2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Launch special edition ‘Cities of the World’ Heineken bottles in Beirut. Each bottle glorifies one of six global cities: New York, Shanghai, Berlin, Amsterdam, London and Rio de Janeiro. These bottles were created to launch the Heineken global 'Cities of the World' campaign that aims to inspire Men of the World to embark on worldly adventures in their own cities under the umbrella of ‘Open Your City’. The Lebanese launch of the bottles must expand the global campaign into Beirut, inspiring the Lebanese to embark on worldly adventures in their city.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We inspired the Lebanese to worldly adventures in their city by turning six bars on a popular Beirut nightlife street into the six Heineken ‘Cities of the World’. We created the ‘Open Beirut’ activation where Lebanese would ‘city-hop’ using Heineken maps and Heineken passports. These would be stamped with each city’s respective stamp when they ordered a Heineken. When they got all six city stamps, they dropped off their passports in drop boxes located in each bar for the chance to win a trip for two to New York and Amsterdam.

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

As a small city in a conflict-ridden region, the Lebanese are used to hearing about big activations abroad, but not being part of them. As a global brand in Beirut, Heineken needed to elevate the city and make it a part of its global campaign. By having the Lebanese live six different global cities at home under the umbrella of ‘Open Beirut’, we were able to effectively bring the global Heineken thinking to Beirut in a manner that made the city excited about the limited edition Cities of the World bottles, even though Beirut was not a chosen city.

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

Heineken was thrilled with the campaign as it not only effectively brought the global Heineken campaign to Lebanon in an innovative manner that built brand equity, but also delivered a 30 percent increase in sales in participating bars. The Lebanese were receptive to the Open Beirut campaign with the activation seeing 300 Heineken passports stamped in less than a weekend at the six different city bars and Beirut opened to an international experience.