68 START-UP ALLEY Showtag
Words by Ann-Marie Corvin
This month’s Start-up Alley features an app for buying your favourite TV character’s handbag, an international service for sourcing journalists and an easier way to do online voting
SHOWTAG
The idea for Showtag came to founder Ewald Bos almost eight years ago as he attempted to track down a pair of sunglasses that a character had worn in the television crime drama series Dexter , so he could buy them as a birthday present for his girlfriend. Bos, a Dutchman living in Norway and the founder of a successful DVD label and app company, was unable to locate the brand, despite knowing many details about the TV series. “I thought, if I’m having this problem, then other people might be and maybe there’s something I could develop to make the experience easier,” he recalls. The first incarnation of Showtag, which launched in 2016, was a second screen app that allows audiences to pause video content and discover more about an actor’s profile, learn about brands featured in TV shows, as well being able to identify specific songs. The product’s clear interactive and commercial potential attracted sponsorship from Microsoft, but soon the company ran into legal difficulties around the ownership of rights.
SHOWTIME Showtag-enabled content was applied to Paradise Hotel , resulting in two million user engagements
feedzine feed.zine feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook