Absolut Launches 'Tinder for Friends' Experience Ahead of Coachella
Pernod Ricard USA’s Absolut is activating its official sponsorship of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with an experience aimed at forming friendships, both on the festival grounds and virtually.
Just ahead of the first weekend of Coachella (April 14-16), the vodka brand launched a “Find Your Best Festival Friend” (BFF) platform in partnership with Hey! Vina, also known as "Tinder for (girl) friends." Hey! Vina is an app much like Tinder or Hinge, except for self-identified women over the age of 16 looking to connect with other women in their area for platonic friendships.
Together, Hey! Vina and Absolut are encouraging festival goers to form a friendship, or find their “festie bestie,” using the Find Your BFF swipe and match function. A quiz on the platform allows users to match with like-minded festival goers, based on answers to questions like “What’s your festival friendship style?” and, “Are you the CEO friend?”
Users are invited to meet up with their match(es) in-person at the Absolut tent for drinks during Coachella as well as in the metaverse via a related virtual experience that launches on April 14. Onsite attendees will also be able to try cocktails containing Absolut’s new Wild Berri vodka before it hits shelves in May.
"Whether faced with getting back out there after the pandemic, or a desire to hit the festival circuit but not having that friend who feels the same, Absolut's new connection platform mixes diverse personalities over a shared love of music, culture and cocktails in a way like never before," Matt Foley, vice president of marketing, Absolut, said in a media release. "We see how 'phygital' marketing experiences foster new connections and bring people together, which is why Absolut has further invested in Coachella to create an all-around inclusive experience."
After first entering the metaverse last year, Absolut has revamped its Decentraland experience, dubbed Absolut.Land, in celebration of Coachella with enhanced builds inspired by its ongoing "Born To Mix – World of Absolut Cocktails" campaign, which encourages consumers of all backgrounds to mix together, according to the release.
Absolut says this year’s activation will be “bigger and better,” per the release. The experience will feature:
- Cocktail-themed NFT wearables personifying the diverse characters of Lemonade, Espresso Martini, Cosmo, Bloody Mary and Madras.
- An interactive "Wild Berri Dance Battle" celebrating Absolut's latest flavor innovation and allowing users to earn this year’s exclusive avatar wearables.
- A new virtual Pride collection for avatars, which can be acquired by taking a selfie in Absolut.Land and tweeting it to receive an airdrop of the wearables.
- A DJ booth stage featuring surprise guests all weekend long, including DJ duo Two Friends.
- Virtual vending machines to order cocktails straight to users’ doorstep.
Hey! Vina and Absolut also tapped popular best friend duos in entertainment, including TV personalities Rachel Recchia and Genevieve Parisi and Two Friends, as paid partners to help promote the exclusive experience and encourage human connection at the festival.
Recchia and Parisi, both "Bachelor Nation" alums, will attend Coachella and have promoted Absolut’s experience via their social media accounts. They’re also helping Absolut plug an at-home experience for those who can’t attend the festival. Users of Hey! Vina can swipe in a dedicated “Absolut Dancing Queens” community and order a specialty cocktail kit. Every limited-edition Absolut Festival Bestie cocktail kit purchase prompts a second kit be sent to a friend of your choice and includes custom friendship bracelets from Little Words Project.
Additionally, from April 3-16, consumers can enter a sweepstakes for the chance to win a trip to Coachella’s second weekend on April 21-23. Users can enter through a dedicated microsite.
"Coachella is where so many new friendships are made and thanks to Absolut and the new 'Best Festival Friend' in-app experience, we're helping people get ahead of that by matching with friends before the festival," Olivia June, founder and CEO, Vina, said in the release. "Our main goal at Vina is to empower people to build community everywhere, and we couldn't be more excited to leverage our algorithm to do just that at the ultimate mixing ground."