Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award: SmartThings

€100,000 prize awarded on main stage at the Web Summit

Yesterday, Thursday 18th October, Electric Ireland announced that SmartThings are The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award Winner 2012 at the Dublin Web Summit. SmartThings is the recipient of the Spark of Genius €100,000 prize.

With over 1,000 startups competing in The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Competition, SmartThings battled with 3 other finalists, pitching to a panel of international investors and industry heavyweights in front of a full audience on the main stage at The Web Summit yesterday.

SmartThings makes it easy to connect the things in your physical world to the internet via your smartphone.  Using SmartThings you can control your air conditioning, lock your doors or get an alert when things go wrong. 

Speaking at the announcement, Margaret Colton, Head of Marketing, Electric Ireland, said, "We are delighted to present the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award to SmartThings. At Electric Ireland, we are committed to powering the innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit that is inherent in start-up companies. We wish SmartThings all the best of luck and congratulate the team.”

Dublin Web Summit Founder Paddy Cosgrave said, “SmartThings is a well deserved winner of this year’s Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award. This competition is an incredible platform for startups to pitch to the world’s top investors and media and we are delighted the winner was announced at the Web Summit, one of Europe’s biggest tech events. On the back of winning the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Award in 2011, Redeem & Get have enjoyed huge success with a launch to a global audience”.

“The Web Summit is committed to helping emerging technology companies get off the ground. As well as the Electric Ireland Spark of Genius final, we have also showcased 260 leading technology start-ups from Ireland and abroad at the Web Summit. The last two days have been an amazing opportunity for emerging companies to showcase their products to some of Europe’s leading technology figure”, added Cosgrave.

The Electric Ireland Spark of Genius Competition, now in its third year, focused on the most promising high potential Irish startups. 1,000 initial entries were shortlisted to a top 100, who then pitched from one of four separate stages – social, mobile, consumer and enterprise- to leading international investors (Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Atomico, Accel and many others), industry leaders, startup experts at the Dublin Web Summit. From these 100 finalists, four finalists were chosen for a final stage of judging before SmartThings was announced as the final winner.

Overall winners SmartThings were presented with a €100K prize fund supported by Electric Ireland, Mason, Hayes & Curran, Microsoft Bizspark, KPMG, Cawley Nea, Getty Images, PCH International and HT Meagher O’Reilly.

Electric Ireland Tweethunt

Next Tuesday, 14th August, Electric Ireland will announce their activity for Electric Picnic 2012. The announcement will include news about a very special guest. Building on their success from last year’s Tweethunt, Electric Ireland have decided to again give fans the chance to win tickets to Electric Picnic.

Starting Monday 13th and running until Friday 17th August, one fan each day will win four tickets to Electric Picnic – that’s five days, five winners and four tickets each!

Again the competition will be run through the Electric Ireland Facebook page using a custom app. First, however, fans have to tweet the Share the Energy hashtag (#SharetheEnergy). Then live on the Tweethunt map on the Electric Ireland Facebook competition app the location of the daily codeword location will start to be to revealed. This works through a map display. The more times #SharetheEnergy is tweeted, the closer the map zooms in on the daily codeword location.

Participants then need to make their way to the actual location where the codeword will be revealed on anything or anyone. Once it is spotted it just needs to be sent, via a Twitter DM, to @ElectricIreland. The first person to do so wins the four Electric Picnic Tickets.

I'll have more info on Tuesday so stay tuned.

Three Expands Free Bitbuzz Wi-Fi To All Smartphones

Pippa O’Connor revealing Ireland’s biggest Wi-Fi hotspots this spring

Today, Three announced that they will be expanding their partnership with Bitbuzz to provide free Wi-Fi to all their Smartphone customers. Since July 2010, all Three’s iPhone customers have been able to avail of free Wi-Fi through Bitbuzz, but today's news means that Three’s Android users can also avail of Bitbuzz Wi-Fi. The agreement marks the most significant data offload deal to-date in Ireland.

Elaine Carey, Sales and Marketing Director at Three commented: “Three are delighted to expand our partnership with Bitbuzz, offering free Wi-Fi connectivity to all our smartphone customers. Three is committed to leading the smartphone marketplace forward and see this enhanced offering as not only offering our customers more choice but also continuing to deliver on this promise.”

