The arrival of camera phones signaled that we should start taking pictures of everything, and that they all deserved to be shared. Case in point: food porn. We love taking countless pictures of our meals, and we love ‘liking’ them on our feeds. What if there’s something we can do to turn food photography into a profitable endeavor? Enter Photopon, a new iOS app that aims to turn your food snapshots into location-based coupons.
Turning social activities into currency is no longer considered a brand-new concept – the number of services that aim to monetize your social content are certainly on the rise. Still, Photopon is on-target by pinpointing this very shareable niche, one that often comes with a price tag we’d like to get rid of. That sushi dinner was gorgeous, but it was also expensive. What if, for your Instagram of it, that price was cut?
Brad McEvilly – Co-Founder, CEO, and sole developer of the coupon app – says Photopon is actually a more developed version of a business idea he had two years ago. Originally meant to be a service that allowed businesses to set up photo templates for customers to filter their pictures with – instead of posing with an M&M mascot on a visit to the M&M building in Manhattan, you can simplify the process by selecting a pre-made photo overlay that has the mascot already in it – the updated version of Photopon is a lot more practical, honing in on something more people are spending money on and photographing every day.
You can keep retaking photos while in Camera mode. Once you are satisfied, you can approve the image and the coupon will appear on your Photopon profile, where you can either pass it on to friends or redeem the offer yourself.
Not surprisingly, Photopon’s most popularly redeemed coupons have to do with happy hour and hot entrée promos. McEvilly says while Photopon is still in its early stages, he’s working on partnerships with establishments that offer these types of deals as part of the company’s penetration strategy before branching out.
What an idea! Those food photos can now come more in handy when they are turned into coupons. Photopon is very location dependent, that has a coupon template available..so those of you that live out of the way, may have to travel a ways.
So what's the concept? Being able to create a coupon and pass it to your friends, but your friends will need to have the app as well.
Before you become stuck on the idea you need to learn how to use the app first, since it's still in the arly stages of everything...once you've acquired the app...play around with it to understand the limitations and advantages.