Social Media Campaign Review: Heineken "The Candidate"

Coming May is going to be the season of football with the commencement of the UEFA Champions League. Be prepared to see your timelines flooded with everything about Football. But Heineken, the beverage brand wants to give you the privilege to cover the game live on all social media channels in India with "The Candidate" campaign.

Objective:

Promotional contest to select an individual as a social media reporter for the Heineken social media channels.

Execution:

The UEFA Champions League finals 2013 will be held on May 25th at Wembley, London, and it promises to be a mega event regardless of which teams compete. Heineken is looking for a reporter to cover the weekend for their social media channels in India.

Since it is an alcoholic beverage brand, only candidates above the age of 25 are allowed to view or participate in this campaign. The campaign is entirely based on a facebook app called “The Candidate”

Step one is to watch “The Candidate” video, a story of how Heineken actually hired someone for an assignment based in Amsterdam. &feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Watch the video here. Step two is to accept the Facebook application request to allow access to certain portions of your Facebook profile.

Step three is where you enter your details, links to your social profiles, upload 3 pictures of yourself and answer a few questions like “What connects you, Heineken and football” and a few words on why you’d like to be their social reporter.This creates your profile on the app as an entry to the contest. Voting is allowed from other users which could increase your chances of winning.

The winner gets to fly to London for the finals weekend, watch the match live, attend parties and provide updates on social networks as you go. Entries for the contest close on 31st of March 2013. The winner will be announced by the end of April.

Positives:

This is not your everyday boring contests that scream out loud for attention and force you to spam. The contest is well designed, keeping it simple and clean.

The questions asked to judge a participant are very apt and help understand the social media presence of the contestant. Audience clearly knows on what criteria they will be judged on. This contest is like a social media internship where you get to a watch your favourite game live and be a part of all the excitement. The brand is involving its audience

The return on investment for this campaign is good, considering the fact that it is being run across the world.

Scope of Improvement:

Apart from the voting feature, which is usually used by most of the brands, there is no other engagement or virality factor in the campaign. The application could have been made a little more engaging.

Conclusion:

Using social media platforms to create a contest based on social media platforms. Brilliant idea, could-be-done-better execution, this contest is a paradise for someone who loves football and is frequent on social media platforms. This campaign not only connects with the audience but with the brand identity and the game.