Dutch brewing giant Heineken is jumping into real-time "second-screen" experiences with a social media strategy targeting consumers on mobile devices. 

"We're working on projects at the moment that are building on consumer behaviour rather than interrupting it," Jeremy Brook, head of digital strategy and media innovation at Heineken told the UK's Marketing Week.

The brewer acknowledges mobile as a "gamechanger" and is offering marketers a chance to join in on the conversation with consumers through branded gaming and interactive events, like a game that allows users to interact with a live UEFA Champions League match or while in attendance at the Ultra Music Festival.Continue reading...

Sony Ericsson, the world’s fourth-largest mobile-phone manufacturer, had such success recently with a tennis sponsorship that it is pouring money, time, and energy into a partnership with the UEFA Champions League, a competition of the top European soccer clubs.

The UK's Marketing Week reports that Sony Ericsson will “include a number of social media campaigns, which the company says have been successful in building brand awareness and driving sales of the Xperia handset range.”

The move follows the brand's successful campaign with women's tennis champ Maria Sharapova (and a group of aspiring Sharapovas) that kicked off earlier this year, a WTA-backed effort that relied heavily on fan interaction with the players on Twitter and Facebook.Continue reading...

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Heineken makes history this week with the launch of StarPlayer, a 'dual screen' digital gaming app for the iPhone that makes TV into an interactive experience for football fans.

As an overlay to live football matches, StarPlayer lets fans at home watch UEFA Champions League games — which Heineken has sponsored for six years running — while playing real-time on a computer, iPhone or iPod touch.

Heineken is one of the first brands using an iAd to promote the launch of StarPlayer  in the UK.

Created by digital agency AKQA, the gaming platform’s 'dual screen' technology “involves time-dependent decisions on passages of open-play [and] makes StarPlayer a world-first innovation,” according to the official release.  James Hilton, co-founder of AKQA, says “the app is the most complex the agency has ever created.”Continue reading...