Heineken turns its bottles into AR experiences during F1 season

Heineken has unveiled a campaign which uses web augmented reality (AR) technology to capture live brand experiences. Called "Heineken AR Cheers", the campaign allows users to scan Heineken bottles or glasses to activate the AR experience. Users will be given directions to follow and interact with the Heineken product.

The experience includes a Formula 1 element, featuring a race car and race track. These brand experiences generate prizes via a real-time prize engine monitored by cloud and support service consultant Just After Midnight. The live AR element allows users to be rewarded with tickets to the Heineken pre-race party or other F1 experiences wherever they are participating in the campaign.

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Some of the other components of the campaign outside web AR include machine learning image recognition and live prize generation engine supported by a cloud infrastructure to handle the ongoing demands of the campaign.

The machine learning image recognition had to be trained to discover over 200,000 variants of how Heineken bottles could visually appear in different environments. According to Heygate, this is the first time the web AR technology has been combined with this type of image recognition technology capturing brand experiences and a live prize engine generating live probabilities for users to win exclusive Heineken prizes.

The overall component of the campaign focuses on driving prizes to those that have more exclusive experiences with the Heineken brand via increased probabilities depending on how often the user plays the game online. The entire campaign was built in eight weeks by a combination of three companies - Just After Midnight, Megapixel and US-based MUN. In addition, the activation element of the campaign involved multiple agencies including AKA, Publicis and Tribal among many others.

Speaking to Marketing, Freddie Heygate, CEO, Asia, Just After Midnight said that prior to the campaign launch, media and influencer kits were distributed. He said that the campaign had a tailored macro-influencer approach such as having giveaways, online and offline advertising, media partnerships and others. According to Heygate, web AR dimishes the need to download an app and allows users to dive into the AR experience directly. Just After Midnight supported and managed the campaign around the clock, monitoring the technical and campaign performance while communicating it to Heineken.

"With so many eyes on the campaign we were solely responsible for both the reputation and revenue risk for Heineken,” Heygate said.

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