Heineken’s Technology Stops Smartphones From Ruining Gigs

Heineken wants people to put down their phones.

In its latest bid to foster IRL social connections, the beer brand hacked two music events — Mexico’s Live Out festival and Amsterdam Dance Event’s opening party — to discourage phone use on the dance floor. With its creative agency LePub, Heineken installed technology that delivered a hidden message that only became visible on phone screens via infrared lighting.

When people held up their phones to film the performance, the message was revealed, telling attendees to keep the moment in their memories, not on their devices. Heineken has made the hidden infrared technology publicly available for any music artist to implement it at their own live shows. 

The brand also launched The Boring Mode app, which blocks smartphone features such as other apps, notifications, and the camera for a set period of time. The goal is to encourage people to enjoy nights out without the distractions of technology and live in the moment.

The campaign is a follow-up to Heineken’s Boring Phone activation in April, in which the brand partnered with Nokia manufacturer Human Mobile Devices (HMD) to produce a limited-edition, basic phone that could only send and receive calls and text messages. Heineken collaborated with streetwear retailer Bodega to drop the Boring Phone during Milan Design Week and threw a party inviting people to ignore technology and focus on socializing. 

The Boring Phone garnered buzz, with 14,000 people registering to attend its launch party and 70,000 people entering to win the device, according to the brand. And it worked: Heineken calculated that 3,600 smartphones were shut off during the event in Milan.

Heineken has embraced the tech detox movement because the brand is “about creating good times,” Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of LePub and chief creative officer of Publicis Worldwide, told ADWEEK. “But today, barriers are getting in the way of those moments, and we’re on a mission to break them down.”

Its latest campaign focuses on live music amid a trend of performing artists and DJs adopting no-phone policies at tours, festivals, and club nights. For example, at Amsterdam’s No Art festival last summer, organizers Bora Güney and Ruud Boymans required attendees to drop their smartphones in envelopes for the duration of the event. 

A 2024 survey by OnePoll, commissioned by Heineken, found that 41% of Gen Zers and Millennials find it frustrating to see a crowd of phones in the air at concerts, and 35% say they check their phones more often than they should when socializing.

“Today it feels like tech always comes first, leaving the enjoyment of real life in second place,” Nabil Nasser, global head of Heineken, said in a statement. “While technology grants us endless conveniences, it also comes at the cost of not being able to stop and embrace what’s happening around us.”

Heineken is not the only brand highlighting the downsides of smartphone overuse. Last year, tequila brand Jose Cuervo held a sweepstakes with White Lotus star Haley Lu Richardson giving out hundreds of flip phones, so people could focus on time with friends. And Squarespace’s Super Bowl ad, directed by Martin Scorsese, poked fun of people’s fixation with their phones, to the point where the entire world misses an alien invasion.