The Heineken ‘Legendary Date’ campaign was designed to attract new drinkers and drive frequency for existing Heineken drinkers in new, maturing and mature markets, by flattering them as ‘Men of the World’, men who know their way around and recognise a fine beer when they taste one.

Only Heineken with its well-travelled and experienced credentials could signal the confidence and resourcefulness inherent in our drinkers. To achieve the fame and scale required to deliver these campaign objectives we explored a relevant yet often anxious situation for young men all over the world: dating.

So, we set about dramatising a legendary date to inspire them, followed by an interactive Valentine’s experience that gave Heineken fans the tools to practice legendary dating themselves.

The ‘Legendary Date’ campaign builds on the successful Heineken ‘Open Your World’ communications platform, but takes integration to a whole new level by creating an entire world to engage the audience.

The campaign surrounded young men with an entertaining and surprising portrayal of a legendary date in ‘The Date’ TVC and enabled them go deeper to find out how it’s done, with a humorous behind-the-scenes in the ‘The Legendary Making of the Date’ - a 3 minute branded content which pulled the curtain back on the story both online and in broadcast.

Using the characters, music and setting of the story the campaign moved seamlessly from film to the 'Serenade' Facebook app, and then onto the 'Serenade Live' online show, spurring men to create romantic Serenades for Valentine’s Day. The entertainment provided by the Serenades and the priceless looks on the couples’ faces propelled the campaign into our audience's lives.

The ‘Legendary Date’ was a romantic success, viewed in over 160 markets. The campaign generated 4.3 billion impressions, with over 2 million interactions on Heineken’s Facebook page.Embracing non-traditional methods of delivery was successful, garnering more than 10 million views of ‘The Date’ film on YouTube and over 3 million views of the ‘Serenade Live’. As a result, online advertising awareness doubled over a 1-year period.In the US, one of Heineken’s key markets, the campaign resulted in an increase in spontaneous advertising awareness of over 50%, which helped the brand return to positive growth for 6 consecutive periods.