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Heineken – the global beer brand which was launched by the United Breweries Ltd (UBL) in India last year – plans to undertake aggressive marketing activation campaigns based on the music platform in order to connect with its consumers.
The campaign will be launched early next fiscal, said Mr Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice-President (Marketing), UBL.
The company will set aside close to 30-40 per cent of the annual marketing spend on Heineken for such events.
Multi-city tours
The music campaign will focus on both large scale events like international multi-city tours by artists of repute globally, and small-scale events involving DJs and regional artists to engage with their fans and create awareness about the brand, Mr Sheikhawat told Business Line in a telephonic conversation.
Globally, Heineken connects with consumers through marketing activation campaigns based on its global sports, music and film platforms. These include the UEFA Champions League Football and the Rugby World Cup.
“We are in the process of identifying international artist for conducting exclusive Heineken music event in the various cities of India and it should be finalised by January 2012. This apart, we will also have what is known as ‘Heineken Greenroom' which is very famous in South East Asia – wherein famous DJs and artists get to interact with their fans. We will also have small events in pop bars and restaurants as a part of brand building exercise,” Mr Sheikhawat said.
The introduction of Heineken in the country happened in late 2009 after the Dutch company picked up 37.5 per cent stake in United Breweries. Thereafter, UBL started selling the imported brand of Heineken in early part of 2010.
Beer launch
Speaking at a press meet to announce the launch of the Heineken beer in Kolkata on Monday, Mr Sanjay Roy, General Manager – Marketing of UBL, said: “We sold close to 50,000 cases of imported Heineken in 2010-11. However, that has now come down to about 15,000 cases at present and is limited to few cities places like Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad where we are still not present.” Imports are likely to be phased out by the beginning of next fiscal, he added.
UBL – which started brewing the Heineken brand at its brewery in Taloja near Mumbai around August 2011 – has already sold close to 1.2 lakh cases of the beer in the last four months.
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