Pride in London with Smirnoff

Last weekend we delivered skignz across SoHo and the surrounding areas in London, UK. This was for the PRIDE Parade and festival with over 1 million people attending. 

To say we had a good time is an understatement. On a more serious note though we were there to deliver skignz for Smirnoff. 

We delivered just under 50 different skignz across SoHo and a few at the after party at Vauxhall Park on the Sunday for PRIDE in the Park.

This activity was in association with PRIDE itself and sponsored by Smirnoff, who were wanted to make all the revellers aware of which bars/pubs and restaurants were not only a PRIDE Partner and PRIDE friendly venues but also ‘stocked Smirnoff’ ;-). 

As you can see from our gallery below, all the skignz were co branded as Smirnoff and Pride and in some places they were just PRIDE.

For those who downloaded the skignz app, they were averaging 90 secs using skignz and this averaged about every 35 mins. 

So skignz is delivering what it is intended to do - deliver relevant, interesting yet unobtrusive content as and when the user required.

We almost feel sorry for the those who didn’t get to download skignz for whatever reason.

It seems it significantly enhanced the whole festival experience for those who did!

Comments like:

“That’s mind blowing”

“Can I share my skignz to my twitter or Instagram account? [Yes of course]

“Why has no one done this before”

“Is it free and can I use it after PRIDE?”

“How does it work, because thats just incredible”

“Woah, so can you make each ‘sign’ [skignz] do something? [of course]

“Will skignz work at any festival?” [of course]

“So if I download it and set up an account, ask my friends to do it, we can find each other in the crowd? Thats Amazing and so helpful!”

“Thats genius!’

“Can a skignz be anything you want, like a badge or a picture? [yes of course]

Obviously as the day progressed and the party got in full swing, we focused more on ‘capturing’ the skignz in situ, whilst the festival was ramping up.

Please find below a gallery of images (taken using the skignz in app ‘capture feature’) showing skignz across SoHo and Trafalgar Square.

Our conclusion of the event was that it was simply awesome, skignz worked without a hitch and those that did download it, found it enormously helpful and used it as it was intended to by Smirnoff and PRIDE. 

We think the biggest learning from this is that the more people who are encouraged to use skignz, the better the experience at live events.

If you would like to know anything more about Smirnoff and their other activities across the globe this summer then please take look here:

http://investors.livenationentertainment.com/news-center/news-center-details/2015/Smirnoff-Celebrates-Music-For-Everyone-Named-Official-Vodka-Sponsor/default.aspx

PRIDE is a non-profit organisation and has different events throughout the year and especially if you want to get involved next year in the festival and even the parade through London, then please visit: 

As always if you want to know more about skignz, please check out our new website www.skignz.com and the usual social media channels.

Pride in London with Smirnoff & skignz Gallery:

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Featured in Skift Article on how AR will Impact Meetings & Events

It was great to be featured in this great article on skift - we have been showing the world how AR can have a huge impact on meetings and events for a few years now.

We were extremely pleased to be acknowledged in this insightful article.

skignz has been involved in some major events across the UK and various other locations across the globe, where the use of the skignz technology has had a magnificent effect bringing a huge amount of excitement to many events.


You can find more details on the below events we have helped to enhance below through using the skignz AR Platform:

• Goodwood Festival of Speed (Goodwood, UK)
• The STA Awards (London, UK)
• 2016 Olympic Games (Rio de Janeiro Brazil)
• SXSW (Austin, US)
• Choose:ATL (Texas, US)
• Pride (London, UK)
• 2014 Commonwealth Games (Glasgow, UK)
• Pride (Atlanta, US)

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

skignz: #Glasto2015

Although skignz were not present at this years Glastonbury Festival, we had  number of friends and family attending, so to help them out and to further test the skignz technology, we ‘skignzed’ #Glasto2015.

This involved placing a range of skignz in different channels across the Glastonbury site. 

Channels included:

• Stages
• Toilets
• Water Points (Drinking)
• Emergency Contacts
• Entrances/Exits
• Bars
• Food & Drink 

Please see below examples of what those skignz looked like and who they could help this years festival goers….

Like our other main project activation the same weekend for 'PRIDE in London', we managed to understand a lot more about behavioural patterns of the users, channel content and make further suggestions of how skignz can improve for future events.

Again the activity was very similar to 'PRIDE in London' in as much as those that used skignz, found it extremely helpful and used it regularly throughout the weekend. People who downloaded and used skignz, did so for on average 1.5mins every 30mins or so, using as and when it was relevant to them.

So with Approx 175,000 people attending Glastonbury this year, next year obviously provides any brand with an engaged audience for them to ‘positively enhance their experience’ and build awareness for their brand.

People don’t want to be sold too or bombarded with ads, they are far more sophisticated in their approach these days and brands need to engage them in a new, innovative and meaningful way if they are to have any long term resonance with their brand. 

