brand behaviour is better than an any advert

I haven't been able to stop thinking about The Candidate video that Heineken released last month. If you haven't seen it, press play and spend 4 minutes watching the above video.

The reason I love this piece of branded content is that it encapsulates what Heineken as a brand stands for more than any advert could.


Who is responsible for this piece of branded content?

The HR department or the Marketing department?

That answer is actually irrelevant.


For people working in marketing (advertising being just one of those disciplines, remember) branded content is one of the latest "must haves" in hope of capturing the attention of very distracted bunches of people. We spend far too long as organisations and agencies trying to come up with the next big You Tube hit (no client wants a small hit, do they).

We tire ourselves trying to understand what makes video content so contagious that people want to willingly pass it around their friends. We rarely know how to measure the effectiveness of that contagion, but that's for another post.

When a brand acts from the inside out it has the power and capability to create engaging stories from around the business that haven't been contrived out of a marketing or advertising brief. After watching this video you can't help but think what a cool place it would be to work at Heineken. That it is a place that appreciates humour, socialisation and yes, sport.

These emotional kind of associations are the most powerful for existing or potential customers of brands, because they are stored in our long-term memories. When people make purchase decisions, without even realising it, they are filtering information about what they know about a product and brand. While this is largely what the marketing department is tasked to influence, I love that this branded content from Heineken proves that brands are not built out of advertising briefs and that actually when a brand behaves according to it's personality throughout the business it is impactful and effective.

I am sure HR guys out there would also agree that this is also a radical way to not only attract the right kind of talent but more importantly employ and retain the right brew of people.