You Ping me, I’ll Pongr you

Posted July 22, 2010 by Clare Jacobson

Pongr was founded in 2008 by Jamie Thompson, Neal Checka, and Zach Cox. Pongr has achieved marked success for its recent collaboration with W Magazine. In the campaign, W Magazine instructed people to take photos of advertisements and billboards and send the images from their phone to w@pongr.com. (Did anyone see any of these New York Billboards or W-Magazine adverts? Did you do it? Chime in here.) Participants were then automatically entered to win a $1000 shopping spree and notified about coupons and deals relating to various products.

Pongr offers users a chance to take a photo of billboards or advertisements, and send it in with the possibility of getting coupons, news, and updates about the brand or event.

What’s different and innovative about Pongr is that they don’t use QR code technology, but instead use technology that recognizes images from the mobile pictures, and compares them against an index of images.

Co-Founder Zach Cox says, “Pongr’s technology transcends QR codes and eliminates many of the drawbacks associated with it. With our system we’re actually associating information with the image itself, so with the full page Gucci ad there is no need for a special code to slap on. The creative people in the ad industry don’t like QR codes because it messes with the nice artwork in the ad. We offer a nice alternative.”

In sum:
For brands, Pongr is a direct response marketing tool that delivers relevant information when mobile users take pictures of brand advertisements and media.

For consumers, Pongr is an easy way to opt-in for promotional offers and share their experiences via pictures across their social networks.

Seems likely we are going to start seeing more and more of this technology in the near future!