Heineken and Google have started a global partnership which will see the international beer producer increase its YouTube activity. The deal also sets out to use mobile internet as primary marketing channel in emerging markets. This new deal will very likely mean that at least 103 million minors around the world will be exposed to the harmful effects of alcohol marketing on a monthly basis.
According to MarketingWeek.co.uk the agreement spans 20 countries and ‘will see the Dutch brand execute homepage takeovers and use pre-roll ad slots on Google’s YouTube site.’ Last month already saw Heineken increase its online presence through new sponsorship rights with the European football federation UEFA, which gave it the exclusive right to supply content for social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. The increasing online presence of Heineken is worrying, since the internet is a popular medium for young people, which is hard to regulate and monitor comprehensively. For instance take YouTube, which receives 490 million unique visitors per month (Source: [link=http://newswire.fr/press-online/tech-news-youtube-attracts-490-million-unique-visitors-per-month/12/02/2011/]newswire.fr[/link]). According to market researcher Quantcast at least 21% (102.900.000 unique visitors per month) of these are below 18 years of age (Source: [link=http://www.slideshare.net/onehalfamazing/social-networking-statistics-and-trends-presentation]Social Networking Statistics And Trends[/link]). Considering the known consequences of exposure to alcohol marketing of young people these numbers are alarming. Furthermore this number is in breach of different national self-regulations codes, which state that alcohol marketing may not be aimed at an audience which is likely to consists for 20% of minors.
MarketingWeek quotes Google’s global president of media and platforms, saying that the agreement ‘would improve Google’s ability to target users and measure the effectiveness of the campaigns’. Furthermore I was stated that the marketing teams of the two companies would work more closely in the future.
Lastly, Heineken and Google will work on creating mobile campaigns in emerging economies. In these countries mobile internet exceeds desktop use.
Sources: MarketingWeek 7/1/11
Social Networking Statistics And Trends (2009)
Newswire.fr 2/12/11