French spirit group Pernod Ricard came to Vexed wanting to extend their brand using digital touch points.  We devised an exciting new app for iPhone that aims to be a barfly’s best friend while positioning Pernod Ricard for a wider audience. 

Barwise began life at Vexed as a heat-map for evening hot-spots concept.  We looked into sourcing the right data, having identified geo-location, review and check-in elements as key.  The aim; to make going out easier, more social and better informed by providing users of the app with information on the nearest hangouts, bars, pubs, clubs, takeaways and restaurants at the touch of an iPhone button.

Pernod Ricard’s Director of Digital Media, Tim Cunningham, says “We wanted to create a simple, clever and useful app that works with live data in a mobile environment to help people really make the most of their night out.”

Pulling together GPS technology and data from Google (locational, venue reviews and ratings) together with social checkin data from Foursquare and Facebook Places we were able to map out not only what bars are near to you but also how they’re been rated in terms of busy-ness and social checkins and how they’ve been reviewed.

The app also offers a ‘Where Next’ feature, which suggests 3 venues, based on the time of day and how busy they’ve been rated and continues providing fresh information when users move around the map. By clicking ‘Friends’ Barwise offers a chance to see where those from your social network are on the map, based on their checkins.  It aims to make meeting up or going out spontaneously in the evening more fun and ultimately easier while serving as a tool to plan a night out.

Barwise went live for UK and US markets in November and is available now on the iTunes app store.