Heineken - PRNewser

Will the Public Belly Up to Sam Adams in a Can?

James F. Thompson — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:08:38 +0000

Believe it or not, there was a day in America when “fancy pants” beer meant Heineken. An import from Holland, Heineken was like the truffles of beer and changed the complexion of your Dad’s garage refrigerator from the red, white and blue of Budweiser and gold of Coors to an electric green.

But then Sam Adams, using a recipe developed in 1860, came along and changed everything in the mid-90′s, starting a microbrew craze that continues to sweep across America and spurring the craft beer obsession that has altered the landscape and language of our beer culture. Cask ale, anyone? Only $14 per bottle!

The American public has always had an intriguing relationship with beer. Even as U.S. beer drinkers and the beverage they love have grown more sophisticated and worldly, our society stubbornly refuses to let beer become the domain of the 1%.

Some examples: Miller High Life implemented a hilarious ad campaign featuring a delivery guy who lambasted pretentious beer drinkers. And hipsters managed to pull off one of the great ironic miracles of our time by making Pabst Blue Ribbon cool again (OK, the recession probably helped too).

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Turning Heineken into the World’s ‘Most Interesting’ Beer

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:16:51 +0000

First a disclaimer: Like the rest of the country, we love beer. In fact, we are unapologetic beer snobs. And while Heineken is a classic brand that works in a pinch, we find it to be a bit…lacking in the taste department (hey, to each his own, right?).

Why do we tell you this? Because these facts leave us even more impressed by today’s eMarketer interview with Heineken marketing director Lesya Lysyj, in which she discusses her brand’s huge Skyfall campaign, designed to turn a workaday brew into the world’s “most interesting” beer.

Did you know that Heineken’s Facebook page has more likes and greater user engagement ratings than any other alcohol brand? Neither did we! Lysysj describes Facebook as “a little research tool”, calls user engagement the most important metric around and explains her brand philosophy for Newcastle (another beer that’s been very successful in the digital world) as a “brutal honesty” campaign featuring taglines like “Newcastle Winter Ale. Our worst selling beer in the summer. #NoBollocks”. We like it!

The best part of the interview concerns the Heineken Skyfall campaign, a multimedia mystery designed to appeal to the company’s ideal customer (the “vibrant explorer”) with an interactive game/social app created after research told Heineken something that we all know: lots of people use mobile devices while watching TV. The idea was to create an ad spot that would encourage beer fans to immediately download the app and “Crack the Code.”

Surprise surprise: it worked. Check out the video to see why:

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Spin the Agencies of Record

James F. Thompson — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Friendly’s Ice Cream selected Regan Communications Group Inc. as its public relations agency of record. The Boston-based restaurant chain emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January after closing 100 shops and laying off thousands of workers.

Sun Capital Partners, a Florida-based private-equity firm co-run by Marc Leder (who hosted the fund-raiser where Mitt Romney made his infamous “47 percent” comment) took the 76-year-old ice cream chain into bankruptcy in October 2011, shed its pensions and downsized and then repurchased the chain through an affiliate.

ShopPR has been chosen as AOR for Keds, the American lifestyle brand established in 1916. ShopPR will be responsible for social/digital marketing and public relations; for its first assignment this October, the agency helped Keds introduce its multi-year partnership with six-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter and style icon Taylor Swift.

“We’re so thrilled and proud to be working with Keds”, said Vanessa Pesce, Managing Director of ShopPR. “We’re inspired by the way Keds is encouraging girls to reach their full potential, and we also look forward to promoting the brand’s iconic styles.”

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Is James Bond Too Corporate?

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:42:49 +0000

On the eve of the new 007 flick Skyfall, The Wall Street Journal asks an interesting question: has “the mother and father of all franchises” (thanks, David Denby) turned into a big, disgusting orgy of product placement? Is James Bond a sexy spy or just a not-so-secret spokesman for Heineken, Omega, Sony, Adidas and, of course, Aston Martin? And have these obvious sponsorships damaged the series’ credibility?

Hmm…we’ll spend Saturday afternoon pondering that one. Next week in Questions That Matter:

Are puppies too adorable?
Are chocolate chip cookies too delicious?
Are cumulus clouds too white and fluffy?
Is the name “Miss Pussy Galore Honey Rider Solitaire Plenty O’Toole May Day Xenia Onatopp Holly Goodhead Tiffany Case Kissy Suzuki Mary Goodnight Jinx Johnson Octopussy Domino Moneypenny” too subtle?

We await your answers with bated breath.

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Olympics Ads Boost Brand Perceptions for BP and Others

Elizabeth S. Mitchell — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:41:22 +0000

A recent survey conducted by YouGov BrandIndex in order to gauge the public’s perceptions of Olympics advertisers may prove that the coveted ad slots and expensive sponsorships are worthy investments, especially for certain brands with PR problems.

