Making the star: Heineken Ireland’s Employer Branding Transformation
Behind the scenes: Creating "We Make the Star"
Transforming a global brand into a locally relevant employer brand isn’t easy. Get exclusive insights, lessons learned, and practical advice from the team behind Heineken Ireland’s award-winning “We Make the Star” campaign.
Atomic X Heineken Ireland: the story so far
Heineken Ireland is part of one of the world’s most iconic beer brands, with a 170-year legacy in Ireland. As competition for talent intensified and the workforce evolved, it needed to develop an authentic employer brand that would resonate with existing employees and attract new talent, particularly Gen Z candidates in hard-to-fill roles like supply chain and sales.
“We Make the Star” is an employer brand that celebrates the people behind the iconic brand while staying true to Heineken’s global values with a distinctly Irish flavour.
Episode 01 : Starting the Journey
[5 mins 30s]
Hear from People Director Alfonso Auñón García and Marketing Director Fiona Curtin from Heineken Ireland, joined by Atomic’s Andrew Kilgallon as they discuss:
- The catalyst for launching an employer branding project: the “war for talent”
- Attracting next-generation Gen Z talent to the business
- Why visibility and proactive messaging became essential in the social media age
- Balancing global brand heritage with local Irish authenticity
- The competitive Irish talent landscape and multinational challenges
- Taking a global brand and making it locally relevant without losing its essence
“You need to have an employer brand to make sure that you bring the narrative and the story that you want to bring. You pick the words and you pick the messages, as opposed to people picking them for you.”
TL:DR? Check out the written case study
