Custom Content for All Seasons

Recently, we saw a piece in San Francisco Business Times about Tom Proulx, founder of Intuit, and his creation of Netpulse, a company that offers a new way in which to engage consumers with custom content. The kicker: This content is delivered to screens mounted on health-club workout equipment. Users can access high-def video, music and even their account information from different machines in different clubs.

What the article failed to mention is that Proulx has launched other ventures aimed at custom-contenting the world. There’s AquaTalk, which brings a wealth of viewing, listening and gaming options to the office water cooler. Why talk about your favorite show’s “water cooler moments” when you can actually watch them, at the actual water cooler? “This is an outstanding opportunity for us to reach consumers of pop culture,” Proulx says, “but the system also provides up-to-the-minute statistics on how much water an individual has drunk, their top scores across a variety of console-gaming platforms—even how much productive time they’ve lost while using it.”

But it doesn’t stop there. Realizing that the youth of today are the consumers of tomorrow, Proulx and his crack team of visionaries have developed Wombmate Enterprises to tap into an un-mined demographic. By producing and distributing content that reaches consumers in utero, they can establish brand loyalty and purchasing preferences prior to an individual’s birth. “What better way to pioneer consumer relationships than to target the youth market before they enter the world? At this point, though, the logistics are a bit tricky,” he says. “Installation is . . . well, it’s at least a bit unpleasant for all parties.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Proulx partnered with the AARP to reach the elderly. “One of the challenges with this new project was designing a system that will be accessible to the older demographic,” Proulx says. And that’s why the Geriatron 3000 has only two buttons, each the size of a dinner plate, used to answer onscreen prompts. When we test-drove the G3 (packaged in a large oak console for easy identification as an entertainment device), we found the interface very intuitive. We caught some episodes of “The Jackie Gleason Show,” sent a $2.37 bank draft to a grandchild as a birthday gift and received a full-color, 3-D copy of the local cafeteria’s Early Bird menu. Creamed corn? Yes, please!

It’s clear that Proulx has his eagle eye on the future of delivering custom content across a variety of platforms, and reaching a wide swath of the world’s consumer base. What’s next? The iLyd intra-eye micro-screen, a corneal implant that streams entertaining, useful and exceptionally invasive content while its user sleeps; the SmartScale, a dietary-assistance device that motivates its user with unflattering commentary, high-resolution photos and video of themselves from behind in white shorts, and electric shocks ranging from mild to fatal depending on their progress; and the Why?pod, the custom-content delivery system for those whose consumption of electronic content has completely sapped their will to live. “It’s a bright, bright future,” says Proulx.

Oh, and by the way, April Fools!

Posted By: Danny Ammons