Malaysia is an advertising dark market. Showing alcohol brand logos and products on above-the-line media could lead to fines and jail time, which means Heineken couldn’t even be a part of Malaysia’s massive US$335M/year out-of-home advertising scene. We needed to find a way to be seen and talked about despite these laws to ultimately drive sales. Without going to jail, of course.

The exchange of auspicious greetings is a key Chinese New Year tradition. Several of these greetings have something in common: the word “Hei”, which means happiness in Cantonese. Of course, one cannot spell Heineken without those same three letters. So, we designed a campaign that no other beer brand could own. We cropped the iconic Heineken logo, using its first three letters to complete a series of Chinese New Year greetings.