How do you transform sustainability from a complex and inaccessible corporate topic into a simple and refreshing story?

Make it real and interesting. Pay tribute to 7 real farmers and their sustainable methods and give them back their sheriff stars on an entertaining western backdrop, make them legendary.

How do you actively engage stakeholders and consumers in a new way with a usually dry Sustainability Report that will generate talk value?

Use the Heineken® bottle as the medium; and make employees, stakeholders and consumers interact with it in an entertaining way.

The Heineken® Legendary 7 campaign is designed for internal communications, converting employees from passive recipients to active ambassadors of the company’s sustainability efforts, and for external communications, increasing transparency and reinforcing the progressive image of the Heineken® brand.

In 2015, instead of receiving the Sustainability Report as the customary corporate brochure, our internal and external audience received a Heineken® bottle and 8 beer coasters: 7 collectibles, and 1 titled ‘This Is The Sustainability Report’. Through Blippar’s augmented reality technology the bottle can tell legendary stories of 7 farmers, as well as provide highlights of the latest Sustainability Report and a tracking of HEINEKEN’s progress against their objectives. It also offers a possibility to show support by sharing a 7elfie and getting their social networks to applaud the L7.

After the internal launch amongst over 81,000 employees, the Report has been distributed to more than 1,000 shareholders and stakeholders, and then launched on Heineken® social media and amongst influencers.

The main medium is the Heineken® bottle, as it is in direct contact with the beer’s ingredients and hence form a natural link to the sourcing of sustainable hops and barley. Through cutting-edge augmented reality technology, the bottle brings the Heineken® Legendary 7 campaign to life through a smartphone-accessible blipp experience. This blipp tells the story of the 7 legendary farmers, with engaging animation and attractive illustration. It also provides a consumer-friendly summary of the 2014 Sustainability Report, and allows consumers to take a 7elfie to share on Heineken®’s social media platforms to show their support.

To provide instructions on accessing the blipp and to raise campaign awareness, we created a range of themed coasters, one of which reads “This Is The Sustainability Report,” and so boldly gave a corporate document an uncommon form that considerably boosts the experience for both internal and external audiences.

Documented results are limited, because of a highly recent launch date. The scope of implementation suggests results will follow, however. First of all, a campaign spark was given during the 2014 Sustainable Brands conference in London in front of 400 influencers. Then, global activation has started to take place internally, targeting 85,000 HEINEKEN employees through distribution of the coasters, as well as through the Company’s intranet and newsletters. Furthermore, a highly targeted activation approach was devised for HEINEKEN stakeholders, which include shareholders, governments, and NGOs, initially targeting 1,000. In May, implementation will continue during global business events. The coasters will hit the bars later in 2015 in activating European markets. Finally, impact will be measurable in terms of actual sustainable sourcing progress towards 2020 targets, through activation among HEINEKEN farmers and suppliers themselves.