New challenge at Pongr: #advertising!

Advertising, Brand Ambassadors, Pongr Contests | by

    The future of ads?

    Every day we see magazine ads, television commercials, billboards, popup ads, bus stop & metro ads, wrapped vehicles, and countless other forms of advertising. It’s in our faces pretty much 24/7. While it’s not quite as in your face as the mall scene in Minority Report, ads are still everywhere!

    For our next Pongr challenge, we want to see the ads that catch your eye. Creative, funny, heartwarming, touching… whatever quality it is, what draws you to an ad? Between now and Thursday, September 22, show us the ads you’re seeing!

    In order for your picture to count towards your total, you must put #advertising in the description.

    Your goal is to earn as many Pongr Bucks through #advertising photos as you can. Remember: You earn Pongr bucks for each photo, but you also earn Pongr bucks for likes and social shares!

    What’s at stake:

    First place - $100 gift card
    Second place – $50 gift card
    Third place – $15 Best Buy card
    Fourth through Eighth place - $5 Starbucks card

    Get pongr’ing!

    New York Times/VentureBeat: Pongr's ImagePulse "Sees" How You Feel About Brands

    Advertising, Image Search | by

      ImagePulse is the first visual search engine to measure consumer brand sentiment. Here's a sample ImagePulse snapshot of Starbucks fans who photograph their favorite drinks and share them via social media.

      You see it in your everyday social interactions and on the Facebook Walls of your friends. Millions of people are sharing their favorite brands in real time by snapping pics with their mobile phones.

      It could be bragging about how they have box seats at Yankee Stadium, or raving about the latest frozen coffee drinks at Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. Or it could be a silly pose at the Apple Store next to the gizmos they covet the most.

      As the volume of fan photos exponentially rises, the frequency of tagging (by brand name) dips dramatically. This creates a “search” problem in terms of making it hard for people to find the visual information they may be looking for, or text-based information that would otherwise be associated with visual content. In fact, this visual search problems is why Pongr was originally invented; to design and develop a world-class image recognition system leveraging the founding team’s computer vision and software engineering skills.

      Finding and engaging with their most loyal customers reaps huge benefits for brands. But without tagging, these pics are “invisible” if you try to search for them. Enter Pongr’s computer vision technology and ImagePulse product build upon its image recognition system now in use for many mobile marketing and advertising programs.

      Here’s what Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson recently shared with The New York Times and VentureBeat regarding the marketing power of tracking down fan photos and determining their Purchase Intent scores:

      ”If it turns out that large numbers of people are taking pictures of an outdoor advertising campaign, that might tell the brand that it was money well spent.” he says.

      “If people in one part of the country (or world) regularly take pictures of a certain product, but they don’t take pictures of the same product in another region, that might tell you that either your product lacks strong advocates in an area or maybe it’s not as readily available. Once you have a sense of where, when and how frequently your brand is being photographed, you can build better brand engagement campaigns based on existing behavior.” Thompson concludes.

      To read the rest of The New York Times/VentureBeat coverage by technology reporter Ciara Byrne, click here.

      Pongr’s ImagePulse image recognition & brand sentiment analysis is sold as a subscription service to brands and large advertising agencies. The Company also markets mobile and social games the combine brand advocates who take pictures of ads, products and lifestyle moments that enhance a brand’s engagement through the mobile, social, desktop and traditional advertising channels. For more information on how image recognition and Pongr’s mobile marketing platform can amplify your advertising campaigns, Contact Pongr today.

      Product Placement Watch: Heavy Metal Baby Carrots

      Advertising, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Marketing | by

        Addicted to Vegetables? The carrot industry recently piggybacked the animated Easter Bunny comedy "Hop" to jokingly brand themselves as junk food.

        We’re a tiny bit late with today’s “Show and Tell,” but when we first saw this shelving tag in the produce section of our Wal-Mart Superstore, we were blown away.

        Satirically marketing baby carrots as “junk food?”  Sheer genius.  And using the Easter Bunny, that sweet-toothed rodent responsible for God knows how many cavities, to spread the gospel of beta carotene? Double genius.

        The whole point of advertising, of course, is to spark a call to action.  Going to BabyCarrots.com website lived up to the hype.   There’s a heavy metal song screaming out the virtues of baby carrots — really — and clever imaginary food packaging pretending carrots are junk food. Carrots, they boast, are “crunchier than chips and orange-ier than cheese puffs!”  Reverse psychology to get the kids to eat their veggies:

        What's next? Fried Broccoli Sticks?

