Brand Photos: Behind the Lens of Image Recognition

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.)

Look Who’s Playing Pongr: Cardinals Fan Scott Olsen!

Brand Ambassadors | February 18, 2011 by Darren

St. Louis Cardinals fan Scott Olsen gets chummy with legendary pitcher Bob Gibson at Busch Stadium.

(In honor of the beginning of Spring Training, the official rebirth of hopes and dreams for the 28 teams who didn’t make it to the World Series, we are focusing the spotlight on diehard baseball fans expressing their passion through Pongr.)

PONGR SPRING TRAINING PROFILE
Name: Scott Olsen
Age: 32
Hometown: Madrid, Iowa
Real Job: Software Engineer
Pongr Job: Intern for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career Dream: Work in the corporate office for agriculture giant Monsanto in St. Louis, a few skips away from Busch Stadium.
Other Favorite Brands to Pongr: Natural Light, Green Bay Packers, Tabasco, Iowa State Cyclones.
Fun Fact: Scott used to manage a bowling alley and was a farm hand on a poultry farm.
Scott’s Twitter Feed: SOlsen300

Scott Olsen began rooting for the Cardinals at age 5 and he now expresses his brand loyalty with 40 different team logo shirts, jerseys and jackets. As a kid, he was lucky enough to land on the Cardinals in his Little League, playing the same position as his idol, Hall of Fame back-flippin’ shortstop Ozzie Smith.

Olsen remembers meeting Smith in the late 1990s and would love to Pongr the moment, but the picture is AWOL somewhere at his parents’ house. He also got his picture taken with slugger Albert Pujols during the Cards 2004 World Series season, but his computer crashed and forever erased physical evidence of that memory.

What pictures haven’t been lost? Fortunately the ones which document his commitment to raising another generation of Cardinals fans. It’s nearly a seven hour drive from Madrid, Iowa to St. Louis, but Olsen aims to bring his family to Busch Stadium once a year if possible.

Hanging out at the ballpark is half the fun.

A seven hour drive! Baseball fans in the Northeast U.S. are spoiled by comparison. A seven hour trip up there would pass by the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Orioles!

We're # 1 -- Goofing around at Busch Stadium with foam Cardinals talons!

Olsen, a casual player of Pongr, would love to see the game have a mobile app and a feature to email multiple pictures of the same brand at once. (We are always seeking player input for how to improve the game, so don’t be bashful to share your two cents, too).

A special deal he would propose to St. Louis Cardinals management: Draw the name of one fan at every home game and let him or her sit in the owner’s suite and meet the players on the field. (You can propose your own special offer you’d like to see your brand adopt by clicking on the DEALS tab on your brand page. Note: You need to have recruited four players to your brand to unlock this feature.).

Whether he gets to meet superstar Albert Pujols in a Cardinals uniform again is another story. A highly publicized contract dispute has the perennial MVP candidate’s future up in the air.

“It’s a tough situation,” Olsen says. “I can’t see the Cards giving him a 10-year, $300 million contract. That would put him into his 40′s before the contract is up. Hopefully, he will take a contract for 7 or 8 years for $27 to $28 million a year. I feel they need to sign him because I’m not sure I could watch baseball anymore if he ever wore a Cubs jersey!”

Don’t kill the messenger, Scott, but this could happen.

ATTENTION BASEBALL FANS: It’s time to snap pics of you and your friends in your baseball shirts and hats, as well as pics of Spring Training games in person or on TV. Start sharing them with us and work your way up the front office to become team CEO! Here’s where to email or picture text your photos:

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
redsox@pongr.com
yankees@pongr.com
orioles@pongr.com
bluejays@pongr.com
rays@pongr.com

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL
tigers@pongr.com
whitesox@pongr.com
twins@pongr.com
royals@pongr.com
indians@pongr.com

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
angels@pongr.com
athletics@pongr.com
mariners@pongr.com
texasrangers@pongr.com

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
marlins@pongr.com
mets@pongr.com
phillies@pongr.com
nationals@pongr.com

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL
cubs@pongr.com
reds@pongr.com
astros@pongr.com
brewers@pongr.com
pirates@pongr.com
stlouiscardinals@pongr.com

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
dodgers@pongr.com
padres@pongr.com
diamondbacks@pongr.com
sfgiants@pongr.com
rockies@pongr.com

Would you like to be featured on the Pongr blog? Tell us about your passions, your favorite brands and why you play Pongr! Drop us a line.

Send Pics of Cosmo and Earn a Free Subscription!

Advertising, Mobile Marketing | February 16, 2011 by Jamie

The COSMO Challenge. It's all the gossip, girl.

Guys: hear me out for a second.

