Spontly Blog

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[spontly]

Press Release - Castleford Tigers embrace fan engagement!

Castleford Tigers RLFC has teamed up with digital company Spontly to launch a new fan engagement app to produce a new interactive experience for fans.

Spontly and the Tigers have created the Castleford Tigers mobile app which enables fans to take photos and post commentary during a match which will be available instantly within the app and online.

The app is available for free on both iOS and Android devices and allows fans within The Mend-A-Hose Jungle and around the World to share every moment of the club’s First Utility Super League and Tetley’s Challenge Cup action.

Fans will also be able to keep up-to-date with the latest Tigers news in the app, while offers and discounts will be sent directly to users to claim on matchday.

The app will also offer the best behind-the-scenes coverage at Tigers matches.

Castleford Tigers Media Manager, Brett Cullen said: "We’re very excited to launch the Tigers’ first mobile app which allows fans to become more engaged with each other and the club at our matches.

“In an effort to improve the overall experience for fans both on the field and off it, we’ve been looking at adding mobile apps for some time and the Spontly platform is a great addition to our digital strategy of engaging with fans.

“The app allows us interact directly with our fans and opens up many new and exciting ideas to help us provide fans with a top class match day experience.

“It also has extra benefits for a wide range of off-field events held at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle and within the community which is something we look forward to exploring further.”

“The fact that Spontly were able to deliver the app for us in just two weeks is testament to their hard work and dedication to creating something which we hope fans will enjoy.

Jim Mann, CEO of Spontly said: "Our technology enables fans to interact with the club both on and off the pitch, engaging the Tigers’ community and broadcasting voices that would have previously remained on the terraces.

"It is a real privilege to be working with Castleford Tigers; they are a really friendly club and have very much embraced the concept and we are excited to see the extent to which our interactive application will have on the growth of the club over the coming seasons."

The Castleford Tigers app will be launched officially at the club’s match at Hull KR on Friday 28th February but is already available in the app stores and has had nearly 1000 downloads in the first five days.

The App is available free of charge for both iOS and Android mobile devices from the iTunes and Google App stores respectively.

[spontly]

Hey Mom, I saw you on Facebook last night, you had your pants round your neck.........

Hey Mom, I saw you on Facebook last night, you had your pants round your neck and you were dancing with some guy that definitely wasn't Dad. 

Hey Nan, I saw you on Facebook last night, you had your pants round your neck and you were dancing ....

You see where I'm going with this?

No one wants to see this. No one wants to read about this. When I say "no one", of course I mean no self-respecting teen with street cred shedding like hair from a molting dog wants to see this on his News Feed. He doesn't want to see it, he doesn't want his friends to see it. Let's face it, Generation Y have been brought up in the age of technology. They're largely geeks who are shunned by their peers if they spend more than 2 hours a day outside the sphere of the new world - the Kingdom of Online. They don't go outside, they don't use words, they can't text without using abreviations - even for already short words like "you" (u) and "are" (r). We live in a world where three letter words are far too time consuming to bother with and human interaction is a thing of the past. We are in the glorious age of staying indoors, alone. So whilst our "youth", our black-eyed EMO, hoodie-wearing, directionless youth, can't accept there may be a life outside the virtual world, they just can't accept that their parents had to make physical contact to "create life"! So seeing their mother / father / grandmother cavorting on Facebook is simply not acceptable. It's cringeworthy. Obvs. More than that though; more than it being unacceptable; more than it being embarassing; more than it reducing their street cred to less than that of a garden gnat, more than any of this. OMG, it's simply just not cool. 

Having your parents, any of your family, being able to keep tabs on you and your online persona is just not cool. And you know what else isn't cool, pictures of your dinner. And status updates. And sharing a picture of a potato for no reason. Or helping a primary school teacher show her class of 8 year olds how quickly a photo posted online can spread around the world.

Whilst it's trying it's hardest to be non-conformist, to break the mold, to push the boundaries, Facebook is failing to engage its target audience. More and more over-40s are creating a Facebook account and using it to keep in touch with friends, colleagues... and their kids. Whilst 93% of social media users have a Facebook account, many of them don't check it. 61% of users proport to go several weeks between visits whilst these same users check Twitter several times a day. The shocking truth is that the Y Generation are leaving Facebook at a faster rate than any other social sector.  The long and short of it is It's just not cool for the kids anymore and more and more of Generation Y are turning to alternative social media. A picture paints a thousand words, they say. Less is more, they say. Apps like Snapchat and Whatsapp, apps that we've never even heard of yet (for that is the reason they're still cool let's face it) are dragging our kids in their droves away from what is now perceived as conventional and conformist and in an ironic twist of fate we watch idly by, fingers hovering over keyboards in readiness to update our statuses, as we try to understand why our sullen children, the future of tomorrow, the digi-savvi Facebook generation are shunning their roots, their heritage, and in a  modern-day metaphor are flying their virtual nests in search of a cooler tomorrow.

The question remains will one of the new media be able to displace the existing status quo companies or will the likes of facebook  continue to evolve into a utility as the space matures? What is without doubt is that its interesting times as lots of new social channels evolve.

