Spatial-media storytelling in the Heineken Experience

Visitors symbolically step into Heineken’s fluent production process with Brew You Ride. This immersive multimedia experience is a spatial embodiment of the amazing journey of each Heineken beer, from brewing and bottling, to distribution and enjoyment all over the world. No voiceovers, no wordy descriptions: Brew You Ride challenges the traditional museum format by taking visitors on an emotional journey through spatial storytelling.

‘Before and after you’re bombarded with facts,’ says NorthernLight cofounder Peter Slavenburg. ‘With Brew You Ride, you simply feel the process. When working on corporate experiences, we always go back to a brand’s identity and purpose. Heineken can only be enjoyed the world over because it has such a fluent, high-tech process to get it there. We wanted to immerse guests in that process, from brewing to bottling to the moment it eventually ends up in your hand, wherever you are in the world.’

The multisensory experience utilizes cutting-edge technology to combine immersive soundscapes, large-scale multimedia installations and motion platforms. We enlarged the capacity of the experience – which hosts over a million people annually – by dividing the journey into five separate spaces. This strategy also streamlines visitor flow and transforms potentially tedious waiting time into part of the engaging encounter.

Each of Brew You Ride’s five zones puts visitors at the heart of one specific step in Heineken’s intricate brewing process. Surrounded by infographics in the Waiting Room, guests understand the scale of Heineken’s market demand. The Kettle Room’s ceiling projections transport them to the bottom of a boiler before they arrive in the Bottle Room, a space wrapped in one of the highest-resolution movies ever made. Hyper-realistic imagery – together with surround sound and the shaking floor below – sends guests straight to Heineken’s factory floor. In the Couch Room, projection mapping reaches new heights. Two groups of four take a seat on facing sofas, becoming both canvases for projection mapping and witnessing the same transformation of their companions opposite. From a beach to a bar to a football stadium: the projected locations highlight the universality and shared experience of Heineken. After an engaging audio and visual spectacle, Brew You Ride culminates with a freshly poured Heineken while the staff inform visitors how to enjoy a Heineken and say ‘proost’. A moment that completes the sensorial experience through the addition of smell, touch and – most importantly – taste.