Brand Photos: Behind the Lens of Image Recognition

Redefining the Mile High Club: Pongr’s Free Photo Widgets Help Small Businesses Soar!

Brand Ambassadors, Our Favorites, Photo Marketing Widgets, Pongr Contests | May 24, 2012 by Jamie

Miles McAlpin, co-founder of the Miles High luxury clothing brand, celebrates the launch of his new fan photo contest. Pongr makes it easy for small businesses to run their own direct-response photo marketing campaigns with a new series of free widgets. Earn your wings with Miles High and send in your best shots.

Most people have a frisky connotation of “The Mile High Club,” thinking about the romantic possibilities in the tight quarters of an airplane bathroom. But the plural version has nothing to do with hanky panky.

The “Miles High Club” is a group of passionate brand ambassadors celebrating the launch of Miles High, a luxury clothing company with a cult following among “creative influencers” like artists, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, editors and producers. Of course, anyone can chill out in the brand’s hand-knit Baby Alpaca Pull-Over Sweaters, which also raise money to save the Andean Cloud rainforest in Ecuador.

“We’re all about aspiration,” says Miles High CEO Alex Levin. “We want to encourage people to do what they love.”

To raise awareness for their new brand, Miles High just mailed out 4,000 promotional stickers and asked fans to photograph themselves with their classic antique airplane logo “in the highest place they can be.”

From the Oregon peak of Smith Rock to a scaffolding pull-up bar in New York City, Miles High fans are pushing the brand's photo contest to new heights.

Some fans have taken the “Earn Your Wings” challenge literally and brought the stickers zipping above the clouds or to the peaks of the Colorado Rockies. Others consider the heights to be metaphorical, symbolic of a personal triumph. Either way, Levin wants it clear that he is by no means promoting vandalism.

“Just holding the sticker somewhere is fine. No adhesives necessary,” he stresses. “We don’t want anyone sticking these on public or private property without permission.”

Pongr is Exploding With Passion: Behind the Scenes of the Fast Company Photo Shoot

Artificial Intelligence, Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Our Favorites, Shopper Marketing | April 9, 2012 by Darren

Fast Company magazine recently explored Pongr's quest to retire QR code technology and asked CEO Jamie Thompson to demonstrate his feelings. Photo Credit: Jordan Hollender. (Click Jamie's mustache to read full story).

Fast Company magazine never settles for boring corporate headshots and their interview with CEO Jamie Thompson (“Forget QR Codes: Pongr Easily Turns Your Photos into Brand Rewards“) was no exception.

Given our focus on tapping into the power of brand logos and iconic advertising imagery, the action scene above may remind you of the Kool-Aid Man mascot, who is constantly bursting through brick walls and shouting “Oh, Yeah!” whenever there is a distress call from thirsty kids.

However, Fast Company editor Jason Feifer had other inspirations in mind.

“Photo recognition isn’t an easy thing to show in a still image. It’s a process, all done digitally, and any attempt to illustrate it would have come out cheesy,” he says. “So I started thinking that, rather than show Pongr’s business, it should show Pongr’s nemesis—the QR code, an instantly recognizable symbol.”

“We thought about various ways we could have Jamie fighting a QR code—he could be stuffing a big one in a garbage can, setting it on fire, kicking it. But in each of those, I just pictured a guy and a square piece of paper drowning in the photo. They all felt empty. Too much dead space. We needed the QR code to be bigger, badder, something requiring a full-on assault. And from there, the answer was obvious: Jamie needed to be busting through one, high-school-football-player style,” adds Jason.

Jamie met Fast Company photo editor Kathy Nguyen at the Manhattan studios of photographer Jordan Hollender, who was charged with the task of bringing out Jamie’s personality — again, no stodgy corporate stuff.

Pongr's Jamie Thompson with his archenemy, the QR Code! (Photos courtesy of Jordan Hollender)

Kathy had a more daunting challenge. Where do you find a printer to churn out billboard-sized QR codes on short notice? And then how do you prop it up?

Large format printers charge about $300 to $400 per sheet for posters that size. And with the plan being to take multiple poses and shots, the budget wasn’t generous enough to go through props like toilet paper. High school cheerleader pep rally banners were also considered, but most of those open and reseal with velcro and that wouldn’t capture the “torn” look the photographer would be striving for.

The giant barcode you see Jamie burst through is actually nine squares of paper glued together. Originally, the plans were to mount the squares onto foam core board. That image would have stood firm, for sure, but it also would have been impenetrable.

Kathy finally settled for firmly stretching the code like a canvas over a wooden frame.

