The Irish Heritage Council offers protection, tax support and other financial benefits to places of historical significance that are open to the public, such as museums.

So, Heineken turned historic Irish pubs into virtual museums, with the help of local historians and AR technology to create the exhibit, enabling their rich past to protect their future.

BACKGROUND: Irish pubs represent significant pieces of local history, many of which treasure priceless stories and valuable heirlooms. Pubs continue to play a fundamental role in the communities they serve and their heritage deserves to be preserved to safeguard communities and their stories.

Unfortunately, many of these pubs are now facing higher running costs, higher taxes and inflation, resulting in the closure of a quarter of Irish pubs, an average of 150 each year.

Heineken's brand mission is to help people enjoy a richer social life. The closure of these historical Irish pubs in Ireland represented a barrier to people enjoying social life in these social epicentres.

THE HACK: The Irish Heritage Council offers protected status, tax support and other financial benefits to places of historical significance that are open to the public, such as museums.

So, Heineken, to help showcase these pubs’ value and importance turned them into virtual museums, enabling their rich past to protect their future.

Each pub taking part in the initiative has been transformed into a virtual museum, including historical artifacts, audio guides, and even souvenirs.

A plaque at the entrance of each pub reads “This pub is a museum”, welcoming its visitors. By scanning a QR code placed on the plaque, pub customers are transported into a virtual experience, discovering the history of each pub. An augmented reality overlay tells stories and local legends about each pub, recreating exactly the experience of being in a traditional museum.

LAUNCH: The Pub Museums launched in the iconic Toners Pub in Dublin with an event that included local celebrities and influencers, and expanded to 4 more pubs in Ireland.

The Pub Museum in Sean’s Bar, which is believed to be the oldest pub in Ireland and possibly the world, dating as far back as 900 A.D, allowed users to discover the legendary history of the pub, shrouded in mystery and supported by archaeological evidence.

Many of the artifacts at the pubs are items of real historic significance, such as a spear recovered from a local battle, remains of an older building that had been destroyed during civil wars, a wall made of wattle and wicker dating back to the Middle Ages or even older coins recovered from said wall.

Others were pieces of pop culture’s history, such as an original record from the 70s, lost for decades and found again during the Covid pandemic, or paraphernalia belonging to celebrities such as David Bowie.

The Pub Museums PR launch was a success, earning 3.7M in earned reach, most of which directly benefited the pubs involved.

BEHIND THE TECH: Seamless for the users, the tech behind the experience was created by combining complex elements to achieve what is an AR-navigable museum. Indoor navigation alongside the pub's geolocation was paired with training a model to recognize ancient objects present in the spaces.

Each artefact was left untouched, yet turned into a 3D object recognizable at 360° through tracking, built with the use of photogrammetry.

Users could visit the pubs with their mobile phones, moving among virtual objects to discover their history, an immersive experience where technological complexity results in ease of use.

The campaign aims to safeguard pubs for generations to come, protecting the “home of socialising”, as an official Museum would provide pubs with the opportunities and resources usually reserved for other cultural landmarks.

THE FINANCIAL SCHEMES: Working closely with Eimear O’Connell Heritage LTD and the Heineken Legal team, we have supported these pubs in applying for protected status.

The team was able to unlock over 230k in grants for these pubs, some of which are already in use to help these pubs carry out renovations. The project also resulted in a 30% increase in footfall, minimising the risk of these pubs’ closing. Donations for the pubs are also welcome in exchange for “virtual souvenirs”.

Through a simple online form, any interested pub in Ireland can apply to be turned into a museum by Heineken, whose team is already busy filtering through the many requests to find eligible historic sites to whom they can offer legal and technical support.

CONCLUSION: Thanks to this project, the pubs involved now have the legal and financial support to stay open for much longer. Because global financial instability shouldn’t pose a threat to historic institutions.