The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has
announced that the 2015 Creative Marketer of the Year will be awarded to Heineken.
The accolade recognises companies who have inspired innovative, global
marketing of their products and who embrace creativity in their brand
communications.
Said Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals: "Heineken
lives and breathes creativity throughout its organisation, and has a superb
framework that allows its marketing teams the freedom to experiment while
retaining the core essence of their many brands. It is testament to the company
that in the last three years, six of its brands have won 41 Lions across seven
countries, including a coveted Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness. It is also
a sign of how important creativity is culturally that they are only the second
client to have won the award twice since we introduced it in 1992, having
previously taken it home in 1995."
Positioning Heineken beer as a global brand
In 2013 Heineken won the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness
Grand Prix for a campaign titled 'Heineken's Legendary Journey: Justifying a
Premium the World Over', which aimed to grow and position Heineken beer as a
global brand.
Alexis Nasard, Heineken president Western Europe and global chief
marketing officer, said: "Creativity is a great competitive advantage to
have because it is hard to replicate. It is at the heart of great design and
marketing programmes, as well as innovation. These are the lifeblood of our
business. Award-winning campaigns help build the business disproportionately. The
purpose of Heineken is to continually wow the world with our brands, people and
performance. This award shows that we are doing just that.
“Our global spirit of creativity and innovation drives our
commitment to the beer category in duty free and travel retail and the global
campaigns create synergies that help us to connect with consumers at travel
locations across the world. We are committed to developing a series of
innovative and creative on- and off-trade concepts across cruise, ferries and
border stores delivering a more premium and, when relevant, experiential
proposition, like the BrewLock one way keg concept and Heineken Taste the World
off-trade concept.”
Heineken will be honoured during the Cannes Lions, taking
place from June 21-27, 2015 in Cannes, France.
