Star Trek: USS Enterprise seen above London

An alert to all you 'Trekkies' out there... Today the USS Enterprise was captured hovering above central London.

A skignz user, managed to use the 'in app capture' to grab these two images...

Although we are not Trekkies, many people are, so it will be interesting to see how many other people see the ship as we are not sure how long it's there... 

Where will it appear next?

If you see it please do share with us on any of our Social media channels or email your pics at info@skignz.com

With all the news and razamataz around 'PokemonGo' and people hunting around the world, we are wondering who has taken this idea into their own hands and used the skignz platform to create their own version of a themed/branded version of a scavenger hunt. 

This prompted many internal conversations on who else could do this across the planet? What brands would like a similar activation using their current 'franchises'? 

Could we soon see Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spiderman or Transformers? How about Dora the Explorer, Lilo & stitch or taking the lead from Pokemon and rejuvenate old & retro characters? 

How about 'Find a Fraggle', Battle of the Planets, TMNT, Wheres Bod?, whatever the brand, the digital assets can be featured in Geo Location based AR games..

We see this going one step further by making them both educational and even more interesting than just looking and finding a specific character.

If you have a brand, a franchise or are an agency looking for ways to expose your characters to a new and existing audiences in a fresh and invigorating way, please get in touch via info@skignz.com and lets see what type of brand experience we can create for your audiences?

Also check out other stories on this blog, our website www.skignz.com and our usual social media channels for more on what skignz is? can do? and is already doing?

PokemonGo - Gamification through GeoAR

In little under two weeks Pokemon Go (not launched in the UK yet) has taken the world by storm.

According to 'Tokyo Reuters', shares in Nintendo (Pokemon's owners) soared on Monday 11th July 2016 bringing and increase in Market value to $7.5billion in only 2 days.

It's Nintendo's first foray into mobile gaming and although only being released in certain regions it's become an 'overnight success'. But what is PokemonGo? 

Most people ask what Pokemon are?

Pokemon is a brand created and used by Nintendo since the early 1990's. Where Pokemon's characters and TV programmes became a 90's phenomenon for most children of the day. 

Now Nintendo have taken it a step further by using 'Geo Location based Augmented Reality' (essentially skignz) to place little virtual characters across the planet.

This creates a scavenger hunt for people to look for this elite virtual characters as they go about their daily lives…

However this has already not been without controversy, huge pile ups and traffic problems (Check out some of the stories by pressing here) happened when someone held up traffic by walking into the middle of a road or even where a driver was trying to find a character whilst driving!

With 5% of Android users downloading it two days after its release in the US, you can safely assume that this is only going to get bigger and bigger. 

With users averaging 53 mins per day, could it be the next big game distraction since Candy Crush? 

Its already shot to the top of the charts in Apple's FREE app rankings and continues to explode across the world.

So why is skignz writing about this? Geolocation is the essence of the skignz platform and PokemonGO is the first real high profile, mass market use of this type of AR after skignz. 

We think it's great, we think PokemonGo although not perfect, certainly increases the profile of GeoAR in much the same way in what Oculus did for VR. 

We have had an incredible amount of emails and calls in the last few days from people we have been dealing with over the the years, asking us our opinion of PokemonGo? 

How does it affect skignz? 

How does it compare to skignz? and plenty who have said that this makes skignz so much more relevant now, especially as skignz makes AR useful and can be delivered across so many different sectors and industries with a plethora of uses & applications, literally your imagination is the limit to what skignz can do?

In our blog post of 13th July 2016, (Press to view here) we showcase how skignz users have uploaded their own  Star Trek Space Ship, The USS Enterprise for views to find in Central London. 

This also begs the question, as we explain in the aforementioned blog post, what other brands could take advantage of this type of Brand activation? 

From TV series launches like Game of Thrones, through to the next Star Wars / Xmen, Star Wars, movies. Even going back into the archives (like Nintendo have done with Pokemon) and relaunch old franchises in a new and engaging way.