You’re sitting around a table (a bar, restaurant, kitchen…doesn’t matter) with a bunch of ladies when some random subject comes up.

“Oh,” says the woman next to you, “I read about that in Cosmo.”

It’s happening more and more around here lately. Part of it is because PONGR’s reading more Cosmo (yes, even our gentlemen employees want to know what Topher Grace looks for in a woman), and part of it is because a bunch of people read Cosmo. How many? If you factor in the fact that each copy of Cosmopolitan Magazine is read by an average of seven different people, the magazine reaches 15 million people, per month.

That’s a lot of people.

We’ve been scratching our heads around the office on how to show some love to one of our favorite lady magazines (which is perfectly fine for guys to read, by the way), and then we decided to do what we do best: give stuff away.

So, here it is: The COSMO Challenge!

We’re taking the next four weeks to give away four (4) one-year (12-issue) subscriptions to Cosmopolitan Magazine. And we’re giving them to our favorite Cosmo Girls and Guys. The important thing to know: prizes are worth many dollars, but worth that much more when you consider how many fashion, life and, um, bedroom tips you’ll get over the next year. Excited? Good–so are we.

How do you get one? Funny you should ask. We’re calling it the PONGR four-step:

Step One: Snap it. Take a photo of Cosmopolitan Magazine–a copy you’ve got lying around, your favorite article, whatever.

Topher makes better flirty eyes, but I have more PONGR Bucks.

Better yet? Take a picture of yourself holding a copy. If you’ve got a Mac, open up Photo Booth and pose. I’ve demo’d it at right.

Step Two: Send it. Send it to cosmo@pongr.com from any computer or mobile phone with email or picture-texting.

Step Three: Love it. Get other people to “like” your photos on pongr.com, and “like” other people’s photos. Want to get even more likes? Turn some friends on to PONGR and Cosmo Challenge them.

Step Four: Earn it. Come out on top and we’ll award you a one-year Cosmo subscription from Magazines.com. Awards come out once every week for the photo that gets the most “likes” from the previous week. In total there will be 4 annual subscriptions earned by the top “Liked” player pic for the next 4 weeks.

That’s it: take great photos, send them to us, and earn some swag if you get the most “likes.”

Now get to snapping, sending, liking and earning. We’re gonna go read some more about melting underpants.

Pongr Photo Tip: Kids and cats best capture brand loyalty

Brand Loyalty, Image Search, Mobile Marketing | February 15, 2011 by Darren

Here’s a secret that advertisers have been capitalizing on for centuries: Kids and pets are cute.

And you can take advantage of the same principle in the Game of Pongr!

Pictures are always more engaging when you have people interact with places and things. It’s the reason why we all bring our digital cameras on vacation instead of just buying postcards.

Here’s how to express your passion for a brand. Don’t just say you love M & M’s — show the M & M’s how much you love them…

Making the plain and pretzel M & M's jealous!

Playing with your food is a cherished childhood tradition. Remember that sweet time in your life when you looked at the world through sugar-coated glasses?

Two Dunkin' Donuts are better than one

And when it comes to using Dunkin’ Donuts as props, the possibilities are endless…

Pongr Peek-a-Boo

This youngster has a little dual loyalty problem, although both Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper should be flattered.

If you were the brands, would you rather be on the t-shirt or in the consumer's arms?

And lastly, this picture represents all the untapped Pongr supermodels out there. When was the last time your cat refused to be photographed? He’ll endorse any product — and rightfully so. It’s the least he can do for you for all that cat food you buy him.

Mountain Dew: The best cat toy ever!

Taking creative, engaging photos will get you noticed by fellow brand enthusiasts and improve your networking opportunities in the game. But getting clever with your camera phone might also help your love life. Find out how by reading our Tips for Taking Creative Photos. The future of mobile marketing is in the hands of loyal brand enthusiasts like you. It may sound strange, but we believe global brands are as interested in your mobile, social photos are you are in their delicious products (OK, well sometimes). Either way, Pongr’s mobile marketing and image recognition technology is trying to help match devoted brand fans with the marketing and advertising pro’s that want to connect with them.

Love on the Shelf: Special Edition Valentine's Day Brands

Advertising | February 11, 2011 by Darren

You romantic devil, you probably are thinking about buying your girlfriend or boyfriend a fancy box of chocolates or perhaps some of those NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts?

Oh, we’re suckers for romantic traditions, but we’re also fascinated by the ever-expanding options to say “I Love You” with Valentine’s-themed special edition brands. Giving your friends packets of flavored sugar with an edible spoon will be far more appreciated than the standard Valentines.

Ditto for Betty Crocker’s Fruit By the Foot!

The Pillsbury Doughboy seems to have a very affectionate girlfriend. And how do those embedded hearts retain their shape so perfectly inside those cookies?

