Heineken Light is driving sales of its low-calorie light lager by leveraging a mobile-optimized site with campaign videos featuring actor Neil Patrick Harris, and offering customers a money-back guarantee if their beer purchase does not satisfy their taste buds.

Keeping in tune with its tagline, “The Best Light Beer You’ve Ever Tasted, Guaranteed,” the brand is offering unsatisfied customers a refund on their purchased Heineken Light six-packs in eligible states, or a donation to a charity. Consumers may visit the mobile-optimized BestTastingLight.com site to get a refund and watch spokesman Mr. Harris’s latest campaign video to raise awareness of the money back guarantee option.

“At Heineken, we understand that mobile consumption is on the rise and therefore is one of our major priorities,” said Ralph Rijks, vice president of Heineken USA, White Plains, NY. “When deploying any campaign or launches, one of the questions we ask ourselves is how we can get the most eyeballs on the page and mobile is an extremely powerful medium for us to get our message to our consumers.

“With the launch of BestTastingLight.com, we wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing experience for consumers to engage with the brand and we’ve included a number of interactive elements on the site, including the imagery of the bottle cap popping off the screen along with the illusion of the beer being consumed while scrolling down the page,” he said.

“As we know that a large portion of our audience is viewing our content on their phones, it was important for us to invest in a mobile-optimized site to maintain the quality and integrity of our creative across all platforms.”

Mobile-optimized video
Heineken USA hopes that consumers will visit the BestTastingLight.com site to view the latest campaign video, which features Mr. Harris playing himself in a supermarket scene. One by one, shoppers approach him and exclaim over his status as the Heineken spokesman, rather than his extensive body of film and television acting work.

Each shopper also highlights the Heineken money back guarantee in a bid to ramp up awareness of the promotion among customers.

On-the-go consumers can also peruse the site on their mobile devices to find out more about the light beer and its creation process.

“As the word spreads about our latest campaign with Neil Patrick Harris featuring our new Money Back Guarantee offer on Heineken Light, we expect to see a spike in consumers trying out the beer for themselves,” Mr. Rijks said. “We’re so confident that it’s the Best Tasting Light you’ve ever had, that we are standing behind our product and allowing the taste to speak for itself.”

Social component
Social media users are invited to join in on the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram via the #BestTastingLight hashtag. Unveiling a campaign that actually revolves around the brand tagline is a smart move for Heineken USA, and is already gaining buzz on Twitter.

Customers who wish to take advantage of the money back guarantee offer may visit http://www.heinekenlightmoneyback.com/. They will be asked to input their state to check for its alcohol refund eligibility.

If their state is not eligible, Heineken is offering to make a donation to charity:water on the customer’s behalf.

“As the trial of Heineken Light increases, we hope to see consumers engage with the brand by using the #BestTastingLight hashtag when sharing their taste experiences online with their social networks,” Mr. Rijks said. “We also have sampling opportunities throughout the summer across the country and are excited to see what happens when we put Heineken Light to the taste test.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York