Over the course of their 25-year sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League Heineken have built a reputation for global activation excellence. One of their rights is to host the official after party for the UEFA Champions League, usually this would manifest as an incredible physical experience for a lucky few. This year however Covid-19 ruled that out. When the UEFA final 8s were announced on the 17th of June we realised they didn’t need a closing party, they needed an opening party. That gave us just 53 days to conceive, create, produce and broadcast a virtual party like never before.
The Opening Party, presented by Heineken & UEFA, powered by Defected was an 8-hour, live streamed virtual festival fusing the worlds of football and music to entertain and excite millions of fans around the world. The pinnacle of the virtual event saw Thierry Henry introduce Idris Elba before he headlined with a show-stopping set that brought house music culture and the live football fan experience together 80 metres up at the A’Dam Toren in Amsterdam, flanked by the official UEFA Champions League & Europa League trophies.
The Opening Party was promoted across Heineken Global and Market channels, UEFA channels, Defected Channels, Talent DJ channels and was even broadcast on TV in India and China. The result of which was a reach of over 300 million people across 97 countries (42 in Europe), over 20M viewers, huge Heineken brand uplift and our return to the no.1 sponsor associated with the UCL. Cheers to that.
