CBS Local Digital Media launched a new photo gaming application for iOS named Pingo from which different brands across the board will benefit. 

Users are compelled to engage with a specific brand for each challenge by completing picture tasks that correlate to the brand. The game features various scavenger hunt-like challenges in a bingo board format in the different categories.

"This gives our brands and partners an interactive way to engage with fans," said Ezra Kucharz, president of CBS Local Digital Media, New York. "It?s an opportunity to announce and promote new shows on the network and drive tune-in to others.

"Pingo is at its core a branding play for advertisers, networks and other brands," he said. "Brands affiliated with the launch are providing prizing and offering another platform for consumer engagement and promotion of their products.

"People are on their mobile phones more than ever, taking photos and sharing, without any tangible reward," he said. "Pingo is a first-to-market social game where people are rewarded for something they are doing already, taking photos."

A different prize is awarded for separate challenges that coincide with the task and brand. 

For instance, the Academy of Country Music Awards is featuring multiple challenges nationwide to promote the upcoming awards and the release of its book, This Is Country, with the prize of an autographed version of the book. 

Promoting while engaging
Brands can access consumers on a level they will gravitate to by taking advantage of the growing interest in picture-based marketing and engaging in the contest and prize format. 

CBS can promote its shows and different brands this way as well as creating revenue through advertisers.

Every challenge is on a local level since CBS Local is behind the app. 

The ACM is a national association, therefore users nationwide can play. However, other challenges feature more local brands such as a local radio station.

Challenges are organized by location or listed all at once. There are four game boards daily that are featured in the header of the app.

One of the This Is Country challenges featuring Luke Bryan was promoted in this slot.

For this game, players complete tasks by taking pictures of specific things that correlate to Luke Bryan songs. The game directs users to take a picture of a glass of beer for the song ?Drink a Beer,? a car stereo for ?Play it Again,? a drink coaster for ?Roller Coaster,? a selfie for ?My Kind of Night? and a pair of sunglasses for ?I See You.?

The ACM Awards challenges are a few of the sponsored posts on the app. Another example is a Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire concert being promoted by WCBSFM101.1 

The gaming app can access the user's camera on her smartphone or the camera feature in the app itself. These completed Pingo boards are shared on social media and other mobile apps.

Upcoming challenges
Future games will offer prizes such as tickets to see Charli XCX, Ne-Yo, AWOLNATION and Billy Currington. There will be challenges for CBS Television shows The Amazing Race and The Odd Couple and local CBS affiliates will offer some based on current events and news.

Wrestling World Champion Taz will be promoting his podcast, Play.It with Pingo as well. There will also be challenges featuring college mascots, hockey and Basketball Underdogs.

This is another step in a mobile direction for CBS.

A CBS Interactive executive explained at Mobile Marketing Day 2015 that its CBS All Access on-demand service had one of its most profitable days due to live streaming this year's Grammy Awards (see more).

Also, Animation studio DreamWorks released a mobile game with independent game developer Behaviour Interactive to promote its 3D animated comedy, Home (see more). 

"Mobile devices have a greater share of time spent and broader demographic reach versus gaming devices," Mr. Kucharz said. "Developing an app over an online game allows users to work on challenge boards offline and gives us the opportunity to deepen the lines of communication via push notifications.

"The goal of Pingo is to develop a community, tapping into people?s passion points via the daily challenges," he said. "We have challenges across entertainment, sports, programming and local touch points. 

"We are working on developing an Android version in the coming months and user-generated challenges in the future."

Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer, New York