Dive Brief:
- Heineken USA is kicking off a new integrated marketing campaign today that encourages beer drinkers to live in the moment and embrace spontaneity and discovery, the brand's CMO Jonnie Cahill told Marketing Dive at a press event last week. The "Cheers to the Unexpected" campaign includes four TV and digital spots, along with outdoor branding efforts. Two of the videos will air in June, with another debuting later this summer and a fourth launching around the holidays.
- The first spot, "New Friends," debuted today and shows a guest accidentally entering a wild party instead of the low-key dinner soiree he expected, which was in the apartment unit one floor below. Another party-goer swaps his wine for a Heineken, and he becomes the life of the party. The 30-second spot closes with the line "sometimes the wrong party is the right one."
- Another video, set to air on June 19, shows a couple gazing into each other's eyes. Just before it appears they might kiss, they jump and cheer among a crowd over a soccer goal shown on TV. Turns out, they'd been watching the game all along, though they meet later and the video closes with copy reading "the best matches are made in heaven."
Dive Insight:
As Heineken tries to come off the hot seat from a March ad that was perceived as racist, the Dutch beer brand is taking a carefree approach this summer to encourage viewers to be spontaneous.
"Sometimes the best nights are unplanned, and sometimes the best moments are those that you didn't expect," Cahill told Marketing Dive. "That's always been a kind of a Heineken value: to go a little bit beyond your comfort zone, to be open to experiences."
The idea for the campaign stems from insights that show that Heineken drinkers in the U.S. enjoy spontaneity, and those who embrace it are typically happier with life, according to a company press release. Here, the brand is banking on the notion that events or experiences can sometimes be more fun or memorable when they take an unexpected turn — with a cold beer in tow, of course.
"What we're trying to do is lean on recognizable things that people see and have empathy for, rather than people that they recognize," Cahill said about Heineken's strategy of not using celebrities in its latest round of ads. "We all recognize that parties don't always go the way we planned and that bringing the family together is different now than it used to be. And that can be fun."
As for the spot that airs next week, Heineken is smartly aligning itself with the World Cup, a quadrennial sporting event that's expected to bring in major viewership and $2.4 billion in global ad spend, according to Publicis Groupe's Zenith estimates. At the most recent World Cup in 2014, FIFA reported that 3.2 billion people — roughly 46% of the world's population — tuned in, highlighting the opportunity to get marketing messages in front of a massive global audience.
Soccer has long been a major part of Heineken's strategy, from replacing Budweiser in 2014 as the official beer sponsor of Major League Soccer in the U.S. to unveiling a video that honors dedicated fans. Given soccer's popularity around the world and Heineken's recent efforts to emphasize its global positioning, releasing a new commercial for TV and digital in the first week of the tournament appears to be a solid match.
