Heineken wanted to leverage its sponsorship before and during the tournament, and activating the first coin toss meant Heineken was opening the Rugby World Cup, a memorable part of every match.

Heineken wasn’t going to waste the coin toss experience on the usual suspects of senior management. Instead, it gave rugby fans without tickets the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the team captains at the coin toss.

Leveraging famous rugby players, Heineken launched its coin toss competition “Find the Coin”, challenging rugby fans on Twitter to find a UK coin with a particular date – representing the year of that player’s most memorable career moments.

Heineken launched “Find the Coin” one month before the start of the tournament, with England rugby legend Will Carling asking fans to find and share a coin minted in 1991, the year he captained England to the Rugby World Cup final. The winner of the first coin toss was announced at Heineken’s Rugby World Cup opening party at Somerset house, and would join the captains of England and Fiji at the coin toss for the tournament’s opening match.

Leading up to the tournament and during the action, Heineken sent out new dates for fans to find each week, with the help of Rugby legends including Jonah Lomu, Scott Quinnell and Matt Dawson.

Thousands rose to the challenge throughout the campaign, hunting down old coins and getting seriously creative with their entries in order to stand out and win.

By leveraging its sponsorship deal and involving armchair fans in a unique way on social, Heineken connected meaningfully and genuinely engaged fans to take part.

“Find The Coin” reached 1.7m fans on Twitter and brought hundreds of thousands of rugby fans closer to Heineken, in total generating 203,000 unique social interactions. (1/2)

“Find The Coin” challenged fans to be resourceful and they committed to it positively. Heineken received over 2,000 unique image entries on Twitter, actively engaging over 30% of its following, and giving a handful of fans a once-in-a-lifetime experience they’d never forget. (3)

Heineken’s success translated to a 19% year-on-year uplift in weekly sales volume, and most importantly, Heineken was voted the no.1 recall sponsor - achieving its tournament ambition. (4/5)

Heineken’s coin toss sponsorship was a world-first and presented a unique opportunity to cut through the Rugby World Cup conversation and connect with a mass audience in a meaningful way. Heineken gave fans the chance to win once in a lifetime experiences and activated a captive audience on social media, driving widespread positive engagement and gaining front of mind leading into the tournament. The campaign didn’t just bring fans closer to the action, it brought them closer to Heineken.

The audience at the stadiums was limited, with just 1% of the total viewers attending each match. Heineken used social media to target the 99% without tickets, enhancing the Rugby World Cup for a broader audience by getting them closer to the action and involving them on match day.

Heineken aimed its sights at its core audience who would be following the tournament on social media. By connecting with them and activating engagement, Heineken could extend its reach to an even wider audience.

Heineken has built strong ties with the Rugby World Cup, but this time things were different. The Rugby World Cup had exploded in popularity with attendance levels second only to the football World Cup, while attracting ever larger sponsors including Emirates, Mastercard and Coca Cola - all keen for a piece of the action. We knew we couldn’t win on budget alone.

Heineken’s ambition was to become the number one recall sponsor, upping the ante for Rugby World Cup 2015 by securing pouring rights at stadiums and exclusive sponsorship of the iconic pre-match coin toss.

The deal gave Heineken unmistakable presence in the stadiums, but Heineken needed to engage a far wider audience. Outside the stadium walls the competition was even tougher with hundreds of brands fighting for attention. To achieve its goal, Heineken needed to cut through the noise and connect with fans before the tournament had even started.