Sobercoins is the personification of how progressive thinking has led to a very unexpected and brave solution to the widespread issue of excessive pre-drinking amongst young people. With proven result and easy implementation in any market in the world. Yet another proof that sometimes crazy ideas turn out not to be crazy at all.

Pre-drinking (getting drunk prior to going out) is not a new problem. However, in Belgium the issue is huge: 80% of young people pre-drink. Mostly to avoid the high cost of drinking at venues. As a result, they drink massive amounts in a short amount of time, and 25% do it with heavy liquors. While research shows that pre-drinking leads to heavier drinking and an increased risk of addiction. In the city of Balen, just like in any other city, data showed that pre-drinking led to great nuisance, like fighting and vandalism. So, this small city in Belgium wanted to act and asked us to try something completely different in order to tackle the pre-drinking problem.

To be clear: the SoberCoins initiative is not an anti-alcohol campaign for a campaign against drinking alcohol. It rather is a behavioural stimulant for a more responsible drinking behaviour and a way of opening the debate about the problem of pre-drinking

Apart from the - since 5 years now - increasing nuisance during the weekends (increased fighting, vandalism, medical interventions because of drunkenness), research* shows that pre-drinking leads to heavier drinking and an increased risk of addiction. So the city of Balen decided it was time to take action. The desired outcome not being that young people would no longer consume alcohol (which would be utopic anyway), but to try to make sure that they arrive sober at the party. Because research* data has proven that if young people don’t pre-drink, in the end they end up drinking way less alcohol and it’ll be much more spread over time. Which is proven to lead to less nuisance and less risk of addiction.

*source: National anti addiction institute Belgium

Together with the City Council of Balen and a behavioural psychologist (Tom De Bruyne, Sue behavioural academy Amsterdam) we organised a qualitative session with 25 local youngsters. To understand their behaviour and more specifically try to feel what would incite them to be more responsible. The outcome was predictable: young people crave for independence and autonomy. They hate to be told what to do (or what not to do). Resistance is engrained into their young brain as a natural psychological reaction, especially to what feels to be a threat to their freedom. So, instead of telling young people about the health issues of excessive pre-drinking, and the nuisance caused by it, behavioural science teaches us that finding a provocative behavioural incentive that talks their language would be way more effective to reach our goal.

What if we could fight excessive pre-drinking by handing out... free drinks. Wait, what? The Belgian City of Balen tried something unprecedented to fight pre-drinking: Sobercoins. An encouragement for young people to arrive at the party sober by rewarding them with... free drinks. A behavioural incentive that might feel contradictory at first, but research (source: National anti-addiction Institute Belgium) has proven that if young people don’t pre-drink, they end up drinking way less alcohol. How did it work? Young people can get breathalyzed (free choice) at the entrance doors of clubs. When negative, they are rewarded with a Sobercoin, a token for 3 complimentary drinks by the venue.

Via PR in local press and announcement on social channels, young people got to know the initiative. After 1 day only it was headliner news on all National News outlets. One month later the Sobercoins initiative made the global News and News Outlets like BBC came to the City of Balen in Belgium to live-report about this unique experiment. Beyond the PR results (which was a key result to this campaign), the City of Balen also registered 3x less fightings, 8x less vandalism and 4x less medical interventions (source: local police data city of Balen) since the introduction of 'Sobercoins'. The Sobercoin scheme (fighting pre-drinking by handing out... free drinks) will now also be introduced in other cities in Belgium and will even be tried out at a student campus in Arkansas, USA.