White Plains, N.Y.-based Heineken USA welcomed members from its distributor network to Chicago this fall to inform them about product and marketing news surrounding its four core brands: Heineken, Dos Equis, Tecate and Strongbow.

For its flagship brand — Heineken — the company will continue to build its support of Heineken Light through its partnership with Tony award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris. The ad campaign There’s More Behind the Star, featuring Academy award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro, also will continue into 2017 following the measurable success from the program, which launched in early 2016. In on-premise, the company’s innovative BrewLock draft beer system will continue to penetrate more locations and markets, it says. 

The company’s Dos Equis brand also is making a splash in 2017 as the first Official Beer Sponsor of the College Football Playoff (CFP). To culminate the first year of sponsorship, the Most Interesting Man’s helicopter RV from the latest commercial will be featured at fan engagements for the CFP National Championship, which takes place Jan. 9, 2017, in Tampa, Fla. Heineken USA’s multi-year agreement with ESPN to become the Official Beer Sponsor of the CFP was signed in December 2015.

Also within Heineken USA’s Mexican beer portfolio, the Tecate brand is on pace to continue its national launch strategy in 2017. It will continue this through innovative marketing programs like the Tecate Beer Wall TV spot, which launched in September.

Additionally, the company announced that its Strongbow hard cider brand will launch a new marketing program and two new flavors.

Uniting all the brands will be the return of the company’s successful What’s Your Play? portfolio retail program, which will run from Jan. 1 to
Feb. 28 during the football playoff weeks and the Super Bowl. The shopper- and retailer-focused program will include football-themed point-of-sales materials, in-store and digital partnerships, and a Twitter-driven sweepstakes. Cross-merchandising with premium snack and beverage brands also will be leveraged to inspire legal-drinking-age men and women to share their “play” by choosing Heineken USA brands for their celebrations, it says. BI