Snap Pics of Pepsi for a Chance to Win a VIP Trip For Two to the 2013 MLB All-Star Game!

Advertising, Brand Contests, Brand Packaging, Featured Posts, Image Recognition | by

    You could win a chance to see your favorite baseball stars just by taking a picture of yourself enjoying any Pepsi or Diet Pepsi beverage.

    One of the greatest baseball traditions is sitting at the ballpark and punching out the tiny holes on your All-Star ballot — most of the fun is debating with your friends which players deserve the honor the most.

    Now, in addition to voting from your seats, you could possibly win a VIP trip for two to the 2013 MLB All-Star Game in New York — just for taking a picture of yourself enjoying a sip of Pepsi or just a pic of the Pepsi itself.

    Send your pics to PepsiMLB@pongr.com and look for your response email confirming your entry.

    That’s all you do — it’s that easy. Then you can start daydreaming of watching Albert Pujols, Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Bryce Harper do what they do best.

    Cans. Bottles. Fountain Cups. Any Pepsi or Diet Pepsi will do as long as the logo is clearly visible in the picture. You can send one picture per day (one chance to win) through June 15.

    Your direct response message will look like this:

    Pongr is proud to partner with Pepsi for their latest MLB All-Star Game Promotion, providing the image recognition technology and direct response advertising platform for processing thousands of consumer photos and filtering correct and incorrect entries. Pongr has previously teamed up with PepsiCo for other sports and entertainment-themed promotions, including Pepsi’s “Rock Your Summer” contest offering VIP experiences at concerts and its “Match Snap Win” contest giving away Super Bowl tickets.

    Citi Field, home of the New York Mets and the Pepsi Porch, will host the 2013 All-Star Game.

    The Grand Prize winner and a guest will receive round-tip air transportation to New York City, arriving on July 13 and departing July 17 — allowing plenty of time for sightseeing before and after the July 16 game. Winner will also receive two tickets to the MLB Home Run Derby, a four-night stay at an area hotel and $250 in spending money. (Estimated Retail Value: Up to $5,250 depending on where the winner lives).

    An additional 100 First Prize winners will receive $25 gift codes redeemable at the MLB.com Shop. All winners will be selected in a random drawing on June 24.

    Be Creative — How many ways can you show your passion for Pepsi and baseball in the same pic? Any Yankees, Astros, Tigers or Indians fans out there?

    Given that Pepsi beverages are not available at all 30 Major League ballparks — I’m blanking out on the name of that other brand — you need not be at a baseball game when you take your photos. Snap pics at the supermarket, at work, school or home and be creative.  Although any clear picture of Pepsi packaging is an eligible entry (you will receive an email or text confirming receipt), it’s much more fun to photograph your or your friends with Pepsi and your favorite baseball stuff.

    VOTE FOR ME: When you get an All-Star Ballot, do you automatically vote for all the players on your favorite team? (Image Source: Detroit Tigers Facebook page)

    Meanwhile, the campaign by individual teams to get out the vote for their hometown stars is now going full speed ahead. Major League Baseball is distributing 20 million paper ballots at ballparks this spring and summer, while the bulk of the voting will be done with the online ballot. Stuffing the ballot box is encouraged — and even expected — though Internet voting is limited to 25 ballots per person, with an additional 10 if you register with MLB.com.

    But don’t forget to vote for yourself, too. Grab a Pepsi and send a pic to PepsiMLB@pongr right now!

    ASK THE CEO – Pongr For Shopper Marketing & Brand Awareness

    Advertising, Ask the CEO, Featured Posts, Shopper Marketing | by

      Pongr Co-Founder and CEO Jamie Thompson believes that shopper marketing is one of the least appreciated aspects of retail advertising.

      (“Ask The CEO” is a series of Q & A interviews with Pongr Co-Founder and CEO Jamie Thompson exploring how brands can best monetize consumer photos and turn any brand advertising or packaging into a direct response promotional campaign.)

      Q: Pongr recently partnered with UNREAL Candy on a photo contest to celebrate its national distribution in Target Stores. What was the strategy?

      JT: UNREAL is an all-natural candy company that aims to “Unjunk the World” by providing healthier candy options without sacrificing taste. To promote carrying the new line of products, Target put UNREAL end cap displays in each of its stores. In an effort to drive brand awareness and engagement with their end caps, UNREAL put together a photo campaign using Pongr as their platform to encourage consumers to share pictures while they are in the store.