“Following our success with the initial offering for iPhones, we are confident that the demand for free Wi-Fi will increase with our expansion across Three’s other smartphone customers,” said Shane Deasy, Managing Director, Bitbuzz. “It is very clear that Three has a real belief in Wi-Fi, and this agreement underscores that. It is also a fact that handhelds are a significant force in the explosion in demand for Wi-Fi.”

The partnership, which features hotspots nationwide, including all Three’s thirty retail stores, is open to both Three prepay and bill pay customers. This also means that on top of Three’s iPhone Bitbuzz Wi-Fi App, Three will now also offer a Bitbuzz App in the Android Marketplace. Both these developments represent a significant strengthening of the strategic partnership between Three Ireland and Bitbuzz.

Click here for a full list of Bitbuzz hotspots in the Republic of Ireland.

ESB Electric Ireland Electric Picnic Tweet Hunt

Last Wednesday I wrote about The ESB Electric Ireland Park at Electric Picnic. Beyond being the Official Energy Partner to Electric Picnic, ESB Electric Ireland are also running an energy generating adult playground full of over-sized playground favourites. The twist is that each of the playground items contributes to generating power to help charge participants' phones while they have fun. The playground will also be supported by a host of Ireland's top comedians who will be charged with generating as big a crowd of participants as possible.

This weekend I found out about ESB Electric Ireland's upcoming competition to promote its Electric Picnic partnership.

From Monday, ESB Electric Ireland will be giving away 25 tickets in Europe's first real time treasure hunt using Google Maps and Social Media. The #ShareTheEnergy Tweet Hunt, which is being run through Electric Ireland Facebook Page, gives would be festival-goers the chance to win tickets to Electric Picnic using a Facebook App with a Live Google Map that combines a live Twitter feed to reveal five secret locations around Ireland where tickets are hidden. The Tweet Hunt begins on Monday 22nd August at 9am and ends on Friday 26th August, with one lucky person having the chance to win five tickets to Electric Picnic each day.

To find the secret locations, participants need to tweet #Sharetheenergy. The more the hashtag is tweeted, the closer the map zooms in to where the tickets are hidden. Then, a special code word is revealed along with the exact details of the secret location where the Electric Ireland Sparkheads are waiting with the tickets. After that the first person to find the Sparkhead, and tell them the daily code word will receive five tickets to Electric Picnic.

Ken McKervey, Commercial Manager, ESB Electric Ireland commented, “The ESB Electric Ireland Tweet Hunt is a new addition to our Electric Picnic sponsorship this year. Tickets are like gold dust and we hope would be festival-goers will enjoy this innovative competition using social media channels in a fun and unique way to try to win tickets to this fantastic festival.”

For more info on the campaign or any other details of ESB Electric Ireland's Electric Picnic activities, pop over to the ESB Electric Ireland Facebook Page.

Additional information about the ESB Electric Ireland Tweet Hunt:

• The innovative Facebook App and social media mash-up was developed by Tequila Ireland and Agency.com.
• The App features a live Twitter feed so users can check the tweets to the hashtag and see the 13 zoom levels as each is revealed.
• The Facebook page will show pictures of the winner each day and announce the race for that day is over with the next day’s Twitter Hunt commencing at 9am.
• The Twitter Hunt is open to residents of the Republic of Ireland aged over 18.

Budweiser Ice Cold Index

The hotter the day the less you pay for your pint of Budweiser Ice Cold all summer...

Today sees the launch of Budweiser Ice Cold's latest marketing campaign, the Budweiser Ice Cold Index. The campaign is driven by the Budweiser Ice Cold Index mobile application (available on both iPhone and Android) and aims to create an unmissable summer experience by matching real Irish temperatures to real discounts off the price of your pint. Essentially, the hotter day the less you pay for a pint of Budweiser Ice Cold.

