Heineken Rugby Club Ad Aligns England & Ireland Fans For Singing Stunt

Leveraging interest in the RBS 6 Nations and solidifying its rugby union credentials and promoting its new rugby website, Heineken rolls out a film with an unlikely narrative that sees Irish and English rugby fans forced to sing together in a stunt spot.

The campaign, which aims to bring alive the idea that that great things happen when supporters actually work in unison, saw the beer brand invite two sets of fans to watch the Ireland vs England match in a bar and then switched off the beer taps off and set supporters a joint challenge to get the beer flowing again.

The video is a promo for the launch of the new Heineken Rugby Club digital hub and it drives fans online to the site heinekenrugbyclub.com and pushes its hashtag #HeinekenRugbyClub.

The digital platform itself aims to help fans to make the most of match day social opportunities with host city guides (that also include the best pubs to watch rugby and drink Heineken in).

To incentivise rugby lovers to sign-up, register their details and become Heineken Rugby Club members, the beer brand is running a set of special offers and automatic entry to a match ticket lottery.

The stunt, which was carried out by Irish agency Rothco, is the spearhead of a campaign for the hub that initially focuses on the Irish market.

But promotion for heinekenrugbyclub.com will be rolled out to the countries in several stages through the year.

‘Heineken has a enjoyed long-standing, meaningful relationship with rugby and the Heineken Rugby Club is our exciting and ambitious plan to celebrate rugby fans in a way that’s never been done before,’ explains Karl Donnelly, sponsorship marketing manager at Heineken Ireland.

‘Heineken Rugby Club will look to bring fans together by shining a light on what makes rugby supporters great by giving them a fresh, new way to enjoy the game they love on and off the pitch.’

Comment

We like the spirit and the execution of this singing stunt and so, it seems, do plenty of others as it has racked up 33,288 YouTube views since it was first posted on 16 March.

The stunt and its accompanying digital rugby club hub is part of Heineken’s wider engagement through rugby which includes the beer brand’s global sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup and founder sponsorship of the European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup (aand previously as the title sponsor of the Heineken Cup).

While it is its rival beer brand Guinness that is the official category sponsor of the RBS 6 Nations, the English Aviva Premiership and the title sponsor of the Pro 12 league in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy.

The initiative follows in the footsteps of a slew of recent stand-out Heineken rugby stunt-led initiatives ranging from 2015’s ‘Fight Or Flight?’,

to ‘The Jonah Lomu Machine’.

and its great Neil Back fronted ‘Run With It’ stunt.

For further details of Heineken’s Rugby World Cup activation see our case studies on its ‘Launch Party‘
and other elements such as ‘Coin Toss’ & ‘Legends’ in its tournament leverage programme.

Links:

Heineken Rugby Club:

www.heinekenrugbyclub.com

Heineken Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Heineken

#HeinekenRugbyClub

Heineken Ireland YouTube:

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

Heineken Ireland Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/heineken

Heineken Ireland Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/heinekensoundatlas/