On 25 November 2009 Heineken International collected an ESA Award in London (European Sponsorship Award - the most-wanted sponsorship award in the business). Heineken International won in the category 'Business to employee' with the Heineken Internal Football Competition.
For the development of the campaign Heineken International worked together with it's sponsorship activation agency TBWA\BEC.
The table football tournament hooked into the allure of their global sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League to create successful and effective platform boosting motivation and participation within the Heineken organisation worldwide.
A total of 30 countries ranging from 5 continents took part.

For WE Fashion we created 3 short films to be broadcast as video banners. The split screen banners are based on the what we titled a ‘style chain reaction’: Every day the people around us influence and help define our style. The films were created to show off the choice available in the new WE F/W collections; suits with denim, coats and party clothes and were directed by prize winning and up and coming Danish photographer Torben Raun. The films were also exclusively shown on MTV while the banners were live and can be viewed on wefashion.com.

In it’s introductory year Eredivisie Live gained great brand awareness. It was our task to work on this solid start and create a logical next step with a campaign that would improve brand awareness and recognition among a much broader target audience and increase the Eredivisie Live subscriber base. 
Our first step was to create a clear brand face that felt like a natural roll out of the existing logo and current identity. The new brand identity should also be easily adaptable to any medium. Then we used our most convincing and valuable asset to enforce the fact that if you’ve got passion for football you can’t be without Eredivisie Live – the digital channel dedicated to the top Dutch football. The season 09/10 campaign kicked-off with TVCs, print, online, direct marketing, bannering, and radio.

As key sponsor of the UEFA champions League, Heineken has the sole and exclusive right to take the trophy to football fans worldwide. They make it possible for fans to get up close and personal to football greatness. For the third season, the Trophy Tour set out across Africa for a three and a half month tour, having already completed two successful tour legs in Asia in 2007 and Latin America in 2008. 
The trophy travelled to Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and South Africa and was supported by a through the line activation campaign. We came up with the idea of the tour and created a campaign building on the aspiration of getting close to club football's biggest prize with tvc's, print/outdoor, promotional materials, events and an activation toolkit for the local markets. 
The photos are living proof of the mass success of the tour.

Ernst & Young gathered 300 international business leaders’ insights on the crisis and used them to create a potent guide against the forces prevalent in a financial crisis. This invaluable ‘White Paper’ however was a hefty document that was difficult to communicate in a punchy way. We re-named the guide ‘The Crisis Compass’ to ensure it instantly communicated the power of this ‘solutions tool’ in mass media. Thematic and factual print ads as well as digital bannering and radio lead the way to Ernst & Young online where CEOs and business managers could discover the way to tailor-made routes through times of economic downturn.

One way to maximise your sponsorship is to get right in on the action and create your own event in celebration of the real thing. Heineken is a key sponsor of the UEFA Champions League and in May 2009 the actual Final was held in Rome... but the Heineken Star Final, a live screening of this special match, was held on a tropical beach in Thailand. TBWA\BEC created a global sales and brand promotion to invite consumers from all over the world to win tickets to Thailand. Allowing football fans to share in the excitement and meanwhile creating strong brand ambassadors the world over. This activation campaign was rolled out in 30 markets globally and integrated online (online game, internetcampaign) and offline (event, sponsorship, ATL en BTL) media.

After winning the prestigious SponsorRing, our Ernst & Young "Medals for Olympic coaches" campaign has continued it's round of success at the awards, picking up a bronze Esprix and a San Accent. Our case was the only business-to-business winner in it's Esprix sponsorship category and was one of only four cases awarded with a b-to-b Accent at the SAN awards. Congrats to Ernst & Young and all involved.

TBWA\BEC has launched its own record label: TBWA\BEC REC. The BEC REC compilation CD's are all about giving a taste of new music. Big, fat, up-and-coming hits, feel good tunes, moving lyrics - mostly undiscovered and pre-released. Inspiration for work and home. We're receiving input from the entire music industry and therefor BEC REC provides a broad view of what's new and happening. TBWA\BEC REC will appear every two months, Vol. 2 will be launched end of May. For more information contact Rick Fens via +31205715750 or rick.fens@tbwa.nl

"It’s easy to name successful sport related brand activation cases, but not so easy when it comes to music. Planning, timing and a lack of knowledge are some of the main reasons this market hasn’t matured yet.

Not talking each other’s lingo causes misunderstanding and misinterpretations and unnecessary frustrations. TBWA\BEC wants to break the mould and match brands with relevant music content, services and events to create platforms that work hard for both brand and artist."

Download Article 'Entertainment en reclame sluiten nog niet goed aan' by Werner Schlosser in Entertainment Business - 1/04/2009 (PDF, 181kb)

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award is the most recognized award of it’s kind in the world. Ernst & Young has hosted this prestigious prize of recognition for many years, enabling them to establish a reputation for valuing entrepreneurship in business. To create a campaign that emphasized the worldliness and value the business world now gives the honour, we literally magnified the real physical award into very probably the largest award on the planet. ‘The Worlds Biggest Business Award’ campaign uses print, radio and online to trigger potential nominees to sign up. The communication of the selection phase will follow later this year.

