How many litres of sauce will Boston Pizza use today? How many customers will pick up orders at Beyond The Rack’s office tomorrow? And how many events will be listed on Eventbrite for Toronto tomorrow?
These are just a few of a questions posed by Play The Future, a new app that combines predictive trivia with branded content. Created by a Montreal-based company of the same name, the app officially launched Monday with an impressive roster of 10 Canadian advertisers, including L’Oréal, Boston Pizza, David’s Tea, Natrel, Uber, and Twitter.
Billed as the “love child of fantasy sports and trivia,” the app is the comes via a team with considerable clout in Canadian business – former Just For Laughs president and CMO Andy Nulman, former Campbell Company of Canada president Philip Donne, former Just For Laughs digital marketing director Parisa Foster and seasoned entrepreneur Rory Olson.
Foster, the new company’s president, told Marketing Play The Future was inspired by the rise of predictive gaming in the sports space led by companies like Draft Kings. However, unlike those platforms, Play The Future includes a mix of trivia from the day’s news, the world of pop culture and brands.
The company’s main source of revenue is advertising, but it’s relying entirely on content sponsorships. According to Foster, there are no plans for display ads in the app.
Foster explained Play The Future has an in-house content team that meets with advertisers to discuss their company, products, upcoming promotions and marketing objectives. The team then collaborates with the brand on questions that are answered in real time. A day after each question is posed, the user with the closest guess wins a prize from the brand. So far, Foster said Play The Future has shown its users are playing branded and non-branded questions equally.
Data is also part of the company’s pitch. Foster said brands can use the data generated from answers to track perception and to learn about targeted users in specific geographic areas.
Since going live Jan. 21, Foster said Play The Future’s downloads have reached the “low thousands.”
