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.

    Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods? How you can be a supermarket celebrity!

    Brand Ambassadors | by

      Whole Foods supermarkets attract celebrity fans such as actresses Jessica Biel ("7th Heaven") and Lea Michelle ("Glee").

      Has the paper grocery bag replaced Gucci and Prada handbags as the ultimate fashion accessory? You might think so after flipping through People Magazine’s recent slideshow of celebrity supermarket sightings. Imagine that: Hollywood celebrities like to eat. So much so that they are willing to fetch their own grub!

      Newly crowned Princess Kate Middleton is getting a lot of adulation for being down-to-earth enough to push her own shopping cart. You and I won’t get similar credit. Two supermarket brands being played in Pongr fared very well in the People Magazine spread: Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s. Here are some of the stars spotted at Whole Foods, known for its organic and natural offerings:

      * Rachel Bilson — Summer Roberts on “The O.C.”
      * Naomi Watts — Ann Darrow in “King Kong.”
      * Jessica Biel — Mary Camden on “7th Heaven.”
      * Ryan Gosling — Dean in “Blue Valentine.”
      * Lea Michelle — Rachel in “Glee.”
      * Miley Cyrus — “Hannah Montana.”
      * Ashley Greene — Alice Cullen in the “Twilight” series.
      * January Jones — Betty Draper in “Mad Men.”
      * Angelina Jolie — Tigress in “Kung Fu Panda 2.”
      * Reese Witherspoon — Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde.”

      And here’s the all-star celebrity roster at Trader Joe’s, known for catering to the “culinary curious.”

      * Joe Jonas — Lead singer of the Jonas Brothers
      * Eva Longoria — Gabrielle in “Desperate Housewives.”
      * Jessica Alba — Invisible Woman in “Fantastic Four.”

      Supermarket brand ambassadors Joe Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) and Eva Longoria ("Desperate Housewives") flash support for Trader Joe's.

      Is Whole Foods more of a celebrity magnet than Trader Joe’s? There’s no evidence to support that conclusion because the People spread only showcased stars stalked by the paparazzi. Learning which supermarket carriages contain more celebrity fingerprints will require further study and DNA tests.

      Perhaps a better use of time would be to celebrate the fun supermarket moments in your own life. Do you see food shopping as a chore or more as an exciting trip to explore and experience new things?

      Playing Pongr turns your grocery list into a game. It’s the front line for discovering new products by brands. Where else are you going to find out those retro cereal box games on Cheerios or the new strawberry-flavored heart-shaped marshmallows (HeartMallows) by Kraft?

      Pongr is a way to share the excitement of every new supermarket find.

      Check out this funky fish who recently greeted Pongr CEO (the real one, not the one in Pongr) Jamie Thompson at Whole Foods:

      A Whole Foods fish almost too gorgeous to eat!

      And look how eager Pongr player Mark Nolan was to devour this serving of Trader Joe’s Chicken Tikka Masala. So eager that cardboard will be the appetizer!

      Forget the Basmati Rice: Cardboard tastes so much better with chicken!

      The truth is that YOU are so much more influential about which supermarket to shop at than any celebrity. Who is your roommate or best friend going to listen to when it comes to locating fresh produce, you or Angelina Jolie?  You or January Jones?

      What supermarkets do you feel give you the same feeling as a red carpet welcome?  Snap a few pics of yourself with the grocery cart and send them to (name-of-store)@pongr.com.

      We’ll feature some of our Pongr celebrity shoppers in a future blog post!

      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 ImagePulse®: Computer Vision "Sees" How We Feel

          Sentiment Analysis | by
            visual brand sentiment analysis

            A Picture is Worth a Thousand Tweets: Devoted fans of global brands don't always tag their photos, but they are powerful opinion influencers worth finding. (Click to enlarge image)

            When a brand wants to connect with its most devoted fans, it might have trouble seeing them. Many people who now share photos of their favorite foods, fashions and products on the Web are virtually “invisible.”

            Consumers snap and share billions of pictures every day with their mobile phones. As the volume of these photos continues to rise, the quality and frequency of tagging is going down. Informal brand ambassadors aren’t aiming to advertise – their impulses to share brand-themed photos are social and thus, do not come labeled with hashtags.

            ImagePulse® is the first visual search engine that uses computer vision technology to index and rank the endless stream of brand photos spread across cyberspace. Pongr’s image recognition platform “sees” company logos regardless if they are tagged or not.

            Each photo is given a Purchase Intent Score based on an additional layer of text analysis for buying words.

            ImagePulse's Purchase Intent Score and other actionable data.

            “A picture is much more indicative of product interest than a Tweet,” says Pongr CEO Jamie Thompson. “There are lots of sentiment analysis tools out there, but none of them offer visual sentiment analysis. There’s now a new way to meaningfully tap into existing customer behavior, speed up collection of data and provide a direct response.”

            Voluntary product endorsements organically happen as a routine part of life. Examples of fan photos include iPad lovers photographing themselves in the Apple Store, Hard Rock Café diners hamming it up in their logo t-shirts or a fashion hound posing in front of a Versace or Gucci shop window.

            “Advertisers can use ImagePulse® to learn how, when and where their unofficial brand ambassadors — and the competition’s — are marketing their products in social networks,” Thompson says. “We also can track down fan photos anywhere they are shared: on blogs, social media, mobile phone apps and online photo albums.”