Heart Funfetti candy turns regular pink frosting into Valentine’s Day frosting….

And gotta love the heart-shaped marshmallows, or “HeartMallows!”

Heart-shaped Snickers bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have been around for eons, but what special edition Valentine’s brands have come as a complete surprise to you this year?

Pull out your camera phone at the supermarket this weekend and share your Valentine’s Day discoveries in the game!

Ring Ring…Crunch is Calling: Wheat Thins on Social Media

Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Social Media | February 10, 2011 by Jamie

BOSTON — Show brands love, get rewarded and a shot at fame. Sound familiar?

Hopefully it does–it’s the idea that PONGR is built on. In the past we’ve bought hoodies for Super Bowl fans and Android phones for the first CEO of the little green man’s favorite phone. But someone else is taking that idea to a tasty new level: Wheat Thins.

The Crunch already called PONGR user Dan C. He answered. Follow him @DanChiz

Wheat Thins, for those that aren’t as much of a fan as us, are the blue jeans of snacking–there’s a bunch of different kinds and you can pair them with anything. I serve them with cheese at get-togethers, dip them in Nutella for dessert, and eat them with Trader Joe’s hummus…all the time.

So what do you do when you love something like Wheat Thins? Easy–put it on Pongr.

Fans of Wheat Thins have long been Tweeting and Facebooking about how much they love the crunchy little squares, and now Nabisco, which makes the crackers, is listening. They’ve started Crunch is Calling, a Twitter page whose only purpose is to bring in the Wheat Thins love and send it right back.

But a company having a Twitter page to thank its fans isn’t new or exciting, so Nabisco went a step further: they bought a minivan, painted it Wheat Thins Box-yellow, and took their Twitter love to the streets.

When one fan Tweeted that he thought he was the only person who loved the combo of “Red Wine, Cream Cheese, Wheat Thins and Football,” Crunch is Calling sent the famous yellow minivan to greet him…in real life:

Or how about the time a fan thought it was awesome when Wheat Thins followed him on Twitter?

It all makes for a great ad campaign, but it also makes for some skeptics, one of whom thought the whole campaign was fake. Crunch is Calling had a message for him too:

What Wheat Thins did that makes Crunch is Calling so great is remember that behind every Twitter handle and Facebook profile is an actual person. Sending love to people through the Internet is one thing–getting visited by a Yellow Minivan, starring in a TV commercial and getting a real box of Wheat Thins for saying thanks is another.

Which brings us to our point: someone else is working on that same idea. We’ll give you a hint. It’s us.

PONGR isn’t just a pretty face and a funny name (although we are pretty)–it’s a way for you to show some Digital Love to the stuff you like, share it with others, and hopefully get something real for doing it. For every company that just writes “Thanks!” at you on Twitter, we’re organizing another PONGR Bowl. For every brand that tries some “new media extravaganza!” that requires another username and password for some promotional website you need to learn how to use (yawn), we’re playing around right here on pongr.com (which, let’s face it, gets sexier every day).

So like our friends at Chick-Fil-A would say, PONGR more brands! Like more pics! Recruit more friends! And, well, watch what happens.

Human Brands: Capturing celebrity moments in Pongr & sharing on Facebook

Advertising | February 10, 2011 by Darren

Turns out that New York Yankees prettyboy Alex Rodriguez is mad at FOX for showing him being hand-fed popcorn by his celebrity girlfriend Cameron Diaz during the Pongr Bowl.

We don’t understand how A-Rod can be upset when our celebrity-obsessed culture obsesses over celebrities — especially in such a public forum as the Super Bowl. But we are extremely proud of the fact that this historic romantic moment was captured in our game!

The infamous popcorn incident is a valuable opportunity to remind Pongr players about two of the most fun elements in the game:

1. You are encouraged to play the game while you’re watching TV. It used to be with the old sets that all you’d get are blurry images or static when you’d try to photograph a show. But with the new HDTV and flatscreen sets, the images you can capture are remarkable. So make Pongr part of your TV time — commercials and the shows themselves count as brands.

2. Celebrities are Brands, Too. This is hardly breaking news. Famous people have always thought of themselves as marketing machines. But it’s fun to snap shots of your favorite actors, singers and athletes for Pongr as if you were part of the paparazzi.

Here are some links to some TV shows and celebrities already being played in Pongr.

– Justin Bieber

– Dexter

– The Flintstones

– Glee

– Audrey Hepburn

– Katy Perry

– Andy Samberg

– Slash

– Spice Girls

Remember, anyone or any entertainment outlet is fair game. If you want to follow a celeb not listed above, just snap your pic and send to (CELEBRITY NAME)@pongr.com

Unlike with the real paparazzi, which involves hours of patience and risking possible stalking charges, you can play Pongr while relaxing on the couch and feeding your loved one popcorn!

