Heineken has launched its final episode of its 'Dropped' campaign, a branded content series which has seen six men abandoned in remote places with nothing but their wits and a (usually) useless item to help get them home. However, Heineken’s Sandrine Huijgen, global communications director and driving force of the activity, has told The Drum if it were up to her then there would be at least one more episode to come.
“We’ve been working on it for two years, from the moment we briefed to launching the last episode,” she said. “So I really would love it to continue. I’m still trying internally to do one last one, but I don’t know yet if I am going to be successful.”
The final episode doesn’t disappoint with two men, one from Ireland and one from Poland, handcuffed together on a Philippian island. Overall the online series has proved successful, with Heineken thus far seeing over 27.7 million combined views of the campaign and more than 400,000 consolidated shares of the content across Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. What’s more, the average time spend on each video was two minutes, in other words, the whole episode. Commenting on why this has worked for Heineken, Huijgen said: “We looked at it as a combination of the TV campaign, where the branding is really strong, and the Dropped episodes, which do not push the brand as that it would really feel inauthentic and completely defy the point of what we are trying to do.” She continued: “I really don’t see Dropped working on its own for the brand, but instead it gave its own contribution to show how our consumers are really great guys. We elevated them and put the brand in the background; that’s the best way to do branded content, in a way that’s credible for the viewers.”Wieden + Kennedy’s Mark Bernath, the executive creative director on the campaign echoed Huijgen sentiments, saying that for clients “it is essential to the process for this type of work to be treated differently than a TVC and for clients to understand that. If it becomes just a long ad it misses the point of being content.”Given the risky nature of the campaign, it’s surprising to hear of the lack of problems the team faced pulling it together.“We were putting those guys of their comfort zone but we were so much out of our comfort zone as well. Having consumers like this dropped in difficult conditions where they have to cross borders you have to let go much more,” Huijgen explained. “It was obviously not scripted and we were relying on those guys to make it interesting to watch and really crossing our fingers that nothing too dramatic would happen.”“It was a run and gun operation that allowed for the unknown," said Bernath on the filming. "We had things in place to signpost the narrative but it was important to allow for the unexpected. With the unexpected came obvious production challenges. So the client's faith in us to pull it off was tantamount to its success.”