Saving Jamie from countless headaches and a possible broken nose, the prop stylist cut a small hole in the middle of the code for Jamie to stick his head through and then tear a larger opening.

“The thought was that once we ripped it, we couldn’t go back, so we took baby steps before we let Jamie act like the Incredible Hulk,” says Kathy. “I couldn’t believe how animated he was — such a great model. He really brought his A-game!”

To get the “action” look, Jamie tried his best to get a running start behind the QR code, despite the tight quarters in the studio. At one point, he stumbled through the hole and accidentally caused a larger rip than anticipated.

“We were looking for lots of options so we had him running and jumping the whole time. He was absolutely dizzy by the end,” Kathy says.

Jamie's distaste for QR codes is well known in the image recognition technology universe. (Photos courtesy of Jordan Hollender).

The Fast Company fashion shoot (Did you notice how Jamie is even dressed in the colors of a QR Code) also included poses of the Pongr CEO throwing the shredded code into a trash can and trying to rip apart the remnants like a grizzly bear. Those shots ultimately wound up on the cutting room floor (or whatever magazines call the place they send their outtakes).

“I appreciate his willingness to humor us and keep trying new things. Jamie didn’t need much direction. He kept pushing the boundaries on his own. This was definitely one of my favorite photo shoots,” says Kathy.

Whenever you ask a CEO to act like the Kool-Aid Man, a high school cheerleader and the Incredible Hulk, how could it NOT be?

Best-Selling Mystery Novelist: Cheetos Fuels My Creativity!

Brand Loyalty, Our Favorites | March 2, 2012 by Darren

There's no mystery when it comes to what snack keeps novelist Janet Evanovich going.

Here’s the kind of advertising that brands simply cannot buy.

Best-selling mystery author Janet Evanovich, who recently released her 18th novel featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, loves to coat her typing fingers with orange cheese dust.

And not just any cheese dust mind you—Cheetos cheese dust.

She makes the revelation in the latest issue of Hemispheres Magazine, the official inflight publication of United Airlines.

Evanovich’s heroine, who is played by Katherine Heigl in the new movie “One for the Money,” is a tough Jersey lingerie saleswoman who turns to tracking down fugitives after losing her job. It’s safe to say that very few bounty hunters ever pull off the opposite career move.

Here’s a snippet:

“Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. The FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying…”

Evanovich tells Hemispheres contributor David Carr, the media and culture critic for The New York Times, that Cheetos provide the “magic dust” that keep her creative juices flowing.

“It’s that orange color that you can’t get out. I get it under my fingernails and it’s gummed up in my computer keyboard. It’s really vicious stuff, but when I can’t get an idea, you give me a bag of Cheetos and I’m flying.”

For his part, Carr writes in his one-line bio that he’ll “take Fritos and Mountain Dew over brie and chardonnay any day.”

Frito-Lay and Mountain Dew have gravitated toward marketing to extreme sports and adventurers — such as one of our favorite Pongr players who recently brought his Dew and Doritos on a parachute jump. But given the unsolicited and enthusiastic endorsements from a couple of literary giants, maybe it’s also time to court the bookworm crowd?

(Have any favorite pics of yourself, family or friends smiling with some “magic” snack dust? Share ‘em at Cheetos@Pongr.com or Doritos@Pongr.com)

Soaring Brands: Skydiving with Doritos and Dew

Brand Ambassadors, Brand Loyalty, Our Favorites, Pongr Contests | February 3, 2012 by Darren

So this is what they eat in the heavens?

The sky’s the limit for Matt’s daring snack experiments!

The 25-year-old vagabond skydiving coach from Indiana, Ohio and Florida (he goes where the seasonal work is) was excited to hear about about Pepsi and Frito-Lay’s “Ultimate Match-Up” contest to win a trip to see the New York Giants battle the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

His friend had seen the Pongr-fueled promotion on a bag of Doritos: Take a photo of any Pepsi product matched up with any Frito-Lay product, text/email/upload the pic to PepsiCo, and be randomly chosen to win a slew of prizes, including “Ultimate Access” for two at this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis, 2012 game tickets for your favorite NFL team, a year’s supply of soda and snacks in a souvenir Pepsi/NFL fridge, Xbox 360 game consoles and NFL merchandise.

Even though the contest only required pics of the brand logos together, Matt wanted to bring his game to the next level.

Tapping into his passion of parachuting, he decided he wanted to explore some of life’s unanswered mysteries:

1. What does Mountain Dew taste like at 10,000 feet?

2. Can one Dorito, carefully placed between your teeth, withstand the stress test of a free fall?

3. How many Doritos can you catch in your mouth while they are being whisked away by powerful gusts of wind?

4. How does it feel to make Doritos fall from the sky like snowflakes?

Snacks in the Cessna: The anticipation builds for playing Pongr with parachutes!

