Heineken, Tesco & ITV
This was no conventional Retail Media marriage, or just another passing fad. By combining Heineken’s first-party data with Tesco’s Clubcard data and ITVX’s registered user data, the ultimate data ‘throuple’ was formed, setting a new standard for innovation and collaboration, and driving a 189% sales uplift for Cruzcampo.
A little background
With the alcohol category in decline and competition intensifying, Heineken needed a fresh, innovative approach to drive both new customer acquisition and loyalty in its core beer and cider markets.
As a forward-thinking FMCG leader, Heineken had already seen strong results from retail media, leveraging loyalty card data across multiple media partners. But always aiming higher, they wanted to unlock more value from their own growing data set.
With ITV’s Data Match and Retail Match advertising products leading the way, we quickly identified a unique opportunity to deliver something truly different for Heineken.
Our insight... the power of three
One… With over 200 campaigns and more than 70 measurement studies in just over 2 years since launch, ITV’s market leading Retail Match product has gone from strength to strength, matching known ITVX viewers with Tesco’s and Boots’ store card data to create rich, highly accurate audiences for targeting and sales measurement.
Two… ITV’s OG innovation, Data Match has helped countless brands to activate and measure ITVX campaigns using their own 1st party data.
Three… Could ITV form a cohesive approach with one advertiser across both products?
Imagine the possibilities…
The big idea
For the first time ever, we would combine the power of Retail Match and Data Match, enabling Heineken to activate its own data and Tesco data on ITVX, and test the effectiveness of each in Tesco stores.
Making it happen
This bespoke, three-way approach enabled Heineken to attribute ITVX ads to real Tesco shopper data based on real purchase behaviours.
For the first campaign, we worked closely with Dentsu X Red Star on an ITVX campaign for Heineken’s Cruzcampo. Working with their in-house experts, we selected the brand’s most relevant 1st party audiences, comprising specific individuals by age and drinking preference.
Via InfoSum, we securely mapped these individuals to registered ITVX viewers, and ITV’s data scientists built a wider ‘lookalike’ audience to help Heineken find similarly-profiled new customers.
Once the campaign had run, we then combined ad exposure data against the known sales data, to accurately measure real sales in Tesco stores.
The results
This unique three-way marriage of data from brand, media platform and retailer led to exceptional sales growth.
Cruzcampo saw an incredible 189% sales uplift with success across all 1st party audiences.
A second campaign following the same approach for Old Mout Cider yielded a similarly remarkable +54% sales uplift.
Heineken has renewed its commitment to the approach in 2025, so far yielding average uplifts of +32% YTD and driving sizable growth in investment in both ITV’s Retail Match and Data Match products.
Client Quote
“At Heineken UK, we’re committed to elevating the consumer experience at every brand touchpoint. Our collaboration with ITV, a partner that shares the vision towards data-led innovation, has transformed how we approach audience engagement and performance measurement in AV. This partnership has enabled us to unlock deeper insights, optimise our strategy and drive meaningful outcomes. We are excited about our continued partnership and building on the fantastic results to date." - Pinki Fung, CX Planning Lead, Heineken UK
Best Use of Retail Media
