Title	HEINEKEN CITIES OF THE WORLD
Brand	HEINEKEN
Product/Service	HEINEKEN
Category	C01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Advertising Agency	WIEDEN+KENNEDY AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Media Agency	STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Entrant Company	STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
	Heineken Brand Team
	Starcom Mediavest Group
	Wieden/Kennedy Brazil
	Wieden/Kennedy Shanghai
	Wieden/Kennedy New York
	Ultra Super New Japan
	Marcel-Publicis Mexico
	DBOD Amsterdam
	Postvisual Korea
	RPM Ltd London

The Brief

Great cities are the world’s pulse. Half the population now lives in cities and growing. Heineken is available in cities across the globe, but with the emergence of craft beers and trend to ‘buy local’, Heineken’s relevance and market share was under threat. How could Heineken prove that instead of being an international outsider, it's actually an all-knowing insider? By inspiring and facilitating young guys to uncover their cities secrets and explore everything on offer. And with that, the ‘Cities’ campaign strategy was born to unlock each great city of the world, in its own unique way.

Campaign Success

The promotional campaign started with an inspiring film airing on TV, cinema and online. Heineken ‘Cities’ bottles then hit shelves, transformed from the iconic global bottle into a local one bearing the name of one of 55 cities. Having made the product local, we created @wherenext - a social service which uses live social data to function as a city compass - guiding users to discover the hottest experiences in real time. Markets then delivered ambient activations based on local insight e.g; in London time-consuming late-night transport restricted people from leaving their neighborhoods. So Heineken-branded cabs ordered over social media literally drove people out of their ‘zone’. In Bucharest guys thought they knew their city, but were truly put to the test in a surprising late night challenge. A further 109 markets activated in unique ways to deliver on the global strategy, with everything linked back to sales of ‘Cities’ bottles.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The Cities of the World campaign delivered unprecedented business success and unlocked great cities across the globe. Heineken volume grew by 5% across its top 20 markets. Overall 1 Billion Cities bottles were sold and the campaign accounted for 1/3 of Heineken's 2014 volume uplift. In 73% of top 25 markets Heineken increased or maintained brand closeness with the UK beating Stella Artois on brand preference for the first time ever. Cities films across the global TVC & local films received +20million online views across Europe. In addition @wherenext launched in 32 markets, and in top 4 more than 111,000 clicks enabled people to enhance their night via social data.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Our ambition was to create a single promotional campaign that would generate new relevance for Heineken and combat the emerging trend amongst our urban male audience to buy local craft beer as a reflection of their lifestyle. Our solution was the Cities campaign - a global platform that motivated people to unlock their cities secrets which could be leveraged in unique ways by different markets, to deliver promotional and activation activities according to local insights, behaviour and surroundings. Aligned around an inspirational global film and social @wherenext tool which guided people to the hottest city experiences, local markets activated the campaign by hosting competitions, organising events, hiring fleets of taxis, hijacking social media or payphones, and creating unexpected point of sale. Everything was tied into driving purchase of special edition ‘Cities’ bottles, which were inscribed with one of 55 major cities - turning Heineken’s international iconic label into a resolutely local one.