“I figured I got the whole country to compete with. I had better get creative,” says Matt, who photographed his snack-themed jump with the help of a GoPro Hero 2 camera attached to his sneaker. “I love the pictures of the chips flying in my face. Some bird, somewhere, was eating well that day!”

Think it's easy to catch free-falling Doritos in your mouth? YOU try it!

Matt makes his living by packing parachutes, one of those jobs where the anti-drowsiness formula of Mountain Dew is most helpful. He personally jumps between 100 and 250 times a year, though this is first experience skydiving with products.

“One of the things I really wanted to see was if a single Dorito could handle the wind in my face. It didn’t break!”

Asked if his experiment has any practical applications, such as trying to use the chips as wind-resistant shingles on a home, Matt shrugged: “I wouldn’t go that far.”

Durable Doritos: The wind has finally met its match.

A devoted Dew drinker “for as long as I can remember,” Matt says his favorite beverage tastes no different while he’s floating in the wind than it does on the ground. Gravity is gravity and the mechanics involved from getting liquid from one’s mouth to stomach remains the same. He does imagine, however, that drinking Dew during a straight free fall would be far more complicated.

“It’s certainly possible,” he says. “The wind likes to shake everything up and at that speed, everything becomes a rudder. Everything moves harder, faster. But I would definitely try it.”

Speaking of shaking, everyone knows what happens when you shake a bottle of soda. To ensure that he could actually enjoy the Dew without it spraying all over the place, Matt wisely pre-opened his bottle before takeoff. Ditto for opening up the Doritos so the bag didn’t pop from the altitude.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

The skydiving coach has been in the sport for two and a half years and calls it a “lifestyle” more than a hobby or job.

“When I first tried this, it was all about the adrenaline rush. Now I want to figure out how to fly my body, control the angles and adjust my fall rate as I speed toward earth,” he says. “No matter how hard I work at it, I know I could never be an NBA superstar. But in this sport, there’s no limit to what you can achieve if you’re dedicated. Skydiving is accessible to everyone.”

As is the pastime of Pongr, which Matt only found out about through the Pepsi and Frito-Lay promotion. Other brands he feels equally passionate about are Nike (which can’t be seen in the skydiving pictures because his sneaks held the camera) and Apple.

“I’m very loyal to Apple. I believe that they go above and beyond the competition with pretty much everything they do. They are constantly thinking how they can make things better and that’s the skydiving mindset, too,” he says. “What do we know right now? What can we learn? How can we improve on it?”

Now that he’s been introduced to Pongr, Matt says he plans on dreaming up other wild stunts taking his favorite brands (and earned Pongr Bucks) to new heights!

See how Matt turned his Nike sneakers into an airborne photo studio.

Dewing It With Style: Museum curator Shane McGinnis

Advertising, Brand Loyalty, Our Favorites | March 28, 2011 by Darren

Pitch Black outlaw Shane McGinnis

PONGR PROFILE
Name: Shane McGinnis
Age: 18
Hometown: Parkland, Florida
Real Job: Unemployed
Pongr Job: COO of Mountain Dew
Career Dream: Aspires to be a photographer and/or video editor.
Other Favorite Brands to Pongr: Dunkin’ Donuts, PlayStation, Brinks.
Fun Fact: Runs the “Bring Back Mountain Dew Revolution” Facebook Page.
Philosophy: “I’m literally at the point where nothing but Mountain Dew can ever live up to my soda expectations.”

You don’t need to build a shrine to your favorite brand to enjoy the Game of Pongr. But it sure is fun living vicariously through the lives of players who do. Check out the ever-expanding Mountain Dew Museum in the Shane McGinnis homestead:

Shane's Dew Museum

Dew-themed sneakers take center stage!

DEWmocracy Insider: Original test cans of Typhoon, White Out & Distortion.

Shane began drinking the Dew back in 2003, when the horse stables next to his house started stocking it in their soda machine. He previously was hooked on Mello Yello, but the business owner’s switch from Coke to Pepsi products inevitably changed his life forever.

He was extremely active in DEWmocracy II, the 2010 promotional contest to choose Mountain Dew’s next flavor. And he worked feverishly on the Distortion Team, making taste test videos and Twitter backgrounds for his candidate, but graciously supported White Out when it became the official nominee.

Shane’s pair of sweet Mountain Dew Adidas sneaks was earned with cap codes. His quest for one-of-a-kind Dew items includes homemade artwork from his little sister Kiersten.

