Cover Story: Heineken opts for local tactic.

Yet for Jon Lane, sponsorship manager at Heineken, the rationale is crystal clear: "Fundamentally, our target consumers - 18- to 24-year-old men - are watching less conventional TV and more live sport. You can never say never, but we believe we can use our spend more effectively by putting the money into sponsorships, and exploiting those sponsorships to more effectively target our core audience." So budget is being re-directed to more targeted outdoor, press, strategy and planning, much of which revolves around Heineken's two major sponsorships: the Champions League, and the Heineken Rugby Cup.

It's to exploit this rugby association that Heineken is rolling out its first piece of activity since it spiked TV advertising. Through Vitamin V, and kicking off this month, the Get Closer campaign aims to capitalise on the lager's strong links with the sport via a promotion running in more than 1,000 on-trade and 300 off-trade outlets. In line with Heineken's strategic intent to target more specifically, the activity will run only in regions where rugby is known to be popular, and around the participating rugby venues. Lane admits that more money is being ploughed into this year's activity than ever before, but declines to be more specific.

On the face of it, the campaign is pretty straightforward: on-trade, a peel-and-reveal game card will be handed out to drinkers who buy two Heinekens. Up for grabs are prizes of eight pairs of tickets to the final of the Heineken Cup at the Millennium stadium, including travel and accommodation, Heineken Cup "season tickets", comprising five pairs of tickets, travel and accommodation at nine Cup games during the 2006/07 tournament. Instant-win prizes include Heineken-branded merchandise such as rugby shirts, balls, beanie hats and kit bags. Off-trade, a free prize draw offers the chance to win similar branded merchandise.

Had Heineken a lesser heritage with rugby, it's arguable that this activity wouldn't have been strong enough to create much cut-through in such a cluttered environment, both with regard to lager as a category and in sports sponsorship. Interest in rugby has rocketed since England won the World Cup in 2003, and Lane admits that Heineken as a business has taken it more seriously since then, allocating more budget to it. But he is also at pains to point out that Heineken "hasn't just jumped on the rugby bandwagon after its rise in popularity in 2003. Our lager has been a significant sponsor in Rugby Union since 1995, with the inception of the Heineken Cup. We also sponsored the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and 2003. We have credibility in the sport."

Maintaining that credibility is high on Lane's list of objectives: "We're not just badging an arena, we're creating a better experience for the consumer wherever they touch with the brand," he says.

For Vitamin V chief executive Les Mear, creating more visibility for the brand at point of purchase - in pubs and at bars - is arguably more important to this push than the promotional mechanic. "With this, we've thought about the consumers - what they want and how we can best connect with them. Then we've created the mechanic to fit into that environment," he says. "Its just a good old-fashioned instant win."

In Mear's view, the POP serves to build and reinforce the brand and its relationship with rugby to the people who matter most: consumers. "It's refreshing to create a campaign that doesn't involve television, but starts with the bar top, putting the spend and the creative in front of the punter, where it matters most - at the last line of connection," he says. "Years ago, people used to say that advertising points the gun and promotions pull the trigger. Sponsorship is about signalling that a brand likes what the consumer likes, and by implication says 'that is the brand for me'.

But it's still presented within repertoire, and POP should ensure that when you get to the last point of choice, you choose Heineken."

Of course, choosing Heineken - encouraging consumers to trial it - is what the sponsorship and its related activities are all about. Lane says the brand still suffers from misconception carried over from the days when it was brewed under licence from Interbrew at 3.4 per cent strength and in the UK. "We now import our beer from Holland. And we're the biggest-selling genuinely imported premium lager - the rest are brewed in the UK. Because it is imported from Holland, it is a better beer and we want people to trial it on that basis. This is a key objective for the Heineken Cup, and we're looking to achieve that by creating a better experience via our beer and sponsorship."

Both client and agency believe the Get Closer push ticks Heineken's "being better" box because "no other brand can get as close as the title sponsor, and this is the thinking behind this campaign," says Mear. With this in mind, the ticket prizes will come with twists such as former players joining some winners to share their experiences.

Lane states that the Get Closer activity is core to the Heineken Cup: "Everything you see around the Heineken Cup will relate to the Get Closer campaign in some shape or form. Depending on how successful this tranche of activity is, we'll be looking at running it again."

So it's perhaps surprising that the measurement of success will come mainly from anecdotal sources. Says Lane: "A lot of monitoring will include feedback from our sales team, who have one-to-one contact with the outlets.

We'll also have a handle on success if the outlets start ordering more kit. We can track whether there's an uplift, but because its regional targeting, that will be more difficult to track than if we were monitoring just supermarket sales."

An uplift is expected, and "if we don't get it, we won't have been successful," Mears admits. "But this campaign is not living or dying on that. It's also about what that brand has said to people, about what their emotional connection with Heineken becomes, and whether we have cemented our relationship with them and moved it on," he concludes.

IN MY VIEW - 6/10

Taking a world-class brand off TV is a brave move, and one that should scare the living daylights out of the above-the-line agencies. Having taken this step, Heineken deserves a campaign that justifies the move... and perhaps sets a standard for other brands to follow.

While this campaign will do a good job in a very workmanlike way, overall it's a fairly standard sponsorship exploitation package that is not as inspiring as it could be. When it comes to seeing the 2006 awards winners line up, this particular piece of work is unlikely to be given best in class.

Get Closer's key strengths are three-fold. A regional focus and relevancy, raised visibility that will drive sales and, finally, a step towards extending Heineken's long-standing link with rugby without being over commercialised.

However, it is questionable whether a strategy that focuses on existing strengths (regions where rugby is already strong) while ignoring the areas where there is little interest is a way of achieving real breakthrough.

Admittedly, it has a strong regional focus, but that only accounts for a small percentage of the national opportunity. The nationwide element could have been achieved, at reasonable cost, via a well thought-through Get Closer on-pack promotion.

Many will be surprised by the lack of true evaluation and accountability - the objective stated is to create a relationship with the brand and build an emotional pull, but the theming and prizes do not feel strong enough to achieve this. Is Heineken the only brand that could deliver this campaign? I'd say not. By comparison, the Guinness Rugby World Cup support in the on-trade was delivered using humour in a unique way that left the brand "owning" the event.

In its favour, this is a nice, clean campaign, and the on-trade support has been well thought through. But from what I know of it, there has been too little thought on developing the relationship beyond the campaign and I will be surprised if it drives trial as expected. Having said that, it should push rate of sale.

Diana Cawley, managing director, The Triangle Group.