[spontly]

When Old Meets New: Pocket Pubs Cambridge finds the perfect pair with the CAMRA Beer Festival & Spontly

What happens when old meets new? When the traditional and familiar meets modern innovation? 

Sometimes the two clash, and sometimes there’s a spark of brilliance and excitement, and that’s precisely what happened when leading Cambridge Pub guide, Pocket Pubs Cambridge, connected the UK’s longest-running beer festival, the CAMRA Beer Festival, with one of the UK’s most innovative start-ups: Spontly.

Throughout the festival, which runs from Monday 20th May ‘til Saturday 25th, visitors and beer-tasters will be encouraged to download the free Spontly app and share their photos and comments from around the festival to the event’s live content stream, so other attendees can view and interact with the activities going on at all the other venues.

Now in its 40th year, the CAMRA Beer Festival has always proved a major event in the local festival calendar. With the addition of Spontly, thanks to Pocket Pubs Cambridge, visitors will be able to instantly share their images and interactions with other attendees and non-attendees, as photos and comments and instantly uploaded to the in-app stream and the festival website. 

Over the 6 days of the festival expect to see some fantastic images and content as visitors capture the atmosphere and events from wherever they are, sharing their personal perspectives with the live stream, and interacting with other attendees in the various venues. 

Are you going to the CAMRA Beer Festival? Join in the fun by downloading the Spontly app from the app store and subscribe to the festival event stream to live-share your images and interact with other visitors’ content from all the venues, from the palm of your hand. Monday 20th May sees the return of the CAMRA Beer Festival, one of the longest running beer festivals in the UK. 

Now in its 40th year, the CAMRA festival, in association with Pocket Pubs Cambridge, is adopting Spontly’s brand new spontaneous sharing technology, to increase the social presence and on-going interaction with the festival.

With the Spontly app, festival goers can able to see, share, and interact with, everything that is happening across the various festival venues and sampling areas. 

Images are instantly shared to the festival’s live content stream within the app and on the  Poocket pub website for easy viewing and sharing.

LINKS

www.cambridebeerfestival.com

http://www.pocketpubs.co.uk/ 

www.spontly.com

[spontly]

Tom Cheesewright and Chris Warburton discussed Spontly on BBC 5's 'Let's Talk About Tech' radio show.

[spontly]

Check out our redesigned website and let us know what you think. Be sure to check out the full streams of Jim & Pat's adventures at Disrupt New York 2013.

[spontly]

Spontly at Disrupt NY - Photoset 2

Interest in Spontly has been great at Disrupt NY 2013!

[spontly]

Tech start-up hopes to impress in the US

We had an article written about our trip to Disrupt NY 2013 in bdaily, the site for business news.

[spontly]

Being Spontaneous with Spontly

We made friends with Magisto during Disrupt NY 2013. Have a look at the video they made of us!

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Spontly at Disrupt NY - Photoset 1

So many great ideas and interesting people at Disrupt NY 2013. Here are a few pictures of our adventures, with more to come!

[spontly]

Shout out to fellow North East Englanders @Betarocket for writing about Spontly's trip to Disrupt NY 2013.

[spontly]

We <3 New York

Spontly is currently stateside for the Disrupt NY 2013 tech conference. Our mission objectives are pointing out that crisps aren’t the same as chips, announcing the release of the new Spontly app and meeting new people.

There isn't much time for sightseeing in the Big Apple though. Much of Jim & Pat’s time is being spent at the Manhattan Center, participating in startup alley to show off their innovative Spontly app, or chatting to investors and fellow entrepreneurs. 

[spontly]

Jim & Patrick's photoshoot for Disrupt NY 2013

We were all amazed that it didn't raining.

[spontly]

Disrupt The System - Press Release

Newcastle-upon-Tyne tech start-up, Spontly, are heading Stateside to show their instant content hub and sharing app on start-up alley at the Disrupt NY 2013 Tech Conference.

Doug Scott, one of the lead investors in Spontly and founder of DiscountVouchers.co.uk, says "Disrupt has been the launch pad for many successful tech start-ups such as Voxy & Postwire. I'm certain Spontly has the right mix of product, market opportunity, team and ambition to emulate these great success stories".

Spontly’s content hub gives businesses  an interactive and exciting place to create and share content, inspiring brand ambassadors that drive cost effective, relevant and engaged website traffic. The embedded content hub and sharing app is provided to businesses on a Software as a Service model.

Spontly launched the beta version of their product to the market just three months ago, and have already secured clients worth over $100,000 per annum; success that is set to continue with the launch of their full iOS app in a few weeks.

Jim Mann, Spontly CEO says:

"These are exciting times for Spontly as we are about to launch the first full-featured version of our iOS app and we are really excited about the prospect of Disrupt 2013. We believe Spontly has the potential to revolutionize how consumers engage with the brands they advocate. Consumer-created content is increasingly valuable, and Spontly offers a fun, exciting and interactive way for users to shout about the brands they love".

The UK tech start-up scene is growing, and investors are buzzing with belief that Spontly could be the next big thing.