        But our favorite is Xtreme Xrunch, a free downloadable video game on iTunes powered by the sound of crunching baby carrots.

        The game instructions advise you to make your crunching sounds about six inches away from your computer or smartphone’s microphone and those sounds will fuel a grocery cart-surfing daredevil as he jumps off ramps and dashes through explosions.

        Xtreme Xrunch is the first carrot-powered video game and it's free (not including the price of baby carrots)!

        Pongr’s computer vision technology and mobile gaming platform would be ideal tools for a similar fun supermarket campaign.

        Shoppers who take pictures of a brand logo or any designated image with their cell phone can email or picture-text the pics for an instant reward — that could take the form of points in a game, discount coupons for a same day purchase or special offers and prizes.

        Are you listening, asparagus industry?  Maybe it’s time your nutritious snack got a game of it’s own!

        (Product Placement Watch is an occasional blog series highlighting how the supermarket aisle promotes TV shows and movies. Discovering unexpected promotions for your favorite brands can make food shopping like a pop culture scavenger hunt game. Share your favorite grocery finds at tips@pongr.com.)

        CMO Advantage: Pongr Mobile Marketing Video Interview

        Advertising, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Social Media | by

          Watch the CMO Advantage video on Mobile Marketing with photo games and image recognition from Pongr. Partial transcript of interview is below.

          Ed Gaskin and Jamie Thompson discuss Pongr’s mobile marketing and image recognition technology. Topics of discussion include the use of photos in direct-response mobile marketing campaigns for retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and traditional media and entertainment advertisers. Jamie and Ed go through a variety of situations in which picture-based marketing can be used to enhance existing marketing promotions, create consumer loyalty, and address how global brands can extend mobile marketing into emerging countries that may not have high penetration of app-based brand mobile marketing tools.

          This is the show where we look at marketing best practices and how they intersect with emerging technologies. Today we have a great example of some very interesting emerging technologies where Pongr has used artificial intelligence and image recognition to make logos, ads, commercial spokespeople, TV commercials and even out of home advertisements part of a direct response mobile marketing campaign platform.

          Hockey fans, Pongr tonight’s Bruins-Lightning showdown!

          Advertising | by

            Reebok's hockey stick product placement is now part of NHL history (Source: Boston Herald)

            This amazing diving save by Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas in Game 5 of the NHL playoffs this week was not only a miraculous sports moment. As captured by endless TV replays and Boston Herald photographer Matthew West, it also immortalizes Reebok as a household hockey brand.

            Thomas has no official endorsement deal, like the way you see the Nike swoosh all over Tiger Woods. He just happened to like Reebok’s goalie stick!  A sports equipment manufacturer could sign deals with all the league’s all-stars and still not score a high profile moment like this one.

            As Lou Imbriano, a sports marketing expert at TrinityOne Worldwide, told the Herald: “That was like a movie save. You don’t see that in a regular play, you see that in movies and TV commercials, so (Reebok) got a live-action commercial.”

            Of course, one dramatic hockey play (or product placement hit) doesn’t determine who goes to the Stanley Cup. The Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning square off tonight. Will marketing lightning strike twice for Reebok?

            If you’re a hockey fan, try snapping pics of your favorite moments during the game and Pongr them to either bostonbruins@pongr.com or tampabaylightning@pongr.com

            Pongr itself is game of personal product placement, an opportunity to celebrate our favorite brands with our friends. Even though you won’t hear the roar of thousands of fans, scoring Pongr Bucks for the Pongr Store are a fantastic consolation prize!

            Midnight Madness: Shopping stampede at the Pongr Store!

            Advertising | by

              The Pongr Store is now open!

              NEW YORK — Throngs of shoppers braved traffic jams, subzero temperatures and even parking lot rattlesnakes for the official midnight Grand Opening of the Pongr Store on Wednesday.

              “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jamie Thompson, Chief of Pongr Security. “These crowds were more revved up than Black Friday and a Harry Potter movie opening combined!”

              Miraculously, there were no reported injuries as stampedes of Pongr fans charged through the electronic doors at 12:01 a.m. and sprinted to the gleaming racks of Dr. Dre headphones, Nikon D3000 cameras, iPad 2′s, Verizon Wireless gift cards and Pongr hoodies.

