Heineken's Night Out Campaign Celebrates the Social Spirit of Online Gaming

Heineken and Le Pub Brazil are challenging the stereotype that gaming is an antisocial pastime – launching 'Not All Nights Out are Out', a global campaign that merges gaming culture with the Heineken brand’s social spirit, celebrating online entertainment as an important moment of socialisation. 

The campaign will be made up of a main film, titled 'Just Another Night Out', as well as a number of other initiatives, including short 'side stories’, in bar games and other creative activations. 

The main film ‘Just Another Night Out’, directed by award-winning French director Frederic Planchon, tells the story of Alex and three companions. Using the city of São Paulo as a backdrop, the protagonist faces several unexpected challenges on their way to a night of fun with friends; just not ending in the expected classic bar scene associated with social moments.  

“When Le Pub reached out with the initial idea, I found it really interesting to see Heineken engaging and embracing new audiences. It was great working with Bruno Bertelli, Felipe Cury and the team to develop the script and find the right balance of humour and narrative to ensure the twist landed. We were lucky to find a great actress who really delivered in terms of a nuanced performance hitting the right tone.” - Frederic Planchon, film director.

Brazil being among the largest gaming markets in the world has over 88% of its population playing video games on any type of device. According to the Game Brazil Research, a consolidated annual survey on the consumption of electronic games in the country, main gaming-related activities are playing or downloading a free-to-play video game (40%), playing a videogame with real-life friends (35%) and watching a live gaming stream (e.g. on Twitch, YouTube Gaming, PandaTV etc.) (20%). However, the act of playing video games continues to be surrounded by false stereotypes, among them, that online gaming is a solitary and antisocial activity. 

Mr. Eduardo Picarelli, director of the Heineken Business Unit in Brazil, explains the brand's aim, "We want to help to break this stereotype. We entered the universe of games because we have something in common: the fact that socialisation is both the core of our brand and the gamer community. Following the tradition of always offering a fresh perspective on the themes it addresses, the role chosen for Heineken in this campaign is to demystify the image of the gamer isolated from friends and celebrate the act of gaming as a social activity”. 

In addition to the main film launch, the campaign will also feature upcoming side stories and special activations. 'In-Games Bars', for instance, will consist in a promotional digital experience where Heineken will offer vouchers for their products in 2700 mobile games. Through Ifood, a delivery food and drink app, gamers will be able to order their regular beverage to accompany their leisure time transforming more than 2700 games into 2700 new Heineken bars. While with 'Beer Matchmaking', in partnership with the St Marché supermarket flagship in São Paulo, Heineken will contribute to the solution of a socialisation problem that gamers complain a lot about: matchmaking. Via a limited-edition bottle with a QR Code players will be able to connect, according to their favourite type of game, creating the perfect match. 

The conception of the overall project comes from Le Garage, a section of Le Pub dedicated to Gaming and Innovation, where technology gets stripped down and reimagined as an inspiration for communication. Le Garage represents a vast array of projects and scopes - from initial creative ideas through to completion, which has already been featured in many important campaigns.  

“We saw a key opportunity for Heineken to enter the gaming universe and we made sure that any actions we took were putting gamers, who are a very demanding audience, at the forefront. This 360° campaign not only fits every platform but every audience being built for each cluster thanks to the great work of data and over-arching strategic approach. This all, supported by great PR activations and brand experiences, gives the innovative and fresh look Heineken is known for.” - Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub, global CCO of Publicis Worldwide and CCO of Publicis Groupe Italy 

Additionally, the project includes external media actions and digital platforms, with challenges in partnership with TikTok, special formats with Google, and activation of the streamer community with Twitch, among others. The entire campaign ecosystem is the first Heineken Global campaign produced entirely in Brazil.