Current Issues in Marketing Strategy

When we think of a market leading brand, we think of outrageous advertising stunts like The CUB Plastic Cup, or Panasonic's vertical tennis game, these are the moments that excite us, they are reported internationally across TV, Radio, Newspaper, Blogs and word of mouth. These moments go down in history and continue to pay dividend for years to come. Heineken recently pulled a stunt of pure brilliance, in the home of soccer, Italy.



Heineken ran a guerrilla operation, enlisting some 200 co-conspirators to influence their over 1000 of their friends, employees, students and partners to forgo the biggest sporting even of the year Real Madrid vs AC Milan to listen to a classical music recital. Using peer pressure and influence, these people were forced into one of the cities main auditorium's and forced to ensure a bout of minutes of classic music.

The camera footage says it all. The room is full of young soccer fanatics twitching, coughing, just looking for an excuse to leave. After 15 minutes of pain, a projection above the musicians shows a pen writing phrases:

- "Hard to say no to your boss isn't it?"
- "To your girlfriend?"
- "And to the match?"
- "How could you even thought of missing the big match?"

The crowd breaks into rapturous applause and Heineken begin projecting the game, phase in the commentary and reveal that they are both the pranksters and the hero's of Italy.

The end results:
- Over 1.5 Million people watched them live on Sky Sport
- 10 Million saw them on the news
- 5 million saw them on the Internet in 2 weeks.

Josh Strawczynski's Opinion: This is how a big brand maintains its position in the market. These are the moments that history records, remembers and passes down to the next generation. These are the indelible marks that we as consumers remember, idolise and aspire to. SEM, SEO, Social Media, Newspapers, TV, these are the vehicles that deliver the news, but the event is the news!