The Milano Design Week is one of the most important international events for design, with a focus on furniture design. For one week in April, it’s the best platform in the world for both young and established designers. In addition to design and furnishing, there are hundreds of commercial brands that like to surround themselves with the cool factor of design. These brands use the Design Week to showcase brand experiences and events, which get their brands and products associated with design as an image factor. In this environment it’s very hard to emerge with a distinctive piece of design that will stand out.

The Sub living room is a one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen design installation and the biggest pinball machine ever built. As such, it perfectly communicates the product’s positioning (“The ultimate toy for men”) on its emotional and functional benefits. It’s an object you can show off, be proud of and use to playfully liven up evenings at home with friends. It did all this with a tone of voice that is completely unlike the usual communications of the beer category.

From the evening of the 8th April to the night of 12th more than 1,534 games were played in front of huge crowds. Over 23,722 spectators witnessed the Sub firsthand and discovered how it could make living rooms more playful. Newspapers, national radio stations and news TV picked up the story and made The Sub living room into one of the “things-to-see” of the Design Week. 700 tweets with #playthesub were sent, and Heineken gained more than 8,000 new fans on its Facebook page and 3,000 on Twitter.

#playthesub in the top 5 trending topics in italy

129% more orders of the sub

18.4 million media impressions earned

But the best part? One happy client.