Heineken calls on Diguise’s Mapping Matter software to illuminate anniversary celebrations

Heineken Mexico celebrated 135 years of business in 2025, drawing focus on its historic Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma brewery in Monterrey. To celebrate, the company threw a gala event at the brewery itself, calling on Mexican creative agencies: Roma 212 Creative House leading the Creative and Productión Direction, ImagineNowStudios video mapping production. They also called on The / Edge for video mapping content design, Some Other Planet to create the immersive Sound Design, and Pyrotech to provide the laser mapping production to help bring the night to life with an ambitious projection.

Using Disguise’s Mapping Matter tools, the team were able to quickly and accurately build a projection that wrapped Heineken’s brewery in a spectacular show celebrating the business's rich history.

The challenge

Historic buildings often pose a significant challenge for large-scale projections, with ornate architecture that is prone to warping designs, as well as ensuring that installations don’t damage the structure. Heineken’s iconic Monterrey brewery was no different. The team needed to create a video projection that would hold up to scrutiny even when wrapped around a 50-metre-tall building.

The team had additional challenges to contend with; the building sits very close to a major road, leaving little space to work around it. In order to limit disruption to life in the heart of Monterrey, projectors would need to be placed at tight angles, which would mean complex calculations to avoid stretching the imagery. In addition, the Cuauhtémoc Brewery remains a functioning factory, which means access to the site is limited. The team needed to find a way to minimise time spent on-site while ensuring the final projection was the best it could be.

On top of these factors, the timeline for delivery was just one month, leaving very little time to create and test the designs.

The solution

For Omar Serna, the project’s video mapping expert and producer, the first step was to turn to Disguise to provide the software needed to deliver this ambitious project. In addition to providing simple workflows accessible remotely by multiple team members at any time, Disguise’s software enabled the team to use Mapping Matter, a key tool for complex projection mapping.

Mapping Matter created a digital twin of the brewery building within the Disguise workflow, enabling the team to comprehensively plan the project without making regular visits to the factory site.

Working inside Disguise’s easy-to-use web-based application meant that the project was accessible to anyone, anywhere, without the need to learn new software. Every aspect of the production could be pre-visualised, offering maximum flexibility during the creative process. The team could test different options and calculate how many projectors would be needed to deliver the desired effect.

Mapping Matter also solved the challenge of limited space, requiring tight angles for projectors. Each projector’s placement could be tested to ensure it was positioned effectively. Once the team had settled on their design, everything could be calibrated virtually within the application, minimising the need for complex calculations or onsite testing in the final stages of the project. Even the projection's brightness could be tested in advance using Mapping Matter’s photometric analysis mode; this was key on the red-brown brickwork of the building, which would impact whether the colours projected matched expectations.
 

Instead, the moment the team arrived at the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma brewery, they got to work on building the on-site infrastructure needed to deliver an impressive projection. There was no need to spend time on testing, as every element had already been planned and visualised using Mapping Matter.

“The biggest challenge with projections is you don’t know what you’re working with until the moment your projectors are first turned on” explains Serna. “With Disguise’s Mapping Matter software, that fear is automatically eliminated. Every aspect, from the number and angle of projectors to the difficult architectural challenges presented by a century-old building, had been considered in depth long before the team flicked the switch on-site.”

The result

Despite a tight deadline, limited space, and a canvas that also served as a working factory, the team pulled together an impressive visual display that served as an evocative backdrop for Heineken’s anniversary gala. The entire face of the brewery’s main building was lit up in vivid colours, the iconic Heineken star sitting proudly above the entrance.

For Serna, the integration between Disguise’s tools was the final element in delivering success - the simplicity of the workflow enabled elements like time-coded video to be seamlessly integrated into the project. Ultimately, the final product was a huge success - so much so that once the projection had finished its intended single screening, Heineken immediately asked the team to run it all over again.