      Q: How can a photo contest help a new start-up brand?

      JT: This is the classic challenge of a new product introduction. How do brands create co-branded promotions that bring innovation to their retail partner, but also drive specific interaction with their product and encourage their consumers to share that experience across their social networks?

      With a Pongr-powered campaign, brands can connect consumer photos directly to their CRM database. Shopper marketing is one of the most important facets of brand advertising – and also one of the least appreciated. Brands are always vying for the best placement on shelves, the best placement in retail environments. And in a world where social matters, in a world where mobile matters, in a world where media is getting more integrated then ever before, shopper marketing needs to get pulled into the 21st century.

      UNREAL Candy’s Pongr-powered Sweepstakes deployed image recognition to identify whether customers photographed the UNREAL logo on any of its packaging and on in-store endcap displays to celebrate national distribution at Target Stores. In addition to the Grand Prize winner, 10 runners up won a year’s supply of UNREAL Candy!

      Q: What was the call to action?

      JT: As part of a New Year’s Resolution for healthier eating, UNREAL asked its fans to “Unjunk Your January,” by sharing pics of themselves, family and friends enjoying the product. Pongr provided them with the photo platform for fans to email or picture text them to unreal@pongr.com in return for an automatic entry in their sweepstakes. The top prize was a $10,000 Target gift card, with ten second prize winners getting a year’s supply of UNREAL Candy.

      Every photo entry received an instant direct response message encouraging participants to share their experiences across their social networks – including easy-click sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

      Q: What do you think about UNREAL Candy’s execution of their photo marketing campaign?

      JT: What impressed me about the UNREAL team and their agency was their very smart integration of shopper marketing with digital and traditional activation. So this program tightly integrated their spend on traditional media and their efforts and spend on digital, with shopper marketing. All with the end result of trying to drive sales across their retail partner’s stores.

      UNREAL End caps at Target Stores — When customers get close enough to photograph a product, they are more likely to try the product.

      Q: What do you think of UNREAL’s outreach strategy?

      JT: UNREAL has been really successful with their partnerships with mommy bloggers, who happen to be one of the most energized and influential groups of brand ambassadors you could ever ask for. When these bloggers get organically excited, there’s no one better to spread the message. I think it’s a brilliant way of harnessing the energy of authentic brand ambassadors and combining it with shopper marketing, traditional media, and digital media. It’s all part of the future for every brand, tighter integration across all of these channels.

      Shopper marketing is what makes the difference between whether a consumer buys your product or not. And if you can integrate your shopper marketing activity with social, you can amplify your reach, you can amplify your dollars spent — in a way that actually produces sales results. We’re excited to be a part of the shopper marketing conversations now, and we’re very excited to be building a part of that integration for the future of brands.

      Q: Okay, so that describes how Pongr’s Photo Response Marketing helps emerging brands. What about mass scale campaigns for established national and global brands?

      JT: Pongr’s image recognition and direct response tools are built to automate your campaigns at any scale. Stay tuned to this space for more details on our collaboration with agencies on shopper marketing campaigns for Nestle’s Skinny Cow, Circle K convenience stores, and Pepsi/Major League Baseball.

      (Is there a topic you’d like to see Pongr’s Jamie Thompson tackle in a future Q & A? Please send your questions and suggestions to darren@pongr.com)

      Breaking News: Pongr Acquisition of Israeli Startup Sightec is a “Computer Vision Technology Game Changer”

      Computer Vision, Engineering, Featured Posts, Image Recognition, Image Search | by

        Pongr’s acquisition of Sightec’s computer vision technology will soon impact all of our Photo Response Marketing tools. The new super-resolution technology is capable of detecting images at the sub-pixel level, a leap of 10x current image enhancement results. (Pictured above are Pongr Co-Founders Zach Cox and Jamie Thompson)

        Consumers snap and send photos of their favorite brands with their mobile phones, and instantly receive a direct response with info about a contest or promotion. No need to look under the hood or think about how everything works — or why our computer vision “knows” the difference between one company logo and another. Whether you are a brand or a consumer using Pongr, we usually don’t want you to think about technology.

