In just a few days, Super Bowl XLVIII will kick off to put the final stamp on another wild NFL season. Assuming Mother Nature doesn’t play spoiler, the Super Bowl will take place outdoors in a cold-weather city for the first time in the NFL’s history. Back in May 2010 when New York City earned the bid to host this year’s spectacle, some fans were surprised and asked ‘Why there?’ In response, the New York Giants’ co-owner John Mara said, “Let’s face it, there’s only one New York City.” For an event that thrives on fan engagement and technology, it seems only right that NYC does the honors.
The City is home to a wide variety of tech startups that range from a crowdfunding marketplace (Kickstarter) to a site that helps people sign up for doctor’s appointments (ZocDoc). With the Super Bowl in their backyard, there may not be a better way for some of these startups to boost consumer’s awareness and gain some valuable recognition. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up four tech startups housed in NYC that could join forces with the Super Bowl and enhance the experience for its fans and sponsors.
Fancy Hands
Up and running since 2010, Fancy Hands is an app that provides its users with a virtual network of personal assistants. For a monthly or annual membership, its users have access to a massive roster of real assistants that are willing and able to handle basic tasks via the Internet. Need to book a last minute hotel, but don’t have the time to compare prices? Curious which nearby pizza place has the best deals? Look no further.
For Super Bowl XLVIII, Fancy Hands could make quite the splash and save its users from unwanted headaches. For example, a fan at the game who’s visiting NYC for the first time may not have the slightest clue where to eat afterwards. As this list proves, a simple request to reserve a table at a restaurant in East Village is perfectly reasonable.
Whether a fan is at the game or watching it on TV, Fancy Hands has the tools to handle a user’s tasks while they keep their focus on more important details.
Olapic
Last December, Oxford Dictionary declared “selfie” as its Word of the Year in 2013. To receive that sort of recognition, it must have been used quite a bit. In fact, according to Oxford’s editors, the use of the word has skyrocketed by 17,000% within the past year alone. With that sort of growth and prevalence within today’s society, what if retailers could monetize its value? Well, a startup by the name of Olapic claims to be able to do just that.
As stated by Lydia Dishman, a Forbes.com contributor specializing in fashion and e-commerce, “Olapic’s software pulls shots of its client’s products as seen on real people by using hashtags to search, source, and then integrate them into e-commerce sites.” In other words, Olapic repurposes user-generated content from Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and uploads it onto its client’s site to increase conversion at the point of sale. In a sense, Olapic helps its clients monetize the “selfie.”
It’s a safe bet that millions of people will be decked out in their team’s apparel or their own favorite outfits in an effort to stand out at the Super Bowl and its after-parties. With clients such as Chico’s, Coach, and New Balance, Olapic’s ability to capitalize on this enormous amount of retail exposure could prove extremely valuable to its clients as they continue searching for methods to increase online transactions.
Viggle
Since the past four Super Bowls have each attracted north of 100 million TV viewers, it’s probably safe to assume that this Sunday’s contest will keep the pattern alive. With such an enormous amount of public attention, the NFL and its stakeholders are continually searching for new ways to engage with their fans. Thankfully, an app by the name of Viggle may be just the tool they need.
Essentially, Viggle operates in a similar fashion to Foursquare (another startup from NYC) by allowing its users to earn points for “checking-in” with what they’re watching on TV. From there, they can trade-in those points for a variety of rewards. For the Super Bowl specifically, users can earn points for every minute they’re watching the game and earn bonus points by engaging with friends and “checking-in” with a sponsor’s Super Bowl commercial.
However, the most intriguing aspect of this app (and where the NFL could really drive fan engagement) may be Viggle Live. This extension provides users with quizzes, polls, and trivia about the game in real-time, and every correct answer earns a user bonus points. Additionally, those fans hoping for one more shot at fantasy football glory are in luck. Viggle has its own fantasy sports game that lets fans choose a squad of players and earn points every time one of their players scores. Sounds familiar, right?
When all is said and done, these points can be redeemed for electronics, trips, gift cards, and even a variety of sweepstakes. Although the window of opportunity is certainly closed for this season’s game, it may be wise for the NFL to look into partnering with some of these reward packages with next season’s Super Bowl sponsors.
Cameo
For those fortunate enough to spend this Sunday evening inside Metlife Stadium, there’s a filmmaking app that will allow them to capture and preserve their unforgettable experience in a fresh new way. Cameo, founded by Matthew Rosenberg, is an app that takes the video capturing techniques of Vine and fuses them with the video editing capabilities of iMovie. Although only available on iOS, users can capture video clips in 720p, re-arrange their clips, and then add music either from their iPhone or from Cameo’s own internal music database. Additionally, Cameo comes equipped with a wide assortment of video effects, and users can retrieve video clips shot by their friends and merge them into their own movie.
Although Cameo is not the first-mover in the world of mobile video editing, its proprietary cloud-based technology brings a dimension of real-time editing that users haven’t seen from other apps such as Viddy, Ptch, and Qwiki. In short, whenever a user captures a video clip, Cameo instantly uploads the content to its cloud server where it’s processed and rendered. By doing so, users can immediately begin manipulating their video before uploading it onto social media.
With a spectacle as dynamic as the Super Bowl, it’s important fans are able to preserve their memories in a unique way. Providing fans with the chance to seamlessly create brilliant short films from clips of touchdown passes and celebrations is a surefire way to ensure they have that ability. As Matthew Rosenberg said, “A Cameo is much more memorable than a sequence of photos of a trip, or a couple Instagram videos cropped square, yet it’s instantly more accessible.”