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Lauren Kerensky, a Jersey Shore native, joined ADOTAS as an editorial intern for the 2006 summer. Graduating as an English/Creative Writing major from Colgate University and interning as an entertainment news writer, in addition to being an involved foodie, bring Lauren's writing topics and interests to span a wide array of genres.

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Carling Beer Fans Find Pubs and Perks on WAP Site

Written on
Sep 6, 2006 
Author
Lauren Kerensky  |
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Carling Beer Fans Find Pubs and Perks on WAP Site

So, you’re wandering the streets of an unfamiliar neighborhood looking for a good bar. You are reluctant to take your chances, since you’ve been to one bad dive after another, but the night is still young. If only there was some feature on your handheld device that would direct you quickly and easily to the best bars in the area…

Well, for lucky Londoners, Coors-owned Carling beer is giving them just that. Marvellous Mobile has created a WAP site for “Britain’s Number One Lager” that features, among other interactive elements, a Barfinder. The site uses location-based services after a postcode has been entered to allow bar-hoppers to find the nearest Carling-serving pubs right on their mobiles. The site provides details on each bar, including type, quality of beer, and level of service. Users can then contribute to this information once he or she has visited the pub.

The original Barfinder was developed on the Carling website, but, according to Marvellous’ Thea Frost, Project Coordinator for the WAP site, Carling wanted to make the information more immediate. “They wanted to take that and bring it into pubs so people can interact with the brand when they’re actually in pubs and drinking and on the streets looking for bars,” she tells ADOTAS. While it is currently limited to London, the Barfinder will eventually serve pub crawlers all over the UK.

Frost says that a growing number of people are using the Barfinder, but all of the features on the WAP site, launched on August 15th, are reeling in impressive results. A downloadable Java game called “Can-it” is another popular element of the site. “The object is to collect Carling beer cans for points, and to smash non-Carling beer cans,” Frost explains. “At the end of the game, players can submit their scores to a national leaderboard which is hosted on the WAPsite.”

WAP visitors also have the opportunity to download ringtones for 50p that will be updated every couple of months, and they can eventually download a video that will be added shortly. Since the site and its features are set to run indefinitely, new versions of the Java game are planned for the future. Frost says that the site will also be reviewed regularly to include new features and sections in the coming months.

The WAP site provides an extension for the Carling website with an identical music section that includes regularly updated music news. Advertising for the mobile promotion is limited to Carling.com, though a banner campaign may be developed eventually.

Visiting the WAP site on mobiles for pub info and entertaining games and accessories may seem rewarding enough to users, but participating in the features makes each participant a candidate for an even larger prize. In order to access the majority of the WAP content, users must register their name and birth date to become members, thus marking the beginning of a loyalty point system.

“Registering in itself gains points, and more points are awarded every time they visit the site, download ringtones/wallpapers/the Java game, rate a bar in Barfinder, or interact with the site in other ways,” says Frost. A viral, send-to-a-friend feature, where members enter the mobile number of a friend who is then invited to the site, also gains the member points. What do all of these points add up to? “At the end of each month,” says Frost, “the member with the most points wins a year’s supply of Carling.”

American beer fans may be up in arms that no such campaigns have come their way just yet, but based on research, Frost believes that Americans are still using mobile technology in a very different way than their European counterparts. “Mainly they just use their mobiles for voice calls and they don’t use them for actual texting or WAP,” she speculates. Data has shown that the trend may slowly be changing, but for now, it is certainly something that mobile marketing agencies in the US are keeping in mind when creating campaigns. In the UK, though, Frost is seeing development occur at a much faster rate and WAP use in general growing in popularity.

So if you happen to be wandering the streets of Londontown, text BEER to 83400 to find Carling-serving pubs and start racking up those points. If not, check out http://www.Carling.com and sit tight until a Barfinder comes to a city near you.





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