        But today, for a brief moment, we’re lifting up the curtain.

        In a deal announced this morning by Adweek, Pongr has acquired IP from Israeli startup Sightec, a computer vision R&D lab that has perfected the ability to positively identify images at the sub-pixel level even when the camera is shaky or blurry.   Adweek’s Tim Peterson calls the deal an “adrenaline shot” that boosts Pongr’s already formidable image recognition technology.

        “Sightec’s technology allows for sub-pixel registration which (Pongr CEO Jamie) Thompson explained would let Pongr detect objects in the foreground and background of an image. “Pongr has been good to date at detecting products when they’re deliberate and promotional, but because of sub-pixel registration, we could pick up products in the background,” he said.

         

        “Sightec also brings image stabilization and enhancement technology that could recognize an object in an blurry or Instagram-filtered image, making the ongoing flood of user-snapped photos less of a headache.”

        The Sightec deal adds five more computer scientists to Pongr’s R&D team. Thompson says that Pongr clients will see immediate benefits from the new technology within the next few months.

        Here’s a taste of what brands can expect:

        “Originally developed for military security camera systems, Sightec’s super-resolution technology is capable of improving image quality 10X over typical image enhancement results… This level of detection requires only 3-5 pixels vs. the 400+ required by competitive systems in use today.

         

        “These significant advantages are achieved through Sightec’s mathematical approach to super-resolution, a contrarian position within the field of computer vision. Pongr will be tuning the technology to make it work for brands and products, and adapting the sub-pixel registration capabilities for wide-scale brand image detection.”

        Check out the full text of the Pongr-Sightec announcement below:

        Cups of Opportunity — How Chipotle Restaurants Make Branding Fun

        Brand Packaging, Brand Photo-Sharing Games, Direct Response Campaigns, Featured Posts, Mobile Marketing, Quick Service Restaurants | by

          While eating your burrito or refilling your soda, there’s always plenty to think about at Chipotle.

          When you’re waiting in line at a Quick Service Restaurant for your meal, or dining by yourself because no one in the office can agree on where to grab lunch, there’s always a bit of idle time to fill.

          In the tradition of reading a fun-filled cereal box at the breakfast table, Chipotle copywriters serve up plenty of amusing and interesting tidbits — sharing their brand mission on every soda cup, napkin, bag and wrapper.

          “They say a restaurant could never use mostly naturally raised meat because it’s WAAAAY too expensive & hard to find,” my cup says to me as I’m biting into a steak burrito. “They say that it doesn’t matter how good the ingredients are in quality as long as they can get a big quantity on the cheap… I think they are just trying to keep a good Chipotle down. Keep doing things your way, Chipotle.”

          I love the doodles on the cup. I love the font. I love the messaging. While I’m sipping my drink, I gobble down the entire script much more eagerly than if my server had given me a corporate brochure on sustainable agriculture.

          Captive Audience: Do you always read the entire cup monologue at Chipotle?

          Chipotle napkins brag about recycling with a joke about once being a parking ticket or electric bill and being reincarnated for a greater purpose. The joke reminds me of a classic Sesame Street skit in which game show host Guy Smiley does a “Here is Your Life” bit with an oak tree, introducing him to his furniture offspring.

          Wanting to read more, I ask the cashier if I can please have a clean wrapper without burrito juice seeping through any nouns or adjectives. She’s happy to oblige:

          Mealtime Reading — Double click on the burrito basket wrapper to read the witty Chipotle copy, without any stray sauteed onions obscuring your view.

          Cleverly worded fountain drink cups, place mats and in-store advertising certainly can engage customers when they are a captive audience, but there is always competition. Nearly everyone in line has their mobile phone and thus, no reason to ever look up from their game, Facebook or email.

          Whenever there is engaging brand copy, the Pongr Photo Response Marketing platform can turn any visual media into a direct response campaign. Pongr technology recently was used by Arby’s to power its popular “Snap and Rock” Sweepstakes.

          Arby’s fountain drink cups featured pictures of three rock stars: Trace Adkins, Taio Cruz and The All-American Rejects. Customers chose to photograph their favorite star for a chance to win a VIP concert experience, emailing/texting their pics to Arbys@pongr.com and instantly receiving an entry confirmation as well as a special offer or prize from Arby’s and Pepsi.

