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Dublin based digital agency, EightyTwenty/4d, have developed an App for Irish Television which allows us all to be hard nosed Dragons. The App is innovative for the Irish market in that it allows viewers of RTÉ series Dragons Den to interact with the show in real time.

Players can view the aspiring entrepeneurs’ pitches, and then decide if they are ‘out’, ‘in’ or assess the projects for equity. The aim is to scale the ranks on a live online leaderboard and bcome the sixth dragon on the panel : )
The app was developed to profile Bank of Ireland’s SME portal www.allaboutbusiness.ie and to demonstrate Bank of Ireland’s support for business in Ireland.
This game is a nice forerunner of TV based engagement, and heralds a future where television viewers will no longer be passive. EightyTwenty/4d have put together a nice story board of how they developed this campaign http://www.eightytwenty.ie/project/dragons_den_game

Did you know that more people are willing to pay for games than for any other kind of apps? that mobile games are the most popular app category? or that smartphone gaming industry is expected to double by 2016? This and much more interesting info below

Created by: BusinessDegree.net

Not sure who to complain or give praise to on holidays? One of this year’s National Digital Research Centre Launchpad accelerator participants has developed a solution to many a holidaymaker’s and hotelier’s woes: a way to easily give instant feedback.

Instant Opinion, the brainchild of Aidan Kenny, claims to be the world’s first system for realtime collection of customer feedback.
It is initially focusing on the hospitality/hotel sector as people in this business understand the importance of customer service, Kenny explains.
Currently customers of hotels using Instant Opinion can text (for free) or email feedback. The duty manager assigned receives the message immediately and can act on it. This means the customer leaves happy rather than complaining in a feedback form or on an online forum days later.
Apps are in development but for the moment “we find SMS is a technology people are comfortable using,” says Kenny who also runs a service design company Servitize.
Instant Opinion was demonstrated at the recent Techovate conference as a means for delegates to ask questions – just one of its many potential uses.

The date 8 December may be traditionally synonymous in Ireland with Christmas shopping, but one thing that consumers won’t need to buy is quality reading material.

A new magazine for the tech community, available on digital platforms, is to be launched on Thursday.
Idea magazine, explains Publisher Martha Rotter, will be free and will be available online and formats such as ePub. “It’s all web standards-based so it looks great everywhere,” she says.
The magazine will provide coverage of start-ups and individuals at the cutting edge of Ireland’s tech industry. “The audience is people who are working in the tech community; we’re trying the things that would be interested primarily with them.”
Rotter, a freelance developer who formerly worked with Microsoft, had noticed a gap in the market for such a niche publication when she moved to Ireland four years ago.
The Idea magazine team includes Design Director Stewart Curry and Editor-in-Chief Niall Kitson.
Go to readidea.com to sign up for notification of the magazine’s launch – the ideas for upcoming issues are very promising!

Online advertising grew drastically in the first half of this year, while spend on other media fell, according to the latest Irish report on adspend.

The bi-annual advertising spend study from IAB Ireland and PwC found that Irish online advertising recorded its highest level of growth at 20.5% in the first half of 2011.
Online now ranks number three in total media spend, outperforming radio, outdoor, cinema and magazine.
The breakdown of online spend is as follows:
•    Display (34%)
•    Paid search advertising (45%)
•    Classified advertising (21%)
Strong growth in display has been witnessed in IAB adspend studies in the UK and across Europe as brands embrace online advertising in growing numbers.
For the first time an estimate of display adspend on mobile has been provided in the adspend study. Mobile advertising is still a relatively new platform in the digital media mix. The dramatic increase in smartphone penetration and usage has contributed to increased interest in mobile advertising. Display adspend on mobile is estimated at €1.6m in H1 2011.