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| HEINEKEN |
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Green Energy - creating a mini cult |
Agency:
Client:
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McCann Erickson Dublin
Heineken Ireland |
| Team: |
Jacco van der Linden
Aileen Donoghue
Shane Hoyne |
Stephen Bogan
Anne-Marie O’Sullivan
Keith Doyle
Shay Madden
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Jonathan Stanistreet Mark Lynch
Jenny Byrne |
MARKETING BACKGROUND
Heineken is one of Ireland’s best
known brands and has successfully
held the number one lager slot for
many years. As with other large and
successful brands and especially among
18-24 year olds – yesterday’s ‘popular’
brand can become today’s
‘mainstream’. In 2000-2002 there were
signs that the brand was starting to be
seen as less relevant among young
men – the key lager target market.
To counteract this, the client and the
agency set out a re-positioning plan
for the brand, central to which was the
leveraging of the Heineken Green
Energy music sponsorship as a key
platform.
MARKETING STRATEGY
The Heineken Green Energy (HGE)
festival comprises a line-up of rock /
pop bands playing over 3 days (over
the May Bank holiday weekend) in
Dublin City centre venues. For 2003,
essentially the brief was to:
- leverage Heineken’s association with
this music event in a way that would
appeal to 20 something males
- drive brand consideration
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
We knew from research that our
target were aware of HGE, but due to
the intimate nature of the festival, not
many actually got to experience it
(previously only 2% of 18-34’s
attended), so it was not about selling
tickets, advertising the event itself or
driving brand linkage which had
already been achieved, it was about
making the event work harder for the
brand. The role of the communication
was to:
- transfer the values and credibility of
the HGE festival to the Heineken
brand in a way that reaches beyond
the narrow festival target
UNDERSTANDING
Through McCann Erickson’s
proprietary consumer insight
generation tool - PulseTM, and through
in-depth qualitative research
undertaken by the client, we identified
key motivations and the opportunity
for connection with music and our
typical consumer.
At a general level, we knew that he
admires brands that are brave, original
and provocative. Music is a key
interest for him but he is wary of a
bland exploitation of it by large
brands. He expects beer brands to use
music to drive youth appeal and
credibility, but often dislikes the way
that some brands seek to ‘take credit’
for the cool line-up rather than add to
the overall experience or build-up.
In summary the key strategic
guidelines gleaned were:
- the brand association with HGE had
to ‘add interest or value’ to the
festival itself
- the platform was an opportunity to
connect locally – and demonstrate
Heineken’s understanding of our
target through an entertaining Irish
tone-of-voice
Speaking to the 20 something’s
about what they liked about festivals
in general, we learned that they look
forward to them – like a weekend
away – because the whole vibe
provides some of their favourite
moments and memories: a real atmosphere and the potential for an
unplanned and unscripted interaction.
There is an air of carefree spontaneity
and the promise of a good time with
friends, and in music terms it’s a mix of
the familiar with the new. A sense of
anticipation builds in the lead up to
the festival and the target really starts
looking forward to it.
THE CREATIVE BRIEF
The creative brief was around the
thought of ‘anticipation’. The brief to
the creative team was to consider the
notion that ‘anticipation can lead to
bizarre and unexpected experiences’
before the festival.
CREATIVE IDEA
The bizarre escapades of a little
band with big ambition. The campaign
idea focused on the trials and
tribulations of a fictional north Dublin
band – ‘The Transformers’ in the leadup
to the event. We invited our
audience to share in the band’s
anticipation of the HGE festival with
the campaign line ‘Will you make it
this year’ in a series of mini-sketches
and in documentary style.
‘The Transformers’ embodied the
archetypal struggling Irish band. Our
advertising was a humorous ‘take’ on a
little band with big ambition, teetering
on the verge of self-destruction. The
campaign included a series of seven TV
executions, outdoor (48 and 6 sheets),
radio, press and PR.
What followed was the emergence
of a mini-cult that captured the
popular imagination and sparked a
round of intriguing TV, radio and press‘interviews’ – much of it spontaneously
emerging in response to the ads.
‘The Transformers’ had on-air
interviews and an in-studio acoustic
session on FM104’s breakfast show.
The band were also invited on TV3’s
‘Ireland am’ and ‘The Transformers’
song used in the TV ads, was regularly
requested by radio listeners.
The overall effect was to build the
burst and impact of the campaign and
generate a sense of excitement’ and
originality around the Heineken brand
putting Heineken top of mind among
consumers - the campaign generated‘talkability’ among our core 18-24
target and made an impression far
beyond the brand/festival association.
MEDIA STRATEGY
The media strategy had to help
build ‘The Transformers’ into the band
of the moment – ultimately to create
cult figures. Initially, we broke the‘story’ through a whisper tease
campaign in Hot Press and dialled up
the activity as we got closer to the
event weekend.
