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Heart Foundation to benefit from Skyfall premiere

The world's premium beer, Heineken, and Jamaica's leading jewellery merchant, the Swiss Stores, will partner to premiere the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall in November, in aid of the Heart Foundation, an organisation that has been fighting heart disease in Jamaica for over 40 years.

The premiere takes place at the Carib Cinema in Kingston on November 6. The red carpet event will be preceded by cocktails, with a silent auction during the intermission, says fund development and communications manager of the Heart Foundation, Yasmin Salmon Russell, who informed that, "the funds will go towards the establishment of a cardiac rehabilitation centre."

"We have had a long association with the James Bond movies and are happy that Heineken is partnering with us on this one, which is one of three major events we are having this year to raise $10 million," says Salmon Russell.

Another premiere will be held at Palace in Montego Bay on November 7, while the islandwide premiere is scheduled for the following day, according to Heineken Jamaica.

"Premiering the film in Jamaica is timely," says Heineken's Brand Manager Nasha Douglas, noting that "It comes at a time when the country is celebrating 50 years of Independence, and given that it was in Jamaica in 1962 that Ian Fleming inked the James Bond series, in which 007 cracks the case every time."

Activities leading up to and beyond the premiere are being rolled out under the theme 'Crack the Case with Heineken!'. "On October 5, James Bond Day, the 50th birthday of the character, Heineken held a bow tie event in celebration of the day at the Macau lounge. This turned out to be a grand success," says Douglas.

"The party continued the following day," she said, "with one of nine bar parties. These parties will run from October 6 to November 24 at Derrick's Bar in Kyle, Red Bank district, in St Elizabeth."

23rd edition

At these bar parties, high among topics of conversation is the replacement of Bond's trademark drink martini, with Heineken beer in the 23rd edition of the highly acclaimed series, and the challenge it must have posed for the film director to show Bond "quaffing his lager without compromising his mystique as, beer in films has rarely been used before to suggest sophistication," it has been argued.

The man who plays 007 in the third consecutive blockbuster, Daniel Craig, is said to have defended the sponsorship deal with Heineken, stating that the support of the Dutch beer is crucial, as it costs as much to market as the US$150 million which it took to make the movie.

In a match - Heineken and James Bond - said to be made in Heaven, the two have a long-standing partnership which began in 1997 with Tomorrow Never Dies. The relationship has seen Heineken holding promotional rights with five consecutive James Bond films; introducing the keg can globally in 1997, which was in production for 15 years; and activating James Bond in 54 markets across five continents in 2006. And as part of the deal for Skyfall, Heineken had produced a commercial to promote the film. The ad also stars James Bond drinking Heineken when he is not out there trying to save the world.

brand campaign

Not new to the innovations, Heineken scooped seven prestigious awards at the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the first two films of its new global 'Legends' brand campaign, its revolutionary Star-Player game and for its cutting-edge UV Black Light STR bottle featured in the film and the advertisement.

Heineken's newest high-end aluminium packaging, employed in the production of the bottle, is an intricate pattern of spot-UV ink embedded within the silver portions of the STR bottle, making it invisible in daylight, but flares up under black light to reveal a bright glowing design of stars, swirls and trails on the bottle's surface.

Commenting on the awards, Heineken's country manager in Jamaica, Bob Sprengers, says "it is precisely this sort of creativity and desire to surprise our consumers that helps us to generate affinity among them, and this same creativity and innovation will be seen across Jamaica in the coming months," noting that "our vision, which was recognised in Cannes with these successes, is to ignite the conversation, not just be part of it."

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