Big in Japan, Big in Ireland

With the Rugby World Cup kicking off in just a few days’ time, Publicis Dublin has been helping Heineken Ireland activate its global campaign making sure it lands personally with a rugby-mad local Irish audience.  

There are 5,890 miles between Japan and Ireland, and with early match kick-offs, many Irish who aren’t travelling may feel a sense of remoteness to the action – all the more reason for Heineken’s creative to have a local take.  

Key to this is the use of former player and national rugby legend Keith Wood. 

Wood goes from being a part player in the global AV campaign, (which was designed to appeal to a broad audience) to being ‘captain’ of the Irish campaign. A national OOH digital and instore campaign tells us that “even though the games might be 5,890 miles away, we can still make it feel local”.

The campaign for Heineken requires winning across a broad swathe of touchpoints and targets. Some online, others offline. Some broadcast, others personalised. To execute this requires not just a strong creative concept, but a creative system. This system helps personalise at scale by making the idea relevant to those who eat, sleep and breathe the World Cup as well as those who may not be interested in rugby.

Having a system means partners from media agencies, social platforms, technology companies, publishers, event managers and PR specialists can get what they want, rather than attempting to interpret a concept. It means access to assets, frameworks, and modular elements ready for rapid implementation. It means it delivers on various KPIs, that it is modular and integrates with other activities for the brand. 

The campaign culminates in a yet-to-be-announced special brand activation.