According to Ad Age, surveyors posed the same question for each brand: “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” YouGov then derived scores ranging from 100 to -100 by subtracting negative feedback from positive (For instance, a score of zero means a brand received equal parts positive and negative feedback).

Oil company and international pariah BP, whose public image has soured since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf Of Mexico, reportedly saw its score jump from a negative 5.9 in the week prior to the Olympics to a positive 2.6 during the first week of the games thanks to ads like this one. Only Visa, which, according to YouGov, spent $100 million to be a “Worldwide Olympic Partner”, saw its brand perception rise more during the same time period. Ted Marzilli, global managing director for YouGov’s BrandIndex service, told Ad Age, “We have seen the recovery with BP over the last year and a half…but I think its association with the Olympics is showing benefits.”

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James Bond to Drink Heineken, Would Rather Have a Martini

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:28:25 +0000

Daniel Craig, the latest actor to play James Bond, has called the partnership with Heineken “unfortunate,” but says he understands that the financial demands of a big movie require product placement. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a sponsor that could be paying as much as $45 million for the privilege.

“This movie costs a lot of money to make, it costs nearly as much again if not more to promote, so we go where we can,” Craig told Moviefone.com.

Ad Age first reported that Heineken signed on with the latest Bond movie, Skyfall, which will be out November 9. Bond will sip the beer in at least one scene of the movie, appear on packaging, and will be in an ad. CMO Lesya Lysyj says the partnership is “a perfect fit” despite the fact that Bond is known for drinking his martinis “shaken, not stirred.”

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Roll Call: Heineken, Viacom, and More

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:20:47 +0000

Heineken USA has named Stacey Tank as SVP of corporate relations starting January 3. Tank was previously the head of corporate relations for G.E.’s $6 billion “Healthymagination” program and led the company’s 2011 launch of a $1 billion international cancer campaign.

Entertainment publicist Scotty Dugan died suddenly on Wednesday as he was en route to the funeral of music exec, film producer, and event promotions exec John Atterberry. Atterberry was gunned down in Hollywood on December 9. Witnesses say Dugan collapsed while waiting for a train. Dugan started as a reporter, working his way up to editor at The Hollywood Reporter before launching his own PR firm. He was handling PR for Atterberry’s indie Christian film God’s Country. [via THR]

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Heineken Makes a Big Push on Facebook

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:47:22 +0000

Heineken is all over the place this week, with a couple of campaigns and a big deal that ups its digital presence.

In its deal with Facebook, the brewer will get an early crack at new Facebook offerings as well as consulting services from the social network. (Heineken hasn’t disclosed how much it’s paying for this deal.) The deal sounds similar to the one Heineken has with Google, which is giving Heineken consulting and other services in exchange for advertising.

Separately, Heineken has launched two digital campaigns on Facebook.

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Going Beyond Your Target Audience with Multicultural Outreach

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:56:06 +0000

As we mentioned earlier today, we paid a visit to the PromaxBDA event, where entertainment marketing is the big focus. This morning’s panel discussion, “Targeted Marketing: How to Affect Audience Uptick Through Inclusive Marketing” offered case studies that showed how major brands, Fox Broadcasting , Lifetime, and CNN among them, are reaching multicultural audiences.

Because of this year’s Census numbers, a lot of the discussion focused on how to target Hispanic audiences. However, targeting one group doesn’t mean you’re not reaching others. The examples presented showed how audiences don’t live in a cultural vacuum, and what works with one group may relate to others as well.

In one interesting example, Danny Mandelbaum, marketing brand director for Heineken, said a commercial that had been intended for Hispanic audiences (above) went over so well, it’s now being shown in countries around the world.

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America’s Beer of Choice Is…

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:06:39 +0000

Sam Adams! Bud and Bud Light take the numbers two and three spots.

The folks at YouGov BrandIndex crunched the numbers to determine the number one beer choice across the country and in three major cities. With the exception of Chicago, which prefers Heineken (and doesn’t like America or St. Patrick’s Day), Sam Adams was tops with taste buds in the U.S.

For this research, YouGov took a look at scores from the past four weeks. These scores are based on the perceptions of U.S. adults of drinking age. Each day, YouGov interviews 5,000 people for their thoughts on a variety of topics.

The company also looked at spirit preferences. Check it out after the jump.

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Havas Reports Net New Business Up 46 Percent in 2010

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:32:40 +0000

Havas announced its 2010 earnings yesterday, reporting a 46 percent increase in net new business over 2009, bringing the total to €1.9 billion (about $2.64 billion, based on today’s conversion rates). Among the wins were Revlon PR business for Euro RSCG Corporate Communications Middle East and the redesign of FNAC‘s global brand identity by BETC Design. Havas PR firms include Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and Abernathy MacGregor Group.

The company singled out accomplishments in the digital space, with digital accounting for 19 percent of the group’s revenue and key digital wins including Heineken in the U.S. and Unilever, which appointed Euro RSCG 4D as its global digital agency.

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