Dentsu Thailand and Heineken celebrate hardcore football fans with immersive UEFA campaign
When the UEFA Champions League kicks off, Thailand comes alive in the most unexpected ways. Leveraging this momentum, Dentsu reignited Heineken’s football legacy in Thailand with “Cheers to The Real Hardcore Fans”, an immersive campaign celebrating the country’s passionate football culture while re-establishing Heineken’s premium edge in a highly competitive beer market.
Rather than focusing on the pitch, the campaign shone the spotlight where it truly belongs—on the fans. With dentsu Thailand as its media partner, Heineken reimagined what it means to experience match nights in unforgettable ways, delivering world-class fan experiences that turned ordinary match nights into premium brand moments.
From real-time match updates on Bangkok billboards to collectible fan merchandise and nationwide activations, the campaign brought the excitement to life everywhere through extraordinary celebrations of fandom, uniting digital buzz, street culture, and at-home experiences under one banner:
• City streets that felt like stadiums: Dynamic billboards across Bangkok and nationwide, with live UEFA scores updating in real time to keep fans engaged with the tournament’s progress.
• Digital conversations that felt real: High-reach campaigns across streaming, social media, and football hubs lit up with authentic voices, from influencer to die-hard fans—matched perfectly to late-night kick-offs.
• Fan zones that felt like finals: The “Heineken Experience Road to the Final” events in six major cities brought fans together for live analysis, performances, and fan zones.
• Playful rewards for true fans: Limited-edition Heineken Experience Exclusive Pyjamas made their global debut, celebrated the fans who stay up till dawn for the game they love.
• The taste of victory at home: A collaboration with Pizza Hut brought fans “Champions Sets” that bundled food delivery with limited-edition collectibles, recreating the shared match-day atmosphere in living rooms across Thailand.
Thanlaphol Nipatarangkul, Senior Media & Digital Manager at Thai Asia Pacific Trading Co., Ltd., said: “The rhythm of Thai football fandom is one that only true fans know, and that deserves to be celebrated. With “Cheers to The Real Hardcore Fans’, we wanted to bottle that spirit and celebrate it in ways that fans could feel everywhere. We brought the toast; dentsu Thailand mapped the night. We turned city streets into scoreboards and living rooms into arenas, raising a glass to the fans who make the game a way of life.”
Chanokpol Engpongpun, Business Director at Dentsu Media Thailand, added: “We made the city our canvas, meeting fans in the moments where they felt most alive and stitching them together so that the celebration could travel from street to screen to sofa. And that is how Heineken showed up, rising from logo to host, and becoming the toast of the night.”
The result? Match nights became more than games. They became cultural moments. Proof that in Thailand, football doesn’t just live in stadiums, it thrives in the streets, on screens, and in the hearts of fans who never stop cheering. This seamless integration across touchpoints ensured Heineken stayed visible, relevant, and top-of-mind from discovery to the final match celebration.
