Heineken is the leading international premium beer brand in Nigeria. Known locally as ‘the chairman of beers’, Nigerians perceive Heineken as the best of class. For middle to upper class Nigerian men in particular, Heineken represents the worldliness and aspiration they themselves want to convey. Youthful, sociable and ambitious, these men consider themselves global citizens, and it’s incredibly important to them that their peers recognise them as such. The ‘192 Bottles’ campaign was specifically designed to reinforce the worldliness they so crave.

Using the global spectacle of the 2018 FIFA World Cup as our stage, we introduced 192 limited-edition Heineken bottles to the Nigerian market. For the Heineken brand, 192 is a significant number – 192 is the number of countries Heineken is currently sold in. 192 backs up the brand’s claim of being the most international premium beer brand in the world. By reinforcing Heineken’s own worldly credentials, we also reinforced (by proxy) the worldly credentials of its Nigerian drinkers as well. Launched during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the campaign introduced a new social element to the matches and gave our key demographic a prop to connect with the rest of the world.

Working with 20 designers in 31 days, we turned out 192 uniquely designed Heineken bottles. Each bottle called out the specific iconography and visual elements of each of the 192 cultures and lifestyles. The design played into their worldly passions, but the partnership with Shazam encouraged them to act on them. Each bottle was integrated with a recently launched visual recognition feature that allowed us to turn every bottle into a portal where Nigerians could link to videos and ‘unlock’ all the 192 country bottles for prizes.

During its 10 week duration, the ‘192 World Editions’ campaign generated over 1 billion social media impressions and contributed to the sale of over 20 million bottles. Even after the campaign’s end, the 192 bottles continue to resonate, appearing in other Heineken international limited-edition initiatives such as Formula 1.