If you’ve ever walked into a bar or a beer hall and stared at a line of taps just waiting for one of them to speak to you, a craft brewery out of St. Louis is pouring some effort into technology that will do just that.
Schlafly Beer, the largest locally owned and independent craft brewery in Missouri, will be utilizing smart phone beacons, called the TapTalker, on taps starting on Friday. The technology allows the beer maker to connect directly with its community of beer drinkers via a new mobile app, right at the point of purchase.
Schlafly fans will receive notifications about drink specials, tasting notes, new beer releases, and more, according to the brewery, which says it brews more than 50 unique styles of beer every year.
The brewery has partnered with Juxtad, a beacon-enabled marketing platform that allows companies to communicate with consumers, via their smartphones, when they enter an on-premise location of a bar or restaurant.
“We believe this will be a game changer for the beer industry,” Schlafly Beer CEO James Pendegraft said in a news release. “Whereas most beer brands hope to connect with consumers through traditional marketing tactics such as advertising, social media or experiential events, we can now take the consumer experience a step further — engaging Schlafly Beer drinkers at the exact moment when they are purchasing a beer.”
This is great news for anyone who has ever stood in line behind an indecisive beer orderer: “What do you have that’s lighter?” … “Is that super hoppy?”
Juxtad has installed over 50 TapTalker beacons in locations across St. Louis, with plans to scale up to over 250 bar and restaurant locations by May. It’s the largest beacon deployment in a single network within the $211 billion U.S. alcoholic beverage market.
According to Schlafly, other beer brands in Europe have utilized beacon-enabled technology in spill mats and other deployment tactics across on-premise locations. Schlafly is the first supplier to utilize the TapTalker beacons in the U.S.
