BFY Opps: Heineken plans heavy spend for new product, launches campaign (Score 26)

Sales Lead: Heineken will reportedly spend over $100m on 2023 marketing for Heineken Silver, its newly launched lager.

• Silver launched the week of March 20th with a campaign made by BBH soon to follow.
• The agency will launch OOH, digital, and social content.
• The initiative will also include experiential activations at events such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Formula 1 races.
• The company will likely:
  • Invest in similar experiential opportunities
  • Keep increasing digital spend
  • Seek new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennials
  • Silver is low-calorie and low-carb, meaning it appeals to better-for-you (BFY) audiences.
  • Heineken's national TV commercials target both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Heineken has allocated roughly $733.4k toward national TV commercials YTD, only about a third of the roughly $2.2m allocated by this point last year.
  • Last year: The company allocated around $23.9m toward this channel last year after having allocated 13% more, around $27m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Heineken's 2023 commercials have targeted English- and Spanish-speaking audiences of shows such as SportsCenter, Fútbol Mexicano Primera División, Women's College Basketball, Formula 1 Racing, and 2023 Miami Open Tennis.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the company has spent approximately $3.8m on digital ads, more than double the approximately $1.5m spent within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • YTD data: Heineken has earned ~413.6m digital impressions YTD via YouTube (44%), Facebook (21%), Instagram (18%), desktop display (14%), Twitter (2%), and desktop video (1%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2023 spend of $20.8m decreased by 29% from that of $29.3m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes local broadcast, OOH, digital, print, radio, Google Ads, and Facebook ads.
  • Heineken sponsors podcasts such as Stuff Mom Never Told You, The RealOut with Joy Reid, Busted Open, Greeny, and Football Social Daily.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Heineken named BBH's parent agency, Dentsu, as its media AOR in November and may still conduct additional agency reviews.
• Current agency roster:
  • Dentsu: Media AOR (November 2022)
    • Subsidiary BBH: Agency partner (at least for this campaign project)
  • 360i, LLC​​​​​​​: Digital AOR
  • THIRD EAR: Media planning, creative, and multicultural AOR
  • R&CPMK: Creative and PR AOR
  • Publicis North America: Creative AOR
  • Sid Lee: Creative AOR
  • Edelman: PR AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.