App turns mobile phone wallpapers into prime time

30 June 2016

Kiwi developed app turns mobile phone wallpapers into prime time

Soon the home screen on your mobile phone will be much more than just a 'pretty face' – or a place for 'nice' wallpaper – following the launch of a New Zealand developed app that turns your home screen into a communications channel for creatives, friends, family, NPOs and brands.

Called 'Wantad', the app is an 'intelligent, live wallpaper' that gets smarter the more you use it. Wantad's messages, pictures and advertisements appear as non-intrusive interactive wallpaper on the mobile home screen.

"Wantad puts the dead space on your smartphone to work," said Ana Lyubich, who is the co-founder and director of Wellington-based Ad Cloud Company Ltd, the developers behind Wantad.

"Your wallpaper is now a live communications channel which is constantly changing – delivering messages and photos from family, as well as animated interactive advertisements from artists, charities, community groups and brands.

"While, we're working with our launch partners to create value for people, we believe the app will appeal because of the high level of choice it offers users. People might just want the beautiful pictures without the ads, or they may like an open, exclusive channel for family and friends.

"Others will be happy to support a charity or their community with instant donations," said Lyubich.

Users can utilise the Wantad app in three ways:

1. Premium Public Groups: Lets people connect with the community that most interests them. The groups can then communicate with their supporters by sending them messages and updates instantly – even earn donations.

2. Users' Private Groups: A secure, private channel that lets small groups, family and friends share photos and create wallpapers.

3. Wantad will add an advertising feature shortly. Because the platform is expandable, it will provide advertisers with brand new features. For example, the wallpaper may include offers, micro-questionnaires or hyperlinks. It will be an interactive and engaging experience for users, and the wallpapers can also be animated – so they’ll attract attention without being annoying.

"With that level of functionality, we’ll be able to reward our users for viewing promotional content. Rewards may be redeemed for things like mobile top-ups, donations or to help pay off a credit card balance," said Lyubich.

Wantad is free to download for users, who select the group that most interests them, such as travel, history, the weather or health, for example. After that, the user receives stunning content updates – at a frequency of their choice – in the form of interactive wallpapers with descriptions and hyperlinks.

The app cuts out the steps involved in unlocking a phone and clicking on other Apps for updates. In many ways, it's more like a 'television' channel than an app.

Wantad will only feature very high-quality visual content and users have a choice about whether to follow a group or not. The app doesn't use a lot of data, and it won't take up much space on the phone.

“We're excited to find out who this image delivery platform appeals to, and the different ways that the app's culture will be shaped by how it early adopters use it.

"We will be offering an exclusive option to our launch partners, and they can also enjoy the new communication channel for free for a period of time. On the commercial side, we're offering advertisers early bird rates of nine cents per user a day for full-screen visual exposure, with no fixed CPC or CPM rates," said Lyubich.

Pure exposure time for each advertiser will be about 4 - 4.5 minutes in a 12-hour period, which provides much better value than other media channels currently available on the market. People will see the updates whenever they use their phone, as well as emergency notices.

Wantad will initially launch in New Zealand, but the company has already received expressions of interest from overseas, and a provisional patent is pending.

For more information visit: http://www.wantad.nz/

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