Now he’s in a tight three-way Pongr race for Mountain Dew CEO.

“I was super excited about Dew’s decision to use Pongr after only a few days of ‘Pongring’ my Dew heart away,” Shane says. “I’ve got many friends playing Pongr, and one of them is now the CEO of Mountain Dew (in the game), John Bukacek. This is really an original site that I’ve never seen before, and teaming up with my favorite brand just makes it even better!”

As an aspiring photographer, Pongr is also a golden opportunity to show off his creativity.

Promotional skywriting with a Maglite flashlight, photographed with slow exposure on the Panasonic DMC-LZ6's "Starry Sky" setting.

“Be creative, people will like your pictures more when they are different and original,” he advises other players. “Don’t steal pictures and don’t recruit fake accounts. Where’s the fun in any of that anyways?”

As for his quest to unseat his friend John Bukacek as Dew CEO, Shane is proving that the corporate world can be competitive without being cutthroat. Check out the friendly banter he recently shared with his rival in the Pongr comments section:

The picture they are discussing is the “bandit” pose posted at the top of this blog. Looks like the race to be CEO won’t be cooling off anytime soon, but it hopefully will remain civil.

“John B, I’m coming for ya!” warns Shane. “And Jason K, I don’t know how you do it, but you seem to still be keeping up with me. But it’s a competition for a great position, so I can see why you’re pushing so hard. Good luck!”

There’s still plenty of time to earn Dew Bucks and Pitch Black Bucks for your choice of phenomenal limited-edition prizes. Send your pics to dew@pongr.com and see how far you can climb!

Buried Treasure: Childhood Adventure Uncovers Mountain Dew Relic

Advertising, Our Favorites | February 21, 2011 by Darren

Original Throwback: Sean found this bottle during a childhood archeological dig.

Sean M. is a recovering packrat.

As a kid, he once strung 800 keychains together as a funky bedroom decoration. He also hoarded buckets of nuts and bolts, and those plastic sword toothpicks that get stuck in cheese. And there’s never been a yard sale, flea market or second-hand store that hasn’t lured him in with the promise of hidden treasure.

Marriage and buying a house inevitably led him to shed many of his miscellaneous possessions. “Decluttering” is the fancy term for it. But there’s one sentimental item that the 33-year-old aspiring novelist will never give up.

Almost two decades ago, a teenage Sean was on an adventure hike in the woods surrounding his rural Maryland neighborhood. He and his friends stumbled across some rusty vehicles and what appeared to be traces of a dirt road and an old farmhouse foundation, long conquered by the regrowth of the forest. Suddenly, a shimmering reflection caught his eye.

Sean dug a bit and found a green 1960s Mountain Dew bottle with Gran’ Pappy, the original hillbilly mascot that many kids know today from the limited edition release of Mountain Dew Throwback.

Front and back view of Sean's prized 1960s Mountain Dew bottle.

Sean cleaned out the dirt and mud and displayed it in his bedroom. For him, the bottle’s surprise appearance was fate. “My parents had banned soda from our house. It was only an occasional treat at restaurants and at grandma’s house. You could get whatever you wanted at grandma’s house!”

Like a wine aficionado testing out what works best with chicken or steak, Sean liked to experiment tasting Dew with different brands of candy. One of his favorite combinations was Mountain Dew with Butterfingers. “I think the stuff that got caught in my teeth gave me an extra flavor fix,” he hypothesizes.

We always covet what we can’t have, and the freedom of college opened up the spigots. Sean recalls guzzling a 2-liter of Dew every day, but he eventually switched to Diet Mountain Dew.

Forget about milk and eggs... You need room in the fridge for more Dew!

Sean now celebrates his love for the Dew by sharing pictures on Pongr.

When he was a kid, Sean's parents rationed his soda intake. Adulthood comes with unlimited Dew privileges!

“I’d like to thank them for making the product,” he says. “It’s made a great impact on my life and I think it would be cool to work for them.”

Sean’s picked up on one of the most exciting features of Pongr. While most players participate for fun or hopes of winning prizes, a select few of the most devoted brand enthusiasts — those who share the most creative pictures and recruit the most fans — may attract the attention of the company’s marketing executives.

And that’s even cooler than finding an antique hillbilly bottle.

In the heated Pongr competition for Dew Bucks, Sean is at the top of his game.

(Sean is planning to give the Dew some complimentary product placement in his yet-to-be-titled science fiction novel. What do YOU think of his vintage Mountain Dew bottle or his suggestion to combine the flavors of Mountain Dew and Butterfinger? Share your comments on his Pongr activity photostream.)

Supermarket Addict: When fans are even more passionate than the brand . . .