A further benefits for brands engaging with skignz and activating for live events is that once people have skignz, they can then use it at other locations anywhere int he world, allowing brands to inform them of ‘brand activity’ in other locations, not just major live events but also in everyday life. 

Worth thinking about for you brand managers that are currently looking at how to engage your audiences in a more meaningful and innovative way.

If you would like to know more about Glastonbury and how you might be able to attend next year then please visit their website: www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

As always if you want to know more about skignz, please check out our new website www.skignz.com and the usual social media channels

Review of 2015

2015 proved to be an award winning and interesting time for skignz, as well as externally, in the world of AR.

The landscape of AR changed quite significantly throughout 2015, as either acquisitions, or investments were made, reducing the number of companies in the market. Blippar invested heavily (increasing their worth to circa £1.4b) whilst also acquiring their biggest rival, Layar.

Other companies such as Apple acquired Metaio and Google invested even further ($542m) into MagicLeap.  

Other companies apps were not renewed and many digital/ad/creative agencies had to look for other ways to offer their client AR experiences, with Junaio being acquired and stopping its SDK for others to use. In addition, INTEL acquired RECON.

Also across the wider market, Apple introduced the ability to be able to open one app from another, something that was not previously available on the iTunes App store.

We know that skignz are focussed on AR, however VR's emergence over the past few months made some waves, with more progress from Occults Rift and even Facebook. Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, quoting our own Co-founder & CMO Si Brown, stated that "Why look at your phone, when you can look through it!". 

Other VR progress was made in line with the huge interest in the technology. The first Oculus Rift Headsets were due to be shipped in the final quarter of 2015.

Moving on to skignz, the biggest difference you will have seen is the aesthetics of the skignz website and the skignz app. Considerable time was spent in developing 'version 2.0' for IOS with Android being currently finalised. 

In addition to the new look and feel, skignz were present at many outdoor events such as PRIDE LDN, Glastonbury, EDC & Leeds Festival. 

The feedback on the tech and also the performance exceeded even our high expectations.

Another key milestone was the development and introduction of the 'ARtAbove' channel, allowing ANY Artist, ANYWHERE in the World to place their own Art ANYWHERE they want, essentially making the whole world a gallery. 

This was developed in conjunction with artist Martin McCloon and was even showcased at Disgraceland (Banksy's Installation in Weston Super-mare), actually subverting the subversive.

2015 was an award winning year for skignz as they were voted as 'The UK's Most Disruptive Tech Startup' by Ignite, 'TechAwards NE', 'Thinking Digital' and the 'Marketing Award' at the BNBA'15. 2016 has already started with a bang, with skignz being shortlisted again in the BNBA'16 and last week coming Runner up in KPMG's 'Best British Mobile Startup'.

skignz increased their team with key additions of Jamie Clarke (Head of DV Partnerships) and David Murphy (Head of Sports Partnerships) both settling in quickly and hitting the ground running across the many conferences and events in the final quarter of the year.

In the final weeks of the year skignz launched their #skignzsanta experience, which allowed parents to follow the 12 days lead up to Christmas eve whilst learning each day how to set up their own personalised #skignzsanta. 

Parents placed two skignz outside their homes so when Santa was close (following on the NORAD or Google Santa websites) parents could show 'Santa' flying past through their magic santa camera Smartphone or tablet.

Initially they saw what looked like Santa in his sleigh being led away by his reindeers, then parents 'panned across the sky' to reveal a special 'personalised note' to their child(ren), telling them he can only deliver when they are fast asleep. 

The hundreds of people who did this across the globe said their children were simply ‘blown away’ by the experience, and getting them to sleep was a lot easier than normal! 

We will be looking into doing a similar thing for Christmas 2016 but we have a lot of other interesting and exciting 'skignz' projects to deliver before then...

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

2015: The Year of the skignz ;-)

After a great and successful 2014, skignz now looks to what we have to aim for in the first half of 2015. Through a lot of opportunities being provided in 2014 for skignz.

January has already begun at a hectic pace. Setting us up ready to embark and progress onto fulfilling those opportunities, plus more when they come along.

We decided to have a small outlook on what the first half of 2015 will bring us and hopefully be able to fulfil our New Year’s resolutions! 

The very beginning of 2015 sees skignz with a new intern who has applied to gain some work experience alongside studying at Teesside University to help their career get started. 

Jeff Bramfitt is a Digital & Graphic Designer who recently completed his studies at Teesside University and was looking for some invaluable work experience to enhance his skills and help take the next steps in his career. This is also an interesting experience for skignz as we love taking on new members and getting fresh ideas and minds to the company. 

Also in the first month of 2015 we have continued working on a project, but not one we can divulge at this moment but more of that when we can! However the project will be big and very exciting and we hope to share some examples of the fantastic work we will have embarked upon over the coming months. 