              Things got testy for a moment at the Customer Service booth when one unruly patron demanded to know why personalized Pongr Blog feature stories were out of stock.

              Running of the Brand Ambassadors: Frenzied scenes from the Grand Opening of the Pongr Store!

              If you’ve reached this far in the story, you’ve probably figured out this news story is obviously fake. The rattlesnake reference in the first paragraph should have tipped you off — reptiles, as you know, are cold-blooded and can not survive in freezing temperatures.

              But the spirit of this story is true: The Official Pongr Rewards Store is now open for business 24/7!

              The Pongr Store is a place where you can turn your Pongr Bucks earnings into sweet prizes. Pongr currency might be virtual but the rewards are certainly real. By snapping and sharing pictures of your favorite brands you can win a variety of goodies, such as:

              Mobile Phone Refill Cards — Just as Pongr works with any cell phone (for players who still prefer MMS picture-messages and those who opt for email on their smartphones), we embrace all the carriers. Choose from gift cards from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile or Boost Mobile.

              Movie Rentals — A one-month subscription to Netflix.

              Social Gaming — Gift cards for FarmVille, CityVille and Mafia Wars.

              Crowdsourcing Bargains — Daily deals from Groupon or LivingSocial for local businesses in your city.

              Fossil Fuels — Choose your favorite petroleum from Gulf, ExxonMobil or Sunoco!

              Cold Cash — Is there anything that an American Express gift card can’t buy?

              Music — Did someone say I could turn my Pongr Bucks into iTunes credits?

              Spiritual Direction — Well, not really. But we can give you literal directions and maps to anywhere you want to drive with the TomTom GPS.

              Warm Fuzzy Feelings — This is what you’ll get if you choose to convert your Pongr Bucks into donations toward Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross or  Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a foundation for breast cancer research.

              The Biggest TV Ever – Or close enough. Sony’s 60-inch Bravia LED-LCD screen is perfect for Pongr’ing your favorite TV shows and sporting events.

              Workplace Achievement Awards — If you’re like Michael Scott on “The Office,” you already buy yourself “World’s Best Boss” coffee mugs. Now you can jokingly honor your friends and co-workers with “Certified Office Workaholic” and “Certified Office Suck-Up” certificates to let them know how you really feel. If you’re a student, perhaps the “Teacher’s Pet” award would be a more appropriate gag!

              This Sony Bravia plasma television is up for grabs at the Pongr Store. Did you know that Pongr's computer vision technology instantly recognizes individual TV frames?

              You can earn up to 150 Pongr Bucks each day (per brand) by “showing off” your best cell phone photography. A detailed breakdown of how to earn Pongr Bucks is outlined in our FAQ, but basically, the more pics you snap, the more times you share, the more friends you invite and the more people who like your pics will make you wealthy in the game.

              One note of caution: Only players in brands with 50 employees or more can spend their Pongr Bucks. Think of each brand as a start-up and the Pongr Bucks you earn as stock options.  If you want to cash in — and who doesn’t? — a modest recruitment effort inviting friends should do the trick.

              Happy shopping!

              (Pongr Store inventory is constantly changing. Is there a prize you’d love to see? Drop us a line at info@pongr.com)

              Pongr'azzi of the Week: Ping Pong Showdown

              Advertising | by

                Battle of the Dews: Pitch Black vs. SuperNova

                Anthony V., you rock!

                Oh, where do we begin to enumerate the many ways your mobile phone artistry impresses us?

                First, there’s the physics of it all. Perfectly balancing bottles of Pitch Black and SuperNova isn’t easy. Can you also do this with Mountain Dew Typhoon? — Which by the way is expanding to more markets soon!

                This geometric product pose reminds us of those freestanding artsy wine racks that you see in classy homes and woodworking expos.

                Would this handcrafted rack work with Mountain Dew bottles?

                Anthony, can you replicate this pose in other sports with say, lacrosse sticks, baseball bats, canoe paddles or hockey sticks?

                We also admire the passion and emotion captured with your camera phone. It’s clear that both of these competitive Dew flavors want to kick butt on the Ping Pong table (or court, if you consider their relative size). The bottles are virtually foaming at the mouth.

