High impact genuine and ghost Heineken out-of-home stunts fuelled elite rugby union club rivalry in European Rugby’s Heineken Champions Cup Final host city Dublin ahead of the 20 May match between Leinster and La Rochelle (Stade Rochelais) – a repeat of last year’s final.
Competition title partner and rights owner beer sponsor Heineken brought to life its belief that ‘the bigger the rivalry, the better the rugby’ with a pair of outdoor rugby rivalry stunts. Part of Heineken’s ongoing ‘Love Rivalry’ campaign, which was built around inviting and encouraging fans to send cheeky messages to the opposing team on match day, the giant outdoor stunts took place in the days leading up to the game at the Aviva Stadium.
Heineken and agency Publicis Dublin helped Leinster ‘superfan’ Colin Fennessy send a message to the Stade Rochelais coach Ronan O’Gara (known as ROG in his home country), the team and its supporters on the runway at Ballyboughal Airfield which is located right next to Dublin airport.
The message, created with eco-friendly paint, read “Never too late to turn the plane around, ROG!” and was written in 15m X 10m letters which were large enough to be read from 30,000-feet and thus visible to all planes flying into Dublin on the La Rochelle flight path through the weekend.
The second OOH installation was a giant Heineken rugby ball perched on top of O’Connell Bridge House (Heineken’s HQ building in Dublin) – except it wasn’t.
From 13 May, influential Irish content creators Paul Olima and comedian Shane Todd shared footage of the 30m-long rugby ball stunt and social media was rapidly awash with posts commenting on the stunt generating hundreds of thousands of views within a few hours of going live.
But eventually, Heineken revealed that the ‘installation’ never actually existed and was, instead, an example of an AR tech-led stunt aimed at driving excitement around the Heineken Champions Cup Final.
Initially, the marketing team shooting iPhone videos of Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge House from various vantage points around the city. The giant ball was then modelled and brought to life using graphics software. The two were then blended, rendered and composited together – with altered time and date metadata – to make it appear that the ball was on the roof of the building.
After the brand confessed to the stunt, fans were invited to share their own picture of the ball, in a location of their choice, using a specially-created Instagram filter and to tag @heinekenireland and @europeanrugbychampionscup in order to be in with a chance to win a pair of tickets to the Heineken Champions Cup Final.
“The atmosphere in the city should be electric this weekend and we wanted to kick off the excitement in a unique way,” explained Heineken Ireland Senior Brand Manager Rachael Crawley. “Using clever technology and digital effects, we were able to do that, without ever needing to touch the iconic O’Connell Bridge building. Using this building was a natural option for us – it has been associated with Heineken for years and is a landmark in Dublin city.”
The airport message was commissioned by a Heineken team which included Brand Director Bram Westenbrink, Communications Director Daniela Lebba, Marketing Director Wojciech Bogusz, Marketing Manager Ronan McCormack and Senior Brand Manager Rachel Crawley.
It was created by Publicis where the teams included a group at Publicis Dublin which included Creative Directors Ger Roe and Peter Dobbyn, Art Director Nick Doring, Account Director Ruth Mc Cormack, Business Director Sinead Dennis, Account Manager Sara Morrow, Account Executive Eoin Fedigan and Head Of Production Niamh Skelly, plus a group at Publicis Global which included Chief Creative Officer Bruno Bertelli, Creative Directors Guy Lewis and Livio Gerosa, Account Director Alice Galline, Strategy Director James Moore and Business Director Francesca Baldrighi.
Production, media and sound was handled by Eclipse Media, Sportworks and Folding Waves, with PR run through Thinkhouse and Tallon.
Comment
There are echoes in the non-existent rugby ball social stunt of adidas’ cunning and controversial ‘Impossible Rondo’ Argentina and Messi 2022 FIFA World Cup fake CGI Dubai Billboard.
Heineken, which boasts a string of top tier sports partnerships in its sponsorship portfolio including UEFA Champions League and Formula One, has a strong track record of inventive rugby union activations with standout campaigns ranging from 2021’s ‘The Perfect Match’ to 2019’s ‘The Delay’ and ‘Water Cooler’, plus ‘England and Ireland Rugby Club Rivalry’ from 2016.
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