Heineken Go Places

First results are far beyond expectations. Only in first month over 170K interviews of which 67% completed and over 300% more job applications compare to the same period one year ago.

• Average site bounce rate: 3,54% (industry standard is 40-60% for content sites)
• LinkedIn company page: 54% follower increase
• Increase visits to HEINEKEN global Career Pages: 350%
• Increase in monthly viewers (June-Oct): + 250%
• Go Places website: average time spent on site: 5.24 minutes!

We learned that it is possible to do a super creative and fun project even though you are dealing with a huge company HR department, their PR team and their marketing team! It takes longer than a normal project (18 months between brief and launch) but it is worth the pain! And we learned to listen to Freddy’s ghost, still the heart and soul of the company!

We found a magazine article on how Freddy Heineken recruited top talents. He invited candidates and their wives for dinner and had a trick to have a good conversation with the wife, learning much more about the candidate’s personality. Freddy knew that having the right skills and experience is important, but personality just as much. It inspired us to use a personality test as a form of interviewing people the HEINEKEN way. Other inspiration was Dr. Seuss’s children’s story ‘Oh! The Places You’ll Go!’ and his poetic way to see how life (or a career) can be talked about and we used it to find a rhythm in what we wanted to say. ‘Go Places’ stands for the richness of opportunities HEINEKEN is offering, in functions, geography and across brands; playing on double meaning of being successful.
Next to a manifesto video, the campaign revolves around an interactive ‘job interview’, leading candidates in 12 unusual questions to a personality profile. It gives them a sense of the unique personality of HEINEKEN as an employer, but also learn something about their own personality and a possible fit with the company’s culture. The profile can be shared on social media or added to a job application. Not to be used to select the candidate per se, rather as an icebreaker in the real interview.

The brief: show to potential employees that The HEINEKEN Company is more than the famous beer brand. A company with a unique personality and company culture.

HEINEKEN has gone through a major transformation in the past 10 years. Not only has the company affirmed a truly global footprint, but it has also transformed from a brand portfolio point of view. HEINEKEN acquired quite a few additional companies and therefore became incredibly diverse. The company culture now is richer, whilst still remaining founded in strong roots. Now is the moment for HEINEKEN to present itself, and ‘Go Places’ enables the company to give potential employees a sense of who the company is, what the culture is, why it’s different and what makes HEINEKEN unique and special as a company.