CASE STUDY: How Heineken got partygoers to ‘Drink less, dance more’ at ZoukOut

Background

ZoukOut, an annual dance music festival in Singapore, attracts thousands of partygoers every year, who party from dusk to dawn through to the final ‘Sunrise set’ on Siloso Beach at Sentosa Island—where people actually can’t witness a sunrise due to the geographical location.

Aim

Heineken wanted to showcase moderate drinking as an aspirational behaviour, as well as encourage festival attendees to dance more and pace themselves through the night. This fits with Heineken's overall ambition to be recognised as the most responsible premium beer brand in the world.

Execution

The brand launched ‘The Heineken Sunrise’ campaign, spanning digital, social media, public relations, cable TV and Spotify. 

Heineken also used ZoukOut as a platform for on-site consumer activation to achieve its objective. It installed a 6-metre by 3-metre dance-reactive floor on the beach to capture the dance activity levels of the partygoers. The brand also gave out bottles of water to help them pace their alcohol consumption.

The accumulated number of dance steps would eventually propel a 10-metre wide ‘sun’ to rise off the ground, rewarding partygoers who paced their drinking and danced through the night.

Results

The two-night music festival on 13 and 14 December drew 41,000 attendees. More than 5,000 partygoers contributed to the dance steps to help power the Heineken Sunrise. The dance-reactive floor captured 431,911 dance steps.

The 10-metre wide ‘sun’ rose approximately seven stories high (17.5 metres) on the morning of the 15th.

The party gave out 9,000 pairs of sunglasses for people to enjoy the ‘sunrise’. More than 4,000 people visited Heineken’s photo booth. The number of hashtags for #HeinekenSunrise was 1,165.