In today’s increasingly digital world, traditional advertising is losing its impact as businesses constantly strive for new ways to reach their target audience in meaningful and profitable ways. Enter Trivver – a new and revolutionary platform that enables businesses to create and manage ad campaigns extended reality (XR) environments.
Bitcoinist recently sat down with CEO Joel LaMontagne to learn more about Trivver, how exactly blockchain technology comes into play, and what the future holds for this exciting project.
Bitcoinist: For our readers who may not yet be familiar with it, how would you describe Trivver?
JL: Trivver is the premiere advertising exchange for Extended Reality (XR) environments including 3D, virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality. Using our unique IP, Trivver enables advertisers to create a single 3D Object for their brand and deploy it across any XR environments they choose.
Bitcoinist: What is the difference between augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and virtual reality (VR)?
- Extended reality (XR) is an overarching concept that refers to technologies — augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality — that combine the digital and real world in new and exciting ways.
- Augmented reality (AR) is our own reality plus the addition of computer created images, animations, sounds and more, and it is just one part of XR
- Virtual reality (VR) is a fully immersive experience in which reality is replaced by a computer simulated world. VR is currently most often done through the use of a headset to create sounds, images, and sensations that you are in a total virtual location. This varies from AR as VR creates a totally immersive reality, and AR just adds to your existing reality.
Bitcoinist: Why did you decide to make the foray into XR advertising as opposed to traditional advertising?
JL: I wholeheartedly believe XR is the future of advertising as it is the future of technology. Through my work creating a randomization engine for developers to create nonlinear online games, I had an early understanding of how powerful XR advertising would be if done correctly. This meant doing away with the traditional, annoying and intrusive 2D display ads and video ads. As a direct result, I founded Trivver to deliver 3D interactive branded content that is seamlessly placed in XR environments where users can engage with the brand on their own terms.
Bitcoinist: Can you give us some idea of the talent behind the Trivver project?
JL: Trivver could not be possible without the help of many talented people, but Alan Haft, Simon Keating, and Kevin Conroy, are among those who truly make the magic happen.
Alan Haft is our president and is responsible for sales, marketing, and business development. Alan has successfully launched multiple businesses including a film production company, Breakheart Films, located on the Universal Studios backlot. He also oversaw US operations of Swiss-based Day Software and as President, Alan built the US-based team from the ground up to 120+ employees by spearheading sales, marketing, operations and business development. After Alan led the US-based operations to secure multi-million dollar contracts with Sony Electronics and IBM, the company went public, raising over $125 million and it was later purchased by Adobe for $240 million.
Simon Keating is our Chief Technology Officer and a game developer with over twenty years of experience. Simon has developed games for companies ranging in size from Electronic Arts to small independents. With a string of hit game credits including the Harry Potter Series, Croc and many Hasbro titles such as Nerf Zombies, Play-Doh, Twister, Game Of Life and more. Simon brings over seven years of experience in Unity3D Games and applications to Trivver.
Kevin Conroy is our Chief Data Officer. He previously held the position of President, Digital & New Platforms at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he oversaw all initiatives for new and emerging platforms. Prior to this, Kevin served as Univision’s Chief Strategy and Data Officer, where he led efforts to identify priority growth initiatives and developed Univision’s big data strategy. Kevin has also held global marketing and executive management positions at AOL Broadband, AOL Entertainment, and AOL Music, as well as BMG Entertainment and CBS/FOX Video.
Bitcoinist: What are some sample use cases for Trivver?
JL: Trivver can be used anywhere 3D objects are present to enhance 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality environments. For example: online games, virtual reality experiences, augmented reality shopping, and virtual real estate tours.
Bitcoinist: How big is the AR / VR market and what is its future growth potential?
JL: Currently, the AR / VR market is estimated to be a $28 billion-dollar market and is growing every day with the release of new hardware and software and the creation of more opportunities for consumers to interact with the technology. The future growth potential is huge: a recent report by Statista projects that the worldwide AR, VR, mixed reality (MR), and 3D markets will be over $200 billion in 2022.
Bitcoinist: What are the components that make up the Trivver platforms?
JL: The platform is made up of four key components:
- The Trivver XR Advertising Exchange platform (XRAE) is the central component, a revolutionary programmatic solution that allows any ad agency, network or advertiser to create, run and monitor a highly-targeted ad campaign in near real-time – in any XR environment including mobile apps and desktop applications.
- Trivver’s Asset Editor is an application that enables an advertiser to upload their 3D Brand Model and convert to a Branded Smart Object (BSO). The Asset Editor requires the advertiser to specify information about the item’s orientation and scaling in the real world, as well as allowing the advertiser to preview the appearance of their product model in Trivver’s BSO environment. The Branded Smart Object is the component that allows an advertiser’s model to be appropriately sized and oriented in any XR environment.
- The Trivver Developer SDK is a toolkit for Unity content publishers. It contains a package to be imported into the content developer’s Unity project. The accompanying documentation explains needed settings and the process for creating an Ad Spot, including the “bounding box” that specifies the location and orientation in which a Branded Smart Object will appear.
- Finally, there is the Generic Smart Object Library, which will be available soon. This library will contain 3D models to be used by Trivver content publishers to designate Trivver ad spot locations.
Bitcoinist: How does blockchain technology come into play?
JL: Trivver will leverage blockchain technology to track the 3D ads served and their associated engagement data, enabling full transparency and auditability of data for advertisers. This will help ensure advertisers get the views they pay for.
Bitcoinist: What role do Trivver tokens (TRVR) play in the platform’s environment?
JL: Trivver Tokens (TRVR) are a form of platform currency that were created to stimulate the growth of the Trivver XR advertising ecosystem and incentivize consumer engagement with publishers and brands. The key use for the Trivver Tokens will be to encourage the development of an extensive library of Smart Objects for XR developers and publishers to use in Trivver-enabling their games and applications.
Bitcoinist: Trivver’s public token sale has started, correct? What details can you tell us about that?
JL: Yes, the public token sale began on June 15th. Here are the quick details:
- Soft Cap: 3,333 Eth
- Hard Cap: 33,333 Eth
- Public Sale Start: 06/15/2018
- Public Sale End: 09/28/2018
- Total TRVR Available in Distribution 60,000,000
More details can be found in our whitepaper or on our website. Want a shorter version? Check out our One Pager.
Bitcoinist: What does the future look like for Trivver? Are there any upcoming partnerships or new features being planned?
JL: I think Trivver is in the right place at the right time. AR / VR growth is on a fast track to exceed our optimistic projections, Trivver’s advertising technology is primed to accelerate the adoption, commercialization, and monetization of XR technology across devices and industries for all stakeholders in the ecosystem. As our technology improves, we will strive to make every XR ad experience relevant for each user in a natural, non-disruptive format. Trivver has announced a strategic partnership with the Advantego Corporation and Immersive Entertainment. We are currently negotiating several promising additional partnerships. Watch for some surprising announcements in the very near future.
Do you have additional questions about Trivver? Ask them in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Trivver, AdobeStock