Montana Tavern Association launches app

People don’t usually look to rural and locally owned Montana bars to be on the cutting edge of marketing evolution. A new effort by the Montana Tavern Association, a consortium of bar owners from across Montana, is aiming to change that.

The association recently released SWIG406, an app that works on iPhone and Android phones and allows users to subscribe for $5 a month and gain access to a list of bars in the state that offer discounts and free drinks for those who use the app.

The minimum a bar will offer subscribers is one free drink per year. The draw is that when someone is exploring a corner of Montana they don’t often make it to, they can use the app to find watering holes they might otherwise have missed. They can develop new favorite places to go, and support the local economy.

The app also includes resources to discourage driving while intoxicated, such as links to ride apps.

The idea was born in Cut Bank and came from Tanya Harper, who owns the Pioneer Bar and is a member of the tavern association, said Margret Herriges, executive director of the association.

Herriges said the tavern association will work to market the app to tourists, and entice them to use their free drink specials on beer and spirits made in Montana. The idea has garnered support from some brewery owners in the state as a result.

“We really want to promote Montana crafted beverages in a Montana bar so that they walk in and enjoy the fruits of this great state, from the farmer who grew the grain to people who brewed or distilled it to the people who serve it,” Herriges said.

Herriges said they have bars on the list that were a significant part of Montana history, and this will be a good way to let people unfamiliar with a certain part of the state know about that history, while also giving them extra incentive to stop by.

“There is so much history in our small towns in Montana; there is so much history in our bigger cities too,” Herriges said. “Our bars, restaurants and taverns are our original businesses on the main streets in Montana.”

The app is also a way to raise money for the tavern association.

Herriges said while they were looking at the app as a potential revenue stream, they intended to direct whatever revenue it garnered in the near future back into the app, to help pay for its development and continue to improve it.

“This was a big, big leap of faith for the [tavern association] and for its members and leadership to say we have never done anything like this but we are going to invest,” Herriges said. “It’s the way people communicate, so we need to be at that level as well.”

It is also part of a larger effort to make sure small bars in rural Montana remain relevant.

Bobby Lincoln, who with his father Bob owns Del’s Bar in Somers as well as Joe Blogz in Lakeside, was a part of the committee assembled to design the app.

He said that while the tavern association tends to be made up of older folks, this is a great indication of the steadily increasing tide of young people who are ushering their efforts into ways that will hit younger people more effectively. Plus, the older members of the group were great critics and provided valuable feedback in the designing process.

“In the last two years, we’ve seen a lot of young people come in,” Lincoln said.

He said the biggest key to the app’s success would be to get as many bars in the state as possible signed up. Herriges predicted that by the end of June there will be 100 bars signed up. As of the second week of June, there were 76, nine of which were in the Flathead Valley.

The app is free to download, and those who choose not to pay the $5 per month subscription fee can still use it to check on drink specials.

It is free for a bar owner to sign up for the app if they are a member of the tavern association. Otherwise, it is $750 to get listed on the app. A bar owner also incurs the cost of the free drinks they give away to app users, of course.

The nine bars signed up in the Flathead Valley are Best Bet Gaming Casino in Kalispell, Del’s Bar in Somers, Kelley’s Pub & Casino in Columbia Falls, Buster’s Casino and Liquor Store in Whitefish, Joe Blogz in Lakeside, the Bulldog Saloon in Whitefish, The Sitting Duck in Woods Bay, The Raven in Woods Bay and First & Last Chance Bar in Eureka.

Gift subscriptions are also available, for anywhere from one month to 12 months at $5 per month.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.