So, just how many times will former Just For Laughs CEO Andy Nulman crack a joke during a 28-minute interview about his newest venture, the predictive trivia app, Play The Future?
The brainchild of a team of heavy-hitters that also includes former Campbell Company of Canada president Philip Donne, tech entrepreneur Rory Olson and Budge Studios VP of marketing Parisa Foster, Play The Future invites users to predict the outcome of random events – many of them news related – for a chance to win prizes.
“There’s an inherent need that people have to predict the future – which is why they read horoscopes and break open fortune cookies,” said Nulman.
Its principals raised about $1 million through what Nulman jokingly describes as a “friendly and familial” funding round (that’s one) in 2015. That provided the necessary funds to develop the app and provide the Montreal based company a one-year runway to prove the concept.
Play The Future has garnered approximately 15,000 downloads across Canada since its January debut, with Nulman telling Marketing the company is on track for 100,000 downloads by the end of the year. The next step calls for international expansion, though Nulman didn’t provide a timetable.
The app’s content model means just about anything can be incorporated into its daily list of questions, which cover everything from news and sports to entertainment.
“If it can be measured, it can be played,” is how Nulman describes the concept, noting the company plans to “gamify” elements of next week’s Startup Fest in Montreal. Some of the questions, for instance, could be how long will a presentation take or how many people will be in a sponsor’s lounge area at a specific time.
About 20% of people who have downloaded Play The Future use it daily, with the average user playing 3.2 sessions each day. The app is also youth-friendly, with 89% of its users between the ages of 18-44 – including 35% in the coveted 18-24 demo.The typical Play The Future user makes 5.5 predictions per one-minute session, said Nulman, with users answering all of the questions in approximately half of the sessions.
While technological developments like Google and Siri have eliminated some of the mystery from the traditional bar bet, Nulman said Play the Future is Google-proof because it invites uses to answer questions on things that haven’t happened yet. At the same time, its questions are all rooted in verifiable information such as likes, home page mentions, tweets, etc.
Among the questions Play The Future users were asked on Tuesday, for example, were how many “likes” former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s tweet announcing his resignation would receive, and how many hoses will be sold at Canadian Tire stores during the month of July.
Nulman takes particular delight in the fact that online reviews of Play The Future have pointed out it doesn’t feature annoying pop-up ads, even though ads are directly integrated into its content.
Among the recent brand-related questions asked on the app are how many millilitres of Danone’s Activia Drink be will be produced in Quebec this week, and how many subscribers will VIA Rail’s official YouTube channel have by the end of the month. Other brand partners include L’Oréal, Boston Pizza and Twitter.
Nulman described the advertising as “subtly blatant,” but said Play The Future’s young users are unlikely to balk at brand-related questions. “To users, things like sports, the weather, commerce, show business and Trump are the same as Natrel, VIA Rail, Danone and Canadian Tire,” he said. “They don’t see the difference.”
The answer to the question that opened the story, by the way, is three: In addition to the quip about funding, Nulman also joked about being too old to be the frontman of a hip tech play (“that’s Parisa’s job”) and another about his meagre salary (“If I quadruple it, I still can’t buy you a beer”).
