England Veterans World Cup Winning Captain, Jamie Clarke joins the skignz team

skignz are delighted to announce the latest member of the management team is Jamie Clarke.

Jamie's background is in Social Care Management, he has worked within the NHS, for the English FA and more recently as a consultant for a range of Health Authorities and Charitable Organisations across the UK.

He specialises in delivering Service Implementation, Co-Production Models of Delivery Design and a Service Improvements expert. 

Jamie actually started his career in the Armed Forces serving with the 7 RHA (Royal Artillery) in Northern Ireland & Operation Desert Storm (1st Gulf War 1990). 

He was then 'bought out' of the Army in 1992 to play professional football for St Johnstone in Scotland and then Darlington in England.

Jamie has continued playing semi-pro football into his early forties for many northeast non-league clubs, however his greatest footballing achievement was when he captained the England team to win the Veterans 2014 World Cup in Thailand.

Jamie on skignz: "I was really excited when I first spoke to Si about the concept of skignz and how it works.
 


It just seemed to me that putting the world's information in front of people, wherever they are in the world was incredible. skignz is something that can be used for a multitude of different tasks, placing key information in front of the user on a local level.
  


Using Augmented Reality and Geolocation technology to put information in front of your eyes is something that can only be a good thing!"

Si Brown (skignz, Co-founder & CMO) said: "I've known Jamie for many many years, mainly through football, although he was always playing for the opposition, until the last few years where we have both played (In the loosest sense of the word) on the same veterans team.

On a professional note, we have crossed paths a number of times, when I was involved with a Mental Health Charity and he was working in both the NHS and The FA with vulnerable adults and children with serious Mental Health conditions. He's a great guy, frighteningly enthusiastic and seemed to get skignz 'at hello'. 

Since then he's brought more energy to the team and has already focussed on a number of potential ways in which skignz can be used. Not only in his past career sectors, but also identifying new ways in which other sectors can present their current data and information in a more meaningful and visual way.

His role as Head of DV (Data Visualisation) Partnerships has been developed to play to his strengths and enable skignz to have a strategic thinker purely focussed on this key area of our business growth".

Jamie on Joining skignz: "I can't explain how excited I am to be joining the skignz team.  Si, Gary and the team have made me feel really welcome and it's so clear that we are all working for a common goal.

I've worked all over the UK delivering and implementing high quality services and products to people who need them. Joining skignz was the easiest decision I've had to make. 

The vision and enthusiasm of everyone at skignz is infectious, and this is where I want to be, hopefully helping to ensure success at every level of the business"

If you would like to find out how your company/organisation could benefit from using the skignz technology platform to enhance its data. 

Please contact Jamie on +44 (0) 845 058 0519 or in the first instance email him at info@skignz.com

  

Pepsi Max's version of skignz

Today we received links to the following video from an overwhelming amount of people... 


What do you think? Fun yes, Interesting use of drones yes, visual and engaging yes!

Here are a selection of the comments that were sent to us along with the link:

"they've stolen your idea"
"but you can do all that and more with skignz"
"it's not very inclusive as only a few people can use it at once"
"looks very expensive to implement"
"how is skignz different?"
"we hear a lot about drones for Amazon etc."
"where does this leave skignz?"
"how do you feel about this?"
"drones have been around since the 1940's - so what?"
"looks expensive to deliver"
"who actually controls the drones? drone pilots or through the app?"
"imagine if everyone tried to call the drone at once"
"what happens if it crashes in the crowd - ouch, wouldn't want to be underneath it then!"

The following conversations again seemed to raise more questions than answers, but one core element was people wanted to know where this left skignz and what did we think of it?

Well we think it's AWESOME! Way to go Pepsi Max for risking their reputation to create such an experience, linking mobile devices with drones and then applying it to a crowded festival/concert.

It actually proved that there is the need to find your friends, there is a need to find places like the toilets, the bar, exits etc. something skignz has been advocating for the last few years!

So we at skignz are really happy that Pepsi Max have done this and it looks like the 5 million plus people who have viewed the video on YouTube think it's innovative, interesting and the overall concept is very cool.

Where does this leave skignz? 
Exactly where we were before this was launched, however now more than 5 million people have been exposed to the possibilities of this type of experience being created around you at live events such as festivals and concerts.

How does it compare to skignz?
Without knowing the ins and outs of how Pepsi Max provided this installation at this year's 'New Look Wireless 2015', the very glossy/well edited video to promote it and no doubt all delivered and filmed at the one location. 

Also how many different drones they used? Then compare this to the amount of people who attended 'New Look Wireless 2015'? skignz can be used by EVERYONE in attendance and is personalised to them, so they only see what they want? When they want it? Where it's relevant to them!

One other key element we feel they got right, was the interaction with varying locations & mobile devices. The big issue we see, is the amount of people who can access this type 'brand experience' at the same time and is it only relevant at that one location.

We thank everyone who took the time to send us the link, comment on it, compared it with skignz and asked what we thought? 

skignz is not just a one time installation, a brand gimmick, a fad to be used in isolation. 

