Heineken 0.0 – The Twitch Sprint Series

What makes the Grand Prix special goes far beyond the rails of its track. The real fun is in what surrounds the race – exclusive parties, music concerts, VIP nights and much more. This summer, Heineken wanted to use its exclusive F1 partnership to make the fun inclusive to all Canadians, so they can be the star of the race even if they couldn’t be there live. 

We were challenged to find a new and interactive way to reach new audiences while staying true to the spirit of the Grand Prix partnership & experience. 

With the upcoming launch of the F1 Manager video game, across all major gaming consoles and platforms, we saw an opportunity to reach elusive next-gen gaming audiences, but how could the brand get the attention of these gamers in a meaningful way and still stay authentic to the Twitch experience?  

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Only 2.3% of adults in Canada watched a Grand Prix this year. Most don’t know the sport, or don’t relate to it due its exclusive vibe. As a result, many Canadians are hesitant to participate in F1 events and end up missing out on one of the most iconic events in the world, right in their backyard.  

We proposed leveraging the upcoming release of the F1 Manager 2022 racing video game on the Twitch service to create an interactive and authentic partnership with live streamers leading the way.  

As ironic as it sounds, racing and booze go hand in hand for the spectators, but for the younger audiences on Twitch we still wanted to seem authentic and responsible.  The 0.0% non-alcoholic version of the brand could responsibly integrate its message into the gaming environment where alcohol consumption is not encouraged as you wouldn’t be on your “A” game of course (or as us Canadians like to say your “eh” game).  

Heineken 0.0% would be the hero of this program, with key messaging call outs to the brand throughout, nods to their F1 sponsorship, merch and beer product placement in stream, and video placements, while staying responsible with their messaging – and ensuring all gamers stay in peak performance: hydrated + sober. 

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We carefully selected 6 popular Canadian Twitch streamers to compete in a series of race-related challenges. Heineken’s paid media would help promote the challenges that the streamers were competing in, especially leading up to the live streams to help drive engagement. Each streamer would be streaming live on their own channel to their wide audiences with Heineken brand integration in and around the streaming environment. As challenges were completed, Heineken will reward the streamer’s community with gifted Twitch subscriptions and Heineken / F1 related swag.  

The 6 sponsored streams would see each streamer compete with each other for the top of a sponsored leaderboard in a number of challenges, increasing in difficulty over the 2 hours each was live. Each streamer would prominently display the Heineken 0.0% product along with some Heineken swag, give away a Heineken swag pack to a lucky viewer and weave in branded talking points throughout each stream to keep the chat streams engaged. 

 As part of the program, Heineken would own the sponsored stream within the Homepage Carousel – driving consumers to watch each influencers live stream with additional media placement/drivers across Twitch & influencer social channels to further amplify the partnership 

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