Publicis expands Heineken agency Le Pub to more markets

Publicis Groupe is expanding Le Pub, the agency it launched in Amsterdam and Milan to service Heineken, worldwide with new offices in Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Cape Town, Singapore and Shanghai.

The openings in Mexico and Brazil are effective immediately. Le Pub Mexico will be led by Diego Wallach, who takes the role of chief creative officer alongside Isabella Mulholland as chief strategy officer. Wallach, who was previously chief creative officer at Publicis Mexico, worked on Le Pub and Powerade’s “Pause is Power” work featuring Simone Biles, and was responsible for the “Still Speaking Up” campaign that won Mexico’s first-ever Grand Prix for Good at Cannes 2021. 

Le Pub Brazil’s leadership line-up includes Felipe Cury as chief creative officer; Ana Hernandes as managing director and Silvia Paes as head of strategy. Cury joins from agency Africa, where he was executive creative director; Hernandes has worked at Verizon Media and Paes at BETC in Sao Paulo. The offices in Singapore, China, and South Africa will open within the next two months. 

Publicis opened Le Pub in November 2020, based out of a bar in Amsterdam. The idea was to draw on the capabilities of data business Epsilon and digital specialist Publicis Sapient as well as the agency’s creative capabilities. Each new office will also have a bar, a Publicis spokesperson confirmed.

Although the agency was created to service Heineken, it has produced work for other brands including Netflix, Powerade, Barilla and Diesel. While the new offices will support other clients, the predominant focus for global expansion is Heineken, seemingly further cementing the Publicis/Le Pub-Heineken relationship.

The agency has won plaudits for its Heineken work including an Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes last year for Shutter Ads, where it diverted its outdoor media budget from advertising on poster sites to advertising directly on the shutters of closed bars during the pandemic. Its most recent work, "The Closer," involves a "magical" bottle opener that shuts people out of work apps. Earlier this year, it held a spoof metaverse launch to promote the new Heineken variant Heineken Silver.

“Over the last 18 months, Le Pub has helped further Heineken’s relevance and topicality,” said Bram Westenbrink, global head of Heineken brand, in a statement. “Its expansion will drive further impact across more of our key markets; ensuring a proven data model combined with world class creativity that powers campaign localisation at scale.”

“We live in a world where the interaction with brands and the path to purchase is seamlessly integrated into our everyday experiences,” added Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub and chief creative officer of Publicis Worldwide. “In a cookie-less world, brands have to enrich people’s lives to be accepted into everyday culture and this is where creativity is critical to add a premium value to clients. Le Pub is born out of an eclectic community of people, who thrive on connecting creativity with culture and we are excited to see its organic growth globally.”  

Earlier this month it was reported that Heineken had approached agencies with an RFI that involved exploring a “creative ecosystem” of agencies. It is understood that this will involve some of Heineken’s smaller brands, such as Desperados, Red Stripe and Amstel.

“This is a pursuit to accelerate the power of creative excellence to deliver brand growth and effectiveness,” Chief Commercial Officer James Thompson told Ad Age in a statement. “The assessment is exploratory at this time and we are at an RFI (Request for Information) stage only. We have not yet reached a conclusion as to which countries, regions or brands will be identified to enter a creative agency pitch scenario. It is important to highlight that this review does not include Heineken brand or our relationship with our long standing and trusted partner Publicis.”