It's considerate of the environment and does not require anything further to access than the mobile device the majority of people carry with them day in day out. Plus it can be used anywhere on the planet, 24/7, 365 days per year!

skignz was developed to be a technology platform that allows the users who download it, to take it everywhere they go, use it when they want and with whom they want, personalise it, shape it to their needs, from finding your tent at a festival, your friends at a concert or even your car in a supermarket carpark, a first time meeting for work or even a date?

In summary we applaud what Pepsi Max has done and the way they did it, however we feel they have only further highlighted a range of needs of current society, put the spotlight on a few core issues people face in certain circumstances like live events and demonstrate that although '5 Million People' are interested in what they did, their solution was not quite what it should be!

After reading this short summary and watching the video, do you think skignz is the right solution?

If you would like to download skignz then please visit www.skignz.com/downloads or the Apple App Store/GooglePlay.

You can follow us on all the major social media channels, even contribute using the skignz 'capture function' and sharing the pics on your own social media channels. We look forward to see what you are 'skignzing'

Former Premier League Footballer David Murphy joins skignz

We are delighted to say that David Murphy has now joined skignz as our 'Head of Sports Partnerships'.

The former Premier League Professional Footballer with Middlesbrough, Hibernian, Motherwell and England Under 19, recently retired from the professional game through a serious knee injury in 2014. 

Still in his early thirties, David is looking forward to the next stage of his life with his wife and young family after relocating back up to the Teesside area. 

With a number of other business interests outside of football. He is staying involved in the game and working as part of MFC Manager Aitor Karanka's back room team at Middlesbrough, scouting players and providing match analysis. Going full circle in his career and returning to the club where he joined their academy as a schoolboy.

Over the last 6-12 months David has been informally working with the skignz team, helping provide insight into the world of professional sport and where he felt skignz could become involved. This relationship has now been firmed up with David joining us as 'Head of Sports Partnerships'.

Si Brown (skignz Co-Founder & CMO) said:
"In this role David will be engaging with his extensive network of contacts not only in Football but also in the wider world of professional sports to see where 'skignz may fit'. 

Some areas of consideration are obvious especially around the 'supporters experience'. However by going behind the scenes at professional clubs, can the skignz tech help enhance performance, provide data and information that currently is not being captured or even present current information in a more visual way?"

One of the very few players to win silverware in both England and Scotland, David won the league cup in both countries.

David on skignz:

David on Joining skignz:

For more information on David's, professional career, please take a look at this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Murphy_(footballer) or see below a gallary of images of him during his playing days.

If you work in the world of professional sports. Especially around marketing, brand, advertising, experience, data and analytics, then please feel free to contact David on either +44 (0) 845 058 0519 or email in the first instance to info@skignz.com

  

 

Improving our UX, Design & Functionality

As some of you will see when either using the skignz App or looking at the website - change is afoot.

We are currently refining, refreshing and updating all areas of our UX, design, layout through to whole new structure to the functionality within the App.

Key areas that have already being addressed are 

• Intro Screens
• Camera View Icons
• Help Sections
• Menus
• Icon Rotations - Portrait to Landscape
• Profiles Layouts
• Increased functionality such as 'Face Down Map View' & 'Friend Maps'.

We are also looking at other key areas within the App, sounding activity and a programme of constant evolution. 

The last 12 months have seen us focus predominantly on the backend development of skignz making the skignz platform stable, improve accessibility, speed, caching, hosting, security etc…

Now we have focussed on the front end/UX design and overall user experience. A lot of this work we knew was required but also we have acted upon a lot of feedback from various quarters to help us further refine skignz, make it more accessible and easier to use. 

We really appreciate people testing and taking time out to feed back to us and hope that they continue to do so and even more people will join in. 

Our early adopters are helping us deliver a ‘skignz’ they want to regularly use, is helpful and useful to them rather than a ‘skignz’ we think will do the same.

Not much difference in the words but the impact and results are worlds apart.

We continue to develop the skignz platform with changes and updates coming on a weekly/monthly basis, so you should see further change in the coming months. 

We always welcome feedback so please feel free to let us know about your experiences by emailing us at discover@skignz.com

As-well as the changes to the look and feel of skignz we are also increasing the functionality. 

Last month we launched the in app ‘capture’ allowing users to ‘capture their skignz activity’ and either save to their device or share with others/post to social media platforms.

The key one for July is around adding the map functionality and showing where things are on the map when the phone is held facing the ground (so flat) this changes from the usual skignz camera view to the new map view.

In the coming months, we will be enhancing the ‘share & social’ aspect of skignz making it easier for you to connect with friends and share each others locations and access each others ‘skignz’ one that they have not made public.

As always we will keep you updated on future releases, updates and any additional functionality we have added.

If you haven’t already please take a look at the new skignz website www.skignz.com and if you have not either downloaded the app or taken a look for a while please do so. 

We would be very interested to get you feedback if you have 2 mins to email us at discover@skignz.com