A TV spot, ‘Continental shift’, features hordes of rugby fans scrumming down to push the world’s continents together in time for September’s tournament in France, for which Heineken is the official beer supplier. “The idea is that the world is brought together by rugby,” explained Bates Singapore ECD Robert Gaxiola.
“There’ll be a point in time when rugby fans everywhere will be watching the World Cup. Beer’s very much part of rugby culture and the Heineken brand is about bringing people together — so it was a solid fit.”
The campaign is a result of a pitch between Bates and the UK agency launched by Frank Lowe last year, Red Brick Road, which is also on Heineken’s global roster. Jan Schapink, Heineken’s international communications manager, said: “When Bates Singapore first presented the idea, we knew immediately that it had captured the essence of Heineken’s association with the World Cup.”
Shot in Paris, Australia and New Zealand, the ad has a number of different endings. One spot finishes with a Frenchman requesting beer reinforcements as he sees a swarm of rugby fans descending on Paris. Another sees the scrum charge towards the door of a Parisian bar. The endline reads: ‘One world, one Cup, one beer’.
The spot breaks in New Zealand first, then rolls out in Europe and the rest of the world. Print, outdoor, PR and on-premise activity will also run. Online, a website at Heineken.com/rwc2007 features a ‘fantasy rugby’ game and encourages users to download the commercial.
Heineken, which also sponsors the European rugby competition the Heineken Cup and the UEFA Champions League, shares Rugby World Cup sponsorship this year with Toshiba, Emirates, CapGemini, Orange and Vediorbis. The first Rugby World Cup in 1987 attracted a cumulative worldwide TV audience of 300 million. The most recent tournament in 2003 was watched by a cumulative 3.5 billion people in 205 countries. The final, between host nation Australia and England, was the most-watched rugby match in Australian TV history, when two million Australians tuned in to see their country compete — and lose.
