UK: Heineken takes a break with TV advertising

Beer giant, Heineken is to call time on next year's multi-million pound television advertising campaign in the UK and switch the cash into sports sponsorship and in-store promotions, Business Scotsman posted on October 21.

The decision means that the recently ended run of adverts featuring Hollywood star Ray Liotta will be the Dutch brewer's last for the foreseeable future.

Heineken has been advertising on British television for more than 30 years and is most readily associated with the line "Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach."

Rob Marijnen, the group's UK managing director, said a number of factors had prompted the firm to put its money elsewhere, including the advent of the Sky+ system which enables people to skip ad breaks. "We will look at it again, but for the time being we need to look at other avenues."

He stressed that the brewer was not abandoning TV entirely, as its sponsorship of football's European Champions League meant it would still run so-called "break bumpers" at the beginning and end of commercial breaks.

21 October, 2005