To promote new Heineken Silver, a smoother-tasting lager brewed for Gen-Z, Heineken went against 150 years of advertising tradition and created the ultimate PR stunt by putting its beer where it had never been before: in a sneaker.

As the beer was launching in dark markets where beer advertising was banned, there was a need for a bold act that would represent the brand’s new Gen-Z tonality, driving awareness and getting people talking about the brand. Collaborating with a top influencer such as The Shoe Surgeon also helped Heinekicks achieve virality, contributing to the most successful brand launch in history.

Heineken was seen as an ‘older’ beer that was part of formal, stuffy drinking occasions in Asia. This led to Gen-Z feeling disconnected from the brand, perceiving it to lack relevance, be predictable, distant and elitist. With the introduction of a new brew targeted to Gen-Z, the aim of the Heineken Silver launch campaign was to drive desirability, brand relevance and sales amongst this target group and reverse the current brand decline.

At the same time, Heineken Silver was launching in several dark markets where beer advertising is banned. This meant that we had to pivot away from the traditional tv commercial and print launch, with the brief to come up with a new creative idea that would create cut through and talkability amongst our key audiences.

In a bold stunt that’s the first of its kind, Heineken put beer not in ads, but in sneakers.

Produced in a limited edition run of 32, Heinekicks were handcrafted by The Shoe Surgeon, the world’s best shoe customiser and a key influencer in the sneaker world with 1.1m followers. The sneakers came in the iconic brand colours of green, red, and silver. A secret compartment hid a brushed metal bottle opener, and for the real kicker, Heineken Silver was surgically injected into its clear bubble soles, giving its wearer the sensation of walking on beer.

Referencing other hype drops, Heinekicks was teased via a social post before launching at relevant locations that Gen-Z would frequent such as exclusive sneaker stores, underground fashion events and launch parties, on hype fashion publications and on their favourite influencers’ feeds via unboxing videos, as well as driving sales through sneaker raffle promotions.

Our target audience was Gen-Z in Asia Pacific. They found it hard to relate to Heineken as the brand was associated with status and formality, leading to Heineken’s brand power in Asia experiencing a decline year on year.To get them to consider new Heineken Silver, a smoother-tasting beer for Gen-Z, the strategy was to go with a bold stunt that would create maximum awareness and talkability around the launch. To authentically connect with Gen-Zs, we decided to hack a culture that they already love and are obsessed with – sneaker culture – and created Heinekicks. Just like a hype sneaker launch, we created assets such as posters, videos, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks that were disseminated on social, packaged in press releases, featured on their favourite fashion influencers’ feeds and used to create an impact at sneaker store takeovers, underground fashion events and launch events, positively influencing brand perception and driving sales

In the style of hype drops, Heinekicks was first teased via social media on Heineken owned channels, creating immediate buzz. At the same time, a comprehensive PR package with exclusive video content, posters and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks were released to media outlets, resulting in extensive coverage across prestige fashion publications like Hypebeast, Vogue, GQ and Dezeen, amongst other lifestyle publications. Stoking the hype were social posts by sneaker maestro The Shoe Surgeon [1.1m followers] who designed the shoes.

Heinekicks were also gifted to key influencers in the Asia Pacific markets, who created unboxing videos that kept Heinekicks at the top of everyone’s feeds. To complete the loop and drive Gen-Z to experience the brand in real life, we created experiential displays and store window takeovers at hype sneaker stores, showcases at underground fashion events and even projected the sneakers on skyscrapers in Asia-Pacific at official Heineken Silver launch parties.

90% volume sales increase in APAC, marking the most successful launch in the brand’s history.

400 mentions across trackable online news in Asia Pacific

230k engagement on Heinekicks content along with endless organic features on TikTok

99% neutral-to-positive sentiment

2.7 billion impressions

1.4 million earned media

In terms of brand perception, the campaign also had a positive spillover effect on overall Heineken’s brand scores amongst the target audience, with a significant growth in scores in brand power (+3 points), brand meaningfulness (+11 points), and brand difference (+5 points) across launch markets in Asia Pacific.

The sneakers were also recognised as a significant cultural and fashion moment, having appeared on Sneakerfreaker, featured multiple times on Hypebeast, Vogue, and GQ, as well as being named dezeen’s top 10 fashion design projects of 2022.