Midweek UEFA Champions League (UCL) games have meant too many fans watch at home, alone – without a Heineken. That’s no way to enjoy football (or beer!).

Heineken needed to create a new viewing ritual – inspiring fans to #ChampionTheMatch with friends and a beer in hand.

We created a new promotional campaign to activate Heineken’s UCL sponsorship and drive the #ChampionTheMatch ritual. We launched with limited edition UCL bottles and enlisted legendary footballers to show how to #ChampionTheMatch with a Heineken in the build-up to games. The players then enhanced viewing enjoyment by chatting live with thousands of fans over Twitter.

Through timely messaging across social and mobile platforms, we reached fans directly- whether in the office, on the commute home, or in the supermarket to inspire them to make the most of the games. Prizes on-pack further strengthen the promotion, and effectively made Heineken part of match preparation.

Campaign had three phases:

1-RECRUIT: Call-to-action film was spread on social and TV, inviting people to share their dreams to win. Then followed recruitment in-bar; contextualizing our message that most dreams never leave the bar –except one.

2-ACTIVATE: On the island winners confronted their dreams.

3-REVEAL: Documentary film and winner back-stories were released in perfect succession with PR. We launched with a Trend Hunter exclusive, then social to fuel conversation -using social-data to reach people talking about dreams and in moments of contemplation i.e before they turn 30. To inspire the globe, we scaled exposure through a global video partner negotiating native editorial/blogger outreach to tell the full story.

Now, fans all over the world don’t just watch the match – they CHAMPION IT!

#ChampionTheMatch has successfully reinforced Heineken’s UCL sponsorship and placed them at the centre of bringing friends together to watch the football at home with a beer.

We’ve dominated UCL conversation online and connected with millions of fans:

• Most used UCL sponsor hashtag ever!

• 73.3% share of voice on Twitter

• Average 20,000x #ChampionTheMatch mentions very week - with potential of 244M impressions

• 47.5M online views- and we’re only at the semi-finals!

We’re fuelling a new ritual with Heineken at the epicentre; sample so far shows 62% increase in pre-match purchase intent, and 52% increase in belief that preparation is important. As we are midway through the promotion, sales results aren’t finalised – but we can’t wait to share once we are done!

Get involved - #ChampionTheMatch