As Millennials, we’ve learned to live our lives through a camera lens. Any moment of our day is easily captured with the help of quality iPhones and Droids that fit into our pockets. Pictures have always been a tool for holding onto precious moments, but with the new app PHHHOTO, we are able to capture moving memories.
PHHHOTO is a six-month-old social network birthed from the agency, HYPERHYPER, that deals with big brands like Red Bull and Playboy. The new app creates a moving picture, similar to a GIF, but offers much more.
Sturgis Adams, who runs everything to do with culture and marketing at PHHHOTO, said the images are a unique piece of content that captures one gesture —one moment in time, which is what makes it special.
The app stems from an actual photo booth the agency created for a Christmas party a couple years ago. Adams said they were looking for a party tool that would be interactive for guests, so they built a digital moving photo booth that shares your images instantly to your social networks.
The booth was a hit among party-goers who wished they could take the moving photos from their hand. When in the same room, the booth and app know about each other. When you’re at a party, you can tap into the party feed and see each photo that was taken, along with all attendees who are on the app in real-time.
“Everyone freaked out, and we thought, ‘Maybe we have a company on our hands,’” Adams said.
The physical photo booths are rented to people and parties all over the world, such as Australia, Dubai, Mexico, NYC and London.
The company had numerous booths placed all over the city during New York City’s Fashion Week, and aligned themselves with photographers who could use the photo booths as a medium to capture fashion week from a different perspective.
The beginning of PHHHOTO as a company was the physical photo booths, but the end-game “was always the app.”
Adams said PHHHOTO did what you’re not supposed to do: create a new social network. But their network is different than any other social network because it’s lowering the invisible walls of digital sharing. Instead of becoming a competitive network, PHHHOTO utilizes Facebook, Twitter Instagram as personal tools for sharing their creative content.
“We believe in this organic marketing strategy, which is coming purely from people using and showing the platform,” Adams said.
PHHHOTO is compelling, engaging, new, creative, original — so naturally the app landed in the fingertips of the infamous Gen-Xers.
Adams said the app appeals to “forward-thinking, creative-minded human beings” such as Katy Perry, Diplo and Mark Zuckerberg, who are constantly looking for new mediums to express themselves.
PHHHOTO user AJ Lund was attracted to the app because it allowed her to post whatever she wanted. She said it was “freeing.”
Working in the fashion industry, she felt that her Instagram was curated. She found herself using her feed as a type of resume, spending over an hour on editing and planning her posts.
“With PHHHOTO, you can put it out there and let it be — it’s pretty cool,” Lund said.
To view more of our videos, visit our Multimedia page.PHHHOTO works with these celebrities and artists to create filters that last only 24 hours, such as the filters for Valentine’s Day and the Oscars, which is unusual for a photo-based app.
After initial attention from bigger names, it trickled its way down to the millennial crowd who find the app and adapt to it. Everyday users are documenting their daily life moment by moment with moving pictures.
“We’re in the middle of that turning point, which is cool and exciting for us because that’s what we hoped would happen,” Adams said.
As for the choice of the in-your-face name, PHHHOTO? Adams simply said, “Do you remember it?”
Email Brittany Shew at fuse@cardinalpointsonline.com
