Heineken published a photograph on its Twitter feed giving a behind-the-scenes glimpse from the set of a new commercial. It featured the controversial rugby star and celebrity, Neil Back, known to Irish fans for committing a professional foul in the dying minutes of the 2002 Heineken Cup and thus denying Irish team, Munster, their inaugural tournament victory. But the photo also featured something the brand appeared not to have intended; a call sheet that listed the celebrity’s phone number.

It didn't take long for the story to spread through social media and pretty soon Back’s phone was ringing off the hook with texts and calls from disgruntled fans. But with Neil on board, we turned the situation around to both his advantage and that of the brand.

The first step in the PR turnaround was to sift through the calls and texts to find the worst and most insulting. We called them back under the guise of being the player’s personal assistant, pretending to mix them up with journalists in the ensuing confusion following the blunder. We invited them to collect press passes to a key rugby game and arranged the collection in a Dublin hotel. When they arrived, they found themselves thrown in to a press conference, confronted by the man they’d insulted and forced to perpetuate the situation.

The video successfully defused the antagonism held towards Neil Back with many people commenting online what a good sport he had been to participate.

After a tidal wave of abusive text messages and voicemails were received by the leaked number, we moved quickly to turn the situation around. We hand picked a few of the callers and texters and called them back under the guise that we were Neil Back’s assistant. We pretended to mix them up with journalists and made them an offer of match tickets to one of the most in-demand games of the rugby season. All they had to do was ‘Run With It’.

Soon we had them lining up at a hotel to collect their prize. What they didn’t realise was that they would find themselves sitting in a press conference and forced to perpetuate their fib, asking questions and even hearing their abusive text read out to the room. Their actions and reactions resulted in Heineken Ireland’s most successful viral campaign of all time.

The campaign generated over 2.9 million impressions in editorial coverage. The video was viewed over 600,000 times & more than half of the views were organic - that’s one in nine of the ENTIRE population of Ireland, let alone the demographic. #RunWithIt garnered close to 4 million social impressions via twitter mentions.

Neil Back was transformed in the eyes of the Irish public from an out and out villain to a celebrity with a good sense of humour and willingness to #RunWithIt.

Heineken Ireland enjoyed their most successful online viral campaign, further highlighting their sponsorship asset. They also succeeded in reinforcing their brand personality with their core audience.