Feb 9, 2012, 12:10pm

Isobar, a global communications agency, announced today the winners of Isobar Create 32, Silicon Valley’s first hackathon exploring Near Field Communication (NFC) technology inside next generation consumer devices such as Google Nexus S II, HTC Amaze, Blackberry Bold and Nokia N9. The event was held at APPNATION III, November 30 - December 1, 2011, and attracted more than 40 developers and creators to develop new uses for NFC technology and produced seven working prototypes of applications in 32 hours.

Isobar designed Create 32 to explore NFC technology from a consumer-centric standpoint and to give teams the chance to create and showcase their innovations to NFC experts. A panel of judges from eBay-PayPal, Google, Nokia, Samsung, Founders Den, US Venture Partners and Isobar, selected the winners of the event. Each app was critiqued on its ability to impact a brand, business or consumer, its potential viability and its ability to change the way users experience the world like never before. Winners were announced on stage in front hundreds of investors, developers and marketers, at the closing of APPNATION III.

The first place team, “OVOZ,” applied “gamification” to the NFC tapping capabilities. Their highly interactive game called “TapThat” enables consumers to tap NFC phones to “get physical” with other NFC phones. In “TapThat,” a user selects a character – everyone from Alexander the Great to Homer Simpson – and initiates the game by tapping on another NFC-enabled phone. The game challenges users to keep tapping at a certain beat in order to keep their character “active” as the phones go in and out of each other’s near fields. At the end, users earn points by sharing the app with friends and keep track of who they’ve played against by creating a visual family tree.

Second place went to the “Ocean Park” team who explored authentication and philanthropy with their app. Their holiday-focused “Pay It Forward” mobile app empowers consumers to make easy and secure charitable donations outside of stores using NFC-enabled phones. This app was designed to let users quickly identify a charity and with a simple touch to an NFC-enabled tag, bring up the charity’s information and its IRS verification on the phone screen and then make a donation. All contributions can be managed online and shared with social networks to create personal donation campaigns.

The members of the “Sweet Goats” team came in third place with “Beatz,” a multi-user app for collaboratively creating and remixing music. The app combines the fun of “Twister” and the musical abilities of “GarageBand.” “Beatz” invites users to place their phones on a selection of NFC pads, triggering the app to play the user’s personalized and unique musical sample or ‘loop.’ Using NFC technology, multiple phones are synchronized and orchestrated so that their loops play harmoniously together.

“Consumers are the driving force when it comes to technology innovation - especially for tangible technology, which is designed to be intuitive and easy to use,” said Michael Nicholas, chief strategy officer at Isobar. “NFC technology allows consumers to interact just by tapping a phone and is more likely to be embraced by the masses because of its simple, what-you-touch-is-what-you-get functionality. At Isobar, we’re passionate about using technology like NFC to drive creativity and innovation so consumers and brands can interact like never before. We’re thrilled with the applications that developers created in such a short time frame and look forward to helping to advance these experiences for consumers.”

The hackathon took place at the San Francisco Design Center, during APPNATION III, the conference dedicated to discussions around the rapidly growing global app ecosystem and the unending stream of emerging tools and technologies. Create 32 is the second hackathon hosted by Isobar, following Create 48, which was held in Boston last September, and was the first and largest NFC competition of its kind in the US.

About Isobar

Isobar is a global communications agency that brings people and brands together like never before. We fuse creative thinking with technology know-how to uncover the best ideas and execute them across any platform or channel anywhere in the world. Our unique combination of creatives and creators ensures the best ideas never end up on the cutting room floor, empowering us to consistently deliver innovative and intensely relevant brand experiences for the world's largest brands. With locations in Boston, New York and San Francisco, Isobar is an Aegis Media Group Company and part of the global Isobar network of over 2,500 people in 32 markets. For more information, please visit http://us.isobar.com.

About APPNATION

APPNATION is a thought leadership conference and exposition where the world’s leading app visionaries and emerging players join together to discuss, debate and define the rapidly growing global app ecosystem. The flagship event, APPNATION Conference, will be held November 30-December 1, 2011 at the San Francisco Design Center.

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