In restaurants, bars and entertainment venues across the country, people are taking millions of selfies. A selfie with a drink. A selfie by the lake. A group selfie at the dinner table.
America has a selfie obsession. And a Chicago startup wants to help businesses capitalize on it.
UPshow, a startup that launched in 2015, offers bars and restaurants a way to display customers' smartphone pictures on in-house TV screens. Customers take a picture, add hashtags for UPshow and the name of the business, and their picture displays on the screen.
It's a simple way to drive social media engagement for small businesses and keep people staying longer and spending more as they interact with the screens and wait to see their picture. The idea has caught on with major players in the hospitality industry such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Margaritaville, Titled Kilt and Freshii, who all use UPshow's platform. In Chicago, places like Moe's Cantina, Epic Burger and Old Crow use UPshow's technology to post customer photos. Non food and beverage businesses like the Willis Tower sky deck and Navy Pier also use it, and last year UPshow drove an additional 20 million social media impressions for Navy Pier, co-founder Adam Hirsen said.
But UPshow's platform does more than beef up a bar's social media presence. As customers are glued to screens waiting for their picture, UPshow allows companies to serve up ads as pictures rotate through, offering deals on food and drink specials, for example. More importantly though, UPshow helps businesses build a customer database of their most passionate social media users, which has traditionally been difficult for bars and restaurants to come by, Hirsen said.
"They have emails and loyalty programs, but building a list of your most engaged social media followers is tough for hospitality businesses," Hirsen said.
And once someone posts a selfie inside a restaurant, the business can easy follow up with the customer with a thank you, or a coupon to use on his or her next visit.
It's this type of social media marketing that has investors intrigued, Hirsen said. The company recently raised $1.5 million from several notable Chicago investors, including 1871 CEO Howard Tullman, ComScore co-founder Gian Fulgoni, Fieldglass founder Jai Shekhawat, Edgewater funds co-founder Dave Tolmie and ex-Playboy CEO Scott Flanders.
UPshow, which currently employs 25, plans to continue adding businesses to its platform and focus on national brands, Hirsen said. The startup recently announced a partnership with jukebox maker Touch Tunes to incorporate its photo sharing tech with a venue's music offerings. Touch Tunes will help UPshow expand into its 65,000 venues across the US.
Image via UPshow
