Heineken launched its new Extra Cold technology, a freezer innovation that cools beer to minus 4 degrees Celsius in a Sub Zero refrigerator or iced beer tap, with a multi-city bus tour. The tour began in New York September 4 to 12 before arriving in Miami on the 15th. Though originally scheduled to be in Miami for only a week, stopping at various predetermined locations, the company extended the bus’s run through Sunday as a result of the response from consumers.
“The first week we had about 2,500 consumers,” said David Corso, president of Corso Communications LLC, Heineken’s experiential marketing agency, which created and organized the promotional tour. “Anywhere were brought [the bus] it had huge exposure in the marketplace." Heineken ultimately decided to keep it going for an extra week to get more exposure. Corso estimated that nearly 5,500 people boarded the bus during its two-week run in Miami.
Heineken chose to target the Latin and Hispanic communities for the initial launch of Extra Cold after researching the methods that residents in the Caribbean and South America use to keep their beer ice cold. “There’s a word in Spanish for the ice that forms around the top of a really cold beer that means ‘the veil of a bride,’” said Corso. “The Latin and Hispanic communities really have a passion for extra-cold beer.”
Corso Communications turned a former tour bus into a refrigerator-on-wheels by replacing its air conditioning with a freezer unit similar to those used on ice cream trucks. At each of the 28 stops the bus made around the city's largely Hispanic neighborhoods—including Hialeah, Mary Brickell Village, and Coconut Grove—guests received branded jackets to wear before entering the Extra Cold ice lounge in the back half of the bus. Inside, the walls of ice held Heineken beer bottles and brand representatives gave out samples of the super-cold beer.
The bus is currently headed to the West Coast, though event dates and locations have yet to be determined.
Correction: The beer on the bus was served in bottles, not glasses as originally reported.