Remembering extinct soda brands – and one that will last forever

Advertising, Mobile Marketing | February 8, 2011 by Darren

Brontosaurus Blue Raspberry? Yum Yum!

Pop culture archeologist Hillary Buckholtz just uncovered 16 “extinct” soda brands that she laments you can no longer savor for yourself. The irony of the prehistoric Flintstones beverage brand going the way of the dinosaurs is deep.

If anyone in Pongr nation sees an unopened case of Pterodactyl Punch, Brontosaurus Blue Raspberry or Stegosaurus Cola on eBay, please ping us!

Other obsolete beverage brands include Super Mario Brothers Soda, Fudgicle Fudge Soda and Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum Soda. You can see Hillary’s full analysis here.

Perhaps if people had been taking oodles of pictures of Flintstones, the way they do with certain brands, the soda would still be around today. Savvy advertisers tuned-in with current trends in mobile and social marketing, see the clear relationship between user generated brand photos (i.e., activity on Pongr’s game) and brand health. Too bad mobile cameras and social networks didn’t exist back in the day of Flintstones soda.

One soda that will never go out of style is Mountain Dew, currently one of the hottest brands on Pongr.

Mountain Dew loyalists aren't afraid to explore their sillier side.

The Mtn DEW crew currently has tons of players competing to be CEO, with more recruits on the way.

Stay tuned here for an exciting announcement about how the stakes for Mountain Dew players are about to get higher!

Super Bowl Classic TV Commercial

Advertising, Mobile Marketing | February 6, 2011 by Darren

In honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers making it back to the Super Bowl, we think it’s appropriate to revisit one of the most classic TV commercials of all time — Mean Joe Greene’s encounter with the generous little boy who’s willing to give up his Coke. Mean Joe is limping and obviously in physical pain after a rough game…

“You want my Coke? It’s okay, you can have it!”

This ad was beloved in its day (1979), inspiring numerous parodies. Hall of Famer Greene appeared as himself in a skit with comedian Tim Conway, who played the little boy. After offering his Coke, Conway is plunked on the head with a football as a thank you.

Amazingly, this TV commercial was later made into a movie, “The Steeler and The Pittsburgh Kid,” co-starring Greene and Henry Thomas, the boy who would soon befriend E.T.

Coke Zero later paid tribute to the ad by recasting it with Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu:

What a great twist, with the angry Coke brand managers accusing Coke Zero of stealing both the taste of Coke and their classic commercial. Wonder if this content will ever come back in the form of mobile marketing videos for brand games? We’ll see…

Which version of the Coke ad do you like? What would you do with an NFL star’s sweat-saturated jersey?

Enjoy the Super Bowl tonight — especially the ads! If you’re brand enthusiast or a fan of Pongr’s image recognition and visual search technology, be sure to test out all of our wireless gaming options. It doesn’t matter if you are on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, or any other carrier network. As long as you can take pictures from your mobile phone, send them to us and connect with Facebook or Twitter, you’ll be well on your way to earning some Pongr Bucks in our mobile game.

Pittsburgh Steelers & Green Bay Packers face off in the Pongr Bowl!

Pongr Contests | February 2, 2011 by Darren

Marketing gimmicks are a Super Bowl tradition. Remember the Bud Bowl, when bottles of Bud Light would play against bottles of Budweiser with real NFL announcers doing the play by play?

How about the Lingerie Bowl where scantily-clad women gyrate in the end zone?

Well, we don’t have the animation budget or enough models on our payroll to pull off either stunt.

What we do offer is the ultimate opportunity for you to become the virtual CEO of either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers this weekend.

So at your Super Bowl parties, pull out your mobile phones and go bezerk:

Snap pictures of your friends hamming it up for the camera.

Snap pictures of the actual game on your widescreen TVs.

Snap pictures of yourself gorging on Super Bowl snacks.

Snap pictures of yourself wearing Packers or Steelers garb.

And email them or picture-text them to either packers@pongr.com or steelers@pongr.com

The best photos will win official heavyweight Steelers and Packers hoodies!

Compete with your fellow fans to see who can be the most creative with the camera — and quite frankly, who knows how to have more fun.

Photographing your family and friends with their favorite brands while watching the game is a great way to double dip, which is perfectly legal in Pongr. For example, if your girlfriend is wearing her Steelers jersey while eating Oreos or if your husband is slurping down Mountain Dew to match his Green Bay Packers boxer shorts, you can submit the same photos under the teams and the brands.

Fantasy football leagues are hugely popular. By allowing you to rise up the management ranks in the front office, playing Pongr is the next logical step!

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