The Challenge:Leading up to Christmas 2011, Heineken wanted to increase consumption and brand preference indicators amongst young Singaporean adults during the festive period. This seemed like a straightforward challenge, given that festive celebrations are natural beer-drinking occasions.

The key behavioural trend amongst our audience, however, was that Singaporeans were trading interactions in real life, with interactions on social media – a development that’s being fueled by the relentless pace of life in Singapore. In fact, a study by Experian Hitwise found that Singaporeans spend the most time on Facebook in the world, at an average of 40 minutes per session.The Solution:To turn our audience’s obvious appetite for connecting on social media into a thirst for a real-life get-together, we hijacked the festive season’s most iconic landmark and turned it into an amplification of our closest relationships online. In doing so, we introduced the world’s first Christmas tree powered by friendships.

In the middle of a Singapore’s most popular entertainment zone, we built an 11-metre tall Christmas tree with 48 LCD screens. On Facebook, we allowed users to send greetings to their friends by putting their profile pictures on the tree with a simple greeting that celebrated what made Christmas truly magical.The Results:The idea received unprecedented social buzz for a Singaporean festive campaign with an estimated amplification of 3.2 million through earned media. We logged an impressive engagement rate of 15.7% on Facebook, with 108,534 unique visitors over a 3-week campaign period. More than 300,000 people visited the tree at Clarke Quay as well.Brand imagery scores increased 22.6% year-on-year with targets exceeded on indicators like “internationalism” and “a beer I want to be seen with”. Sales at retail outlets around the Heineken Social Tree increased by 53%, while sales volume at retail outlets nationwide increased 291% during the campaign vs. annual average volume.