Your Phone is Your Controller

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

We haven’t seen or heard anything from MegaPhone for some time – though we believe they may have in fact supplied the technology behind a couple of the interactive phone stories we have written about recently. The last time we openly discussed and wrote about them was back in April 2008 and before that in November 2007 so it’s good to see that they are still around and doing truly innovative things.

Revelers on New Year’s Eve in Times Square, New York would have been among the first to get to see and play with MegaPhone’s multiplayer cellphone controlled game on the Bank of America’s marquee outdoor screen at the corner of 46th and Broadway.

The game is a football trivia challenge as the Bank of America is the Official Bank of the NFL.

Joining the game is simple we are told, we haven’t tried it yet but will definitely be getting our man in New York to have a go and let us know what he thinks, viewers use their cell / mobile to call a phone number displayed on screen, and then use their keupads to answer trivia questions. Up to 500 players can join the game and everyone can compete in real time.

The interaction is of course powered by the MegaPhone service platform and it allows callers to answer questions in less than half a second/

A “Quickdraw” leaderboard tracks who answered each question the fastest, and a scoreboard shows the winner of each round.

The catch if you like to all this fun is a bit of advertising at the end of the ‘experience’ – all callers receive an SMS text message with sign up information and a web link for Bank of America NFL Checking and Extra Points credit cards.

MegaPhone worked with Organic Inc, Bank of America’s digital and interactive agency on the project.

About

Play MegaPhone Inc. is a Manhattan based out of home media gaming company. The MegaPhone platform allows viewers to control games and applications on any screen using a simple phone call. By pressing buttons on their keypad, or yelling into their phone, callers can interact with a variety of branded applications on screen, realizing MegaPhone’s mission of “Making Digital Signage Interactive.”

The MegaPhone platform provides unparalleled levels of engagment, tracking, and access to the mobile channel through SMS, MMS, and downloadable mobile content. Clients include adidas, MTV, Microsoft, Dell, Vodafone, Product RED, Bank of America, and LG.


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