Good things come to those who… go?

Hi Jeremy!

I’m a digital Product Designer in the early stage of my journey. I also love Guinness.

For these two reasons I have designed an app concept that I feel might be interesting for the Guinness brand, and would like to give it to you for free. For me, this was a fun opportunity to practice my craft, and to show appreciation to a brand I’m very fond of - so it’s yours to do what you want with, if you want to do anything at all.

The application is called Guinness Go (like the Pokemon game, but much cooler). The function is very simple: to help Guinness drinkers quickly find pubs and bars that serve Guinness.

The idea came from observing an interaction on Twitter, between the Guinness GB account, and a graphic designer. As part of a One Minute Briefs challenge, Zed (the designer) mocked up a simple search bar that allows users to search for “Bars that serve Guinness”. The Guinness GB account replied saying “This needs to happen as an app!”…

To my surprise, nothing like this existed. I saw this as validation for the idea, and decided to take it forward…

On the hunt for Guinness

The validation I needed

Now, how could this help you, Guinness and Diageo? I spent some time thinking about opportunities and directions, and this is what I came up with:

• Social media audience: As per your annual report, “Guinness was the most talked about beer brand in the world on social media”. Guinness Go could continue to drive that trend, given the application’s potential for vitality. It could serve to entertain and engage new and existing consumers, especially if used in conjunction with social media influencers like the Guinness Guru.
• Extension of the brand: Your annual report speaks of “understanding key moments in people’s lives – and the meaningful role Guinness can play in those moments – and connecting with consumers in unforgettable ways”. Using Guinness Go to find a pint of Guinness (a key moment in the day!) would absolutely allow consumers to connect with the brand in a new, engaging and definitely unforgettable way.
• Support local: A true local as one you can walk to. A campaign could be formed around the app that encourages users to walk to their local pubs for a pint of Guinness.
• Stronger pub network: The process of validating which pubs serve the black stuff could strengthen your connection with the national network and community of Guinness-serving businesses. Pub would feel wanted, connected, and would want to be on the app.
• Feature explorations:
  • Guinness-related drinking games, Guinness Challenge, pub quiz
  • Guinness pub crawl
  • Rating features - ‘best Guinness in London’
  • Local recommendation lists

If your brain is whirring right now, I would love to keep this conversation going so that the world can receive this from Guinness. If it’s not, no bother!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks,