Innovative Peterborough based brewer, Oakham Ales, is the first in the UK to sign up to a new free iPhone beer app ‘Pint Please’ http://pintplease.com/. The app, already a success in Finland, shows where users can discover new beers, shows their locations, gives ratings and allows the user to give and receive recommendations on which beers to try and where. Users can share this information with friends and other beer drinkers in the region.
Pint Please is free to join for every pub. Users can add location, image, description and their beer list for no charge. Those who sign-up to the pro-account will be able to access the analytics via logging into the Pint Please website for a monthly fee of £20 per pub.
Users will be able to access the data to see how their brands and pubs are performing by region and what brands are selling best. The data is illustrated in an easy to navigate format and gives details on how brands or pubs have been rated by consumers. Individual beers can be promoted via the client site for particular days or events.
Finnish-born Chief Executive, Juha Karppinen, one of the co-founders and an amateur beer enthusiast, said: “The idea came to me when I visited Finnish pubs with friends and ended up forgetting the names of the labels I enjoyed the most. Those using our app will be able to receive personalised beer recommendations based on their tastes – the app can also synch with the users others social media, such as Facebook and Twitter”.
The team behind the app consists of four founders who were previously coders and designers with Nokia and Microsoft. For the UK launch, Juha Karppinen has teamed up with Tim Froggett, a Senior Marketing Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.
Mr Froggett says: “Anglia Ruskin is very keen to promote engagement with companies and for students to have as many opportunities to gain work experience as possible. And who better to get involved in a new beer app than students!”
Following a competition among students, Giulia Pilleri designed a special Pint Please beer (soft fruit with a hint of elderflower on the aroma; a sweet crisp fruity taste fading to a dry bitter finish, 4.1% ABV) which has been specially brewed for the launch by Oakham Ales. The beer will be available from this month and will also be on the brewery’s stand at the Peterborough Beer Festival.
As the Anglia Ruskin University has campuses in Peterborough, Chelmsford and Cambridge a ‘Pint Please’ student team will be involved in demonstrating the app at venues in these areas as well as the Great British Beer Festival in London.
Adrian Posnett, Managing Director of Oakham Ales, says: “The new app is easy to navigate and attractively designed and I’m confident will be popular with our drinkers, who we know love to share their views on our beers. I look forward to reviewing the data provided by Pint Please which will give us a closer insight into what drinkers are saying about our beer. It will also enable us to offer highly tailored promotions to users of the app.”
To download the app on the 12th August 2014 go to: http://bit.ly/pintpleaseUK