Madison Morris, Reporter
Anna Katherine Drew, Editor
Michaela Lumpert, Campus Carrier News Editor
Berry College entrepreneurial students partnered with an Austrian startup company that allows them to manage the photo contest app, Photogramm.
Photogramm is a photography competition application that allows users to upload their photos from events for a chance to win prizes in return. The app is free for users to download in the app store.
Photogramm users can take, upload, and submit their best photos to enter them into contests. Competitors have the chance to win prizes if their photo is selected. Photos can be taken through the app, uploaded to the app and stored in a gallery. Photogramm also has the capability to apply an event brand or logo to a photo.
To enter or find a contest, a code can be scanned or entered in order to submit an entry or to vote. Users can also be notified of challenges in which they can partake to win a prize. Photos receive “likes” and “dislikes” from viewers, and are also filtered through to remove irrelevant or inappropriate content.
Photos can also be shared to a variety of social media. The app markets to young adults heavily involved in social media and extracurricular activities, such as campuswide events, sports, clubs, and intramurals. Because of this, Berry serves as a test audience from which both the business and the college can benefit.
Students in the Advanced Entrepreneurship class, taught by Paula Englis, director of the Berry College entrepreneurship program, have first hand experience with the app, and are currently working with the company by keeping tack of what is going on. The students work with Chris Goeckel, Berry alumnus, who serves as the link between the students and the company.
“The students get to get into the software, see the dashboard, and monitor everything that’s going on,” Englis said. “They set up the competitions, they approve pictures, so they do the whole system. And then Chris and the company pay for the prizes.”
Not only are students gaining experience, but the Austrian company receives critiques, recommendations, and experimentation from the students.
“It’s a great thing to have on your resume because you’re having this really hands-on experience with a small company,” Englis said.
Integrating this mobile application into campus events, serves as a way for students to contribute to the marketing strategies of their own school. These photos can then be used by Berry to publicize campus-wide events such as theater performances, athletic events, and social gatherings.
“It’s a mobile photo album for people that you want to share your pictures with, and I think that has a niche,” Goeckel said. “It has so much potential, especially in the college world.”
The app was first implemented on campus during KCAB’s Casino Night, where students were invited to share photos taken during that night. The students in Englis’ course, with the help of Goeckel, created a contest for the event and later reviewed the images submitted by the attendees to evaluate the application in action.
Englis explained the reason why the company came to Berry.
“One of our alums, his name is Chris Goeckel, contacted me over Christmas and said that they’re big in Europe and thinking about entering the U.S. market,” Englis said.
Goeckel oversees the sales and business development for Photogramm in the United States. He described where the idea for the app came from.
“Photogramm came out of ‘how do we have the best possible experience for an individual or a family that attends an event?’” Goeckel said. “Then ‘how do we make it as interactive and as fun as humanly possible?’”
After trying the app out with large companies like Atlanta United, Goeckel believed that the app would work best among small colleges, where he believed that there is lots of energy and excitement on campus. He is passionate about contributing to the success of Berry’s business and marketing efforts and encourages students to download and begin experimenting with the app.
“I think it’s primarily for colleges, because I feel like we’re in that era,” junior Josie Hadaway, a student in the class, said. “We’re in that group of people that really like documenting things, taking pictures and sharing those. With Instagram being in our generation, Photogramm is a different platform of that, so we can take and share pictures. The contest aspect of is it really neat too. It could be big for college students to win prizes, so I feel like it’s the perfect place for an app like this.”
This new mobile application can promote the connection between users and businesses. Both the individual and the company can benefit from the relationship built through this app. The mutual relationship promotes the works of the user while the contribution of images gives industries the perspective of their audience from which they are attempting to gain feedback.
“It sounds like a really great way to get people engaged more in what they’re doing to share,” Hadaway said. “And then the photos become Berry’s property, so Berry can use them in marketing.”