Bars are Heineken’s biggest partner and make for 40% of the year revenue. But in March 2020, they were starting close, one country after another. Heineken had to step in and not only help, but also create a way for everyone to help.

Right when bars were closing, people everywhere were taking to social media saying how much they missed meeting in their favorite bars. But their favorite bars were missing them too. And #backthebars was born – a platform that allowed anyone to help Heineken help bars. Because bars need life as much as life needs bars.

Bars are Heineken’s biggest partner and make up for 40% of the annual revenue. Once the bars started closing, Heineken needed to step in and help. But that was not enough. Heineken put a simple twist on the predominant online sentiment of people missing their favorite bars: your favorite bars are missing you too.

We see empty bars “singing” to Simple Minds “Don’t you forget about me” and at the end they invite people to a geo-localized ecommerce platform “buy a beer now to enjoy it later” when the bar would reopen. Heineken was doubling every donation and pay the bars directly. The platform was first launched in the Netherlands in mid-March, then it launched globally at the beginning of April after the film dropped. The platform was easy to scale so 22 other countries joined in the first week.

In the first 3 months of the campaign:

298.000 vouchers sold

50K bars helped

9.3 million euros paid directly to bars

23 countries

This didn’t only help bars survive during the crisis, but it also made sure it brings in customers when the bars would reopen.