Heineken was facing a clear business challenge in Asia-Pacific – relating to the Gen-Z audience who found the beer brand a ‘traditional premium’ brand suited to stuffy, formal drinking occasions.With the launch of a new brew, Heineken Silver, that was targeted towards Gen-Zs, there was a business opportunity to turn perceptions around, and increase brand love and sales. With Heinekicks, there was a deliberate strategic shift away from traditional advertising norms and into a seemingly weird stunt to hack popular Gen-Z culture, creating talkability, desirability and a shift in perception, ultimately leading to the most successful launch in brand history

Heineken was seen as an ‘older’ beer that was part of formal, stuffy drinking occasions in Asia. This led to Gen-Z feeling disconnected from the brand, perceiving it to lack relevance, be predictable, distant and elitist. With the introduction of a new brew targeted to Gen-Z, the aim of the Heineken Silver launch campaign was to drive desirability, brand relevance and sales amongst this target group and reverse the current brand decline. At the same time, Heineken Silver was launching in several dark markets where beer advertising is banned, necessitating a whole new inventive and innovative way to reach the target audience.

To get Gen-Z to order a freshly-tapped pint of Heineken Silver, we had to tap into a culture that they were obsessed with: sneaker culture.

With the original Nike SB Dunk Low ‘Heineken’ being known as one of Nike’s GOAT pairs, and resale value going up to USD9000, we played off this heritage to launch a new pair of unconventional Heinekicks and get a new generation excited for a new brew – Heineken Silver.

The brand’s key challenge was to reach out to the target audience - Gen-Z in Asia Pacific, with the launch of a new product – Heineken Silver – that targeted them. The business challenge was to drive sales via reversing the decline of Heineken’s brand power in Asia, that had been on the downward trend year on year, propelled by Gen-Z’s perception of the brand as a ‘traditional premium’ brand, which lacked relevancy to their lives and their aspirations. The new product launch clearly needed to bring a refresh in brand perception, increase brand desirability and relevance to encourage trial and sales of Heineken Silver amongst the target audience.

At the same time, the brand was launching in several dark markets in the region, where beer advertising was banned on traditional channels, necessitating an innovative and creative new strategy to reach our target audience.

To work around strict dark market beer advertising restrictions and to create relevance to Gen-Z lifestyles, we pivoted away from traditional beer advertising strategy of the big television ad and key visuals combination. To authentically connect with Gen-Zs and to get them to perceive the brand in a whole new desirable way, the brand had to act in a radically different manner.

It had to hack popular culture, and more pointedly, sneaker culture. This was the one thing that Gen-Z have a deep-rooted obsession for. The sneaker market in Asia alone has huge hype – it’s valued at US$39 billion and is expected to grow annually by 6.4% despite the slowing economy. Tapping on one of the biggest influencers in the field, The Shoe Surgeon with 1.1M followers, to debut Heinekicks – sneakers made to walk on Heineken Silver beer – created an immediate breakthrough moment for the brand.

To promote new Heineken Silver, a smoother-tasting lager brewed for Gen-Z, Heineken put beer in sneakers with Heinekicks.

Produced in a limited edition run of 32, Heinekicks were handcrafted by The Shoe Surgeon, the world’s best shoe customiser and an influencer in the sneaker industry with 1.1m followers. The sneakers came in the iconic brand colours of green, red, and silver. A secret compartment hid a brushed metal bottle opener, and for the real kicker, Heineken Silver was surgically injected into its clear bubble soles, giving its wearer the sensation of walking on beer.

Heinekicks hacked popular culture in order to create talkability and desirability amongst the target audience. It tapped on new avenues for Gen-Zs to naturally connect with the brand at exclusive sneaker stores, underground fashion events and launch parties, on hype fashion publications and on their favourite influencers’ feeds via unboxing videos.

90% volume sales increase in APAC, marking the most successful launch in the brand’s history.

2.7 billion impressions

1.4 million earned media

400 mentions across trackable online news in Asia Pacific

230k engagement on Heinekicks content along with endless organic features on TikTok

99% neutral-to-positive sentiment

In terms of brand perception, the campaign also had a positive spillover effect on overall Heineken’s brand scores amongst the target audience, with a significant growth in scores in brand power (+3 points), brand meaningfulness (+11 points), and brand difference (+5 points) across launch markets in Asia Pacific.

The sneakers were also recognised as a significant cultural and fashion moment, having appeared on Sneakerfreaker, featured multiple times on Hypebeast, Vogue, and GQ, as well as being named dezeen’s top 10 fashion design projects of 2022.

Heinekicks was designed specifically to tackle two challenges in Asia-Pacific. The first was getting Gen-Z interested in beer again, and the second was working around the black market restrictions on beer advertising specifically in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Working with these region-specific factors in mind, we introduced Heinekicks, tapping on the world’s top shoe customiser, The Shoe Surgeon, for the first-ever sneakers built for walking on beer. This instantly pivoted Heineken Silver to the forefront of sneaker culture, sidestepping onerous advertising guidelines, and grabbing Gen-Z’s attention spans by ensuring the brand was everywhere from shoe store displays to influencer unboxing videos to underground fashion events around the region. Further adding to the hype and fueling social conversations was the launch of this limited edition drop that would only be exclusively available in the Asia Pacific markets that we launched in, driving interest, trial and sales for Heineken Silver.