Heineken's Wicked Wonderland party [GALLERY]

COMPANY:HEINEKENEVENT:SENSATIONDATE:28 SEPTEMBER 2013LOCALE:TAIWANEVENT OBJECTIVE:To strengthen Heineken’s brand positioning amongst 18-35 year olds and young urban male beer drinkers.EXECUTION:Heineken wanted to raise its brand positioning amongst its core target audience 18-35 year olds and who were “young urban male beer drinkers”. Peter Huizing, general manager of Heineken Taiwan, told Marketing Events that the objective of the event is to present “a new world and new experiences" to Taiwanese.It created Sensation, a dance event, where all visitors come dressed in white. The event was part of a 16 show across 13 countries, with Taiwan being the first destination on the Asian tour.[gallery link="file" ids="25022,25019,25018"]Heineken made use of a through-the-line campaign that included TVCs, digital site, print/ PR/ radio ads and through its local promoter, theLoop, to drum up interest ahead of the event.An official ticket sales press conference was held on 2 August, together by Heineken & ID&T ( the parent company of Sensation) to announce early bird ticket sales.The music extravaganza was held at Kaohsiung Arena, with the theme “Wicked Wonderland.” The equipment for the event, including its employees were flown in from Holland a week before the event to kick-start the event visuals, including a giant butterfly, huge keyholes and enormous LED screens. All the equipment weighed 50 tons and made use of 10 kilometres of cables.Event highlights included a seven-hour multi-sensorial experience with cutting edge lights, decor, theatrical acts, fireworks and electronic dance and trapeze performances.Audiences were issued strobe bracelets that formed a huge green Heineken logo.Taiwanese artists also made use of discarded Heineken cans to make creative artwork through the “Heineken Inspiring Sustainable Art Contest,” a green-sustainability-themed competition.The artwork of the winning teams was shown at the venue, essentially transforming Kaohsiung Arena into an art gallery.The brand also brought in internationally renowned DJs from Europe, England and the Netherlands for the event.RESULT:The event saw 15,000 people attending the event, with 20% of them being foreigners and the majority being Taiwanese from all over the country.All 15,000 tickets were sold within one day after sales began.There was also PR coverage across TV, online, radio, magazines, including Apple Daily, Sharp Daily, The Liberty Times, Vision Man and Ettoday.The ad value for the event hit NT$8,770,600, with a PR value of NT$19,407,400.LESSONS LEARNED:One of the biggest challenges in organising the event was selling the tickets at a premium price.“One of the biggest challenges is to convince local consumers that this is once in a life time eye opening experience and make them willing to pay more, compared to local host dance music events,” a spokesperson for the brand said.Another challenge faced by the brand was in the event production.Heineken overcame the challenge by conducting a full scale marketing campaign to drive awareness of the event. In addition, the complexity of the production details was managed well with experienced ID&T crew and local promoter theLoop as well as the support of local authorities: the Kaohsiung city government.For future events, the brand is aiming to ensure that other events are executed as well as Sensation.More images here:[gallery link="file" ids="25042,25041,25071,25073,25023,25013"]