SXSW Tag contest Winner!

 

Above: David Fisher (middle) is awarded $5,000 for having 50 people scan his unique tag
during SXSW.

 

 

During
SXSW Microsoft Tag held a very cool contest. People were able to register into
the contest and grab their own unique Tag. Their task was to get as many snaps
of their own Tag as possible. Contestants were able to see real time standings
online. The person with the most scans on Monday March 15, 2010 won $5,000.00!
Not that hard right? Well it was close competition between two contestants.
Throughout the contest they were usually only 5 scans away from each other.

The
big winner was David Fisher with a total of 50 scans! We conducted a quick
interview about his experiences with Tag and the contest.

1-     
How did you hear about the contest?

I was walking by the Microsoft lounge at SXSW and I saw
someone with a shirt on that said, "Win $5000, ask me how". I
approached them and asked. When she filled me in on the details and showed me
the app I thought, "I can do that".  

 

2-      What
was your experience of downloading the app, scanning it, etc.

Downloading Tag Reader on the iPhone was an effortless
process. I was able to get people going with the app in less than 30 seconds.
 

3-     
Have you seen Tag before, have you seen it after
the contest?

I'm pretty sure I had see Tag before, but I wasn't sure how
it was different than other 2D barcodes. I'm still catching up after SXSWi and
haven't seen them around yet but they will catch my eye certainly in the
future.  

4-     
How did you go about getting your scans?

Around 80% of my scans came from walking up to people in
person and getting their attention. You'd be shocked at how willing people are
to help another person win $5,000 if their effort is minimal. The other 20%
came from hitting up some of my friends and coworkers on Skype and getting them
to scan my tag from the computer screen. I thought about posting it to Twitter,
but Twitter is just too noisy. I have a strong following, but people rarely do
things unless you reach out to them personally. 

5-     
How did people react when you introduce them
your contest Tag?

 People were mainly curious of how it was different
from other 2D code readers- the main differences that people grabbed onto were
that it scans a lot faster than others, and the location awareness opens up
lots of possibilities. 

6-     
Were you nervous that there was someone in
second very close to your number of scans?

I wasn't nervous as much as just more driven. I went to a
lounge where I knew there would be a reasonable amount of foot traffic, but
people would be relaxed and not doing anything specifically. There were groups
of 3-4 people talking and I would just approach them and try to get all of them
at once. Since Tag Reader is on almost every platform, and not just the iPhone,
it wasn't difficult to get people onboard. 

 

7 – Do you plan to use Tag from now on? If yes, How?

 

Definitely! When I come across a Tag, I doubt
my curiosity could stop me from seeing what it holds. 

 

8-
Where would you like to see Tag in the future?

 

I'm hoping to see it in magazines and newspapers, but also
in storefronts. Since the Tag is location aware if I scanned an item, I suppose
it could even tell me where I could buy one locally. 

 

9 – Something to add?

Standing out during SXSWi is rather difficult but Microsoft
did a great job of standing tall even with the heavily Apple and iPhone-centric
crowd. I picked up a demo of Expression Studio and it seems very likely that my
company, imVOX, is now going to move over to it for our application development
and design for Windows.