Zylo Media

X’s, O’s and $’s: Portland tech start-up links consumers, advertisers

Colin Snyder — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:11:46 +0000

PORTLAND — A start-up technology company that includes School Board Chairwoman Kate Snyder has updated a classic pencil-and-paper game to market businesses to tech-savvy consumers.
Portland technology start-up Zylo Media is led by co-founder Bob Bruce, left, Portland School Board Chairwoman Kate Snyder and her husband, Colin Snyder. Snyder, her husband Colin, and their Kenwood Street neighbor Bob Bruce make up Zylo Media, which rolled out its first product, BoodleUP, in Portland last month.
BoodleUP allows consumers to play a tic-tac-toe-style game and win prizes from local businesses online at boodleup.com or via a free smartphone app. Players click on the nine squares in the game to reveal tiny ads from merchants; click on three identical ads in a row, and you win the prize.
In Portland, the prizes include free samples of products or services from two dozen businesses, including Planet Dog, the State Theater, The Holy Donut and Rosemont Market & Bakery.
Consumers play BoodleUP for free; Zylo Media makes money by charging the businesses that participate.
“(BoodleUP) is a great chance for exposure, with very little risk,” said Leigh Kellis, owner of The Holy Donut. “For us, it seemed like a no-brainer.”
Kellis said her Park Avenue donut shop has seen “moderate results” since it started advertising through the game in December. So far, customers have only redeemed the shop’s most inexpensive BoodleUP prize – a single free donut.
Still, she said, the advertising approach is a “cool idea.”
Players are offered prizes about once during every minute of game play. But after accepting a prize, they are “locked out” from winning others for a period of time that depends on the prize (typically, a week).
Having to make that choice – and forgo other giveaways – leads consumers to become more “engaged” with the products and merchants they select, according to Bruce, who co-founded the company in 2009 with Colin Snyder.
“The goal is to create a mutually enjoyable experience between the player and a local company,” he said. He contrasts this approach, which he calls “decision marketing,” with intrusive forms of digital marketing such as pop-up ads.
“It’s a different dynamic,” Bruce said.
He also distinguishes BoodleUP from online communities such Groupon and LivingSocial, which offer members discounts on products and so “train customers not to appreciate the value” of the advertisers, he said.
So far, about 300 Portland-area residents have signed up to play the game. Many of those players were introduced to BoodleUP when a prototype was tested a year ago. Zylo currently has a patent pending for the technology.
After receiving $400,000 in seed money from investors, Zylo launched the commercial version of the product in Boston last April. More than 2,000 Boston-area players are now enrolled.
But Portland is home for Zylo, said Kate Snyder, who started working for the business full-time about a year ago, and today handles sales.
“Our goal was always to come back and open in Portland,” she said.
The Snyders and Bruce are all originally from the New York City area, but moved to Portland about 20 years ago. Bruce is an entrepreneur who came to the area to advise Native American tribes in Maine on business strategy; the Snyders both worked in technology.
When Bruce got the idea for BoodleUP in 2008, he went next door to talk about it with Colin Snyder, who is a programmer.
Now Bruce is hoping to have about 50 Maine advertisers and almost 2,000 local players on BoodleUP by this summer. Those advertisers may include companies from areas including the Mid-Coast, Bangor and Lewiston-Auburn.
Eventually, he said, Zylo may seek another round of financing and explore development of other products or other markets, such as Burlington, Vt. Portland would probably remain the company headquarters and operating center.
When asked why, he cited the influence of the Maine Technology Institute, a nonprofit incubator for start-ups, and the example of local biotechnology company IDEXX Laboratories.
“We all love being here,” Bruce said. “Our goal is to build the company here.”
William Hall can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 106 or whall@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @hallwilliam4.

