powerHouse’s third annual fund, the PowerHouse No.3 LP, has recently completed an investment in Christchurch-based, Motim Technologies Ltd.
Having begun life as HIT Lab NZ Ltd, a spin-out from the University of Canterbury, Motim delivers innovative mobile marketing capability to global brands through its innovative, interactive mobile phone applications. As they seek to create “sticky” one-to-one relationships with consumers, especially in the youthful 15-30 year old demographic, companies such as CocaCola and Nike see mobile phones as being the ideal way to communicate. Motim’s technology is tailor-made.
Using its multi-disciplinary expertise to provide a bridge between technology and creative marketing, Motim focuses on working in partnership with its clients to deliver their innovative marketing strategies. Motim’s core technology consists of 3D computer graphics, signal processing and augmented reality, game mechanics, and interaction design.
Motim’s market is truly global and the big brands are spending billions of dollars every year. The worldwide spend on mobile marketing is projected to increase dramatically, with recent estimates for the U.S. market alone growing to US$2.5 billion in 2014. With application downloads being projected to grow to US$76.9 billion and ‘app’ revenues reaching US$35 billion in 2014, it’s clear that Motim’s growth will not be inhibited by market size.
Motim has significant market penetration and in addition to Nike and Coke, already has customers such as beverage giant AB InBev, Ford, Toyota, Vodafone, Universal Studios, Disney, Best Buy and Tsingtao beer under its belt. The challenge ahead is to leverage the opportunity into a sustainable and substantial market share.
The Company’s work has been winning awards since 2009. A selection of its ten 2012 successes so far include Gold in Mobile Marketing and Bronze in Mobile Apps in the Caples Awards, Silver for Best Mobile application at ADFEST 2012 and Best of the Best Award at this year’s AIMIA Awards.
Examples of Motim’s creative technology include a world-first that enabled movie-goers to interact with characters in Universal Pictures’ movie, Despicable Me. By creating a mobile application that interacts directly with movie play-back, initially for in-theatre audiences, Motim delivered a unique movie-going experience that created an additional level of interaction with both the movie property and the client’s branding. Exceeding targets many times over in just the first few weeks, the success of this solution led not only to a follow-up enhanced DVD version, but also interest from multiple studios in using the platform.
Recent Motim work includes its collaboration with Weta Ltd to allow digital augmentation of an image the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings, and with Coca Cola/Saatchi & Saatchi/ Vodafone to produce a quirky set of mini-games for its Pump Water™ product to allow consumers to enjoy casual gaming experiences with the brand using fun interactions and characters to play and share the brand’s values.
While its customers are global, Motim’s HQ and core investor-base are in Christchurch. With its plans for growth being rolled out internationally, the Company is set to become a major New Zealand success story.