Heineken’s #RunWithIt Sees Neil Back Prank Leinster Fans With A Surprise Stunt

Heineken’s #RunWithIt activation of the revamped European Rugby Champions Cup saw an Irish initiative aimed at surprising Leinster fans via a set-up stunt that began with a pretend leak of Neil Back’s phone number.

With the objective of rewarding Leinster bravest and most committed fans, the beer brand created a set-up that aimed to encourage supporters to troll former England flanker Neil Back – something of a Leinster nemesis since 2002 controversial Heineken Cup Final.

The stunt began when Heineken pretended to leak Neil Back’s mobile number on its Twitter feed – with the intention of luring fans to text or call the number and unleash their ire on the former Leicester star.

The fans leaving Back the most vociferous and critical messages then received a call from someone pretending to be Back’s PA, mistaking them for journalists and inviting them to come and pick up VIP tickets for Leinster’s Champions Cup quarter-final match.

The bravest of these opportunistically pretended to be journalists and went to pick up the tickets in person, but found themselves in a press conference with Back and about to get a (slightly uncomfortable) surprise.

Comment

The spoof mobile leak may have seemed like a risk as it was so very subtle, but participation was impressive with thousands of fans noticed it and hundreds of those phoned and texted in to let the infamous rugby player know what you thought of him.

The resulting webfilm of the prank generated 85,000 views in its first 10 days on YouTube.

This is a comic and clever way to surprise the brave fan trolls and critics – rewarding the cheeky, mischievous chancers more than prepared to turn a mistake to their advantage.

It also demonstrates how sponsors can use property insights and historical knowledge to turn villans into heroes.

It also showcases the skills of Irish agency Rothco – which has built up an impressive track record of spoof stunts for Heineken’s rugby work (including its 2014 Heineken Cup Final street stunt)

– which perhaps led to its successful creative role in Heineken’s 2015 global RWC 2015 work.

Links

Heineken Ireland YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/HeinekenIRE

Heineken Rugby Website:

www.Heineken.com/rugby

Heineken Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Heineken

@heineken

Heineken YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/heineken

Heineken Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/heineken