          The response to the promotion was overwhelming: Nearly a half million fans submitted more than 660,000 soda cup photos for their shot at glory. Entering the Sweepstakes did not require any special QR codes or pulling sticker labels off the cup — just a snap and send with a cell phone.

          As Chipotle (see our burrito fan photo gallery) continues to demonstrate, you don’t need to put rock stars on cups to grab thirsty people’s attention. But once you have it, Pongr can help bring this engagement to the next level.

          **
          (Pongr’s mobile Photo Response Marketing platform and image recognition technology help Quick Service Restaurants turn any of their existing logos, cups, napkins, place mats and in-store advertisements into an always-on direct response campaign. The Pongr system also integrates brand photo contests with their CRM. Check out Our Story.)

          Be The Brand: Candy Artist Makes Celebrity Portraits With Mike and Ikes, Hot Tamales

          Brand Ambassadors, Brand Loyalty, Featured Posts | by

            Channing Tatum, star of the movie “Magic Mike,” reincarnated in the form of Mike & Ike candies!  (By Jason Mecier)

            Imagine what George Washington or Teddy Roosevelt must have felt like staring at themselves immortalized in stone at Mount Rushmore. We don’t know how they felt — because they and colleagues Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were long gone when the tribute was first commissioned in 1927.

            But heartthrob actor Channing Tatum, voted People Magazine’s 2012 Sexiest Man Alive, is lucky.  He does get to stare at his own glorified image, but on a much more humble scale.

            Tatum recently starred as a Chippendale-like dancer in the movie “Magic Mike,” a role just recreated out of 5000 Mike and Ike candies by San Francisco mosaic artist Jason Mecier. The artwork’s flavor breakdown is as follows:

            • Mike’s lips are Red Rageous.
            • Mike’s belly button is a Berry Blast.
            • Mike’s chest features Tangy Twisters.
            • Mike’s underwear and cuffs are Lemonade Blends.
            • The background consists of Original Fruits, Tropical Typhoon and Italian Ice.

            Sometimes the appearance of a product out of the box is just as iconic as the brand logo or CPG packaging. Jason was tickled by the idea of making a famous Mike entirely out of Mikes (which candies are the Mikes and which are the Ikes, by the way?)

            He previously made a splash by creating portraits of President Barack Obama and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney out of Jack Link’s beef jerky. And his Good & Plenty pink-and-white tribute to Taylor Swift is absolutely gorgeous (scroll down below).

            We recently caught up with Jason for a Q & A on what it was like to channel the Sexiest Man Alive through his sweet tooth.

            Q: When was your first informal work of food art?  How did you get started?

            JM:  Though I have no formal art training, I did have an excellent mentor in my grandmother, Anita Tollefson. When I was young, I remember being mesmerized by her paintings, weavings, mosaics, sculptures, collages, and stained glass work that filled my grandparents’ house and yard. If Grandma was working on an art project, she would set me up at a nearby table with a project of my own.

            One of my earliest pieces is a mosaic made from beans, noodles, rocks, and cut bamboo sticks glued on a piece of wood. She encouraged me to create masterpieces using materials readily available to me. She would rather paint on the back of her cigarette cartons than buy a canvas. I learned from her that I can make art out of anything I want to, and that there are no rules.

            Q: When was your first “serious” piece of food art?

            JM: About 20 years ago, I wanted to take macaroni art to a new level and made over 200 bean and noodle portraits, mostly 1970s TV icons like “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Mary Tyler Moore.” I started to feel limited by the earthtone palette so I started working with bright-colored candy. Then, I just started using anything and everything in my mosaics. Now I try to match the medium with the subject. Like Snoop Dogg out of Marijuana, Amy Winehouse out of pills, and Kevin Bacon made out of bacon.

            My very first food art piece was Drew Barrymore (from the movie Firestarter) made out of chicken and egg dishes. It was for my friend’s zine cover. Chicken nuggets mixed with chow mein, scrambled eggs, lunchmeat and soup. It was messy and gross, but a fun learning experience.

            Q:  Why do you like working with food as a medium?  

            JM: I only like working with things that can be glued down and shellacked, like candy and beef jerky.

