Heineken Launches New Online Video Campaign 'Men With Talent'

Yesterday, Heineken’s new ‘Men With Talent’ video ad was unleashed on the web. The video, which showcases men showing off a variety of beer-related talents, is a follow up to last year’s ‘Walk In Fridge’ video, a hugely successful campaign that achieved over 3.5 million YouTube views. Today the question on everyone’s lips is, “will this new campaign live up to last year’s ‘Walk In Fridge’?”

I don’t think that ‘Men With Talent’ is quite as funny as ‘Walk In Fridge’, which showed a group of women getting excited about a walk in closet filled with shoes while a group of men get equally excited about a walk in fridge filled with Heineken. However, I do think that it is very relevant right now as shows like ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ fill up the YouTube stream. ‘Men With Talent’ is a silly response to the current overflow of talent shows, on television as well as on the web. If the viewers are tuned in to this parody appeal then the video should do very well. With over 120,000 views in the first day, the video appears to be off to a good start.

Heineken is following in the footsteps of many other large brands that are realizing the large-scale exposure that comes from online video campaigns. Nike and Old Spice are two other great examples of brands spreading the word through online videos. What do you think about the power of online video campaigns and how does ‘Men With Talent’ measure up?

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.