                If you agree that Anthony should be rewarded for his creativity, go ahead and click LIKE on his picture. Letting other players know you appreciate their work earns them valuable Pongr Bucks to spend at the brand new Pongr Store. And hey, the rules of good karma say that when you send out some love, it’s bound to come back (hopefully in the form of Pongr Bucks).

                As an aside, did you know that Pongr got its name from the iconic pioneer video game Pong combined with the Internet linguistic practice of the dangling “R?” (Flickr, Tumblr, etc.)

                Widely regarded as the first video game, Pong is the esteemed ancestor of Pongr and all computer games.

                (Do you know of a Pongr player who deserves to be Pongr’azzi of the Week?  Send us your nomination along with a link to their photo to dgarnick@pongr.com for consideration. You can absolutely nominate yourself if you are worthy or generate lots of buzz from other gamers by following our Tips for Taking Creative Photos!)

                Pongr Mobile Marketing and Image Recognition Platform for Genuine Brand Advocates.

                Advertising, Mobile Marketing | by

                  [GTranslate]
                  Pongr is the mobile picture-sharing game that challenges you to become the CEO of your favorite company. It’s the perfect place for PR students to get a head-start on their careers. How far you advance in the game may get you noticed by top marketing executives! We’re looking to hire part-time Campus Ambassadors for Pongr, and our application process is simple. We want to hire the best players. Where do YOU want to work after graduation? Once you’ve had a chance to compete, drop us a line at jobs@pongr.com and tell us why you should be an Ambassador!

                  Mobile marketing is a rapidly growing field in the advertising agency and communications space. In particular, we are creating lots of partnerships with large ad agencies leveraging Pongr’s image recognition technology. Sometimes we supply our image recognition and visual search products via APIs that agency-based developers use to create innovative iPhone and Android apps for their brand clients. Sometimes we run programs for large agencies directly on our picture-texting platform. In all cases, Pongr is at the forefront of helping leading brands and marketing strategists implement their mobile campaigns.

                  Increasingly, we are seeing retailers and brands expect that mobile is part of ALL advertising campaigns. A few years ago, mobile was in the province of experimental and not quite a line-item. That’s not the case anymore. Just like global brands are expected to advertise on TV, because everyone knows that’s where the most reach is, mobile is quickly becoming the go-to screen that smart brands know is always in the pocket of their consumers.

                  We believe that our best players are sometimes the most creative, brand savvy and loyal enthusiasts who are also plugged-in to the marketing community. We’re serious about getting to know you and building upon that game relationship. Help us shape the future of mobile marketing and let us help you get noticed by the brands you care about.

                  Can you top the World's Largest LEGO Tower — or fit into these stylish stilettos?

                  Advertising, Brand Ambassadors | by

                    [GTranslate]

                    Brazilian soccer legend Cafu celebrates his nation's latest achievement: LEGO architectural dominance. (Source: Getty/CNN)

                    The only thing missing was a ceremonial little brother or little sister to spitefully knock the tower down.

                    Brazil just shattered Chile’s record for the World’s Largest LEGO tower by a whopping 25 centimeters.  Hey, a world record is a world record. The last LEGO brick was put into place by Marcos Evangelista de Moraes, aka “Cafu,” widely considered one of the best right backs of all time and leader of two World Cup champions.

                    The 31.19 meter (102.25 foot) structure was built with the help of a crane in a shopping mall parking lot in San Paulo. It took a group of 6,000 builders (who obviously could play nice together) four days and 500,000 bricks.

                    LEGO company officials from Denmark flew in for the occasion to observe the construction.

                    Similar, but slightly smaller structures were previously built in Santiago, Chile, and Windsor, England.

                    A previous world record LEGO tower at LEGOLand Windsor in England.

                    Playing the game of Pongr is a great way to celebrate the LEGO towers you build in your own living room, even if the Guinness Book of World Records won’t be coming by for the blue ribbon cutting. You never know what fellow LEGO enthusiasts might stumble across and share in the photostream.

                    Player Jillian C. recently snapped a shot of LEGO Systems corporate headquarters in Enfield, Conn.  How would you love to have these sculptures decorating your front lawn?  Don’t they look like Duplos?

                    LEGO Systems, Inc. in Enfield, Connecticut.

                    And courtesy of Chris L., who knew you could be rockin’ a pair of LEGO sneakers?

