUMI and Heineken and is the first in a proposed series of products released by the two. Heineken is using the power of mobile, and social media tastemakers in particular, to promote this new product to its customers in a manner that makes the product desirable, but yet not unreachable.

"With an internationally known brand like TUMI, this year's #Heineken100 program has been more successful than ever before," said Raul Esquer, Heineken USA brand manager. "We're proud to add yet another functional and beautifully designed item to the program with the carry-on." 

Social influencers
The Heineken 100 campaign creates high-end items such as the new TUMI suitcase aimed at influential men and promotes them and the brand through social media.

Only 100 items are produced for each release, which has so far included a tote and a backpack. Each of those 100 is sent out to 100 of the most influential men in America.

For this release, among the chose few were blogger and tastemaker Marcus Troy along with DJ Neil Armstrong, who then promote those products through their own social channels as well.

The Heineken 100 campaign connects the brewer with a variety of high-end brands creating men?s luxury products. For the past seven years, they have chosen a different brand to partner with, including names such as Public School, Garrett Leight, Union Los Angeles, Parabellum, Mark McNairy, KITH and Neighborhood Japan.

Because so many of the influential men who receive these items are popular on social media or are influencers in their own right, it makes sense for Heineken to promote the campaign through social media.

Using the hashtag #Heineken100, consumers can search for promoted social posts from the many influencers and tastemakers who are a part of the campaign. With the hashtag, Heineken is consolidating all of the content related to the Heineken 100 campaign in one place that users can navigate to from their mobile devices.

The classics
While Heineken has a strong social media presence, its most recent campaigns have focused on other areas of mobile as a tool for engaging with customers.

Partnering with alcohol sharing mobile application Buddy Drinks, Heineken enabled festival goers at the Outside Lands festival earlier this year to share beer passes with their friends at the festival to get free and discounted Heineken drinks (see story), tying its widely recognized brand to a mobile-first loyalty program.

The brewer has also used mobile in tandem with GPS data from Google Maps to help users find nearby bars that serve Heineken beer (see story). This kind of campaign makes use of mobile to provide value to consumers in the form of a bar finder while still allowing Heineken to own the message and steer their customers towards locations where they can make Heineken purchases.

With location data and partnerships with fresh new mobile startups under its belt, Heineken is free to also experiment with more classic forms of mobile marketing, including promoted social campaigns that make use of the popularity of apps such as Twitter and Instagram to put its content in front of the right audience.