Hein.IA successfully amplified the global campaign "Cheers to all fans" with a local perspective, capitalized on the UEFA Champions League sponsorship, and notably, brought football equity to everyone's lips. Heineken brought its purpose to life by refreshing cultural/social conventions, successfully connecting with the Peruvian premium consumer through an exciting and unexpected brand activation, increasing brand awareness by 97%, boosting sales by +47%, and generating USD1.3M in free press. Most importantly, it demonstrated that women have a voice in football.

Heineken officially launched its operations in Peru in 2022. While it is a global leader in premium alcoholic drinks, in Peru, the brand was previously distributed irregularly by various companies, without a strategic commercial or brand development focus.

In its first year, Heineken kicked off with an aggressive commercial strategy to penetrate the market and energize the modern channel (both physical and digital), but most importantly, to quickly carve out a position as a challenger in the premium beer segment.

In this segment, there is a strong commercial presence dominated by ABInbev, which has led for many decades with two established premium brands, Cusqueña and Corona. Furthermore, Heineken operates under a global marketing vision, with a campaign calendar designed to meet global needs, presenting multiple local execution challenges, yet offering significant opportunities to create a genuine connection with Peruvian consumers through its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League.

The main challenge for Heineken in Q2-2023 was to increase brand awareness to compete on an equal footing in the premium beer segment and boost sales volume. The great opportunity lay in capitalizing early on the global campaign and sponsorship of the 2023 UEFA Champions League for three key reasons: the timing of the tournament's final stage aligns with Q2, Heineken is the only premium brand building on the territory of international football, and the Champions League is the favorite football event of 51% of Peruvians, even surpassing their own league.

However, there was an additional challenge. Heineken aims to be the most inclusive sponsor in football, and its platform "Cheers to all fans" seeks to break down barriers to equitable enjoyment of the beautiful game. The campaign had to focus not only on commercial aspects but also on the meaningful style of the brand, refreshing the football Peruvian culture.

In football, female voices are still not respected or taken seriously. In fact, there is a stereotype among peruvian men that women have little knowledge of football. A prevailing belief that if a women understands the game, she is deemed like “the perfect girl in the world” and ready to marry.

But there are women voices that everyone listen and follows blindy, the AI voices of Siri, Alexa or OK Google.

So, we hijacked the public trust in AI and created Hein.IA, a unique football expert device that knew everything about the game, but unbeknownst to all, was actually powered by female football experts all the time.

When discussing football, the conversation is predominantly male-dominated. However, women hold a significant place in the sport; in fact, 4 out of 10 women globally are fans.

In Peru, the behavior and interest are very similar. 50% of women consider themselves fans of the beautiful game, and 1 in 4 women regularly attends stadium events. Although the role of women in sports is gradually becoming more established (for example, through the development of football women's leagues), there is still a sexist mindset among many Peruvian men regarding women's voices and their importance in football. This constant underestimation is perpetually echoed in sports programs, on the streets, and specially on social media.

The approach of the Heineken campaign aimed to break the stereotype that football belongs to men by supporting the inclusion of female fans, not only by connecting but also by sparking conversation.

We launched the AI device on a live TV sport show and social media, gaining attention of influencers and media.

Days before the UEFA Champions League Final, fans engaged with the device in a real time brand activation, revealing that the minds behind Hein.IA were 3 female football experts.

Multiple influencers supported the campaign and shifted the conversation from AI to giving spotlight to female football passion.

Our football experts became brand ambassadors, featured on top sports TV shows and becoming the voice of Heineken in the UEFA Champions League Final.

We increased our sales volume by +47% vs SPYL, +17% above expectations, moving from selling 3.6KHL in 2022 to 5.5KHL in 2023.

Our brand awareness increased by 97%, +3PP above our set goal, surpassing Q2 of 2022 by 7PP.

Our sell-out also increased significantly, achieving +66% vs SPYL, +26% more than expected, boosted by our last-mile channels which also exceeded their target from 22% to 29%.

Thanks to the conversation generated by Hein.IA, we surpassed the projected reach of the campaign, covering 97% of our segmentation for the first time in a campaign with over 11M people impacted.

We aimed to generate significant conversation and attention, especially from the media. We knew that conspiring with sports programs and their hosts would attract attention, but indeed, we succeeded. We surpassed our goal by 580%, achieving USD 1.3 million in free press.

"Cheers to all fans" is a Heineken platform that enables the activation of a global sponsorship of one of the most appealing championships in any country, particularly for the Peruvian consumer. No other beer brand in Peru has such a valuable asset that allows them to use the UEFA Champions League copyright and discuss it freely. This was utterly crucial in the campaign's execution because we used all the key data and statistics from the championship to bring Hein.IA to life, even incorporating the UEFA's graphic assets into its design. Without the sponsorship and the freedom to use it, we would not have been able to develop the campaign.