Marketing students at Anglia Ruskin University are getting a taste of real business ? and real ale ? thanks to the release of a new iPhone beer app called Pint Please.
The free app, which enables users to rate beers and share recommendations, is already proving a success in Finland and was launched in the UK at this week’s Great British Beer Festival at Olympia in London.
The Finnish entrepreneurs behind the app have teamed up with marketing academics and students from Anglia Ruskin’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School to give students the opportunity to promote the app, and study the results.
Following a competition among students, Giulia Pilleri designed a special Pint Please beer (described as soft fruit with a hint of elderflower on the aroma and with a sweet crisp fruity taste fading to a dry bitter finish, 4.1% ABV) which has been specially brewed for the launch by Peterborough-based Oakham Ales, the first UK brewery to sign up to the app.
Students will be helping with promotional work by demonstrating the app in pubs close to Anglia Ruskin’s campuses in Chelmsford, Cambridge, and Peterborough, and Emily Gerrard, a third year business management student, has been recruited as a social media advisor.
She has alsobeen awarded a special Pint Please bursary to write her dissertation around the app’s social media strategy.
Tim Froggett, senior lecturer in marketing, said: “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!”
Finnish-born Juha Karppinen, one of the co-founders of Pint Please, 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 of other social media, such as facebook and Twitter.”
Adrian Posnett, managing director of Oakham Ales, added: “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.”
To download the Pint Please app, visit http://bit.ly/pintpleaseUK
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