Heineken is present in over 192 countries and turns out that each and every one of them has a different way to pronounce it and/or spell it. That's why for Heineken 150th anniversary, the brand decided to stop being Heineken for a full year to give people exactly what they were asking for: Hoineken,, Ainechen, Ekkénen... whateverken. In other words, 150 years of good times. One way or another. Which people apparently really liked since sales went up 32%, brand recall +354% and the anniversary campaign became the most successful global PR launch date.

Being around for over 150 years and present in 192 countries makes Heineken one of the most popular beer brands in the world, but most importantly: the most misspelled beer brand in the world. With millions of people all over the planet constantly mistreating our brand by mispronouncing, misspelling, and misusing Heineken.

2023 marked an important milestone in Heineken’s history: the brand's 150th anniversary. The perfect time to remind people of our history, celebrate our legacy and talk about the quality of our products. But Heineken is not in the beer business: it's in the business of good times. So when we discovered that people all over the world mistreated our brand by misspelling it, misusing it and mispronouncing it... we decided to celebrate our anniversary by giving people exactly what they wanted: 150 years of good times. One way or another.

To celebrate Heineken 150th anniversary, Heineken stopped being Heineken for a full year by changing its brand into all the misspells, mispronunciations and misuses coming from people all over the world, so that everyone could enjoy a Heineken in their own way.

In other words: 150 years of good times. One way or another.

2023 marked an important milestone in Heineken’s history: the brand's 150th anniversary. The perfect time to remind people of our history, celebrate our legacy and talk about the quality of our products, right? Nope. GenZ told us clearly: they couldn’t care less about brand anniversaries. And, telling them how OLD Heineken was, wasn’t exactly going to win them over. So we needed to find a different way to leverage this event and get them to care about our brand. And since we discovered that none of them knows anything about our brand (including how to spell Heineken), we decided to celebrate the only thing they care about: 150 years of good times. One way or another. And just like that misspells and mispronunciations about our brand turned from negatives into unique selling propositions, so successful that the campaign will run for another year.

In 2023, Heineken changed its entire global labeling production with all the misspells and nicknames from all over the world: over 300 million bottles already produced and over 2 billion bottles to be produced by 2025, 0 correctly spelled “Heineken”. As well as: beer trucks, bar signs, beer taps, social media handles and more. A global tv campaign, OOH and social content celebrated people mistreating our brand for the sake of good times. While misspelling Heineken online rewarded people with special promos based on their misspell. Then we activated every market with local top spins activations, including exclusive collabs with: Adidas, MSGM, Monopoly and more.

Even though our lawyers really advised against it, stop being Heineken for a full year was a great business decision, since people loved it so much that sales went up 32%,

brand recall skyrocketed up to +354% and the anniversary campaign became the most successful global PR launch date. So much so that the brand has decided to keep it running for another year.

Heineken is a 150 years old global brand, present in over 192 countries: that makes Heineken one of the most popular beer brands in the world. But apparently also the most misspelled beer brand in the world. Because during the last 150 years, people from all over the world have enjoyed Heineken in their own way by misspelling it, mispronouncing it, mistreating it and so much more. And that means two things: maybe we could have opted for an easier name, but also that Heineken has become part of culture, one way or another. That's why we turned our 150th anniversary into a 360 degrees brand experience in which we offer people exactly what they wanted: Hineken, Ainechen, Hoineken, Jeineken, ah... Whateverken! 150 years of good times. One way or another.