Whitbread Beer Company has appointed Communique on the first ever
retainer-based account to promote the Heineken brand among consumer
audiences nationwide.
The Manchester-based firm is part of a team of marketing agencies put
together to revitalise the brand which finally dropped the ’refreshes
other parts’ line last year after nearly a quarter of a century.
Communique won the work after a pitch against agencies including Cohn
and Wolfe, which has handled project work for Heineken in the past.
Communique’s retainer contract starts this week, but it has also worked
for Heineken on a project basis. The agency handled PR for last month’s
troubled poster campaign launch. A controversial nativity scene was
withdrawn after complaints from the church and the public. The pounds 10
million advertising push kicked off in August with a TV ad featuring a
new tagline: ’How Refreshing, How Heineken’.
’It’s a fresh approach and we wanted to make sure we communicated that,’
said Heineken brand manager Alex Lockton. ’We’ve got a very big year
coming up, which is why we got a full-time agency.’
Communique will also be involved in putting together new sponsorships to
replace Heineken’s historic links with rugby.
