Operational Review (continued) Innovation 14 These steps are vital for the health of the brand, as is providing direct consumer experiences via one of the world's most comprehensive brand sponsorship portfolios. The biggest of these is our sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League. The Heineken brand is now in its fourth year of sponsorship with year-on-year increases in awareness and greater numbers of consumers becoming more involved in the elements we create. In 2009, we received 2.5 million hits on the Star Final website, we took the UEFA Champions League Trophy 'on tour' to more than 75,000 consumers in four markets in Africa, with a total media reach of 260 million people. In addition, we provided hospitality for consumers, customers, suppliers and business partners at the Final itself in Rome and were able to show them first-hand our new brand identity. It is not only Europe's premier football tournament around which we create consumer experiences. We also sponsor Europe's second major sporting event, the Heineken Cup, European rugby's club championship. Now in its tenth year, the tournament gives the brand a unique and identifiable association with this major international sport. Both the UEFA Champions League and Heineken Cup rugby benefit from significant media exposure with millions of consumers exposed to one or both events during the year. Consumer communication though is now much more than only television. For many years the Heineken brand has had a strong and engaging online presence. In 2009 we invested in a new online presence, developing a more interactive digital strategy fully integrated with the brand's activities. In November, we launched our new, significantly upgraded Heineken.com consumer site. Profitable, consumer-focused innovation across the Heineken brand and our wider portfolio continues to be an essential part of driving volume growth and consumer preference. To facilitate innovation platforms, we have established a cross-functional, cross-regional team of 40 people to drive concept identification and development faster and in a more integrated way. So far, the team has developed 37 initial proposals, of which seven have been chosen for progression. The innovation team has also improved the methodology and techniques for developing consumer understanding and insight and linked this much more closely to the innovation process. We continued to drive the roll-out of our key, recent innovations: Heineken Extra Cold, DraughtKeg, BeerTender and David. Extra Cold was again a driver of growth with approximately 16,500 new installations bringing the total number worldwide to approximately 84,900 and the total number of markets to 116 countries. During the year five new brands were added to the DraughtKeg range. In total, DraughtKeg is now available in seven brands and in 2009 accounted for 529,000 hectolitres. To support the right consumer experience, new DraughtKegs now come with a built-in temperature indicator to inform the consumer when the perfect temperature is reached. BeerTender sold more than 170,000 appliances during the year and after the introduction into Russia, is now available in 12 markets and 15 brands. We continued to invest behind the David system, the Annual Report 2009 - Heineken N.V.

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

Jaarverslagen | 2009 | | pagina 17