Giant Heineken robots charge through Asia’s party scene during six-month tour
Dutch beer brand Heineken reawakened the spirit of the 1980s techno scene as it carted four eight-feet robots across Asia’s party circuit.
Arcade Singapore and Untitled Project created two sets of four 2.5-metre performer-powered robots that roamed and entertained at 21 Heineken club nights and music festivals across China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. The event logistics and execution were handled by Rebel and Soul.
Using the insight that music is a multi-sensory experience, the droids each had their built-in spectacle generators that aimed to enhance the revelry. These included:
Plasma – the lead droid searched out groups of Heineken drinkers with his red star search beam and rewarded them with their own personal light show.
Pressure – equipped with a cannon that sent out smoke rings.
Sub-Zero – blasted icy cold blasts of CO2.
Texture – multi-coloured droid with a custom confetti cannon.
Speaking to Mumbrella Asia about the campaign, Arcade general manager Lesley John said: “Heineken’s target audience are what they describe as ‘men of the world’, so we wanted to give party goers this really cool experience without the over-obvious branding.
“ To give the audience this interactive experience, they would then go into the crowds to mingle and everyone would of course take selfies with them. We had to actually beat people back sometimes.”
Asked about the risks involved with placing expensive technology among crowds of drunken clubbers, John added: “We had quite a bit of security to make sure they were safe. The first night we launched was in Pattaya for 5,000 people, which got quite crazy.”
Singaporean production house Untitled Project handled the entire design and construction of the droids. In total, the droids campaign reached more than 34 million people across social and digital platforms.
However, Mumbrella Asia understands that Heineken is unlikely to roll out another campaign tour with the robots next year.
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