Heineken Taps Into 007 Fever

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Casino Royale premiered in London Nov. 14, but the Heineken commercial tied to the new James Bond flick premiered -- inadvertently -- on YouTube (GOOG) a few weeks earlier.



Heineken marketing managers seem mildly chagrined that a rough cut of the spot, which stars Bond love interest Eva Green and plays off the plot of the film, found its way onto the Internet before its official debut. But that's a hazard of the Dutch brewer's international approach to marketing.



The commercial created by New York-based agency Strawberry Frog is the central element in a massive, 55-country marketing effort tied to Casino Royale, which opens in theatres Nov. 17. With dozens of local ad agencies involved, it was perhaps inevitable that somebody -- Heineken execs say they don't know who -- would post a copy on the Net.



Micro-Marketing

No matter. For Heineken, whose executives donned black tie to attend the London premiere along with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and the Casino Royale cast, the important thing is that the Bond film provides a powerful way to reach an international audience. And it's a way of taking advantage of Heineken's position as a global brand in an industry still dominated by local brewers. "We can initiate global communications platforms that other brands can't," says Peter van Campen, group commerce director for Amsterdam-based Heineken.



The Bond tie-in provides a case study in how an international marketer can spread a message globally while also appealing to local sensibilities. Unlike some other global brands, Heineken hasn't centralized its advertising with any one mega-agency.



Instead, the company uses dozens of local agencies working according to themes and templates determined by headquarters, ranging from Web-site material to life-size cardboard images of Eva Green for grocery stores. "We allow people in an entrepreneurial way to make it relevant for their own market," says van Campen.



What Happens Next?

In South Korea, for example, Heineken creative folks cut a version of the spot to play on mobile phones, taking advantage of the way Koreans use their 3G-equipped handsets for multimedia. In Singapore, the local agency turned the Eva Green spot into a cliffhanger, withholding the ending for the first several weeks the commercial appeared.



In the spot, a sinister-looking waiter, with a bottle of Heineken on a tray, stalks Green, a.k.a. Vesper Lynd, to the luxury hotel suite she shares with Bond. As they enter a hotel hallway, she snaps off the lights and there are sounds of a struggle. The Singapore spot ended at that point.



Now that the Bond film is entering circulation, new versions of the ad will show the ending. As part of an agreement with EON Productions, which oversees the Bond franchise, Heineken was able to not only use Casino Royale co-star Green but also a set in the Czech Republic where the film was shot.



Global Appeal

Heineken also appears in the movie, but only fleetingly. In Casino Royale, product placements are subtle and Heineken's cameo in an airport scene is easy to miss. "We did not do Bond just for the on-screen exposure," says Christopher Carroll, global marketing manager at Heineken responsible for film sponsorships. [Daniel Craig, the latest incarnation of Bond, continues the martini-drinking tradition of his predecessors.]



For Heineken, more important than a few seconds of screen exposure is the connection to Bond's image, which seems to have as much appeal in China as it does in New York. As Heineken execs see it, Bond stands for sophistication, luxury, and excitement, qualities which fit very much with the upscale image of the beer. "Our consumers want the aura of the James Bond world," Carroll says [see BusinessWeek.com, 9/8/06, "Europe's Brewers Go Global for Growth"].



Lately Heineken's bottom line also has been generating some excitement. After several years of slow growth, operating profit for the first half of 2006 rose 14% to $922 million on sales of $7.3 billion. Casino Royale could boost the winnings still more.