Heineken’s Amazing Soccer Swindle

Check out this example of a fantastic guerrilla marketing campaign by Heineken that, in-turn, became a viral video hit.

Heineken staged a fake classical music concert at the same time as a crucial Real Madrid vs. AC Milan game and faced 1,100 unsuspecting Italian football fans with the predicament of either giving in to their girlfriends, professors and bosses who were to convince them by any means necessary to attend the concert, or to ditch the concert and watch the match.

Unsurprisingly, but much to the displeasure of the football fans, most were persuaded to attend the event instead of watching their beloved team in action only to be greeted with a nice surprise a few minutes into the concert.

With 1.5 million people watching their reactions on live TV, and up to five million more watching on the site devoted to the event, not to mention a great deal of news attention, Heineken garnered significant coverage out of this stunt online.

This is a great example of how on-the-ground guerrilla marketing campaigns can be perfectly matched with video marketing and the social web.