The Budweiser Ice Cold Index App gives these discounts directly through your handset. On days the temperature reaches 20°C and over, you'll enjoy a free pint, if it's 18°C or 19°C you'll get €2 off, and if it's 16°C or 17°C you'll get €1 off. There are a huge number of participating 'Index bars' and you can check the app for daily offers too. The App will allow you to get offers right up until 31st August and to celebrate the launch of Index everyone who downloads the App will enjoy their first pint of Budweiser Ice Cold free, regardless of the weather!

The App also boosts a pub finder to help you locate a nearby participating Index pub and other great features including bar reviews and special rewards for loyal Budweiser Ice Cold drinkers. The App is free and can be downloaded on most smart phones but for all other phones you can free text the word ‘INDEX’ to 50400.

To kick off the Index summer in style, Budweiser Ice Cold have also created a free pop up urban beach experience in Dublin City Centre. At lunchtime today an actual beach appeared at George’s Dock, IFSC. The pop up beach included deck chairs, a hog on a spit, an ice-cream van, a live acoustic performance by Sligo band Túcan and the Irish volleyball team even dropped by for an exhibition match.

Moon man Ken Ring, New Zealand’s famous weather predictor and astrologer, has shared his predictions for the Budweiser Ice Cold Index summer ahead and it seems that Munster and Leinster will be hotting up this summer enjoying more than 30 days from 1st May to 31st August of 20°C temperatures or over. Ulster is expected to be 20°C or more for approximately 17 days and while Connaught is the coolest province, Ken still expects the temperature in the West to hit at least 20°C for 9 days.

Speaking about the Budweiser Ice Cold Index Campaign, Christopher Wooff, Senior Brand Manager, Budweiser, commented, “This is a really exciting time for Budweiser as the brand goes from strength to strength in Ireland. Budweiser Ice Cold Index is an innovative concept, which we feel will excite consumers and we are thrilled to be the first brand to bring mobile vouchering to the Irish on-trade. We have had such a positive response from our on-trade customers with over 2,500 participating bars nationwide. Weather has always been a sore point for Irish people but if Ken Ring’s predictions are true, this really will be a summer to remember.”

Consumers can find full details on the Budweiser Ice Cold Index here and also on the Budweiser Ice Cold Ireland Facebook page where there will be regular competitions, Index updates from the Index weatherman Scott Campbell and invitations to the hottest events throughout the summer. You can also follow us on twitter @icecoldindex.

The Budweiser Ice Cold Index campaign is supported by ATL, POS, Digital, and PR and the following TV commercial, which was shot on location in South Africa featuring the Index weatherman Scott Campbell.

Notes:
* The temperature is taken from Met Éireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, and fans will be notified of their region’s temperature at 1pm daily via the Index App.
* On an Index day, consumers can redeem their free or money off voucher between 1pm and 11.59pm (or closing time of a particular bar) on that day. It cannot be stored and redeemed at a later date.
* Once consumers have download the voucher, the participating Index bar will provide them with a pub code and they will then have two minutes to redeem their voucher before it expires.

Embedding Location Into Everything, Everywhere

I was asked today whether I thought geo-location social media activities will catch on - would everyone really be checking into everywhere they go during the day. I thought about for less then a second and said, without doubt, yes. To be clear though, I don't think this will mean that you'll walk around 'checking in' on your phone as you might do now.

Think back to when Flickr introduced the functionality to view photos on a map. This was done using EXIF data but it quickly grew in popularity and use and soon digital cameras and image devices began including positioning chips to embed geo-tags directly into photos. As people began moving from photo-hosting sites such as Flickr to Social Networks, for their photo storage, even the most basic of images started having location metadata included manually.

The next step in all of this was the explosion of Social Networks like Foursquare and Gowalla. These platforms have created a market for location check-ins and the uptake of many businesses use of location-based promotions. With the emergence of Facebook Places geo-location has now very much opened up to a mainstream audience. This doesn't even take into account that Twitter has been allowing location metadata for some time.

Beyond all of this, however, the holy grail of location=based functionality will very much be pre-emptive alerts for users about things or people nearby that may be of interest. This will be based on not having to check-in to a place to see if your friends are nearby or if there are any interesting offers. This will all happen via automatic location monitoring and users allowing their friends to see where they are whenever they choose.

Exciting times!