This UEFA Champions League (UCL) season Heineken made match nights better than ever for millions of fans!

Although UCL is watched by 1.2 billion football fans globally, 76% of the viewers watch the games at home and many of these do so alone. Instead of in a bar or pub, these fans use their mobiles and tablets to connect with other football fans about the game.

#ShareTheSofa is the first ever real time football show that uses the second screen and a former UCL winner, to bring fans closer to the viewing experience without getting in the way of the game. Heineken lets fans from around the globe feel what it’s like to watch UCL with a champion. During the match, fans interact with the football stars and the Brand like they once did in bars and pubs with their friends.

The Odyssey appeared on TV to introduce the campaign, but the real action happened online. We seeded The Odyssey in the environments most relevant to our male audience. Through smart re-targeting, we identified men who had already watched The Odyssey and served them a specific casting film to drive their engagement and understanding of the campaign.

With 20 different epic talents to work with, the casting content provided something for everyone! We created custom target groups to ensure we re-targeted using the most appropriate casting that would be most appealing. Even with all the casting tapes, there were still some disbelievers. To these people, we served the PR film, which quashed any doubt that these men and their talents were for real.

Heineken made watching UCL even better! We took a simple idea –sharing the sofa with a legend on your 2nd screen – and delivered it to millions of fans.

- 4,000 – 7,000 fan responses per match via #ShareTheSofa

- Engagement rate 16% V Twitter average of 3-5%

- Reaching 20 million unique people from 94 countries simultaneously

- Total social impressions of 1.2 billion

- Heineken achieved 76% share of voice over other Champions League sponsors, and 6% share of ALL #UCL conversation on Twitter

- Online ad awareness grew 11%

- Most importantly, #ShareTheSofa raised purchase intent by over 7%.