Okay. You know how perfume and car ads are predictable, banal and basically always objectively suck? Beer ads have this magic way of being the opposite. Think Stella, think Heineken -- hell, think Budweiser for every last Super Bowl as far back as you can remember. What is it about the beer sector that takes a possibility and just stretches it beyond imaginable elasticity...? I have cream dreams about doing beer. (The ads. Not, like ... bottles.)
I'm late to the game in discovering "The Date" (Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam -- of course!), and probably wouldn't ever have seen it if I wasn't doing Epica Awards judging this year, but it has this fancy-free Shangri-La magic that makes you want to go back to the '70s and dance on a table or something.
The making-of is jam-packed with the same playful irony for double the time:
...if you can tie things nicely back to the brand.
We all have a kid inside who's thirsty for stories, who's waiting to fall in love with a moment, and who wants to laugh. This walks a nice line between modern self-deprecating humour and taste. See? It's like the difference between a good comedian and a bad one: you can be ostentatious and provocative if you're hitting those deeper chords, but if you're crass just to be crass, you're shooting blanks.
How do I begin describing what Contagious Magazine called "the most nauseatingly exciting bit of advertising" it's ever seen...?
It's like your fantasy league meets futures meets Foursquare meets Facebook meets I AM PLAYR meets the UEFA Champion's League in real-time.
With help from AKQA, Heineken's launched Star Player, an iPhone app that lets you "play" matches alongside the UEFA Champion's League. It launched just in time for the start of Man U vs. Schalke's semi-final (April 26th).
Ten minutes prior to the match's start on your telly, the app opens for play. When the whistle blows, the game timer syncs automatically with the time on your TV. You're given 8 chances to accurately predict which team will score, or whether one will, in 30 seconds -- positioned in the video above as a test of your pro acumen. You win badges or points for accurate calls ... and the earlier you make them prior to the goal, the higher the points, adding the pressure of speed.
Results can be published on Facebook Connect. You can play against friends or the world; it's your call.
This isn't the kind of thing I can play (my head would explode; I'm finger-slow), but even if it's not for you, it's not hard to see why this is cool shit that hits the spot. Star Player harnesses enthusiasm surrounding a match and get users engaged exactly the way they've always wanted: participating in social competition while collectively witnessing pro competition on-screen.
(How many bar fights have been started over somebody shouting "I CALLED THAT!"...?)
And the technology isn't new, or relegated exclusively to sporting events. Nearly two years ago, the BBC developed an iPhone application that delivers predictive plot quizzes that sync in real-time with televised soap operas. The phone mic is used to cue the quiz timer.
(...Doesn't that sound easy? Go use it in something.)
...to Amsterdam bars, to alienate lone wine drinkers, to say thanks for bringing the brand to one million Facebook Likes.
What I like about Heineken is that its efforts aren't always explosive, but they contribute to local colour (see HoloTouch in the States, the classical music prank in Italy, Holland's walk-in fridge box). These are sweet consistent gestures that feel intimate with the place.
This watchable piece with the just-plain-fun factor was orchestrated with masterful ease by Wieden + Kennedy (of course), even if "Open Your World" is, by contrast, clumsy.