                    LEGO as a fashion brand?

                    Speaking of snazzy footwear, British artist Finn Stone is creating stiletto heels with LEGO bricks. It’s a surefire way for a stylish woman to attract the gaze of male architects — or for a daring female architect to sport at work even if she has no interest in dating. Didn’t most engineers and architects get their start this way?

                    Bricks of Style -- British designer Finn Stone's LEGO Stilettos!

                    If daring styles appeal to you, there’s still time left to show off your favorite shoes, dresses, scarfs, blouses, skirts, jewelry and make-up in Pongr’s Fashion Plate Contest.  All you need to do to get started is grab your mobile phone and snap a pic of your favorite fashion brand — preferably modeled by you or a friend — and email or picture-text it to (name of brand)@pongr.com.

                    You’ll instantly receive instructions on what to do next!

                    The contest ends at midnight, Friday, April 15. But we’d love to see your pics well beyond then, too.

                    And hey, LEGO fans, we honestly don’t care what you’re wearing… send us your favorite LEGO creations at lego@pongr.com.

                    Aiming For Success: Meet Sharpshooter/CEO John Bukacek

                    Advertising, Brand Loyalty | by

                      Don't mess with Pongr's Mountain Dew CEO John Bukacek!

                      PONGR PROFILE
                      Name: John Bukacek
                      Age: 20
                      Hometown: Waukesha, Wisconsin.
                      Real Job: Student at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.
                      Pongr Job: CEO of Mountain Dew.
                      Career Dream: Become a video game designer.
                      Other Favorite Brands to Pongr: Legal Sea Foods, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Green Bay Packers.
                      Fun Fact: John plans to soon launch a Website called “GameSpike,” which will cover gaming-related news such as Xbox, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo 64 and game accessories.
                      Fun Fact #2: He is hopelessly addicted to Nintendo Mario Party and Super Smash Bros.

                      Target Practice

                      When John Bukacek isn’t shooting photographs of DEW to defend his position in Pongr, he’s literally shooting at DEW. Bottles of Diet SuperNova and Voltage make fine targets for his Nerf-N-Strike blaster gun.

                      He’s a perfectionist sharpshooter in other areas of life, too. For example, he recently aimed to win every Mountain Dew Pitch Black prize on Pongr…. and mission accomplished!

                      “I love sharing my passion for Dew and other brands by taking pictures,” John says. “Pongr really exercises one’s creativity.”

                      Pongr power-player John Bukacek discovered that Code Red appeals to Darth Vader's Stormtroopers.

                      John’s brand loyalty is also sometimes the focus of his college roommates’ pranks.

                      “I just had a bunch of Dew cans from all the 12-packs I won on Pongr and I had set them all out in the kitchen. My roommates stacked them in front of my closed door, hoping I would trip over them,” he says. “But I knew they were doing it because I heard them stacking them.”

                      John’s dedication to Mountain Dew and Pongr — he’s submitted 483 pics and counting — has made him a celebrity fan sought after by real-life executives. At the recent PAX East videogame festival in Boston, John was wined and dined at Legal Sea Foods by Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson and Nate, a Mountain Dew brand manager.

                      What they talked about at their top secret meeting, we can only speculate. But we’re guessing it had something to Dew with their favorite beverage.

                      Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson (left) and Pongr Dew CEO John Bukacek take a Dew break during the PAX East videogame convention.

                      “I think Dew is doing a great job connecting with their fans with Dew Labs, Facebook and Pongr,” John says. “I feel that Dew is one of the best companies that truly listens to their fans!”

                      John says he’s impressed with the high level of competition in the Pongr game to keep his position of Dew CEO, expressing special awe for the museum-quality memorabilia collection of rival Shane McGinnis.

                      “I’m going to keep recruiting and sending in pictures, and sharing pictures, as much as I can,” he vows. “My message for Shane and Jason? Keep at it guys, I’m not going down without a fight!  I’m not really scared that I’ll be dethroned. But on the other hand, they are both Dew Labs members, so they may put up a good fight.”

                      Stay tuned…

                      Are you addicted to Pongr?  We’d love to hear from you!  Tell us how the game fits into your life at dgarnick (at) pongr (dot) com. Pongr is a mobile marketing and image recognition company that designs and develops customized brand games for product-engagement.

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