For over 3 years (2016-2019) I ran the global Tiger Beer account. In that time, the brand experienced a 140% increase in sales and became a billion dollar brand. During that time, Tiger Beer also had its most successful creative run in its history with over 5 major campaigns being awarded around the world. I launched the brand in Australia, USA, UK and continued to drive results in its stronghold of Vietnam across brand and tactical campaigns, PR and social ideas, activations, promotions, POS, activations and everything in between.
I led the global account, provided strategic leadership in conjunction with the planning team and helped the brand team craft their marketing plans, presentations for global Heineken Forums and even trade presenters. By fostering close relationships with an amazing team of brand managers and the global CMO, I created an atmosphere of trust which not only allowed the work, but the brand to shine.
Although not the only global account I've had the privilege of running, Tiger Beer was by far the biggest. A complex beast that we were able to not only tame, but make thrive in the process. The following case takes you through the trajectory of the brand and a portion of the campaigns that made it Heinken's fastest growing brand and the only Asian beer in the 2019 Top 10 fastest growing premium beer brands in the world. So grab a Tiger and Enjoy.
Tiger Beer has been on a long journey. Born on the streets of Singapore in 1932 the brand had global ambitions, but worldwide success seemed unlikely when it was struggling to engage even its local market. To make matters worse, a sudden influx of global competition meant Tiger was losing market share. The brand’s message was disjointed and confusing, alienating its customers further.
An Asian brand, it had no confidence in itself using Western celebrities to tout a purely Asian beer. A tactic being used by many of our competitors' brands. It was the equivalent of looking to the West for validation.
But the truth was it was the West that was looking to the East for inspiration. From fashion, technology, to food. Asia was an innovative and inspirational melting pot influencing the rest of the world and it was time to be proud of it.
So we flipped the dynamic and said let’s embrace who we are and make it a point of differentiation.
But first, if we truly had global ambitions, we needed a big, global idea. Not something that would only work locally.
Very true to Asia, but also the rest of the world, is the simple desire to succeed. To become more than you are. It’s those who have the passion to make things happen, that do. And we all have it. So we created the brand belief “we all have a tiger inside”. The belief that you could achieve success no matter your background, financial situation or education.
From a communications standpoint, that translated to our creative platform of “Uncage”.
The campaign launched in Asia and was about following your passions. In a society where expectations from your parents were to become a doctor or a lawyer, this about about following your dreams and still becoming a success. Whether it was a tattoo artist, a designer, or a stunt man. Our ethos was that as a brand of the streets, we would only use people from the streets. No celebrities - that’s Heineken. If we believed that everyone has a tiger inside, we needed to prove it. In fact, all the 'heros' in our films and partnerships were real people, not actors, 'up-and-comers' from the streets of Asia and beyond.
To launch Tiger Crystal, we showcased this ethos using a little known Vietnamese mountain climber who, against all expectations, scaled Mt. Everest.
Click to see film
When we launched Tiger beer in the USA, we chose its most iconic city, NYC. Here, we faced two unique challenges: the perception that 'made in Asia' means cheap and the cost of media. So we made NYC the launch of our new marketing philosophy of 'it's not just story-telling, it's about story-doing'. Let's not only tell people what we're about, let's give them an experience that proves it and let's make sure it's got social and PR legs. We'd show New Yorkers what 'made in Asia' really means.
Click to see case study
The campaign delivered +40% sales increase in existing venues and 28 new listings in premium NYC bars.
And when we created more tactical campaigns around ingredients and flavour, we made sure to keep that Asian cool and Engage attitude.
When championing our environmental credentials, once again it was time for an example of 'story-doing' and we wanted one that would garner world-wide attention. Introducing Tiger Air-Ink. Taking the air pollution that makes our streets ugly and using it to make them beautiful once again. The campaign launched in multiple markets around the world as was featured in Heineken's 2017 Sustainability report. Another example of lifting an unknown inventor from the streets to deliver a powerful brand message.
Click to see case study
Air-Ink was followed up by Tiger Beers's own 'cause celeb', Saving tigers, of course. Staying true to our Asian roots, we wanted to make people think about the animal behind the icon so many people wear on their apparel every day. Because when you are in a city and 1000's of miles away from the animal in need, you need to connect with people with what they love in order to get them to help you save the animal that we love.
Click to see case study
And to close off Tiger's story while under my tenure was the global launch of 'Here Come The Uncaged'. Staying true to our strategy of heroing people from the streets and demonstrating that we all have a Tiger inside.
We kicked the campaign off with a film with the simplest of stories: don't judge a book by it's cover. You may not think the youth of today have much to offer, but they are about to change the world. The film used no actors and instead featured an eclectic group of young people from a troop who teaches dance to youth to help them off the streets to an inventor whos creating 3D prosthetics at 1/10th the price.
Click to see the film
Each of their stories were told in social films and content partnerships at uncage.com. We created a template for local market activations where local talent from the streets could compete and win entry to an immersive Festival of the Uncaged in Seoul where our hero's would show how they were changing the world IRL. The event was featured in Coolhunting among others.
The campaign stretched from TV, content, activations all the way down to shop the floor with market toolkits created to ensure every market could activate the platform locally.
And what about results? During the three years I ran the Tiger Beer global account:
-
Tiger became Hieneken's fasted growing brand
-
Asia's #1 premium beer
-
The only Asian beer in the top 10 fastest growing premium beers globally
-
A billion dollar brand
That's what I call earning your stripes.