Heineken launches chat tech for real life conversations over a beer

Heineken has launched new WhatsApp technology that offers an ingenious incentive to those who’d prefer to meet up and connect face-to-face, bringing back the art of in person conversation.

The technology has been launched as a pilot in Brazil, where official data from META shows that Brazilians send four times as many voice notes than people in any other country. The tech was devised after global research polling 14,000 respondents showed that in just one year, the average person spends almost 150 hours a year sending and receiving voice notes.

Nabil Nasser, Global Head of Heineken, said, "Just like we all know meetings that ‘could have been an email’, we’re now seeing voice notes that ‘Could have been a Heineken’. Voice notes can feel more personal than reading a message, but what our research shows is that we need to make sure they don’t turn into mini-podcasts, and that we’re having two-way conversations rather than an extended monologue. At Heineken, we want to make it easier for people to share moments of socialisation in real life. That’s why we have launched the ‘Could have been a Heineken’ WhatsApp bot, incentivising people to swap long voice notes for a refreshing in-person catch up over a beer of course.”

To redeem the offer, WhatsApp users over 18 years of age must forward a voice note that they have received, which is longer than three minutes, to a private, encrypted bot. The user will then receive a message saying it ‘Could have been a Heineken’, alongside a voucher for a free beer and a recommendation of local bars to meet up with the friend in real life.