How controversial BrewDog boss is aiming to help 'everyday' people boost their incomes

The start-up marks the first major venture for the controversial businessman since he said last month that he was stepping down as chief executive of the craft beer giant to dedicate more time to his business interests.

He is debuting Social Tip, an app designed “to help make anyone an influencer” that “rewards everyday people for posting about the brands they love by paying them in real cash”.

The platform is pitched as being aimed at the millions of people globally who share experiences of products and services with their followers on social media every day, with its proprietary artificial intelligence-based algorithm calculating the value of posts, based on views, likes and engagement, and rewarding users by depositing money into their Social Tip accounts.

It said it will be available to download imminently, and has several launch brand partners on board including pet food brand Bella & Duke, Dash Water, PureGym, Slug & Lettuce, and Trip Drinks, as well as BrewDog that started out in 2007.

The founding Social Tap team includes, in addition to Watt, who received criticism for his leadership style at BrewDog, Thomas Matecki, former chief technology officer of Zilch, billed as the fastest fintech to reach double unicorn status, and Georgia Lee, former MD of premium food delivery service Supper.

Watt said: “This is good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing, but amplified for the digital age, and scalable through our innovative technology. The most powerful marketing we ever had for BrewDog had nothing to do with us. It wasn’t the stunts, and it certainly wasn’t advertising. It was everyday people sharing their love for our products. With Social Tip, we want to release the power of authentic brand love, so that fans get meaningful rewards for posting about their favourite brands, businesses and experiences.”

He added that traditional influencer marketing has always had a credibility problem. “No-one believes that celebrities or the biggest TikTokers and YouTubers just happen to be really into a brand. That’s why the power of conventional influencer endorsement is limited and dwindling. Give me a choice between paying thousands of pounds to a social media personality to fake love my brand, or rewarding masses of genuine, loyal fans, and it’s no contest.”

The venture is being backed by UK tech investment fund Haatch, whose co-founder Fred Soneya said: “Our attraction to investing in Social Tip is threefold; trust in paid advertising continues to fall, rewarding verified purchasers who share on social creates significant [return on investment] for the brand whilst continuing to build loyalty with customers, and backing the [business-to-business] platform which is distributed by the largest brands is the scalable strategy. With James at the helm, we're excited to support Social Tip to become the first and fastest growing platform rewarding true [user-generated content] backed by verified purchases.”