Heineken is a longtime partner of the Uefa Champions League, celebrating football fans every year. This year's global campaign is dedicated to "hardcore fans," who are not the hooligans, but those who overcome limits, barriers, and stereotypes to follow their team. APAC is a region with a high number of fans of UCL and the big European teams. But those who want to follow the matches have a big problem: the time zone difference. In fact, UCL games take place in the middle of the night (around 4 am), a time when even the bars have now closed and there are no places to gather and watch a game together without disturbing anyone.

In Asian metropolises, at a time when even bars are closed, there is only one place that stays open 24/7: laundromats. That's why we partnered with the largest chain of laundromats in South Korea (Washenjoy) and the only broadcaster with UCL rights (SPOTV) to turn every laundromat into a "LaundroMatch," a sports bar where you can watch games thanks to the conversion of washing machines into "Watching Machines."

Asia is the market with the largest number of UCL fans outside Europe.

Therefore, engaging the fan audience with a useful and memorable action is a great way to increase their preference for the brand.

Heineken therefore intercepted a barrier that fans have in being able to attend matches and offered a solution to their problem by leveraging the brand's witty tone of voice.

To get to the result, we organized a B2B collaboration that could generate a win-win effect for all three partners: Washenjoy (the largest laundromats chain in South Korea), SPOTV (the only broadcaster to have UCL rights), and, of course, Heineken.

When Champions games started to become decisive, we launched the project (from quarterfinals to finals).

The go to initiative started with a series of events in Seoul's largest laundromats. Inside, we installed Watching Machines: modified washing machines that, keeping the same look, featured a screen inside the top porthole and a fridge with Heinekens in the bottom one.

But the initiative was expanded to 802 laundromats across the country, in fact, each washing machine featured a QR code and by scanning it at game time it gave access to a section in partnership between Heineken and SPOTV. The site recognized geolocation in the laundry and allowed people to watch the games live on their smartphones or tablets.

Thousands of fans across South Korea were thus able to access the matches and watch them with friends thanks to this partnership.

In just one week, the campaign had a global reach of over 92 million, with the launch assets receiving 11 million views. News outlets across Asia picked up the campaign, generating 261 pieces of coverage and 537 million Korean Won in PR value.

The experience garnered widespread interest across South Korea and significant publications.

Within the first week, Laundromatch had an engagement rate of over 130,000 people using our web app to view the matches.

Organic visitors 927% above the regular washing days.

The hashtags #Laundromatch and #HeinekenKR became trending topics for the entire week during the launch and also until the semi-finals, which are underway.