Popular Minnesota-based Sports App PickPointz Launches National Expansion Coinciding with NFL Season Start, Providing Real Rewards for Consumers and Unrivaled Engagement for Advertisers

ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- 2020 Marketing announced today the national launch of PickPointz, a free reality-based mobile sports app available for iOS and Android devices that offers sports fans the opportunity to earn real rewards from the brands they love, while offering advertisers access to a highly engaged and valuable sports-minded consumer. The app's national expansion will coincide with the start of the NFL season, which kicks off Sept. 5 on NBC with the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Denver Broncos. With PickPointz everyone is a winner as sports fans can make and update their picks for the final score, final stats and the Fantasy Player of the Game and Week on all NFL games throughout the season. As the action progresses players earn points for correct predictions. The sooner the correct pick is made the more points the user earns.  Points are then redeemable for gear and gift cards from name brands including Buffalo Wild Wings, Cabela's, Best Buy and Sports Authority, among others.

In addition, PickPointz announces the launch of the first "Active" fantasy football game with its "Two Million Point Challenge", a dynamic weekly fantasy game based on the same principles of traditional fantasy football, but with PickPointz your roster never "locks". Players will have the ability to change their picks up until the final whistle, so you never miss out on the guys you wish you had drafted or never had a chance to draft. Post launch and each week throughout the NFL season PickPointz players will compete for high scores in a series of four-week tournament rounds with the top 50 finishers each round earning a stake of the two million total points, redeemable for gear and brand name gift cards, by season's end.

"PickPointz utilizes the power of sports to engage with its players repeatedly on their terms. During that moment of possibility when they are most open to interaction, following a 'successful' pick, we provide advertisers the opportunity to talk to them," said James Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer for 2020 Marketing. "We know there are many free sports games and mobile apps online. PickPointz differs from other sports apps and fantasy sports games by serving as a point-earning companion throughout the season for our players as they watch and follow the sport they love."

In preparation for PickPointz's national launch, 2020 Marketing engaged in 11 months of beta testing (Sept. 2012 to July 2013) with over 166,000 returning players, 28-percent from the company's home state of Minnesota taking part in predicting the outcome of 3,026 live events across major league and college sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA. The results revealed an exceptionally significant engagement with its players with a long-tail 11-month retention rate 240 percent better than the industry average of 5-percent. In all, PickPointz players played a total of 3,684,891 final score and final stats games, engaging with a staggering 26,261,764 ads during the beta test.

In a survey, conducted in late 2012 of PickPointz users, players indicated they watch more sports now than before, with 72.8 percent watching more frequently and 76 percent watching live sporting events longer because of PickPointz. The data also revealed 13 percent female participation, with many citing the ability to watch the games along with their significant other while earning rewards they want.

Additional PickPointz Customer Research Highlights include:

• PickPointz users had an interaction rate of 26.8 times that of popular entertainment television companion Viggle, with PickPointz players making 796 predictions per month on average
• 43-percent of PickPointz players are between the ages 18-34 compared to fantasy football where 36-percent are between the ages of 18-34 and fantasy baseball with 48-percent between the ages of 25-44*
• On a given day active PickPointz players made more than 63 predictions during the MLB season accelerating to nearly 150 predictions during the NFL season, spending a daily average of 5.8 hours engaged with the app

Prior to founding 2020 Marketing, Ryan served as President and CEO of Carlson Marketing Worldwide for 10 years (1996 – 2006), guiding the strategic business direction of the world's leading relationship marketing agency. Ryan is credited with evolving the industry from a points and prizes model to loyalty centered on the power of relationships, developing the first national "Authentic Loyalty Program" in 1996, turning a $450 Million company into a $1Billion dollar business. As the CEO of 2020 Marketing, parent company to PickPointz, Ryan has evolved the concept of "Authentic Loyalty Programs" for a new mobile generation into "Active Loyalty" through PickPointz, an engaging new sports app that provides its players real rewards they love and an unrivaled active engagement between advertisers and their target audience.

Multi-Screen Usage/Mobile Advertising Trends:
Multi-screen viewing is the use of a second electronic device (often a smartphone or tablet) by television viewers to connect to a program they're watching.

• Opera Software on THE STATE OF MOBILE ADVERTISING indicated that mobile apps drive 73 percent of revenue across the platform, with sports the #1 driver in the mobile ad revenue category.
• mobilemarketer, in a June 2013 piece cited a study from Millward Brown and SessionM that rewards-based Ads DOUBLE mobile advertising engagement
• The Wall Street Journal recently estimated mobile ad sales would triple in 2013 to more than $4 billion.
• InMobi research found that, globally, 62 percent of mobile web users indulge in multi-screen activities while viewing TV, and sporting events are among the top programs that elicited the most multi-screen time.

*Facebook study done by 2020 Marketing in November 2012 which included 5,542 participants

About 2020 Marketing
2020 Marketing (2020marketinggroup.com) is transforming the future of mobile sports advertising through unparalleled frequency and engagement. At 2020 Marketing, we leverage the addictive quality of social gaming, feed the passion of sports fans and harness the attention power of smartphones to help marketers engage customers, sustain interest and measure results. 2020 Marketing is the developer of PickPointz, a sports app that rewards players with redeemable points for correctly predicting the outcome of live sporting events.

PickPointz is totally free and playable on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Facebook, and PickPointz.com. Please like us on facebook.com/pickpointz and follow us on Twitter @PickPointz for the latest news, contests and promotions. 

SOURCE 2020 Marketing