One clink is all it takes

I’ve spoken a lot about the connections between music venues and canned drinks on my blogs before, but Heineken is taking it a step further further with the introduction of its new Clinker – a smart band that attaches to cans and bottles, aimed at music fans who want to connect through shared genres and artists.

It works through fans signing up prior to this year’s Coachella festival (10 to 19 April) in the US. The Clinker band collects and syncs data from the user’s Spotify or YouTube Music account. After the music fan has collected their Clinker at the festival, they’ll be able to physically ‘cheers/clink’ their can or bottle with another Clinker user, and see whether or not their tastes will be a match. If they are, their band lights up to signal this, and details and social media accounts can be shared with the other person via Heineken’s web-based app.

What may seem like a gimmicky idea to some, is all about longer lasting connections. Heineken has shared research that has found 55 per cent of music fans wanting to meet others at live music events, but 77 per cent saying that their music concert or festival interactions with new people rarely last beyond those events. With 97 per cent of people surveyed saying they believe music brings people together, it seems that people are yearning for more meaningful new relationships. The Clinker solution makes sense – it’s easy to lose people in a crowd at these type of events and often asking for someone’s social media straight out is daunting, although what Heineken’s release doesn’t tell us is whether that awkwardness of finding out you don’t have a music match with someone will ruin the connection or not – I suppose people will have to find out for themselves!

But let’s get back to the cans side of things. Visually, it’s an attractive accessory and its LED detail really does make the green caps ‘pop.’ It encourages more ‘clinking,’ which in turn encourages more beverage purchases throughout the festival. It’s an effective marketing tool as well as providing music fans a keepsake alongside any other merchandise purchased at Coachella. Plus, if future friends and lovers are able to say they met through a love of music (and cans), then Heineken has done its job well, two-fold. My husband and I met each other with a drink in hand, so there’s no denying the power of a beverage!

The Clinker technology is a “broader expression” of Heineken’s Fans Have More Friends platform, which is aiming to elevate people’s experiences at major music and sporting events by creating more opportunities to turn shared fandom into a catalyst for sociability.

It will be interesting to see if Heineken reports on how successful the Clinkers are after Coachella – will the users will be surveyed a certain amount of time after the event has passed? We’ll certainly endeavour to keep you updated if they are.

Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
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