TRAPPED IN THE TRADITIONAL BUBBLE OF GIFTING AND EXPRESSING LOVETargeting young consumers, especially GenZ who is progressive and always wants to erase every boundary to live in the unknown. However, for them, gifting - an inadmissible and well-established custom within Vietnamese culture, has grown predictable and dull in significance as our progressive audience have always been familiar with their family and friends' close bond and keep away from new stretches to make festive moments more meaningful in miraculous ways. Their inner secures themselves in the common zone because of reluctance of opening their hearts to share the bond & express their love with the surroundings - those are who they unexpectedly find the magic connection with.What if we bring back the magic of the festive season by opening a new unexpected circle of friends and acquaintances for gifting and expressing love?

SPARKING UNEXPECTED CONNECTIONS TO BE THE MOST MEANINGFUL GIFT OF FESTIVEAcknowledging the youth’s yearning nature to explore interesting freshness yet standing still in their comfort zone, Heineken refreshed that convention by creating the gifting-circle unexpectedness so that the meaningful and exciting act of gifting is re-alive. This year, Heineken brought audience with elevated experiences opening their minds to new possibilities of more magical connections with: Those who flavor up the life yet unintentionally forgottenThose that appears daily yet goes unnoticedThose with long history yet turned silentHeineken, to ignite the unexpected with the unexpected, turn up the heat of gifting once again as we believe the best gift that can be given is that of unexpected connections - to introduce the message: “OPEN THE GIFT OF UNEXPECTED CONNECTION”

The new era of gifting and expressing love is opening up with online-to-offline elevated experiences to make the Vietnameses youth from acknowledging to acting and finally living with their unexpected connections.PHASE 1: OPENING UP THE UNEXPECTED CONNECTIONWITH THE NEVER-BEFORE SEEN INTERACTIONSAttracting every talk-of-the-town, Heineken leveraged on the authentic connections that have yet to showed much dynamic from hot influencers duo - Justatee & 16Typh and Karik & Quỳnh Anh Shyn - to drive curiosity & discussion among Social:Justatee & 16Typh, the rap duo with little co-appearance and different artistic approach, yet now join together to create “Rap Love”Karik & Quynh Anh, the first-time-ever revealed relationship with a surprising co-connection background of their stylistThe social films featuring these 2 unexpected connections successfully initiated the “Open Invitation” spirit via Heineken loyalty digital platform - eKoin microsite which provokes youngsters to send out the very first re-bonding gifts to their unexpected relationships. As long as the youth opens their hearts, Heineken is always ready to open the way for unexpected connections.Enlightened by diversified contents of unexpectedly cross-category influencers and “the first ever” connection among communities as the trend-setters:Hau Hoang & Khanh Van, two close friends through a TV show, yet turned silent on social mediaLy Ly & Sunni Ha Linh, the composer - singer duo for many hits, yet never appeared togetherMinh Tu & Vo Hoang Yen, the closed friendship in model industry, yet gone no-collaborative for a long timeEven to the surprisingly hot communities connection (gifting from Hóng Hớt showbiz to Bà Tám Showbiz, from Chuyện của Hà Nội to Chuyện của Sài Gòn…)Heineken has shifted the behavior of consumers gaining 1.5 Million traffic to eKoin for exploring the brand invitation and created a social movement of sparking 183,483 fresh connections via branded invitation cards sent. PHASE 2: UNITE TO ENRICH THE CONNECTIONWITH THE LEGENDARY HEINEKEN COUNTDOWN EVENTContinuing with the aspiration, Heineken invites youngsters to truly connect with their connection offline- with world-class experience - Heineken Countdown Party live-bridge in Nha Trang and Ha Noi. The event extremely excited young consumers with unexpected connections from interactive activities encouraging group connections to performances crystally stating the connection spirit regardless of generation, space and time thanks to:The location-crossing brand representatives of DJ BassJacker & DJ Quintino (the world-recognized Dutch DJs) and DJ Hyo (the popular K-pop singer opening up the Korean Wave in music), together with top-notch Vietnamese singers of all generation (Thu Minh, JustaTee, Phương Ly, rapper Blacka…)Diverse performances connecting genre-crossing enthusiasts in pop, rap, dance, EDM… from local to global performersThis surprising combination enriched the connection spirit and helped “OPEN THE GIFT OF UNEXPECTED CONNECTION” spirit massively reach 45.6 Millions Vietnamese youngsters' hearts  right from the first glance., and attract over 175,00 participated connections join in the Countdown Party.PHASE 3: THE UNENDING MAGICImpressively, the magic never stopped with unending “Open Unexpected Connection” stories from lifestyle influencers (eg: Sơn Đoàn, Monsimi, Lý Thành Cơ, Sơn Tùng), strengthen the brand’s spirit with youngsters in Lunar New Year context.Eventually, Heineken successfully ignites unexpected connections, making them bigger through the excitement of gifting and opens the promising festive magic in the long journey ahead!

From the remarkable social record:- Achieved total 832,132 buzz on Social - Lift to Top 4 BSI Campaigns in December 2022 and in January 2023- Top 2 Campaign Tet in 2023 with more than 800.000 discussion on social and 90% relevant to brand’s messageTo the real behavior movement:Campaign successfully reached 47,6M users (coverage 89% target audiences) and generated 342 outcomes including paid and earned. (+40% vs. KPI)- Drive 1,5M traffic to eKoin platform for “Open Invitation” with CR 11.5% as highest in the history of Heineken festive campaign- Spark more than 300,000 unexpected connections with Heineken via both online and offline touchpoints - More than 175,000 participated connections at Heineken Countdown PartyAnd lift up sales momentum- Drive 182% growth in sales volume in Q4 2022, resulting 1pt gained market share accordingly