Heineken asks Singapore to race an F1 car in AR

Heineken has created a first-of-its-kind augmented reality competition that will give Singaporeans a chance to race an F1 car to win tickets to its pre-race party.

The campaign, called Heineken AR Cheers, will guide consumers to cheers two Heinekens using their phone’s rear-facing camera on a dedicated landing page. This will activate a machine-learning algorithm that will scan the environment for two Heineken logos, to trigger the AR experience. Powered by 8th Wall technology, the AR experience will prompt consumers to start an F1 car to reveal if they have won tickets to the brand’s pre-race party.

The AR campaign runs from today until 21 August, in time for a closed-door pre-race party on 22 August. 

The event will feature several F1-themed activities to gear fans up for the Singapore Grand Prix season, including a chance for guests to take ‘the ultimate selfie’ with an F1 car and ‘race’ a mile in a driver’s shoes. The party will feature a headline DJ set from Australian artist Flume.

Following the party, the AR experience will be used to give away free tickets to the Singapore Grand Prix in September.

The brand claims this is the first time a brand has used web-based AR technology to power a live competition of this scale, globally. The entire campaign was built in eight weeks by Just After Midnight, the technical lead for the F1 campaign, along with Singapore development agency Megapixel and US-based AR agency MUN.

Heineken, a subsidiary of Asia Pacific Breweries, is the global beer partner of the F1.

In anticipation of the Singapore Grand Prix, the brand has also created 500,000 limited-edition F1 bottles that will be available across Singapore outlets.

Asia Pacific Breweries marketing director Faye Wee said: “We believe that F1 is more than just a race. It’s an experience that transcends the circuit and a great opportunity for Singaporeans to drink in the F1 fever with their friends, whether on or off the track.”