Two very interesting articles we have just come across by Tim Bajarin for Time and Alexandra Tregre for Stable | Kernal both outline the impact of Pokemon Go, but also explain that it's not AR but more Geo Location that's driving the Phenomenal take up.... 

Time - http://time.com/4410327/pokemon-go-technology/

Stable| Kernal - http://blog.stablekernel.com/the-technology-behind-pokemon-go-why-augmented-reality-is-the-future

You may further query as to why this matters or relates to skignz? That's becuase everything that PokemonGo should do can be done with skignz, not one (use a map to find each character) then the other (view the character in AR), but both at the same time. 

skignz has the ability to place the content in an exact location, not base it around your handset when in said location, there's a HUGE difference to the user experience and more importantly the opportunities for global reach...

All of the aforementioned global brands (and more) are able to follow suit by using the skignz platform to deliver their ideas...

If you want to get in touch to see how you could use the skignz platform to help with your brands activation then please email us info@skignz.com

If you would like to find out more about skignz please find us on the usual Social Media channels as well as our blog and website www.skignz.com. 

Face Time on the Move...

The desire to see people's faces when talking to them?

Why when you can just have it on audio?

Surely FaceTime is better suited to private talking, business or pleasure, not whilst walking down the street, getting on a bus or even as we experienced the other day... 

Talking on FaceTime whilst boarding a plane, from the gate, right through till being seated and the doors closing on the aircraft.... What extra benefit is a visual call rather than an audio one in these circumstances... Discuss?

Now you have read this, it will heighten your 'senses' and for whatever reason you will notice this more and more on your daily travels.

We are not saying it's right or wrong? We are not saying it's unsafe or safe... 

I suppose we are looking at it from a 'user habits' point of view and wondering if this is an indicator of people wanting more. 

Usual stimulation in all aspects of their lives, or even as we have coined the phrase, don't look down at your phone, look up through it... this is where skignz as a 'behaviour' will change how we interatc with the world around us!

OK we used a bit of artistic licence in the last part, because on FaceTime you are not looking through your phone, you are still looking at it.

But and this is where we see the but...

The position of the phone is changed and it's not laid flat in your hand perpendicular to your body, but up, in front of your parallel with your body... 

In a more engaging with the world around you way. Not the insular, looking down at your phone (your feet) way which society now sees every day.

We are just throwing this out there, a little musing on something we have noticed more often recently. 

Have you? What do you think? Will FaceTime whilst walking catch on? Or is it pointless and a waste of your battery life when you can have the same conversation simply using Audio? or might we suggest its a precursor to the new world enhanced by skignz?

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels 

IFB2016: skignz Review's the 3 week showcase

Last month we let you know that skignz would be placing a whole environment around the International Festival for Business 2016 (IFB) as part of our continued partnership with the GREAT Campaign.

Well, we can now say that having completed our time there, it was a complete success. 

Our Head of Operations, Jamie Clarke, went on to say "IFB in Liverpool was a successful event for skignz, in the people we met, the connections we made and the feedback on the tech that we received" 

Jamie had the pleasure to meet with Lord Price, Head of UKTI, who was really impressed with skignz and how to make AR useful.

Our CMO, Si Brown was also in attendance, and was very well received when speaking on the Blue Skies stage on the opening day.  

The speech was followed up by lots of discussion and interest in skignz, and saw both of our intrepid explorers busy throughout the 3 week festival, fielding enquiries, building relationships for the future and discussing potential projects with partners.

The GREAT Showcase was extremely well received throughout the three weeks, with thousands of visitors able to view, try out and discuss all of the superb elements of the Innovation, design and export is GREAT areas.

IFB was an extremely positive event to be involved with, both in terms of the exposure skignz gained from it, and also the press which it rightly received. 

skignz was also in action at the closing dinner, which recognised all contributors to the event and celebrated GREAT British Innovation and Business.

For further information, either find us on Social Media or read more on this blog. If you want to get in touch please email us info@skignz.com

See a our Gallery of images below...