It’s an age-old problem; who’s going to be the unlucky one that has to fetch the beers mid-match and risk missing what will probably be the only goal of the game? Well finally there’s an answer. Heineken has developed the ultimate football and beer gadget; the UEFA Champions League beertender. With perfectly proportioned mini flatscreen, this new kitchen gadget for boys means you never have to miss a minute of the match again. Produced in limited and exclusive numbers, the UEFA Champions League beertender was conceived by TBWA\BEC as a PR and promotional tool to activate Heineken’s sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League.

To activate the Eredivisie (Dutch Premier League) among the broadest possible audience, we worked with Eredivisie, AD SportWereld (Netherlands top sports paper) and DerbyStar to initiate a consumer contest to design the next official match ball. The chosen design will be used in Eredivisie matches; thus instant TV fame and a direct connection with the best players in the nation’s top football league.

The online contest was driven by a media-mix of digital bannering, newspaper and non-spot newspaper buzz. Ten designs were selected as finalists by an expert panel that included Eredivisie players, football analysts and journalists. The winning design will be seen on the pitches as of season 2009/2010

'The Coach deserves a medal' too started off as a campaign and ended as a hot topic and new phenomenon for Ernst & Young. Utilising TV, print, radio and outdoor the campaign profiled top Dutch coaches, driving public online where they could vote for their favourite. For the first time in history all winning coaches received medals together with the athletes in the Holland Heineken House in Beijing and in the presence of the Dutch Prime minister in the official televised ceremony at home.

It's one thing sponsoring a sporting event, it's another thing making it slog hard for your brand. TBWA\BEC took the intrigue and glamour of club football's top tournament the UEFA Champions League and turned it into a year round dialogue with consumers all over the world. Via brand initiatives like Heineken Trophy Tour, Star Final and Heineken Back Stadium Passes, the beer brand can create a point of difference and engaging ways to get to know and sell the brand via the partnership.  

The SponsorRing was awarded for the Ernst & Young "Medals for Olympic coaches" campaign in the category sport. TBWA\BEC and Ernst & Young beat off stiff competition from the likes of Rexona and Rabobank. The Ernst & Young coach campaign transformed "medals for coaches" into a hot topic during the Olympics. Allowing the public to vote for their favourite Dutch coach, the platform included non-spot radio, online, outdoor, print, as well as medal ceremonies to award the winning coaches in the Holland Heineken House in Beijing and in the presence of the Dutch prime minister back in Holland.

When ING Group became a partner of the Rijksmuseum, TBWA\BEC developed a sponsorship program for the group titled 'a new look at art'. The program aimed to rekindle interest in the museum by developing new opportunities to view the works of art, making them relevant and accessible to a broad audience. Initiatives like the installation of comfy couches in front of all the masterpieces, so that visitors could enjoy the works of art at their leisure. Or a lunch hour incentive for all those with a busy schedule: The ING meal deal enabled the consumption of lunch plus four very satisfying masterpieces in just 30 minutes.

TBWA\BEC found out the old training games of a host of great adidas football stars and resurrected them for a new generation of footballers. The resulting pan-European 'Come and Play My Game' activation campaign was used to promote adidas' new boot line-up in store, on the street, at one-off events and in an extensive set-up at Euro 2008 in Vienna.

When Heineken wanted to introduce its Extra Cold beer at sub zero temperatures they decided to create the perfect Extra Cold experience, pack it in a truck and take it on the road. TBWA\BEC developed a multi-media communications platform to accompany the touring, sub-zero bar. We also developed and produced a comprehensive tool kit to guide more than 11 countries through the entire event activation period. In addition to ready to use artwork, the kit was packed with innovative concepts on how to drive traffic to the Heineken Extra Cold Experience and a complete set-up operation manual.

December 2008 - Rick Fens, Marketing Director Warner Music, joins TBWA\BEC as of January 1, 2009. As Project Director Music & Entertainment Partnerships he will be responsible for the development and creative activation of partnerships between advertisers and the music industry.

Download Article 'Partnership in Muziekbranche kansrijk' by Rick Fens in Adformatie - 12/02/2009 (PDF, 227kb)

Nissan Qashqai's thematic 'urban proof' campaign worked well but the brand needed the awareness turned into real leads, TBWA\BEC invited a renowned group of free-runners to perform an amazing stunt act on a stage comprising four of the new crossover 4x4 cars. Staged in city hot spots all over the country, Nissan Qashqai managed to stop traffic and convert interested passers by into test drivers and potential fans of Nissan's latest model.

On 1 July 2008, adidas revealed its new shirt for football club Ajax. To mark the occasion with the fans TBWA\BEC initiated a spontaneous mass shirt swap, live and in the heart of the Amsterdam on the Leidseplein.

As sponsor of the latest installment of this blockbuster trilogy, Heineken challenged fans to show they had the same skills as the film's hero. The global activation campaign 'Is there a bit of Bourne in you' worked across a rich mix of media drawing the film's fans to Heineken's website. Online, fans could experience and react to situations that played out when Jason Bourne entered the world of Heineken.

In their final year as sponsor of the Amsterdam Marathon, ING asked TBWA\BEC to help them with an idea to maximise visibility for one of their endorsed good causes: Unicef. We came up with a visual trigger for the idea; the Unicef blue shoelace. Donating all media before, during and after the marathon, ING encouraged runners and supporters to buy the special blue shoelaces in aid of the charity. A huge number of runners got into the spirit of the ING Marathon for Unicef, happy to show off their support for the good cause in this simple but striking way. The Unicef-blue shoelaces also helped generate desirable PR and an extra 90,000 in fundraising.