Heineken USA CMO Nuno Teles recently sat for a Q&A with CHIEFMARKETER.com to discuss the brewer's Dos Equis brand and its first year as the official beer sponsor of the CFP. Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for brevity.
Q: Why did this (CFP) deal make sense for Dos Equis?
Teles: It allowed us to upgrade a domestic brand to a premium domestic brand. With Dos Equis activating this platform, it gave the retailers an opportunity to offer a brand that is more premium. With that, it would increase the business and grow sales.
Q: Can you expand on those goals?
Teles: The goal was for all of the stakeholders to be engaged with Dos Equis in a crucial period of the year that goes from September to the end of the year. It basically gives a rally cry to all of us for five months to really be behind this great platform. The ultimate goal was to generate more displays at shop floors. The more cases we have displayed, the more sales we’re going to have.
Q: What aspect has been the most valuable to Dos Equis in the partnership?
Teles: Having your retailers engaging with the platform. It’s having the retailers realize they can sell more by supporting Dos Equis around the College Football Playoff. They really need to be behind that to give us that incremental spike. In order to achieve that, it was critical to work with our original teams; to take advantage of every single game in the regions that those games would be played would be key. ... College football is indeed a passion point for our consumer and that will get the brand closer to our consumer.
Q: You offered consumers an opportunity to win a VIP experience at the CFP National Championship. Did this provide the best form of engagement/data collection for the campaign? Why was this aspect such a heavy focus?
Teles: If I want consumers to change behavior, I want to engage them in some sort of action. For the “Gameday Greatness” contest, we had north of 1 million entries. That proves consumers were keen to engage with us. If you force people to have an action, you engage more with them and they’ll remember that engagement in a more intense way. Those 1 million entries were a record for us.
Q: How do you think Year One around the College Football Playoff performed?
Teles: Above our expectations. We grew above year-to-date market share. That’s a good indication. We saw increased sales and we saw all of the stakeholders embracing the platforms. ... We saw close to 8,000 displays, which is above the average for the year (CHIEFMARKETER.com, 1/26).
