Insight Publicis’ Campaign Drives New Markets for Heineken

Stakeholders in the brand and marketing management space have described the Insight publicis’ Winning Campaign as a creative ingenuity that has further repositioned Heineken in the market. They have argued that if the decision by Heineken to task agency with creating the brand’s first Nigerian campaign was meant as an experiment, then the gamble has paid off.

Insight Publicis has been able to reenact the usually high standard of Heineken’s global campaigns but in a way that excites and resonates with Nigerian consumers across board.

The 58 seconds commercialVillager- which features Jidenna, the Nigerian born international act, is Heineken’s first glocalised commercial. A campaign that right from launch, has triggered an outpouring of positive feedback with many commenting on how finally, Heineken has connected with them and now they can relate better with the brand. This aspect of relatability was the missing link in previous Global campaigns.

And because of the success of the campaign, Heineken is in the process of rolling-out the same commercial in 15 other African markets where the premium brand has presence.

Amidst declining sales from last year, Heineken wanted a commercial to recruit and retain younger drinkers between ages 18-24 and regain 5 percent of the lapsed drinkers that represent the 25-34 age group. But all these were to be done within the brand’s global thematic parameter of Internationality, Tradition and its Natural Ingredients. Sinmisola Hughes-Obisesan, Insight Publicis’ Creative Director noted;

“Insight Publicis was tasked with creating a locally relevant thematic campaign for the Heineken brand. We dug deep to search for insights that would resonate and in execution, topped it off with Heineken style wit blended with classic Naija-isms.”

But more importantly, the ad was supposed to highlight the parallels between the world’s most international brand – Heineken and Nigerians.