The Filipino brains behind “Beer Below Zero,” the revolutionary beer-cooling technology that is now gaining a following in the market, has added a tech twist to its innovative offering by introducing another first -- text-based GCs or gift cheques.

Global Beer Zero Inc., the company set up by three friends who pioneered the beer-cooling technique, has signed up a Filipino-owned start-up, Saklolo.net, to launch a virtual GC campaign called Pasa Beer.

The text certificates are meant to shore up awareness for Beer Below Zero (BBZ) as well as to enhance the company’s relationship with its network or bars and restaurants which now number to about 75.

As part of its marketing support to these outlets, Global Beer Zero Inc. will give out Pasa Beer virtual GCs as rewards to BBZ patrons. Recipients of the virtual GCs can redeem them outright or pass it on to their friends as gifts.

Plans are also afoot to make Pasa Beer virtual GCs available for purchase online, the company said.

Saklolo.net, which develops mobile and Web solutions, said this is the first time that it is deploying its SMS-based GCs which can be tracked down in real-time when they are redeemed.

Michael Jabillo, founder Saklolo.net and a former employee of Microsoft Philippines, said the virtual
GC runs on the company’s AKA mobile directory.

Jabillo said that since the virtual GCs operate in a fully integrated system, they work just like any gift certificate, but is conveniently created, stored, transferred, and redeemed in “text form.”

As for BBZ, the technology is now being readied for export in nearby Asian countries, as well as Guam, Saipan, and Hawaii. The innovative process, which allows beer to be served just before it freezes, was pioneered by beer connoisseurs and bar owners Luigi Nunez, Vinson Co Say, and Jay-jay Angala.