            In a preliminary search of Twitter photos (tagged and untagged) over a recent five-week period, ImagePulse® collected and analyzed more than 80,000 fan photos in 47 sample brands. This fan-generated content represents a tiny fraction of the visual brand sentiment expressed across the Web:

            BRAND LOGOS ON TWITTER

            1. Google 22,483
            2. Apple 14.452
            3. Android 11,127
            4. Starbucks 10,713
            5. Coca-Cola 6,339
            6. Nike 5,754
            7. adidas 5,244
            8. Nintendo 5,094
            9. McDonald’s 3,435
            10. Converse 3,215

            Companies can also learn what else excites their most loyal customers with “Conjunctive Interspend” data that tracks engagement with other favorite brands. For example, advertisers may find that a high percentage of adidas fans own iPods, drink Starbucks, watch MTV and shop at Target.

            visual brand sentiment analysis

            ImagePulse's Conjunctive Interspend data

            ImagePulse® helps brands take advantage of volumes of fan-generated content that previously didn’t show up on the radar.

            (To learn more on how ImagePulse® can help your brand identify and connect with your most passionate fans, 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 fashionista ends self-imposed "shopping ban"

              Brand Loyalty | by

                Florida's Amy Bunch is the winner of Pongr's first Fashion Plate contest!

                PONGR PROFILE
                Name: Amy Bunch
                Age: 25
                Hometown: Pembroke Pines, Florida.
                Pongr Homepage: Amy B.
                Personal Blog: Amy Fashion Blog.
                Twitter Feed: @AmyFashionBlog
                Real Job: Sales associate at DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse.
                Pongr Job: Market Support Associate at Victoria’s Secret.
                Other Favorite Brands to Pongr: Old Navy, Forever 21, Target, Nike, OPI and Cheetos.
                Fun Fact: Amy and her husband both wear Vibram FiveFingers, the funky form-fitting sneakers that shape to your toes.
                Favorite Quote: “I live my life one day at a time. You never know what’s going to happen.”

                For shopping buff Amy Bunch, Pongr’s “Fashion Plate” contest couldn’t have come at a better time.

                Based on uncertainties with her husband’s job, she was in the middle of a miraculous 71-Day Shopping Ban that ended with the purchase of this gorgeous gypsy skirt:

                Can you believe it cost only $5.99 at ROSS?  Amy shares amazing shopping finds like this on her blog, and playing Pongr is just a natural extension of her passion for fashion brands. When we put out the call for players to share their favorite shoes, dresses, skirts and accessories, Amy left the competition in the dust (with one notable exception, fellow blogger Camille Serrecchia put up a fierce fashion fight).

                “I already blog about what I wear to work everyday and I do ‘purse dumps,’ where I empty my purse and write about what’s inside,” she says. “Since I’ve been doing it, my co-workers have been commenting how I’ve been dressing much nicer.”

                “I’m also always looking at people’s feet. Even at the grocery store, my first thought is ‘Oh, she’s wearing Steve Madden or she’s wearing Chinese Laundry!”

                So when Amy won the Fashion Plate contest, which scored her a $200 Visa gift card, it came as no surprise to us that the first thing she did to celebrate was pull out her cell phone and Pongr a photo of her award certificate!

                Pongr powerplayer Amy Bunch was just anointed as a "Certified Fashion Plate" and won a $200 Visa gift card to supplement her wardrobe!

                Amy likes to hunt for fashion bargains at Target, Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, ROSS, Plato’s Closet, Old Navy and her local Salvation Army thrift shop.

                At her job at DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, Amy gets a front row seat for a daily footwear fashion show. She never knows what will appear in the boxes she’s stocking or what shows up at the register next. “We’re on of the highest volume stores in Florida,” she says. “We get all the best brands like Badgley Mischka, Jimmy Choo, Giuseppe Zanotti, Gucci and Prada!”

                Lately, she’s obsessed with a pair of FiveFingers:

                In the game, Amy is an administrative assistant at Vibram. She loves her pair of FiveFingers shoes that make her feel like she's walking barefoot all day.

                Amy loves to share her creativity and enthusiasm in the photos she submits to Pongr (for tips on how your pics can earn more “likes” and Pongr Bucks, click here). Check out how she makes even non-fashion brands a stylish modeling opportunity:

                Amy recently cooled off at the Coca-Cola misting station at Universal Studios in Florida.

                “Pongr is a great way to reach out to new people for my blog,” Amy says. “And I also love playing it in the lunchroom at work. It’s very impulsive. If I see a box of Dunkin’ Donuts on the table, I’m thinking ‘Hey, I should Pongr that!”

                Speaking of impulsive, Amy confesses she already knows how she’s spending some of her $200 prize: On a jean jacket at Old Navy, some top coat nail polish from Sephora, and a new floral-patterned dress at either Target or Forever 21. “My husband enjoys video games and this is my hobby,” she says. “I can’t really say we share our bedroom closet. I pretty much have the whole thing.”

                (Do you know someone who is a fashion buff?  Honor their sense of style with a Certified Fashion Plate award certificate — only at the new Pongr store!)

                The next Pongr Fashion Plate could be.... YOU!


                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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