Social WiFi provider, Purple WiFi, has been selected by Admiral Taverns as a supplier of WiFi solutions for its pub estate. The service will enable customers to login for free but will also deliver valuable analytical data back to the individual pubs, around customers’ online activity and profile, allowing much more targeted and relevant promotions to be created and shared.
Admiral operates a UK-wide estate of leased and tenanted pubs in the heart of urban and rural communities, all run by individual licensees. Admiral was keen to offer its licensees a tested solution that would let them offer free WiFi to visitors, safe in the knowledge that their WiFi is secure, legal and will assist in customer engagement.
Unlike other WiFi offerings, Purple WiFi uses existing social networking credentials to allow users to log into the free service. By using their Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, they avoid having to fill in long registration forms or create new usernames or passwords that they then need to try to remember.
Gail Taylor, commercial executive at Admiral Taverns, comments on the decision to select Purple WiFi as its recommended estate-wide WiFi supplier: “We felt that Purple WiFi fits well with our estate and is suitable for all licensees who already have broadband. For those already offering a free solution to customers, we are still recommending Purple WiFi, given the great marketing platform it delivers to the pub.”
Purple WiFi delivers the licensees a dedicated Purple Portal dashboard, where they can gain a clear picture of who is using the service, how often they visit, how long they stay, their age and gender and other useful information. Guests simply “like” the relevant Facebook page or “tweet” about their location to gain access. This data then allows the pub to create more targeted marketing campaigns and engage directly with their customer base and potentially the customers’ wider network of Facebook friends and Twitter followers. The Premium solution selected by Admiral also generates advanced reporting and additional marketing tools through the portal.
Gail Taylor continues: “The marketing platform is amazing and means that our licensees can work up e-shots to send to customers in advance and even offers personal touch by sending regular customers a celebratory message from their local community pub on special occasions such as their birthday. It was also critical for our licensees that we researched and recommended a WiFi solution that would protect them from customers accessing illegal content and Purple WiFi’s Premium product eliminates this risk through content filtering.”
Purple WiFi recently carried out a survey of more than 3500 venues, which uncovered that while 82% believed they were legally compliant, most surveyed were either running completely open networks, meaning anyone could access the network, or handing out a password, which indicates the venue has no way of tracking internet access back to the user. This leaves the network open to criminal or terrorist use without fear of tracking implications. The data also revealed that 58% of the venues surveyed had no content filtering in place or didn’t know if they did, meaning explicit content can be accessed directly through the WiFi connection.
Commenting on the new relationship with Admiral Taverns, Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple WiFi said: “WiFi traditionally offers very little in the way of value for the venues that provide it to customers, and people expect free guest WiFi wherever they go these days. Purple WiFi gives something back, enabling pubs to better understand and target their customers and this is ideal for a group like Admiral, where the units vary in style and location and as a result need a marketing tool that can be easily customised to each business. We are delighted to be working with Admiral Taverns and look forward to hearing how our solution is helping the licensees engage more effectively with their guests, from generating Facebook likes’ to directing them towards great promotional offers.”