Heineken leveraged its top tier rights at the start of the new Formula One season through its largest ever Australian activation: a programme that spanned on-site experiential and ticket contests, plus TV, interactive OOH, print, digital and social and both on and off premise activity.
Experiential activity centred on the F1 Australian Grand Prix’s circuit at Albert Park in Melbourne where the Dutch brewer built a ‘Heineken Village’: a giant trackside entertainment precinct big enough to host 3,000 guests.
Developed in partnership with JCDecaux and Zenith, this branded experience extravaganza included bars and food trucks, a Birra Moretti activation and live music acts (including MYA on Friday and Rudimental on ‘Heineken Saturday’).
MYA is in the house Melbourne! We are live from the Heineken Stage at the Grand Prix NOW #heinekenf1 @ausgrandprix pic.twitter.com/Vb18dy0aea
— Fox FM (@FoxFM) March 24, 2017
Heineken’s experiential race activity also included a ‘consumer activation cube’ in Melbourne.
There was also an additional Heineken House branded space with a VIP area for special guests in the sponsor’s extensive F1 hospitality programme.
The on-site leverage programme saw Heineken give away F1 tickets to more than 500 people who each took part in an interactive experiential out of home campaign.
This saw Heineken install live streaming interactive billboards across several of Australia’s major cities.
These high-tech outdoor poster sites communicate with passers-by in real time: offering them the chance to win a ‘VIP Heineken Saturday’ experience if they are able to prove their ‘wit’, ‘style’ and ‘street smarts’
For this innovative race activation phase, the beer brand even recruited ex-Bachelor contestant and model Olena Khamula to front this strand of its Australian Grand Prix activation: based on the idea that the Ukrainian born model will put people to the test to see if they have what it takes to join the international elite in Melbourne during the race weekend.
The interactive digital panels then essentially challenge passers-by to mix it with the A-List through their charm, character and confidence and thus win F1 tickets by impressing Khamula who played the role of the ‘Heineken Doorwoman’.
The OOH street challenge took place in strategic high-footfall CBD locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth ahead of the race earlier in March and in Melbourne in the days before race weekend itself and one lucky winner (plus three friends) from each state will be whisked away to the Heineken Saturday and the VIP race day experience.
As well as the on-site experiences and the innovative outdoor billboard contest, Heineken’s wider ‘More Than A Race’ leverage programme also saw the brand invest in a through-the-line campaign spanning TV, OOH ads, digital support, plus on and off premise activity.
This leverage programme – developed along with Zenith Opti (media), JCDecaux (OOH supplier), Momentum (creative & experiential and Red Agency (PR) – was essentially Heineken’s first full local race activation since it signed its new strategic global partnership with F1 last year.
‘It’s our first year and we really want to make a huge impact with consumers. This is the first time we’ve done Heineken Saturday on a large scale like this. ‘From a marketing perspective we really want to drive brand relevance locally. We want to open consumers to a whole world of experiences with the brand because that’s when we find consumers emotionally connect with us and our personality,’ explained Heineken marketing manager Nada Steel.
‘This exciting and innovative media launch was the result of a collaborative process, working together to bring Heineken’s progressive brand values to life. We wanted to create an idea that would excite our audience and deliver an innovative and memorable experience for consumers. By bringing an Australian-first interactive live video stream media panel activation to the Australian public, we are confident of creating a high level of excitement worthy of launching our Heineken Formula 1 partnership, adds Steel.
Heineken’s at-race F1 strategy is to create memorable experiences that increase brand awareness, boost sales and generate positive image consumer statements about how the beer (and the brand) is perceived.
Heineken is also use F1 to promote its mid-strength beer ‘Heineken 3’.
Activative Comment:
This race-specific Australia Grand Prix activity kicks off the brand’s F1 season activation and follows on from last year’s activation which included initial global launch ‘When You Are A Driver, Never Drink’ film fronted by F1 legend Jackie Stewart (see case study) (indeed, in February 2017 Heineken announced it was committing a further €200m to reinforce our ‘When You Drive, Never Drink’ message over the next five year)
We will commit EUR 200 million to reinforce our ‘When You Drive, Never Drink’ message in the next 5 years #AR16 #F1 https://t.co/Z2CgcuPpnr pic.twitter.com/Cp3xo2xOSb
— HEINEKEN Company (@HEINEKENCorp) February 23, 2017
, as well as further at-race activations such as its Italian Earthquake fund raising initiative at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza which linked its F1 and UEFA Champions League sponsorships (see case study).
It was back in June 2016 that the Dutch beer giant announced its entry into Formula 1: announcing it had penned a $337m, multi-year ‘official global beer’ sponsorship deal for trackside advertising, title sponsorship of several races, plus a strong brand presence at most other races with concession sales, party areas and other fan experiences.
For the property itself, the management also argued that the beer deal would have a significant impact on F1’s marketing presence.
After all, with its other major international sports sponsorships (such as UEFA Champions League and Rugby World Cup), Heineken has increased the reach of those properties through its multi-faceted marketing on-site and media/digital/social activation methods.
As its F1, UEFA and Rugby World Cup partnerships all demonstrate, Heineken’s sponsorship approach is to partner major international properties by teaming-up with the rights owners, but it typically avoids alliances with specific teams, or athletes.
This approach aims to reinforce its global appeal to everyone, everywhere rather than to specific tribes or fan groups.
Instead of focusing directly on the sporting contests themselves, to activative its properties, Heineken typically focuses on enhancing the fan experience at and around event with its own experiential activations
Links:
Heineken
http://www.theheinekencompany.com
https://twitter.com/HeinekenCorp
https://www.youtube.com/user/heineken
https://www.instagram.com/Heineken/
http://heineken-agegate.tumblr.com/#heineken/
https://www.facebook.com/heineken/
Formula One
https://www.facebook.com/Formula1
Zenith Optimedia (Media)
https://www.zenithmedia.com/
JCDecaux (OOH Supplier)
http://www.jcdecaux.com/
Momentum (Creative & Experiential)
http://www.momentumww.co.uk/
Red Agency (PR):
