“Mobile internet and smart phones make a whole new kind of gaming possible. Play happens in the real world and can be another layer to your everyday life,” says co-founder Edward Talbot, who set up the business in 2009 with Rowan Wernham and splits his time between New York and Auckland.

The app, which is available for iPhone, Android, and other modern web capable phones, makes it easy to share snaps to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare, and users get extra points if friends ‘like’ photos or write comments. It also features a map of the most hotly contested spots and a global leader board.

“There are lots of little ways for good photographers to ‘win’. For example, the most popular photo at each venue becomes its main image,” Talbot says.

Many of the tribes, such as The Kiwis and The Wallabies, are based on countries playing in the World Cup, so it’s hoped some of that competitive team spirit will feed into the game, while others like The ‘wawas are more about lifestyle. Much like the Heineken RWC App, it aims to help travellers/tribespeople see where others from the homeland are going, and find connections with those who visit similar places (for travellers who want to play but are worried about data use there is a ‘Wi-Fi Only’ mode that queues uploads and adds them to the game automatically when connections are available).

“In Capture the Flag the group-based gameplay keeps things moving, and makes it easier for people to be part of winning and holding a venue. Mobile photo sharing has really exploded in the last year and we hope our twist on it will appeal to a lot of people. People tend to take photos at their favorite spots so it’s fun to bring in the game aspect and show which groups of people are most prominent in different places.”

The venue data comes from Foursquare and, like many other location-based social media platforms, the app also offers deals and bonuses from featured venues, which include some of New Zealand’s most social media savvy brands.

42 Below created the Carnival tribe (which is linked to its Carnival 42 pop-up in Britomart) to help find the best nightlife spots; Burger Fuel is offering deals to users of the app nationwide via their tribe Hambo; V has created the robot Mecha tribe; and Moa beer has brought its signature bird back from extinction. Jucy Rentals is also supporting a tribe and will help tourists get their hands on SIM cards provided by 2degrees (sponsors of The Kiwis) that come loaded with mobile data.

“A couple of smart-nerdy dudes came to see us about their geeky mobile photo sharing game and we thought the only way to make it fun was to apply beer to the equation,” says Sunil Unka, marketing manager, Moa Beer. ”Smart phone game + Moa = fun. Simple.”

As well as these specific sponsors, Tourism New Zealand is sponsoring six tribes and recommending 100 must-see destinations across the nation. Kiwis have the opportunity to win prizes with a photo popularity contest and take the best photos at one of over 100 featured destinations across the country using Capture the Flag.

On the Pure New Zealand Facebook page, a custom FB App built by Gladeye that only those overseas can see and enter is offering three $5,000 trips to New Zealand and 200 prizes are part of an international campaign. It is also planning to leverage some of the material for its marketing, a la the ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ crowd-sourcing campaign, so there’s obviously some fairly heavyweight business backing of the idea.

Find out how to download the free apps and view an online demo here (demo is for Chrome and Safari browsers only).

Snapr, which was created by Edward Talbot and Rowan Wernham, both currently based in New York, teamed up with the promotional crew at Fashion Week to create a live media page showing photos from the event and the official Twitter stream (read more about the app and the recognition it received from Microsoft early this year here and here’s a story about the technology that featured in the Herald).

The Snapr images refreshed every 15 seconds, so Talbot says site visitors could feel like they were part of the action. It also offered a platform for up and coming photographers to see their work published, and NZFW says it generated more than 200,000 page impressions over the week, without any extra work required.

Fashion Week already had a large and enthusiastic social media audience via Facebook (9000 fans), Twitter (1,735 followers) and, to a lesser degree Youtube, so part of its social media strategy this year was to embrace photosharing as well, which makes sense given fashion is such a visual medium.

Talbot says it is simple to create a stream/image cloud from any event by selecting your area and date range and embedding a widget. A number of variables can be chosen to pull images, such as location, user account or text tag. And from there anyone using the app to upload shots can easily participate.

Snapr was also used at the CreativeTech conference and a similar widget was used by Lucire magazine to stream photos from New York Fashion Week onto its website. And Talbot says Snapr is currently working on a range of new features and upload options for other smart phones and internet enabled cameras.

The aptly named ‘Snapr’ is the brainchild of Auckland-based Rowan Wernham and Edward Talbot. Their invention has garnered international attention with the duo being the only New Zealand Company selected (out of over 200 entries) to present their idea at the popular South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, in March as part of the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator prize.

Just snap your picture and it will instantly upload and attach to a map accessible online, showing exactly where you were when the picture was taken.

One of only eight finalists in their category, Wernham says it is the ease in which the app allows people to broadcast what is happening and where it is happening, that got it to SXSW.

“The concept behind Snapr is something that many people in the tech world have been anticipating, so we must have impressed the selectors with the capability to execute the idea well, and also to build a brand around the idea that would stick,” he says.

Wernham and Talbot know it won’t be easy, though. To wow the panel, which consists of investors and prominent opinion makers, the duo must first pass the Dragons Den-esque grand inquisition, comprising of two parts. The first is to present a two-minute slideshow, while part two consists of a 10-minute grilling by the panel.

And what’s up for grabs should they win? Well, Wernham’s not too sure actually. Some attention would be nice though.

“What’s most important is not to win, but the fact that it will bring us into contact with US investors. America is quite a closed industry so for us to even get over there puts us into the sphere of US investors.”

Wernham anticipates some prominent bloggers will be present at the event (perhaps even on the panel) and hopes to gain exposure via their blogs.