The strategy was to engage the
audience through a spread of media
formats, stretching and crossreferencing
the creative platform
across media to generate an
immediate burst and buzz around the
campaign. TV was the lead medium
with strong cinema support. TV broke
with a showcase of all seven
executions in the Oscars on Network 2.
Following the launch on TV, we added
48 sheets and 6 sheets and ambient
formats to engage our urban audience.
Radio also ran, effectively stretching
the campaign through audio transfer.
In addition to traditional media,
other formats were used to connect at
more everyday touch-points e.g.
beermats, to offer consumers the
chance to vote for ‘The Transformers’
to play HGE through the HGE website,
or by texting the HGE number.
PR also played a central role in
playing up the ‘who are they?’ factor.
Some of the initiatives included:
EFFECTIVENESS AND RESULTS
Although the campaign was on air
for only six weeks in total it made a
big impact on brand performance over
this period in terms of share, brand
consideration in both the on and off
trade and brand perception.
There was no other brand activity
(TV, radio, outdoor, press, promotions)
in place over this period (April – May
2003), nor were there any price drops
or distribution gains that might have
contributed to this share change.
PAYBACK
The total investment (production,
media, sponsorship fee) for the
campaign was €980,000.
The payback was 1:1.2. For every €
spent the return was 20% or €1.20
based on revenue contribution per HL
x incremental volume sold arising from
on-trade share growth (note: for
confidentiality reasons it is not possible
to show HL rate of contribution here).
This is before any gains from ‘brand
equity’ benefit is included, which we
know was achieved also but is difficult
to factor in, in an accurate way.
Share high achieved: 27.9% of Ontrade Lager in Dublin. Heineken grew share in the on-trade in Dublin
following the period when the HGE campaign took place. YOY, Heineken grew share as follows:
Share of On-Trade Lager, Dublin: May 2002: 26.1%
v May 2003: 26.6% YoY INCREASE of + 0.5% |
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In July the brand hit a share high of
27.9% in July 2003. The rise in share
began in May, following the activity in
April 2003. There was no other activity
on the brand that might explain this
growth.
| Brand consideration up indicating impact on brand |
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| Research carried out by Hall and Partners clearly showed that those aware of the sponsorship through the activity have a much stronger relationship with the brand. |
| Brand consideration up in offtrade. |
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Although it was not a primary objective to drive ‘at-home’ consideration, the campaign positively
influenced this important measure, with more consumers claiming they would drink Heineken ‘most often at home’ following the activity. This is a further indication of the extent to which the communication impacted on the brand as there was no other activity in
the off-trade or price changes that may have played a role here. |
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| Transfer of values from event to brand achieved: positive trend |
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As stated at the beginning, the role of the advertising was about addressing the image issues of being‘mainstream’ that were beginning
to appear, and to make the brand relevant again to 18-24 year olds. The bjective was to ‘transfer’ the values of the festival to the brand. Image shifts on big brands is a long-term process but what was encouraging is that directly after the advertising activity in April 2003, Hall and Partners identified a positive upward shift in desirable brand attributes like:
‘modern and contemporary’, ‘for people like me’ and ‘cool, edgy’. |
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| Broadening the influence of the communication beyond the‘narrow festival target’ |
| One clear objective was to make the campaign accessible to those who were not ‘music nuts’ or festival attendees. Hall and Partners identified that increases in brand consideration were clearly up outside of Dublin indicating that this objective was achieved. |
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APPENDICES
"This was an outstanding campaign
that really cut-through and caught the
popular imagination which is rare.
More importantly, it was
extraordinarily effective and is a great
example of how to leverage a
sponsorship in a way that serves the
brand"
Jacco van der Linden, Marketing Manager,
Heineken Ireland
Creative and Effectiveness
Accolades:
‘The Transformers’ campaign for HGE
has also won many awards and been
the most decorated Irish
communications campaign in recent
history. It has won:
- 6 Kinsale International Advertising
Festival Shark awards including
The
Palme D’or and
The Irish Grand Prix
2003
- 4 ICAD Awards 2003
- Media and Marketing Awards 2003– Best Integrated Campaign
- Advertising and Communication
Excellence Awards for Effectiveness,
Heineken Worldwide, for
outstanding and effective
communication
SUMMARY
In 2000-2002 there were signs that
the Heineken brand was starting to be
seen as less relevant among young
men – the key lager target market.
Through a thorough and insightful
understanding of the target and their
relationship with music, the client and
McCann Erickson developed a
campaign that focused on the trials
and tribulations of a fictional north
Dublin band – ‘The Transformers’ in
the lead-up to the Heineken Green
Energy festival.
‘The Transformers’ captured the
public imagination and generated PR
and media interest around the bizarre
escapades of the little band with big
ambition!
There was no other advertising,
promotions, price or distribution
changes over the period and although
the campaign was on air for only six
weeks in total it made a big impact on
brand performance over this period in
terms of share, brand consideration in
both the on and off trade and brand
perception.
The payback ratio was 1:1.2 and the
brand enjoyed a share high and a
growth in YOY share following the
activity.
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