Brand Ambassadors, Our Favorites | January 21, 2011 by Darren

The regional Market Basket supermarket chain attracts strong brand loyalty.

Do you really care where you buy your milk and eggs?

New Hampshire’s Michael Devaney does. So much so that he’s started a Web site to share the latest deals from Market Basket, a Boston-area regional chain with 62 stores. He’s also chronicling the rich history of the family-owned business from the days when it was a small mom-and-pop grocery that let customers buy on credit during the Great Depression to its distinction of operating New England’s Largest Supermarket today.

Here’s breaking news this week from the Market Basket deli:

Purdue Oven Stuffer Roasting Chicken — 89 cents/lb

Boneless Chuck Steak — $2.99/lb

Extra Lean Corned Beef — $4.99/lb

Big deal, you say? The remarkable thing about Devaney’s supermarket fan site — which provides directions and hours for all locations — is that it is now the primary source of information on the Internet for Market Basket shoppers. The company itself does not have a Web site!

Devaney is playing the nostalgia card by naming his site after the original family store name. MyDemoulas.com has almost 500 fans on Facebook, complete with a photo gallery of area stores. He also spreads the word with MyDemoulas bumperstickers:

Why one of Boston’s most powerful supermarket chains doesn’t have an official Web presence is baffling — and we’ll leave that question for the psychics.

What is most remarkable is how one brand enthusiast has taken his passion for food shopping and loyalty to one store and turned it into a community.

Already, this little side project has generated high-profile media attention from the two biggest newspapers in New Hampshire, the Nashua Telegraph and the Manchester Union-Leader. And he claims to have attracted more than 4 million hits since August, with more than one million unique visitors.

How long will it be before Market Basket executives take notice?

If you’d love to get the attention of a brand you love, this supermarket loyalty example is a great inspiration to start playing Pongr.

Whether you love to guzzle Mountain Dew, strut around in Nikes or surround yourself with Legos, you don’t need “permission” to share your passion!

Who knows what picture might prompt that right “someone” to notice you!

Pick your favorite brand, start snapping pics of you and your friends enjoying it, and become the brand ambassador you’ve always wanted to be.

Experimental Burger: BK’s “Stuffed Steakhouse”

Brand Ambassadors, Our Favorites, Uncategorized | January 13, 2011 by Darren

If you are the CEO of Burger King, you can't afford to stand still.

Fresh off the grill: a new Burger King offering that looks like a veggie burger but certainly doesn’t taste like one.

Burger King’s “Stuffed Steakhouse” sandwich “packs a flavorful punch of robust ingredients with bits of jalapeño peppers and cheddar cheese … topped off with creamy poblano sauce, ripe tomatoes and crisp lettuce on a premium bakery bun.”

I have no idea what poblano sauce is, but I do know that BK is aiming for more sophisticated palates.

What do you think about the idea of “stuffing” a burger?

Certainly, the cheeseburger has been around forever. Is the sensation of eating cheese inside the beef any different? As with Pizza Hut‘s “stuffed cheese crust,” will your stomach care how all the ingredients are organized before you pop them in your mouth?

The “Stuffed Steakhouse” is a limited-edition burger. The clock is already ticking.

Don’t just go out and try it. Go out and snap it. Share pictures of you and your friends experiencing the more daring end of the fast food spectrum!

Get in the game: Email or picture-text your Stuffed Steakhouse pics to burgerking@pongr.com and you’ll take your first step in competing to become Burger King champion.

Everyone’s a restaurant critic. What do you think of the latest burger innovation?

And attention McDonald’s and Wendy’s players, do you have any ideas for new sandwiches your brands should try?

WARNING: QR Codes Kill Art.

Advertising, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Our Favorites, Social Media | September 18, 2010 by Jamie

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: QR Codes Cause Frustration, Application Confusion, Poor Scalability, Creative Asset Damage, And May Complicate Media Campaigns.

QR codes might be right for you if:

- Your target mobile marketing audience understands that there are many different QR code applications and they know how to get the correct app.

How advertisers can reward a lifetime of brand loyalty

Advertising, Image Search, Mobile Marketing, Our Favorites | May 23, 2010 by Darren

Never too young for brand exposure.

This is my friend’s baby girl, who was recently adopted from China. Within 24 hours of leaving the orphanage, she was cruising along the Aisles of Capitalism. Did she recognize the Wal-Mart logo, their smiley face stickers or those infamous “Falling Prices” warning signs?

Probably not. But my friend did. He took photos for her baby book.

Here is a prime example of a marketing fantasy: People feeling so much of an emotional connection to a brand that they photograph it to share with friends and family.

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