HEINEKEN 007: licence to kill !

We all know beer icon Heineken. And a lot of us l-o-v-e Heineken, whether we are brand users or not. And there is a reason for that love. Not the product per se, but the brand. Heineken is one of the world’s most famous beers, comfortably sitting in a $17+bn company. The 150-year- old Dutch company is famous for being a pioneer when it comes to advertising Heineken as an ultra social, fun brand, often with a nice and punchy twist of humor. It is a real power brand – as stated in the 2011 annual report: “The Heineken ® brand is a key strategic asset and is the undisputed leader in the international premium segment, being twice the size of the nearest competitor”.

Heineken, much like the rest of the industry, has being going through tough times: sales decline, advertising restrictions, mushrooming competition, shift to other categories, health pressures, social responsibility, and what not, are putting a heavy load on growth. But, in all of that, it seems to me that Heineken has been able to do two things: maintain a high standard for creative work, and keep investments in the brand going. It’s the brands that do those things that insulate themselves from economic crisis. Brand equity is the thing that will flatten out pressures, keep consumers motivated and loyal, and enable growth…and… they are growing (snippet from their FY results presentation: Solid top-line performance/Revenue grew (+3.6%), with revenue/ hectoliter growth of 1.5%/Group beer volume +3.6%; with growth in all regions/Higher marketing drove global market share gains/ Accelerated growth of Heineken® brand: Strongest volume performance since 2007, More consistent approach to global brand management)

In their latest superbowl-quality TV commercial, they’ve captured the spirit of the brand well, and added a layer of international fame on top of it, leveraging the launch of the new Bond movie, Skyfall. (Apart from being a fan of the Heineken brand, I happen to love Bond movies, so they are striking a double chord with me -and I’m sure that goes for many people). Heineken by the way has had a love-relationship with Bond for more than 15 years. Impressive. The movie “character” and the brand character perfectly match. Bond, being the ultimate “man of the world” drinks the ultimate “beer of the world”. In the commercial, the Heineken man bumps into James Bond and is then accidentally chased by some nasty-looking villains. Nice.

But there is more than advertising for the world’s #1 pilsener. Heineken has declared and demonstrated a strong move to digital, mobile in particular. Heineken observed and learned. They’ve combined traditional and social media, leveraged exploding technology (esp in the Western world), and making it all “consumer -led” and “consumer-inspired”. As an observer, it looks to me that “integrated media” is written in big letters on the walls of their office. It’s not a fable. They  are effectively bringing it to life through amongst others the Heineken City Brand Store, Heineken music events, an RFID-enabled customer-loyalty credit card , their famous Heineken Music Hall (Amsterdam), a Heineken eCommerce site [http://www.jouwheineken.nl], social commitments like “save the planet”. On their website, they strongly state: “HEINEKEN is committed to being part of the conversation […]”. You don’t see that kind of wording a lot on corporate sites.

Their latest (brand) move is to explore DESIGN. Earlier this year they had invited designers to design their 150-year celebraty bottle. Now Heineken can be found on the MILAN DESIGN WEEK. And there is more to come, no doubt. Needless to say that that increases my admiration. See what I’ve written on how essential design is, HERE.

So, summarizing my admiration: here’s what Heineken teaches us:

• Set high creative standards, and always go big (or go home)
• Commit to digital and make it a reality / create a genuine dialogue with the consumer
• Believe in design, and act upon it
• Always, always… make great beer   😉

Watch this space. More to come on Heineken later, no doubt.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tagged as: 007, ad, advertising, beer, Bond, brand equity, brand growth, brand power, digital, education, equity, heineken, license to kill, marketing, marketing strategy, mobile, powerbrand, Skyfall, tv, tvc