The newspaper ‘i’ is owned by The Independent and is a popular lifestyle newspaper in London, UK. Until the summer of 2011, it was only available in print.
The target audience for the newspaper is similar to that of Heineken’s Pubs in London. The two companies joined effort to connect with customers in a new way and engaged Mobiletech to build a digital version of the newspaper for mobile phones and tablets – but only accessible at Heineken Pubs.
Mobiletech developed a service that gives consumers free access to ’i’ when inside a Heineken hotspot. It detects the connectivity of the user, checks it against a database of Heineken Pub hotspots (provided by British Telecom) before allowing free access for users connected through the hotspots. Users outside a Heineken hotspot is given a landing page with positioning and directions to the nearest Heineken Pub.
The result is a great mobile service, publicity for both parties concerning this new exciting solution – and a large number of readers.