The first quarter of 2015 has so far began in earnest with follow up on all the opportunities skignz was presented with in last year. Such as our visit to Boston, MA to develop relationships with a number of global brands and some truly awesome people. 

Attending Most Contagious in London, allowed skignz to meet a lot of companies and brands from around the world and quite a few were very interested in the skignz technology and looking at how they can work with us going forward.

The few months will also see skignz developing more relationships and projects with companies across Europe & The Middle East, whilst we increase our activity in the US both on the East & West coasts from our office in Las Vegas, NV. 

Moving onto the subject of offices, we will be announcing soon our new offices and later in the summer we are aiming to open one more office somewhere within the UK.

As the projects start to increase we will be requiring more staff to join skignz as we will aim to keep the quality of service at a very high level, but we aim to continue our significant work on R&D. 

We pride ourselves in always offering a range of opportunities at skignz for Internships & Work Experience. 

We love nothing more than people who are really keen to learn and want to make progress in their careers being able to come and join the skignz team just like our latest intern has last month. 

We are actively looking for new people to join our expanding team. So if you, or someone you know might be interested, then please get in touch.

We have an incredible amount of activity planned for 2015 and having already presented/pitched four different global brands in January alone, above are just a few of the New Year’s resolutions we hope to keep within the first half of 2015. Wish us luck and keep an eye out to see if we fulfil these and for further announcements on our client and projects wins.

Happy New Year to everyone! lets make 2015 the year of the skignz ;-)

If you would like to know more about skignz then please visit our website at http://www.skignz.com and don't forget to check us out on a range of the popular Social Media Channels.

Thankyou to Rio

Many of you will have seen across our social media channels this summer, skignz have been extremely active across Rio for the Olympic games.

Based at the beautiful Parque Lage at the foot of the mountain that Christ the Redeemer stands. 

The Parque Lage is a 1920's former house of an industrialist, set in the Jardim Botanico and this is where UK Government PLC had their HQ for the World Cup in 2014 and again for the Olympics.

Between the Prime Minister's office, The Mayor of London and Team GB who hosted a wide and varied schedule for events across sport, business and culture was choreographed for the entire Olympic games.

The dynamic of each of these very different sectors was certainly interesting and engaging and provided skignz with an ideal audience to showcase our technology, as well as being involved day to in the various events.

skignz provided the guests with a range of channels of content all with very different focus. A lot of the House contributors and sponsors came from some of the UK's best examples of manufacturing, technology, sport and the other key sectors. The whole environment was one of celebrations as TEAM GB began their most successful medal haul ever.

As part of the celebrations, our medal-winning athletes were treated to a 'special welcome' by the guests and hosts each evening, with a full presentation to the audience and a quick Q&A by the awesome Andy. 

British House Rio (its official title) was a great meeting place for the athletes nearest & dearest, who mixed with ministers, ambassadors, visiting dignitaries and all the varied event guests who were invited to come along. 

Even the many members of the awesome British Airways Crew who were transporting Team GB back were enjoying meeting the athletes and their families alongside the enigmatic Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP of spoke at one of the conferences.

Wall to wall with famous athletes, legends such as Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent, through to current medal winners Sir Bradley Wiggins, Laura Trott and her now husband Jason Kenny. Also a fresh new wave of British stars, some winning their first medals enjoyed celebrating the on-going success of TEAM GB.

All in all we could write a whole book on skignz exploits and experience in Rio, but we still don't feel we could do it justice. It was an incredible opportunity to showcase what is GREAT about Britain, centred on an incredible location and global event. The memories will live long, but the most important thing is that skignz was again exposed to so many wide and wonderful audiences that we couldn't have dreamed possible even 12 months ago.

We think as much as the athletes and their families and all those attending the Olympics take away their own memories, it's the opportunity just to be among the people in the British House and the opportunity to tell them what we are trying to achieve with skignz that was as much a privilege for us as it was to those athletes competing.

Si Brown said: "I would like to thank each and everyone of the people we met in Rio and for taking the time to hear about skignz and see it in action. 

Many of you have had a profound effect on what skignz can become with your suggestions, ideas, thoughts and advice.  Although we didn't compete in the Olympics, we feel we represented our country with the same pride and passion and a big thanks to the teams from No.10, UKTI, British Embassy & Consulates, Innovision, TEAM GB and any others I've failed to recall. Thank you, it’s been emotional!"

At this time is difficult to assess the impact Rio has had on skignz and it may take weeks/months before we do, although we have already started to see a few successes from the trip which we will hopefully keep you up to date on as and when we can. 

With a number of other global sporting events coming up over the next few years, hopefully skignz can be involved, but we still feel it may be difficult to exceed the experience of Rio 2016, although given the opportunity I'm sure we will try.

Please take a look below at a selection of images from Rio...

To find out more about skignz, please visit our relaunched website or take a look on the usual Social Media Channels.