Participating pubs can increase social media engagement and customer interaction

February 3, 2015: Purple WiFi, the cloud-based social WiFi software company, today announced its partnership with Molson Coors, one of the UK's biggest brewers to create a solution called "Molson Coors Cloud".

As part of a new trial, Molson Coors is offering a secure gated access point for a pub's WiFi where Molson Coors brands are stocked, such as; Carling, Coors Light and Cobra. The access point also enables the licensees to engage with their customers directly to build loyalty and provide them relevant information and offers. 

The licensed venue can also use the Molson Coors Cloud to achieve social media engagement, customer interaction and loyalty, data collection and ROI from additional food and beverage sales.

Alpesh Mistry, Molson Coors Customer Marketing Director, says: "Being a significant On Trade supplier that continues to have a direct relationship with our customers, we know publicans are looking for new modern ways to drive sales. The idea of having a resource that would capture customer data and then use this to attract these pubgoers back would have historically been left to those with significant time and budget. By creating Molson Coors Cloud, our hope is we are enabling any of our customers to have this ability."

Daniel Dearlove, General Manager - Backyard Bar & Backyard Comedy Club says: "The Molson Coors WiFi portal is already driving more traffic to our free WiFi service and the marketing opportunities it enables are easy to implement and helping us to engage in new ways with our customer base. With a better understanding of our customers we can also identify new markets for our events and improve the service we offer, resulting in increased numbers of returning customers."

Upon logging in, the customer will be given the choice of how to access the free WiFi, either by a short form or their chosen social media account. When accessing via social media, the venue can ask for a Facebook ‘Like' or a Twitter ‘Follow' and gain the opportunity to engage via social media or email.

Users must agree to the terms and conditions, allowing the following data to be collected during login: name, age, gender, location, email address and mobile number.

Each customer that accesses the WiFi provides their consent to the venue access to some of the information captured during the login process. This information is stored securely in the MolsonCoorsCloud.com portal and can be used by the venue to view insights and analytics about their customers.

All data is stored in line with all legislation and best practice, and can be used by the venue.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO, Purple WiFi comments: "The drinks industry was one of the first to recognise the demand for free WiFi. Over the past few years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of pubs that provide a WiFi hotspot for their customers. But the supply still isn't meeting demand and WiFi is often unsecured, whilst offering little or no benefit to the venue. Molson Coors is paving the way within the drinks industry, turning that situation on its head by providing free WiFi and getting something tangible in return."

Upon a successful trial across 20 venues throughout the UK for a period of 6 months, Molson Coors will be looking to launch this to all outlets across the UK with clear analysis on the benefits of using this portal.

The trial has been set up using TP-LINK wireless equipment running custom Purple WiFi firmware, enabling remote management using a web-interface.

The TP-LINK dual band router, WDR3600, is an affordable, high power and feature rich solution that comes pre-configured with Purple WiFi's technology, resulting in a cloud managed WiFi access point. This gives Molson Coors and the participating establishments peace of mind that in the cloud, TP-LINK could replicate what could be achieved with more expensive products. It also meant that they could configure, diagnose and troubleshoot remotely.