Hello Creative Souls,

Today’s edition is about Heineken’s "Starring Bars" and the Power of Shared Influence. We deep dive into this fascinating campaign that turned Corporate Marketing Overhead into Community Investment.

Watch the video below:

How do you market in bars without quietly bleeding the bars dry?

Most brands treat “real places” like props. Heineken flipped that: your visibility is an asset you can share, not just spend.

Bars are getting squeezed by rent, taxes, wages. Meanwhile, beer brands pour millions into bar based advertising. A bar owner in the campaign says the quiet part out loud: what’s the point of advertising Heineken if the bars can’t survive to sell it.

You don’t win goodwill by saying “we support you.” You win it by rerouting money in a way people can see and feel. Heineken redirected production spend from studios into real bars by filming commercials there. That turns “brand spend” into “community income” without a charity vibe.

This is ecosystem marketing: make the people who make your product possible more profitable, then your product sells itself with less force.

P.S: B2B Brands that run partnerships can also take a page from this book

The Visibility Dividend

Heineken built a whole machine around that dividend:
They filmed in real Heineken bars, built a searchable database for directors at starringbars.com, and ran “Hey Director” style outdoor that pitches these bars to the entertainment industry. Bars stop being backdrops. They become cast.

The smartest part isn’t “authenticity.” It’s alignment. Heineken rewired an existing workflow so doing ads automatically helps the places that keep the brand alive.

Heineken’s "Starring Bars" proves that your most powerful tool isn't your product—it's your visibility. When you lend your influence to a cause that connects naturally to your brand, you create a level of trust that traditional advertising cannot buy.

The lesson for any category is clear: Look at your daily routines and ask where your "invisible" budgets are going. Can they be redirected to support the group that needs attention? Can you make your partners the stars of your story?

If you’re building campaigns this year, audit one line item: where does your money go when you “show real life”? If it never reaches the people in the frame, you’re renting culture. Try investing in it instead.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.