There will be plenty of marketers vying for attention around this weekend’s Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, but Heineken will be hard to miss.

The Dutch beer brand is not only the race’s title sponsor but it is lighting up the city with unique outdoor ads, including becoming the first beer brand to advertise on the Las Vegas Sphere. The takeover is meant to reinforce Heineken’s upscale positioning while driving trial of Heineken Silver, the low-carb, low-calorie beer for which the brewer has big ambitions. 

Related: How brands are using the Sphere

Heineken’s ad on the Sphere resembles a spinning disco ball with panels that turn into ice blocks, before collapsing to reveal a can of Heineken Silver. The Sphere will be a major focal point of the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix for both spectators and TV viewers on ESPN, with turns 6, 7, 8 and 9 encircling the new $2.3 billion venue from Sphere Entertainment Company. Ads will also line sections of the race course, which runs through portions of the Strip. 

“We’re very fortunate to have access to the Sphere, which is becoming the most iconic billboard on Earth pretty quickly,” Jonnie Cahill, chief marketing officer of Heineken USA, said in an interview.

Heineken declined to disclose how much it paid for the Sphere campaign. A one-week ad campaign on the Sphere reportedly costs $650,000, according to a pitch deck shared to X (formerly Twitter) by the user PitchDeckGuy; however, it is unclear whether Heineken paid a different rate due to its title sponsorship.  

The brand and its partners were at work for several months on the Sphere ad, Cahill added. “We’re all learning how to use it to its max potential,” he said. “It’s been a very detailed creative process to get it to this level, which is what you want, right? Who wants the simplicity of a static board on the side of a freeway when you can do this stuff?”

Read more on Heineken Silver

Creative agency BBH and BCN Visuals were behind the animated outdoor ads, which began running Monday and will continue through Saturday night’s race. A broader out-of-home campaign will place 3D billboards throughout the city. “Basically, from the airport to the Sphere, you’ll see us everywhere,” Cahill said.

One billboard ad uses animation in which a fake ad for a women’s handbag comes to life, reaching over to an adjoining Heineken ad for a beer.

“I think [outdoor] is a beautiful medium; when you put the right investment in creativity, you can really do something special,” Cahill said. “Like everything we touch, whether it’s F1 or the US Open, or Coachella, we really try as a brand to elevate the experience and reinforce that premium positioning. And this is going to make people stop and smile. And as a beer brand that’s also important. We sell sociability, we sell togetherness, we sell weekends away and coming together to have a great time.”

Heineken Silver was introduced in the U.S. this year behind $100 million in marketing, meant to battle low-carb light beer brands such as Michelob Ultra, Modelo Oro and Corona Premier. Cahill said Heineken intends to spend around $100 million on marketing Silver again in 2024, with an eye on replicating the successful launch of Heineken 0.0, the non-alcohol variety that today is leading its category in dollar share. 

“We’re doing on Heineken Silver what we did with Heineken 0.0,” Cahill said. “We are all-in for multiple years for the benefit of the category and to give people beer beverages that suit every occasion.”

One thing Silver won’t get that 0.0 did is a Super Bowl ad. Cahill said Heineken would sit out the Big Game in 2024, after running an ad for Heineken 0.0 this year. 

Ads for Heineken Silver feature a new tagline, “World-Class Light Beer,” which Cahill said was “a very explicit statement meant to clarify what it is.” Silver sales grew by 40% worldwide in the fiscal third quarter, Heineken execs said in a conference call last month. (It debuted in Asian markets in 2019 and has been gaining distribution since.) In the U.S., Silver has a 40% retrial rate, “which is extremely high by CPG standards,” said Cahill. (Although Silver remains just about 5% of total Heineken brand volume in the U.S., according to Beer Marketer's Insights.) 

“These new line extensions allow a pathway for people to come into the franchise of a brand that they really admire, but maybe we didn't always have the product for them,” Cahill said.