What’s more Christmassy than an inappropriate pash at the office party? Or a deep ham and alcohol coma? Or the disappointed look on your greedy kids’ faces when they don’t get what they want? A festively-themed, avian-heavy dollop of digital show-offery, says the gang from audio-recognition app Pluk. So Pluk the video and see what happens.
Humans can’t seem to get enough of screens these days. And they’re increasingly using their devices while watching TV. So locally developed app Pluk is working with advertisers and trying to point them in the right direction, writes Lesley Springall.
Straight from the starter’s pistol, The Block NZ became TV3’s biggest show of the year. So has it maintained that momentum? How are those cheeky Pluk-ers doing with their mobile app? And what’s TVNZ got in store?
Billy McQueen goes back to the brush, ZenithOptimedia launches its new global positioning, Duncan Garner heads to RadioLive, Crossmark gets its teeth into Cadbury, two new toys for Toybox, Phantom welcomes ‘Queen of the Flyers’, Pluk closes in on 50,000 users and Ideas Shop makes it a double.
After launching in January, giving away a new car to one person who signed up and doing a fair bit of promotion through MediaWorks’ channels, over 43,000 smartphone users have downloaded the Pluk app, which claims to offer an added level of interaction between brands and consumers and was developed by local company Foxtrot Media. And, after the first Pluk-enabled TV commercials went live this week, Foxtrot’s managing director Boyd Wason is fairly chuffed with the initial results—and so, he says, are the first clients Holden, InsureMe, Subway and Roadshow.
Rod Vaughan joins the NBR, TVNZ announces Guyon Espiner’s replacement for Q+A, fast Foxtrot means changes at Tango, Rochelle Weaver swaps bus shelters for banks, Martin Shanahan puts some new boots on at Tangible Media, The Pond continues to burst its banks, TradeMe trades up, mobile advertising network InMobi launches in New Zealand, the PR Shop adds to its Aussie arsenal, Tina McIntosh embraces the child within and Ben English takes over at Adobe.
Mobile devices are basically seen as a necessity these days and, like a dog without its bone, there’s almost nothing more depressing than seeing a modern human try to function without its phone. For marketers, these devices offer some very exciting creative possibilities, and MediaWorks has jumped on the ‘social TV’ bandwagon and released what it believes is a world-first smartphone app called Pluk that uses audio recognition technology to deliver content from the TV straight to the user’s phone.