Heineken 2025 Activating Campaigns & Sponsorships
A race game with Max Verstappen
Dutch Interactive Awards nominee
Published Updated
“When You Drive, Never Drink” is Heineken’s responsible-drinking message, and for its Formula 1 partnership the brand wanted it to travel much further than a single TV commercial could carry it.
The film ends with Max Verstappen pulling away. The campaign needed a second act: a way for fans everywhere to step into that moment themselves, on the device already in their hand.
01
Heineken’s “When You Drive, Never Drink” Formula 1 campaign needed to land with fans far beyond the TVC, at Champions League level, across every market the brand activates in.
That is the heart of activating a campaign and sponsorship: take a message fans already recognize and give them a reason to step inside it, instead of scrolling past one more piece of advertising.
02
The campaign became a web-based mobile racing game that picks up exactly where the TVC ends. Max drives off, and the player takes the wheel.
It runs straight in the browser, with no app to download, so the barrier to entry is zero: a single tap from a banner, a post or a QR code drops a fan onto the track. Building it mobile-first kept it fast and playable wherever fans met the campaign.
Gameplay loop: A race game with Max Verstappen
03
Per-country leaderboards turned one game into a global contest. The strongest players qualified for local finals, and the winners of those advanced to a world final in Madrid alongside Max Verstappen.
On-site activations ran at the Heineken Experience and at Circuit Zandvoort, tying the on-screen race back to real-world moments. One main experience, localized and customized for every market it launched in.
The screens
Player 0.0, playable in the browser on mobile.
The film
The case film · 1:36
The result
100,000+ Unique participants
20+ Countries
1.2M Gameplays
4 min Avg play time
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