Late April, a month ahead of the final in Kiev, UEFA partner Heineken leveraged its Champions League rights with a Ukrainian social stunt focused on sharing called ‘The Test’.
This local market initiative emerged from research showing that the majority of Ukrainian football fans watch the UEFA Champions League alone.
The tournament’s official beer brand decided to try and prove to the host nation’s soccer supporters that sharing is better.
Heineken set out to change this habit ‘scientifically’ by proving that sharing the drama (and sharing a Heineken) is much more fun.
The film follows genuine employees of Kiev’s ‘Chop-Chop’ barbershop on a ‘team building day’: which, unbeknown to the participants was actually a series of branded experiments called ‘The Test’ that aimed to prove that the drama of football is best shared with mates.
‘The Test saw scientists use headsets to record both group and individual reactions to engaging in activities such as playing table football and watching a real match.
A set of monitors were set up to show ‘joy’ and ‘excitement’: which were higher when the groups engaged in high-fives and Mexican Waves rather than when solo particpants’ reactions were measured.
The end reveal sees all the participants reunited and learning that the experiment showed beyond all doubt that watching UEFA Champions League matches is more exciting together than alone.
Plus, they all received complimentary tickets to share the drama together at the UCL final.
The initiative, which was developed in harness with creative agency We Are Pi and prodced by Limelite Studio, was promoted across the beer brand’s digital and social platforms as well as through PR.
Comment:
This inventive initiative is part of Heineken’s ongoing umbrella tactic of building a global brand through local insights.
While Heineken’s central, multi-market #ShareTheDrama 2018 Champions League activation began rolling out in September (see case study), this host nation strand adds to the brand’s rich, tactical, social stunt heritage and follows on from previous tournament initiatives such as 2016’s ‘The Cliche (see case study), or the same year’s ‘Friend’s Dilemma’ (see case study) and even similar campaigns activating other sports rights like ‘Jonah machine’ from the 2015 Rigby World Cup (see case study).
Links:
Heineken
https://www.instagram.com/Heineken/
https://www.youtube.com/user/heineken
https://www.facebook.com/Heineken
We Are Pi
UEFA
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/
https://www.facebook.com/uefacom
https://plus.google.com/+UEFAcom
https://www.youtube.com/user/UEFA
https://www.instagram.com/uefacom/
