Heineken seals mobile and video deal with Google

Heineken has penned a global partnership with Google that will see it increase its YouTube activity and use mobile as its primary marketing channel in emerging markets.

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The deal spans 20 countries and will see the Dutch brand execute homepage takeovers and use pre-roll ad slots on Google’s YouTube site.

The two companies also said their marketing teams would work more closely in future. The news comes after Heineken’s YouTube video The Date achieved nearly 4m views within three weeks of launch last month as part of its Legends campaign.

Henrique de Castro, Google’s global president of media and platforms, says the campaign would improve Google’s ability to target users and measure the effectiveness of the campaigns.

Heineken’s ’The Date’ video generated millions of hits within weeks.

The two companies will also work on creating mobile campaigns in emerging economies, where mobile internet exceeds desktop use as part of the deal, in a move that reflects Unilever’s “mobile-first” strategy in Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Heineken’s Star Player app for the iPhone, which encourages users to guess the outcome of match scenarios, launched earlier this year to critical acclaim.

Last week, the app, which was developed by AKQA, was awarded a Cannes Golden Lion award in the mobile category. Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit earlier this month, AKQA chairman Ajaz Ahmed told attendees that it had already generated a “500% ROI” for Heineken.

This story first appeared on New Media Age. For more digital stories and analysis from NMA click here now

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