The Power of MulticulturalTapping into Opportunity
Heineken was America’s flagship import, but ended the year with the industry’s weakest growth in a decade. So Heineken planned to block further inroads of Mexican brands, and capitalize on strong brand equity in secondary consumer market segments.
But the step that yielded immediate results? Tapping into the power of multicultural consumers.
THE SOLUTION
A SLAM DUNK
Two daunting tasks lay ahead: immediately stimulate activity and address African Americans as an extension of the mainstream market.
The strategists from Morris Creative set to work, galvanized by commissioned qualitative research and the Yankelovich African-American Monitor of values, attitudes and lifestyles. With NCAA “March Madness” was just around the corner, the writing was on the wall.
The solution: An elegantly simple mix of integrating consumer insight with a quickburst integrated marketing campaign. The theme, “Bring Your Game Home with Heineken!” served up a vigorous call to action that was clearly heard.
Chief Elements:
- Consumer Sweepstakes – Offering a Big Screen DVR package, cash & more
- Retail – Complete POS materials for on and off-premise accounts.
- Event Marketing – A 3-on-3 tournament, held in Chicago.
- Internet Marketing – This extended to thematic advertising and CPC links in AA social sites driving click-though to Heineken.com, as well as online games, email marketing, and home entertainment guides.
- Saturation Media Coverage – Chicago all media AA market mix
THE RESULTS
HIGH SCORE: A 38% LIFT!
- The Sweepstakes attracted more entries than any Heineken USA African-American initiative—and was one of their best performing programs overall.
- Fifty teams crowded the Chicago event, generating huge media presence.
- The interactive campaign scored over a million impressions in three months; click-throughs came in ten times higher than industry averages.
- At retail, POS Utilization was overwhelming at over 99% of amount budgeted.
The Big Bang: Total lifts soared at least 38% versus prior month. End-of-year, total domestic sales were up by 10%, outstripping the industry 4% average.
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