Heineken Myanmar · Big Bang Marketing · campaign 2024
Launching a year-long platform for Heineken
The agency’s largest account by revenue, and the one with the least room for error. I held the client relationship and the launch of its year-long music platform, working through the team that ran it.
What this one shows
My three other case studies are hands-on — I wrote, published and measured the work myself. This is the opposite kind of proof: the biggest budget, the most people, the most senior client relationship, and results delivered through a team rather than by my own hands.
The challenge
Heineken wanted to own "music" as a brand platform in Myanmar. The obstacle wasn’t awareness — it was that social algorithms keep music fans inside one genre, so audiences who should have shared an occasion never met. The answer was a continuing above- and below-the-line platform running the whole year, putting consumers at the centre of the experience rather than the brand.
The platform
Refresh Your Music — genre-crossing music experiences wrapped in a premium Heineken experience, aimed at music lovers aged 18–35 in Yangon and Mandalay. The creative platform and campaign strategy were authored by the agency’s Strategy Director and Head of Digital. My side of it was getting the launch out of the door — on time, on brief, and in front of the client throughout.
What I owned
Heineken was the agency’s largest account by revenue, and account leadership on it sat with me as Business Director, Digital Experience. My tenure covered the platform’s launch — the client relationship, the go-live of the campaign assets, and the first takeover event — working through the Account Director and Senior Account Manager on my team. Strategy and creative direction came from elsewhere in the agency; my job was to hold the account, the timelines and the standard.
Day-to-day client leadership on the agency’s biggest account — approvals, escalations, and getting the platform live on schedule.
Coordinating the content series, the indoor takeover event, on-trade and off-trade promotions, KOL, paid media and PR into one delivery schedule.
Performance reporting back to the client on every asset released, and managing the conversation when a number came in under target.
The scope
A twelve-month platform, of which I held the launch phase — the assets that went live, the first takeover event, and the reporting on both.
Results against target
Every launch asset carried an agreed reach and impression KPI, and reporting against them was mine. All four went live during my tenure. Three beat both targets; one fell short.
| Asset | Reach / impressions | KPI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global teaser film | 7M / 18M | 6.6M / 13M | Over target |
| RYM Reconstruct teaser | 6M / 17M | 5.7M / 11M | Over target |
| Artist announcement | 1M / 1M | 233K / 466K | Over target |
| Artist interview teaser | 2.8M / 4M | 5M / 10M | Under target |
What I learned
The asset that missed its target was the one that leaned hardest on a single personality; the ones that beat it gave people something to turn up to or take part in. Participation outperformed presentation — the same lesson, in a very different market, as the helpline post that travelled furthest by simply being useful.
Working through an Account Director and Senior Account Manager also changed what my job actually was. On an account this size the value isn’t in doing the work — it’s in holding the standard, absorbing the pressure from the client, and leaving the team room to deliver. It’s also the reason I can read a campaign’s numbers without having personally set up the ads: I spent months defending them in front of the person paying for them.