Heineken ups the ante

by Rosie Davenport

Heineken is planning to take a swipe at rivals with a fresh TV campaign in the new year.

The brewer admits that it has taken longer than expected to win the trade over to the 5% abv Heineken which replaced the 3.4% version, and is upping the ante in the "third stage" of its marketing assault.

Heineken's UK managing director Rob Marijnen said he wants to build on the brand's current campaign starring actor Ray Liotta, famous for his role in GoodFellas, with a follow-up advert focusing on why consumers choose one brand over another.

"The first advertising campaign explained that Heineken had changed and the current one takes the shock approach with Ray Liotta saying: This is why you should drink Heineken'. We're now ready to enter the third stage where we ask consumers: Why are you drinking mainstream brands when you could be drinking this?'."

Marijnen said he was currently reviewing scripts for the creative, adding that he hoped Liotta would continue playing the main character.

Pledging to match this year's £24m marketing budget behind Heineken in 2005, Marijnen said he was cautious about directly attacking competitors individually in the premium-strength sector, adding that Heineken was not looking to take on Stella but would like to grow as big as Grolsch.

Indicating that Amstel would also get greater support next year, Marijnen admitted the beer had been neglected while the team focused on Heineken,although more funds were expected to be freed up as the "mindset moved more towards Amstel".