Heineken — The Flipper

Concept

Phones have a way of pulling us back in—even when we’re out with friends. It starts with a buzz. A ping. A light on the screen. You glance. You scroll. And just like that, you're elsewhere. Social moments turn into screen sessions. Not because we want to ignore the people we’re with, but because notifications tempt us into it. That’s how phubbing happens: not out of intention, but design. So we set out to break the cycle—with a flip.

Idea

The Flipper. A phone case that flips your phone face down when it hears “cheers.” An over-engineered nudge against a very simple problem—the screen. Because sometimes, a tiny robotic arm is all it takes to keep distractions away from social life. Because sometimes, all it takes is a tiny robotic arm to bring attention back to where it belongs—each other.

Execution

The Flipper was handmade in just 50 units, each with a sound sensor, a microcontroller running on-device AI, and a mechanical lever to flip the phone. Trained on thousands of “cheers” from around the world, the model ran locally for faster flips, and longer battery life. Its design was deliberately bold, colorful, and silly: a physical gag with a deeper purpose. Each unit was 3D-printed, tuned, and tested by hand. We partnered with Simone Giertz, YouTube’s Queen of Shitty Robots, to introduce The Flipper in her signature style. From tech blogs to TikTok, the world flipped out. And then, they started flipping their own phones too.