How this Beer Brand Turned a Branding Error into a Sales Machine

Tres Cruces, a beer brand under the Heineken, committed an error when it launched a lighter version-‘Tres Cruces Light’ in Peru in 2021.

The company shipped  300,000 cans of the new product to suppliers across the country before noticing the spelling error in the slogan. Instead of ‘Disfrute’, which means enjoy, the letter ‘S’ was omitted and spelt ‘difrute’.

Rather than consider the error a huge financial loss, the company created a brilliant marketing strategy. They announced a ‘Resue of the S’ game to conceal the mistake.

For every ‘Tres Cruces Light’ can a customer finds with a spelling error in the slogan, there was a prize to be won. This strategy helped the beer brand to get past the factory error and generate sales.

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Generating a year’s revenue in a month

Since everybody wants to be the lucky winner in a game, people patronise the brand. To effectively implement it, the company advertised the contest through the Do Agency in Buenos Aires.

The company issued a video through the agency owning up to their mistake and provided extensive information about the game.

The winners were selected through a raffle draw and given prizes with ‘S’ as their initials. This ranges from speakers, smartwatches, scooters, sex toys, and six-packs of Tres Cruces Light.

With this, the beers were completely sold out. In one month, they brand sold 100,000 hectolitres of Tres Cruces Light, which is the same amount the brand regularly sells in a year.

The promotion also earned 24 million social media impressions, with 90% of the impressions being positive.

The acquisition of Peruvian Tres Cruces by Heineken

Heineken N.V., a Dutch brewing business, entered the Peruvian liquor industry in 2020 by purchasing local beer brand Tres Cruces and establishing a local operational team in Lima.

The brewery hopes to develop a varied portfolio of local beers in Peru supplemented by international brands.

It also partnered with Ajegroup SA, a Peruvian non-alcoholic beverage firm, to serve as the country’s sales and distribution channel.

Peru has one of the biggest beer markets in South America, with yearly sales of approximately 14 million hectoliters, and over 40% of these are sold in Lima exclusively.

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