An effective marketing campaign doesn’t have to be expensive at all, Mr. Heineken must have thought when he decided to roll out his beer brand to the United States in the 1940s.

If there are three things the Dutch are internationally known for, it’s their wooden shoes, cheese, and Heineken beer. And I’m here to tell you the tale of how an ingenious marketing trick by Heineken’s owner - Freddy Heineken - catapulted the famous beer brand to global stardom.

Though one of the first imported beers after Prohibition had loosened its grip in 1933, Heineken still needed a boost to spread his brand cross-country. In a time long before the Internet, when people still had to rely on cunning sales-tactics, physical networking skills, and perseverance, the Amsterdam beer magnate turned down some of the ideas that big advertising companies had proposed, and instead devised a playful marketing strategy on his own.

The man behind Heineken’s worldwide success, Freddy Heineken (Getty)

In order to sell his beer to the American people, Heineken would hire attractive couples who were instructed to go to popular bars and ask the bartenders the following question: “Do you also sell Heineken?” The bartenders initially had no idea what they were talking about.

As multiple couples would approach the same bars over the course of the week, they gave the impression that Heineken beer was indeed becoming the popular beer in town, especially among young hip people. A few days later, Heineken would send a representative to sell them his beer. And damn, it was sold alright!

Within a few years time, almost every significant bar in the US served the ‘exotic’ and ‘premium’ Heineken beer from the Netherlands. This clever marketing scheme would usher in the start of one of the largest beer empires in the world.