Boston Area Businesses Get Ready to ‘BoodleUP’

Robert Bruce — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:23:56 +0000

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 19, 2012 – Zylo Media® announces the official launch of BoodleUP® – the decision marketing platform where promotional offers meet casual games to create extremely high levels of consumer engagement. The company recently raised $400,000 in seed funding and successfully beta-tested BoodleUP in Portland, Maine. Today, Zylo Media releases its web-based and mobile applications that feature more than 150 different product and service prize offers from a diverse group of Boston-area businesses. Consumers who wish to join in ‘the fun of the game’ should visit www.BoodleUP.com, or download the BoodleUP mobile app for the iPhone and iPad.
BoodleUP is a mobile and online advertising platform designed for national, regional and local merchants. Unlike anything else, it puts the power of choice in the hands of consumers — with BoodleUP people play games, contemplate a myriad of prize offers and ultimately choose to accept a prize that they prefer.
“After a successful pilot in Portland and a round of seed funding, we made the strategic decision to launch BoodleUP in greater Boston,” said Robert Bruce, founder and CEO. “We are offering advertisers and consumers something truly unique in the marketplace. BoodleUP is proven to connect brands and consumers in a way that successfully builds customer engagement and loyalty while driving traffic to brick and mortar stores.”

BoodleUP = Games + Offers (Effective ‘Gamification’ of Advertising)

Gamification describes the broad trend of applying game mechanics to non-game environments in order to motivate people and affect behavior. Gartner, a technology research firm, predicted last year that in the near future, “a gamified service for consumer-goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon.” BoodleUP does just that by offering products and services – with real value to consumers – in a gaming environment that generates interest and helps to build awareness and customer loyalty.

How BoodleUP Works

BoodleUP is free to play. Players engage in simple games of chance that feature prize offers for products and services from advertisers. Players win offers frequently — approximately once every minute — and like ‘Deal or No Deal’ they can choose to accept a prize offer or decline it and continue to play for a chance to win another item. Once a player accepts a prize, they are “locked out” from accepting another prize from BoodleUP for a pre-determined number of days. The “lockout period” leads players to carefully consider each prize offer and reinforces the value associated with what they select. The BoodleUP lockout provision gives the power of choice to the player and creates a unique, authentic and positive relationship between consumer and advertiser.
“We had an extremely successful experience with BoodleUP and the team at Zylo Media during the pilot in Portland, Maine,” said Director of Marketing for Gritty McDuff’s Brewing Company, Thomas Wilson. “We felt it was a great way to connect people to Gritty’s. It was particularly appealing to us because it provided offers designed to bring customers into our brew pubs without discounting our products and brand.”

BoodleUP in Boston – Check It Out!

BoodleUP is accepting player registrations and welcomes new advertisers in the greater Boston area. Please go to www.BoodleUP.com or download the BoodleUP mobile app for the iPad or iPhone to engage with more than 150 unique products or services representing more than 35 Boston-area businesses. To get in on the branding experience for your company, contact Kate Snyder at ksnyder@zylomedia.com.
About Zylo Media
Zylo Media is a digital media company with big ideas. We develop innovative, proprietary methods to connect consumers with advertisers. We are committed to building business relationships that last, both with advertisers, and between advertisers and their customers. For more information about Zylo Media, please visit www.ZyloMedia.com, or email us at info@zylomedia.com.

Zylo Media announces completion of seed round fundraising

Robert Bruce — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:51:58 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that Zylo Media has closed on a $400,000 seed financing round. This funding, which was led by members of the Maine Angels, and included individuals from Silicon Valley and Florida, will be used to launch BoodleUP in Cambridge, Massachusetts on a commercial basis.

We appreciate the support these investors have shown to us and value the industry connections that they bring to our growing company.

Please see the attached press release for more information: Zylo Media release 30Jan2012 Final

BoodleUP introduces something totally new

Robert Bruce — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:45:01 +0000

With BoodleUP, we are introducing our patent-pending game reward mechanics technology to the world. There is no other way to leverage advertiser promotional offers many times over and at the same time drive engaged consideration of those offers by consumers. With BoodleUP, our registered players think about all of the offers they are presented with, and they do that over and over. They are essentially digging through a treasure chest of offers from our advertisers, and everything they look at could be theirs. Our data shows that players will consider an average of approximately 40 prize offers before they decide to accept one and be locked out of other prize opportunities for a pre-set period of time. And yet, their feedback tells us that in their mind they have actually won each of those prizes from our friendly advertisers (regardless of whether they “took” it or not). BoodleUP does something for advertisers that no other game mechanic can do — check it out on your smartphone or at BoodleUP.com.