            I HATE working with things that just need to be assembled, photographed, and thrown away immediately, like fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. The food is wilting or rotting before your eyes, you have to work flat, ants start parading by, and if you bump the table the whole thing would shift. I also don’t get the final time to reflect and make changes at the end.

            Jason Mecier, glue gun in hand, in the final stages of filling in the last few “Mikes.”

            Q: Do you spray your art with any preservatives when you’re done?

            JM: I use Krylon Triple-Thick clear coat, a super high-gloss spray paint.

            Q: What gave you the idea to use Mike & Ikes for the Magic Mike?  More than just the name thing?

            JM: Channing Tatum was really peaking this year. Magic Mike was such a great cheesy movie and you know he is People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive!”  I’ve also been wanting to try Mike and Ike’s, so I thought it would be a perfect match.

            Q: What special flair do Mike & Ikes give the mosaic versus using generic jelly beans?

            JM: Mike and Ikes have a magical psychedelic glowy quality. I also like that I am forced to use their color assortment. Jelly Bellys are really easy and fun to work with, but there are too many jelly bean artists as it is, so if possible I try to find creative ways to use other candy brands.

            Q: Has the actor seen your candy tribute yet?

            JM: I’m not sure. I would love to get a picture of him with it! Or if he likes it, I can mail him a framed print.

            Q: Do you always hope that your subjects get to see their image and interact with it?

            JM: Yeah. It’s exciting. A lot of celebrities have my portraits of them in their homes: Parker Posey, Rosie O’Donnell, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Pink, George Lopez, Kathy Najimy, Bjork, Phyllis Diller, Ryan Adams, Barbi Benton, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Cho, Jackie Beat, The Scissor Sisters, Ricki Lake. It’s always exciting when Snoop Dogg gives you a shout out on Twitter!

            Q: When you do a food mosaic, how much raw material winds up in your stomach?

            JM: Not much. Usually once it’s in my studio and becomes art supplies, it’s not appetizing anymore.

            Q: What’s coming next?

            JM:  The PR rep for Glee’s Becca Tobin (lead cheerleader Kitty Wilde) told me that she wanted to do something fun for her charity, so they had me make her portrait to auction off. I thought Hot Tamales (“fierce cinnamon” candies) would be perfect!  I like the idea of sexy bad girls made out of Hot Tamales. So they approached the candy company (parent company Just Born, also the maker of Mike and Ikes) and asked them to donate the candy for the portrait.

            Q: So what’s your dream gig?

            JM: What I’d really like to do is a show of all Bravolebrities made out of Tic Tacs. Andy Cohen from Bravo network is obsessed with everyone’s breath, and I would just love to do a whole show of all The Real Housewives! But I need a partnership with the candy company and Bravo to really make it work. Cross promotion helps get the exposure that you need to make a project most successful.

            Do you get Good and Plenty of Taylor Swift’s music?

            (What brands would you like to see in Jason’s next celebrity mosaic?  You can keep track of his future candy art here.)

             

            Shopper Marketing: UNREAL Candy Celebrates Target Partnership With $10K Sweepstakes

            Brand Photo-Sharing Games, Featured Posts, Pongr Contests, Shopper Marketing | by

              PLAY FOOD — It’s amazing how long a few UNREAL candies can keep a baby amused. Photo credit: Douglas L. (Double click for more candid UNREAL baby pics)

              Happiness is… eating candy with your feet?

              For this youngster, it’s just as enjoyable to play with UNREAL Candy as it is to eat it. UNREAL began as a family project — a 13-year-old boy asking his dad, “Why does the junk food we love have to be so bad for us?” — so it’s only fitting that the start-up brand’s first photo contest would generate tons of fun family moments.

              To celebrate its nationwide distribution in Target Stores, UNREAL is giving away a $10,000 Target shopping spree as the grand prize in its “Unjunk Your 2013 Sweepstakes.” Ten additional winners will receive a year’s worth of UNREAL Candy.

              To enter, UNREAL fans need to snap a pic of the candy — or preferably of themselves, family or friends enjoying the candy — and email it or picture-text it to unreal@pongr.com. Aside from the customary kids with chocolately faces, shoppers have been getting extremely creative with their contest entries. Here are a few unexpected gems:

              1. An UNREAL parakeet.
              2. Cute dolls with a preference for candy made without artificial ingredients or preservatives.
              3. A unicorn who loves candy that has a low glycemic index.*
              4. Spelling the futuristic UNREAL logo with candy-coated chocolates.
              5. Balancing UNREAL on a pregnant tummy!
              6. UNREAL school teachers.

