Heineken taps into moderation culture for zero-alcohol promotions

In a responsible consumption-themed, mobile-led campaign launching this weekend, Heineken Ireland plans to give away €10 vouchers to some 5,000 users of taxi app Free Now in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. It’s a six-week partnership that arrives at an interesting, even pivotal, time for alcohol marketing.

City streets, gig venues and stadiums provide ample evidence of pent-up demand for post-Covid socialising, but that exuberance may be balanced by the very real trend for health and wellness among clued-up, gym-conscious young people. Indeed, as Heineken Ireland senior brand manager Ronan McCormack says, this is “not even a trend”, but a shift to moderation that is “here to stay”.

So while Heineken has for some years now put 10 per cent of its annual marketing budget into what it calls “EHR” campaigns (“enjoy Heineken responsibly”), it has more recently stepped up its investment in various zero-alcohol brand extensions.

Heineken 0.0%, launched just four years ago, has been “quite a category builder”, says McCormack, with the company’s focus now on ways of making draught pints of the zero brand available without compromising quality. To date, this involves rolling out countertop dispensing systems known as “blade” units to more than 2,500 on-trade locations, with more to come. This is a “perfect interim solution”, according to McCormack, though Heineken is also trialling a more standard keg route for Heineken 0.0% in controlled locations, including at last weekend’s Indiependence music festival in Co Cork.

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An inadvertent consequence of Government regulations requiring the fencing off of alcohol aisles, meanwhile, is that drinks giants have been gifted a pre-gate opportunity to promote zero-alcohol products, with Heineken funding more than 1,100 “zero zones” in grocery retailers and off-licences. This gives additional prominence and “visibility” to products that perhaps “would have been tucked away on the bottom of a shelf and not really taken seriously”, says McCormack.

Demand for zero-alcohol drinks is “not necessarily a younger or older thing”, he stresses. “Moderation in general, certainly when it comes to drinking, is more and more important and is being embraced by more people.”

As a result, Heineken’s approach to marketing zero alcohol is evolving from messages that target only people who “can’t” drink alcohol — if they are driving, for instance — to include people who “simply choose not to drink”.