James Bond’s drink order – vodka martini “shaken, not stirred” – is nearly as famous as the British spy’s classic introduction: “Bond, James Bond”. And so Diehard fans were likely shocked to see the seductive sleuth swilling a pint of Heineken in Skyfall, the latest in the series of 007 films that began in 1962.
Getting Bond to change his tipple didn’t come cheap, however, with Heineken reportedly forking over anywhere from £28m to £45m for the honour, which included a TV advert featuring Daniel Craig, and of course the much talked about product placement in the film.
Twitter chatter generated by Heineken’s Skyfall cameo not only boosted the brand’s overall reach, but also enabled the Dutch brewer to penetrate younger age brackets on social media.
On 23 October, the day Skyfall premiered in the UK, news about Heineken reached the Twitter feeds of 9% of the UK Twitter population, up from 5% the day before. The top two words mentioned alongside Heineken were “bond” and “skyfall”.
Looking at the demographics of Twitter users who were hearing news about Heineken on the day Skyfall premiered, there was a clear shift to a younger cohort from the day before. On 23 October, the percentage of 18-25 year old Twitter users receiving tweets about the brand leapt from 3% to 10%. Further, the proportion of 25-34 year old Twitter users hearing about Heineken also increased going from 5% to 11%.
The charts below illustrate how the overall ages of those hearing about Heineken became much younger following the Skyfall premiere.
No doubt Heineken (and other brands) will be weighing up the benefits of expensive product placement in the run-up to the next Bond film, but the view from social media is that what 007 orders at the bar is of interest to younger demographics.
