The name's Bond, Heineken Bond

It came as surprise to me that Heineken were brand partners with James Bond. Having seen every James Bond movie and being a passionate and usually fairly observant partnership marketing advocate I had never noticed this. Aston Martin, MMW, Ford, Tag Heur, Virgin Atlantic, Sony Mobile and many others but never Heineken.

To me and millions of others i assume Bond will always be associated with Martini, shaken not stirred. It's the classic, product placement before product placement that never was as Ian Fleming just connected to the two brands, Bond and Martini to conjure up Bond's exotic allure. Heineken and Bond just doesn't have the same ring about it!

Heineken recently announced that it has extended its 15 year partnership with the James Bond franchise. It will introduce an unprecedented and innovative global marketing campaign to support the launch of the new film Skyfall.

This is the 23rd film in the James Bond series, and the 6th consecutive James Bond film that the Heineken brand has been involved with...... apparently. I shall have to rewatch them all and seek out those Heineken moments……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CB1iY0yeWc

Heineken's global Skyfall marketing programme will include a wide range of promotion and activation rights in and around the film, including for the first time the participation of James Bond actor Daniel Craig in the brand's worldwide campaign starting September 2012. It will also leverage its global relationships with facebook and Google to ignite digital conversations about SKYFALL amongst its adult consumers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuvW6f_IfBs

I have yet to remember any dialogue where Bond goes,  “Martini? not this time, I think I’ll have a Heineken……”.  Surely Heineken are

trying to change a  brand association that is steeped in the memory of 50 years of heritage and dozens of films before the Heineken association even started? Wouldn't it be similar to the Coke Zero partnership that happened in 2008 and was also something of a mismatched brand partnership as you never saw Bond have a Coke Zero....nor did you ever associate the two brands. In fact if I hadn't reminded you of this would you have remembered that Coke were a Bond partner for the last film....?

I would suggest that Heineken need some massive, global brand partnerships with male fashion retailers, tech brands and try and engage with the target male audience outside of supermarkets and off licenses and actually accentuate the association which to many seems like a miss-association.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4u99YS2Ws