Heineken's sales have seen a refreshing 5.3% bump in recent years thanks to its ad campaigns. But it's not because they're fun, the brand is great at building an intrinsic signature style which sticks in your head. Here's the neuro science breakdown on what you can learn from Heineken.
From Neuro-Insight:
Heineken – 'Legendary Journey' Campaign
The jurors had many comments on the Heineken – 'Legendary Journey' campaign by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam that ended up winning the coveted Effectiveness Award, which included a firm caution over just relying on social media buzz as not being a sufficient indicator of ad success. Advertising effectiveness needs to be proven by solid brand effects, sales results & profitibility.
The Heineken campaigns of recent years have been credited in driving a 5.3% increase in sales in 2012. The campaign was executed as one global idea and successfully used a highly integrated multimedia approach – with TV commercials through to an eight-hour ‘live serenade’ on YouTube involving 50 couples over 26 countries.
The Neuro-Insight analysis is based on ‘The Date’ TVC, while not the only component responsible for the great business results it would be regarded as highly representative of how consumers responded to the central creative idea, particularly with respect to how well consumers responded to the well-integrated Heineken Branded moments throughout all of these executions.
What to Look For in the Neuro Analysis
Memory Encoding is the validated link advertising effectiveness and consumer behaviour. In other words, the higher the level of memory is – particularly during specific branded moments – the more successful the communication will be. With this in mind, here's a brief explanation of what exactly is going on here. Take a look at the video below, you'll see a red line and a blue line. Each represents a different form of memory encoding. The red line represents Memory Detail, where the brain encodes specific details of the advertisement, such as a voiceover, a fact, or a URL. Meanwhile, the blue line is Memory Global, where the brain takes in the ad as a whole, rather than specific details. The higher the line, the stronger the memory encoding. Our target for important moments (eg. messaging, branding) is 0.70 & higher!
Unmistakably Heineken
The Heineken TVCs have been very successful in building a signature style – on many levels. One of the common features of these Heineken ads, is the way the brand is intrinsically linked to the storyline. The way a bottle of Heinenken appears on a tray, being served by a waiter, is a reliable feature of the brand across the 'Legendary Journey' campaign. So what? Well, while the analysis of just one TVC won’t necessarily prove the benefit of this consistency, it is a benefit that we have measured with specific ‘moments of consistency’, over long periods of time and across a number of TVCs. OK, so what? These brand signatures can be a powerful trigger that drive stronger levels of memory encoding.
High Levels of Memory During Branding
Not every branded moment achieves peak levels of memory, but many of the branded moments do hit 0.70 or higher. This is the key criteria for success in a TVC, otherwise you have the situation of ‘great ad, but who’s it for?’ The final sequence is crucially important. The end ‘cheers’ scene between the couple with a Heineken (being a re-trigger moment) leading into final branding performs well, by achieving strong levels of memory. The sample composition in this case was Heineken beer drinkers.
Storytelling Delivers Results
Great storytelling appears to consistently deliver a significant financial payback to advertisers. That’s because great storytelling manages to open the doorway to memory for brands to walk through – explicitly & implicitly! The Neuro measure of Memory Encoding in this analysis is simply quantifying a brand story – be it the action, intrigue, pace, drama, goosebumps (or whatever your technique may be). Let’s see what 2014 delivers at Cannes!
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