              The asterisked unicorn entry was done by a fan with a chroma key and green screen, an additional effort that’s appreciated but not necessary to enter the contest. The beauty of all Pongr-powered photo contests is that there is a very low “Snap and Send” barrier for participation. No apps to download. No codes to scan.

              “Our big challenge is how do you capture taste in a photo?” asks Alan Ringvald, UNREAL Candy’s head of digital and social media. “We’re trying to prove our unjunked candy tastes just as good without any of the bad stuff in it.”

              UNREAL has been giving away tons of free candy samples each month, sharing the sweetness at art festivals, street fairs, concerts, sporting events, college campus and 5K races. New York’s recent Jingle Ball concert with Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber was also joined by four UNREAL “Morph Men,” silent Blue Man Group-like creatures who surprised fans with UNREAL treats.

              But the next best thing to actually eating candy is showing the world how much fun candy can be — and that’s where the photo contest comes into play.

              “Picture sharing is booming,” Ringvald says. “Photos are all about instant gratification, and we’re hoping people will want to share some of their most enjoyable UNREAL moments.”

              “The Pongr system is just so easy for our customers to use,” he adds. “It’s streamlined for sharing on Facebook and Twitter and it’s a great way for people to interact up close with the product.”

              HERE I AM!  To kick off its distribution of UNREAL, Target has been showcasing the product on end cap displays in all of its U.S. stores. Photo credit: Arnold F. (Double click to see other Target shoppers discovering their favorite candy).

              Amidst the piles of smiles being collected in the photo contest, UNREAL is making an astonishing pitch for a consumer brand. The company wants you to enjoy their candy, but not too much of it.

              The year’s supply of candy is worth $500, roughly enough for a few bags each week.

              “We don’t want people to gorge on candy — any candy, even ours,” says Ringvald. “We want you to unjunk with a reasonable amount.”

              That message coincides with the company’s insistence that its customers eat more of nature’s candy, i.e., fruit, on all of its nutritional comparison charts on the Web.

              FASHIONABLE CANDY — Fruitella 14′s funky fingernail polish complements UNREAL’s colorful packaging! (Double click for the full Pongr UNREAL Photo Gallery)

              UNREAL’s commitment to providing a better candy option makes it a natural pitch to mom bloggers, who are a big part of the company’s promotion effort. Bloggers who are sharing the 2013 Sweepstakes have asked their readers to hashtag their blog name in the Pongr photo gallery.

              “We’re a small part of a much bigger movement,” says Ringvald. “We believe in sourcing ingredients responsibly and improving nutrition rather than to sacrifice quality for cost.”

              UNREAL has been promoting its Pongr-powered photo contest on its Facebook page and through outreach to mom blogger networks. (Double click for your chance to win before January 20.)

              You can find UNREAL Candy at Target, Staples, CVS, Michaels, Market Basket, BJs, Tedeschi Food Shops and other fine stores.

              (Hungry? To find the nearest UNREAL Candy retail location, click here.)

              Thirsty for Football: Pepsi serves up Carolina dreams in a can

              Brand Ambassadors, Featured Posts, Pongr Contests, Social Media | by

                Panther Power — Diehard Carolina fan Tony Carter is going to his first NFL game thanks to his lucky entry in the Pepsi Snap It/Send It Sweepstakes.

                North Carolina native and lifelong football fan Tony Carter has a good reason for rooting for the Cowboys and Steelers instead of the Panthers when he was a kid. His beloved team didn’t yet exist.

                But since the Carolina Panthers’ inaugural NFL season in 1995, Carter has made a religious pilgrimage every Sunday to any TV available. As a career soldier, most of those games were enjoyed on U.S. Army bases spanning from Kentucky to Germany.  Seeing the Panthers in person never really was an option.

                “I’m pure Carolina. I love the UNC Tar Heels and I love the Panthers,” says Carter, now retired. “Even when I’ve been overseas, I’ve stuck with them.  Game Day always means being with friends, family and fellow soldiers.”

