Irish brewer Guinness has taken its Great Guinness Pint Contest nationwide this year and the interactive mobile program is meant to engage consumers with the brand across the country.

The program asks consumers at participating businesses to rate their pint of Guinness via their mobile phone. Each time consumers rate their pint they are entered into a sweepstakes in which the winner gets a home pub.

"Guinness is really big on quality," said John Lim, CEO of Mobile Card Cast, Tarrytown, NY. "The program uses mobile because it is the only channel where consumers can give ratings and opinions in real time.

?No one is going to have a beer at 4 p.m. and then remember to go to their computer later on to rate it,? he said. ?Mobile makes it more immediate.?

This year?s program, powered by Mobile Card Cast, is a bit different because there is a WAP microsite, where consumers can search for the highest rated pint of Guinness in their area.

Additionally, consumers can text CHEERS to 81759 to get the Guinness Pub Finder, an application that allows users to discover pubs near them.

The application uses GPS location to pinpoint the user's location and send local pub details which can be used to create a favorites list.

The top performing bars or restaurants serving Guinness this time around will receive a celebration party.

Live drawings will be held on the television sets in each of the participating establishments for the home pub prize.

A plaque will be presented to the bar for serving one of the "Greatest Pints of Guinness in America" as voted by the consumers.

The night will culminate with a toast to the bar or restaurant for its accomplishment.

This program is part of a bigger mobile effort built off the pride of Guinness and its loyal consumers.

Consumers are asked to rate their pint on a scale from one to 10 via text message. They are asked to text GREAT to the short code 31759 for a chance to win the home pub.

Table tents, coasters and posters within participating bars and restaurants will promote the program.

Additionally, a tip card will be available to patrons, which will give them tips on how to rate a pint of Guinness.

Guinness ran this same program in November and December last year.

During this two month period there were 62,578 completed entries. That means 1.22 pints were rated per minute during operational hours of all participating retailers.

There were 36,866 unique entries, of these Guinness achieved an opt in ratio of 62 percent, with 22,732 people asking to receive future alerts.

The above numbers were achieved with limited advertising through POS in retail accounts.

"Guinness chose mobile because it is a popular form of communication these days, especially SMS," Mr. Lin said.

?Adding the WAP and search feature was a big part of the program this year because Guinness drinkers are loyal and the brand wanted to reward the bar locations that did the best last year,? he said.