The TV check-in app IntoNow has teamed up with Pepsi to award TV viewers with a coupon for a free Pepsi Max. Beginning today, the first 50,000 users who tag the Pepsi Max commercial during MLB games will receive a coupon for a free 20-ounce bottle.
“This is the first time where consumers can close the funnel between a brand experience on a TV commercial right down to a real world drink you can consume,” says Adam Cahan CEO and Founder of IntoNow. “That’s a really exciting first that opens the doors for advertising partners.”
IntoNow is the first TV check-in app that listens your TV set, recognizes the audio signature and then tags whatever you’re watching — both live and on-demand programming. Your friends, by extension, see what you’re watching. And because it’s powered off audio recognition, it’s very difficult to “fake” that you’re watching something. That enables relationships like Pepsi Max, as users have to be playing the commercial to win.
IntoNow’s competition is Shazam, a music-recognition app that recently expanded into TV commercials. Viewers could tag an Old Navy commercial (above) — which was playing “an original song” — to unlock song downloads, style tips and other expanded content. This last weekend, we saw a Tide commercial with the same “Shazam now” icon on the screen.
For years, advertisers have envisioned a day when viewers could connect with commercials, offering valuable user data in exchange for coupons and prizes. But the complexities of the set-top box approach — too many of them — as well as the awkwardness of TV remotes have never brought that interactive TV dream to a mass audience. But “second screen” apps are showing real promise, especially if they offer tangible rewards for watching TV. Stay tuned…