                Thanks to a chance encounter with a case of Pepsi at his local Wal-Mart, Carter will be spending his next Game Day — Sunday, November 11th — at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium to watch the Panthers take on the Denver Broncos. Through December 9, Pepsi is giving away four tickets to each of the remaining home games in its Carolina Panthers Snap It/Send It Sweepstakes.

                “You know, I’m going to be 49 years old soon and this will be my first actual chance to go to an NFL Stadium. I’m really excited!” says Carter, who plans to bring his nephews Mark and Aaron along with a yet-to-be determined family member. “Even though the team is only 2-6 right now, I’m still optimistic. If the Panthers can play like they did last Sunday (a 21-13 victory over the Redskins), I think they have a chance to make the playoffs.”

                The Pepsi/Carolina Panthers Snap It/Send It Photo Sweepstakes                                                          (click on the picture for more details)

                To enter the Carolina Panthers Snap It/Send It Sweepstakes, fans need to photograph the Pepsi and Panthers logos together on specially marked 18-packs of Pepsi and email or picture-text the photo to Panthers@Pongr.com. The promotion is being powered by Pongr, a mobile photo marketing company that turns consumer packaging and in-store displays into immediate direct-response opportunities for shoppers.

                In addition to activating CPGs, other Pongr mobile promotions reward fans for taking pics of brand media spotted in stores/restaurants, television commercials/programs, movies, print advertising, bus kiosks and billboards. Pongr’s image recognition platform also automatically distinguishes multiple brand logos in the same photo, instantly sending back winning codes or encouraging “try again” messages for correct and incorrect entries.

                Specially marked 18-packs of Panther Pepsi (Double click to learn more).

                At the game, Carter plans to keep his eye trained on wide receiver Steve Smith, a “die-hard team player who always makes incredible plays.”

                “Smith always seems to pull off the impossible. I’m always wondering ‘Wow, how did he leap up and catch the ball with one hand?” he says.

                Carter adds that he had no idea about the contest until he saw the Pepsi display at Wal-Mart.

                “All I did was take a picture of my Pepsi and I got a phone call a few days later. I had forgotten all about it,” he says. “I’ve been in all kinds of contests but have never heard a thing back. I once won 50 bucks on a lottery scratch ticket and bought myself a tank of gas. But I’ve never won anything as cool as this!”

                Halftime Refreshment: Pongr contest entrant Lynn C. had some fun with her Pepsi and the menacing Carolina Panthers logo.

                (Are you a Carolina Panthers fan interested in a chance to win tickets to the Nov. 18 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Click here for more details).

                Mobile Photo Marketing The Pongr Way

                Featured Posts, Mobile Marketing | by

                  We’re very proud to show off our new infographic that lays out the major points of why mobile photo marketing should be an essential part of every brand’s loyalty and engagement strategy. First off, it’s impossible to ignore some of the statistics about mobile usage. 91% of U.S. citizens have their mobile device within arm’s reach 24/7, making mobile advertising and promotions practically a guaranteed direct line to your audience at all times. A study by Empathica, Inc. found that 82% of consumers want to engage brands via mobile channels. So not only is mobile marketing a very viable option, it’s actually preferred by an overwhelming majority of the market. And when it comes to promotions, mobile coupons have ten times the redemption rate of traditional coupons, making mobile a much better alternative for driving in-store traffic than mailers and other forms of promotions and offers.

                  But we want to underscore the fact that Pongr does mobile photo marketing better than anyone else. Our innovative image recognition technology is what sets our photo response marketing apart from the rest. People love to take pictures, and their device of choice is overwhelmingly the cell phone. The Pongr platform lets brands take advantage of photo-triggered dynamic direct-response content to drive sales, in-store traffic and social engagement.

                  We’ve partnered with a number of great brands, but our recent campaign with Arby’s® has been especially successful. Our system has processed over 500,000 photos for Arby’s® Snap and Rock, scanning every photo with sophisticated computer vision software to determine which recording artist is featured. More than 350,000 hungry Arby’s® customers have participated so far.

                  You may notice that the Arby’s® Facebook page has almost a million more “likes” than the Arby’s® Pongr page has fans. But this isn’t exactly comparing apples to apples. The interaction rate of the average Facebook page with more than 1,000 likes is around 9%. That means that at any given time, only 9% of people who’ve liked a page are actually generating content by liking posts, sharing posts, and commenting on posts or the page itself.

