Shutter Ads
Heineken2020
Shutter Ads is a 2020 out-of-home campaign (bar shutters and facades) for Heineken, created by Publicis Italy, Milan.
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The line
See this ad today, enjoy this bar tomorrow.
Why it works
When Covid closures left bars dark, Heineken stopped buying conventional billboards and rented the bars instead. Publicis Italy turned the roll-down shutters, windows and facades of shut venues into paid poster sites carrying hopeful lines such as "See this ad today, enjoy this bar tomorrow." Money that would have gone to billboard owners went straight to the bar owners. Launched in December 2020, with early coverage showing 15 bars in Barcelona, it ran in Argentina, Germany, Indonesia, Italy and Spain. It is studied as media planning that is itself the creative idea: the placement is the message, and the ad budget doubles as support for the trade partners the brand depends on. It won the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2021. Heineken reports that more than 5,000 bars took part, about €7.5 million reached them directly, and every participating bar later reopened.
Techniques
- Purpose and cause Instead of paying billboard owners, the brand rents the shutters of bars shut by Covid, so the ad budget goes straight to struggling bar owners.
- Guerrilla and ambient Roll-down shutters, windows and facades of closed venues become poster sites, making the dark bars themselves both the medium and the message.
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