Heineken has a strong tradition of beautifully-crafted, limited-edition bottles. These bottles help drive Heineken brand coolness and make Heineken more relevant for its target consumers around the world. Our brief was to add something truly unique and fresh to this tradition for the 2020 Festive season in the United States. A limited-edition bottle with an original twist that encouraged people to come together and enjoy life more.

Instead of one original twist, we gave Heineken a billion. For a few weeks in the 2020 no two Heineken Original labels were alike. Because you’re one-in-a-billion.

To craft a billion unique labels required merging design, digital printing technology and a smart algorithm. We created 8 base colors, a specially-created Heineken typography pattern and 4 graphic enrichment layers and, based on these, produced over 100 million patterns. By endlessly rotating, zooming in and out, repositioning and reangling, we ensured that every single label was different. Each label also included its own unique activation code.

To realize a billion unique labels required not only craftsmanship but also great logistics and planning. Industrial-sized digital printers worked around the clock in multiple batches to print 950 unique labels per minute for 3 months.

Our design went beyond bottle labels alone; they kickstarted an entire you’re-one-in-a-billion universe and were integrated into everything from Heineken’s communication campaign, merchandising and POS materials to physical spaces, live holiday wrapping studios and even a line of apparel.

During its 3-week run the bottles and assets attracted 800 million organic views in the US alone.

By merging design, digital printing and a smart algorithm, our bottle fueled togetherness during the holiday season at a time when togetherness was needed most. At the same time, we introduced an entirely new twist to Heineken’s limited-edition tradition: the ‘unlimited’ bottle.

The brand didn’t change for the holidays, its label did… one billion times.