                  On the other hand, every single fan of a brand on Pongr has generated content by submitting photos, meaning Pongr pages have a 100% interaction rate. Plus, fans may have also interacted in other ways, such as liking photos, commenting on photos, or sharing their photos with their Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

                  At Pongr, we’re proud of the fact that there’s nobody else out there doing just what we do. Our photo response marketing platform offers a unique spin on mobile and social marketing, and it happens to be very effective, as the numbers show. We encourage you to share this infographic wherever you like to spread the word about how Pongr’s photo response platform is revolutionizing the world of shopper marketing. And if you like what you see, feel free to drop us a line.

                  The Grocery Experience

                  Featured Posts, Pongr Contests | by

                    Let’s face it: grocery shopping is kind of fun. There’s something to be said for going up and down the aisles and filling your cart with all your favorite foods. What, you don’t think it’s fun? Well, we’d like to make it a little more fun.

                    For our next photo challenge, we’d like you to send in pictures of your groceries at each step along your shopping journey. Show us the groceries on the shelf, in your cart, snap a photo of yourself checking out, show us your fridge or pantry, and finally, we want to see you and your family enjoying a meal together comprised of everything you just bought. We want to see it all, from start to finish.

                    This contest is a bit more involved than our past contests, and so we’d like to offer some more substantial rewards. We’ve got a whole slew of prizes lined up to give to the winners. Here’s the catch: for every 4 users who enter the contest, we’ll choose one more winner. If only 4 users participate, we’ll pick just one winner. If 8 send in photos, we’ll pick two, and if there are 12 people who enter, we’ll pick three winners, and so on. So spread the word and tell everyone you know! The bigger this gets, the more prizes we’ll give out!

                    To enter, email or picture-text your photos to [BrandName]@pongr.com. For your entry to be valid, you must include the hashtag #grocery in the description of every photo. You can submit as many photos as you want, but please only send each picture once, even if there are multiple brands in the photo. The contest will run for one month, starting today and ending on September 10. And have fun with it! Take interesting and exciting pictures that you’re proud of. We’re always on the lookout for the Picture of the Week.

                    Good luck and may the best shopper win!

                    No purchase necessary. Standard text and data rates may apply. Participants must be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and DC, and 18 years of age or older. In order to qualify, participants must submit a minimum of five (5) distinct photos, and the description of each photo must include “#grocery”. Participants must have an account on www.pongr.com that includes their full name, email address, DOB, and complete mailing address in order to be eligible to win. The easiest way to provide this information is by connecting securely via Facebook and/or Twitter. All entries must be received by 11:59:59 PM ET on September 10, 2012. To enter without submitting a text and/or photo, send your name, address, DOB, email, and phone number on a plain 3×5 card by 9/3/2012 to: Pongr, Inc., P.O. Box 990011, Boston, MA 02199. One (1) winner will be chosen by a panel of judges for every four (4) eligible participants. Combined value of all prizes will not exceed $500.

                    Dunkin’ Donuts Bakery Sandwich Sweepstakes

                    Featured Posts, Pongr Contests | by

                      Dunkin' Donuts Bakery Sandwich Sweepstakes

                      We’re very excited to be partnering with Dunkin’ Donuts to power the Dunkin’ Donuts Bakery Sandwich Sweepstakes! To promote their new Bakery Sandwiches, Dunkin’ Donuts is offering all of their Massachusetts and New Hampshire customers a chance to win free Bakery Sandwiches for a week, plus a chance to win the grand prize of free Bakery Sandwiches for a year!

                      To enter, all you have to do is snap a picture of yourself enjoying one of the five new Dunkin’ Donuts Bakery Sandwiches and send it via email or MMS to dunkin@pongr.com. You can send in one entry per person, per day. Each week for the month of August, a winner will be randomly chosen to receive a week’s worth of free Bakery Sandwiches. Then at the end of the month, one grand prize winner will be chosen to receive free Bakery Sandwiches for a year.

                      Remember the sweepstakes is only open to residents of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and there’s a maximum of one entry per person, per day. For the complete sweepstakes rules, click here. Now head over to your local Dunkin’ Donuts and try one of their delicious new sandwiches!

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