CASE STUDY: Bringing countdown fever to Vietnam for the first time

Background
Heineken has built activation and visibility around Christmas in Vietnam for the past 15 years, helping to communicate the brand’s international credentials. Participation in seasonal festivities has become an intrinsic part of Heineken’s Vietnamese branding.

As a relatively new celebration, Christmas in Vietnam is about feeling close to something bigger. An annual challenge for Heineken is to bring to consumers a mass event and put them at the centre of a unique, authentic brand experience.

Aim
Working with Bates141 Vietnam, Heineken’s most recent initiative aimed to continue to strike a modern, progressive tone without overshadowing the heritage of the global celebration that it had previously established.

The work needed to cut through the festive clutter and make Heineken central to the celebration and reinforce the brand as top-of-mind.

Execution
To challenge consumer expectations and perceptions of the festive season, Heineken set out to introduce a new element that would also bring people closer to the brand. This took the form of a world-class party to ring in the New Year: Vietnam’s first ‘countdown party’—something that would rival the New Year gathering in New York’s Times Square.

The campaign kicked off with the release of a Times Square countdown-themed TVC. Print, outdoor, cinema and office building LED advertising introduced the 2010 Heineken Countdown Party in Ho Chi Minh City, building anticipation in the run-up to the main event.

Ambient branded light decoration adorned the city’s busiest streets for two weeks leading up to the event, highlighting the venue’s location within Ho Chi Minh.

To support off-site activity and, most importantly, drive sales on-site, outlets were immersed in decorative festive point-of-sale materials, premiums, activation activity and exclusive celebration product and packaging innovations to create greater visibility and experiential opportunities.

The final countdown party on the 31 December 2009 ran the length of Ho Chi Minh’s largest avenue along Nguyen Hue, towards an outdoor circular stage with an 8m x 6m LED globe at the centre consisting of 64 42-inch screens.

The biggest outdoor sound system to ever be used in Vietnam synchronised with 100 sub speakers to bring live international artists to the hundreds of thousands of people on the streets, with front row access given to an exclusive Heineken VIP hall. A forty-five minute live telecast across the nation brought Heineken’s 2010 Countdown Party into millions of Vietnamese homes, making it the biggest countdown celebration in the country as well as the first.

Results
The party generated significant buzz and word-of-mouth value for the brand, having drawn a crowd of over two hundred thousand, the largest at any event in Vietnam’s modern history.

The first ever event to be telecast live in Vietnam, the countdown prompted a 20% increase in brand awareness and drove double-digit sales growth. “Heineken is set for the next five years,” enthused Michael Lim, Vietnam Brewery’s (VBL) commercial director, after the campaign.

Credits
Project: 2010 Heineken Countdown Party
Client: Vietnam Brewery Limited (VBL)
Product: Heineken
Creative agency: Bates 141 Vietnam
People:
Managing director: Tue Nguyen
ECD: John Sampson
Account director: Kien Tran
Account manager: Lam Le
Account executive: Cuong Nguyen
Regional planner: Natalie Gruis
Senior art director: Lawrence Valencia
Art director: Tuan Tran
Duration: December 2009
Exposure: TV, Print, Digital, Direct, On-site and trade], Ground/street activation, Street/Building Ambient, Event.