Heineken’s unit in Brazil has commenced the pilot of a WhatsApp feature designed to encourage face-to-face socialising.
The initiative, called ‘Could Have Been a Heineken’, swaps a consumer’s three-minute-plus recorded voice note message via the platform into a voucher for a free beer. To redeem the offer, WhatsApp users over the age of 18 need to forward their voice note to a private, encrypted bot that will reply with the voucher plus a recommendation of nearby bars.
The pilot is underpinned by new research showing how dominant voice notes have become: Statista reports 9.4bn are sent daily, while Heineken’s own survey of 14,000 people suggests growing fatigue with one-sided “mini-podcasts” and declining social connection.
The technology is currently “being tested” in Brazil, with further global markets set to follow. The brewer did not disclose how many vouchers can be redeemed per person each day.
“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,” said Heineken’s global head of brand, Nabil Nasser. “At Heineken, we want to make it easier for people to share moments of socialisation in real life.”
Last month, Heineken commenced operations at a new facility in Minas Gerais in Brazil in a move designed to expand production capacity and strengthen its supply network in the country.
