Swatch will launch Huggity, a new social media tagging application at the Isle of MTV Malta being held at the Granaries in Floriana on Thursday. Concert-goers will be able to zoom in and tag themselves even if they were standing in the back of the crowd. Doing so will make them eligible to win the entire Swatch Full-Blooded collection worth over €1,200.

The technology behind Huggity allows brands and sponsors to engage directly with their audience at concerts, sporting events, festivals, tradeshows and other public gatherings through social media platforms, with Facebook being the primary focus.

The application is based on a giant panoramic, high-resolution crowd image taken at a venue during an event. Huggity then allows users to zoom into the crowd photo where they can spot themselves or their friends and subsequently tag their location in the arena or stadium, for example.

Mike Sikorski, CEO of Huggity, said: “Companies are actively trying to engage users on social media platforms, but in many instances, they make the mistake of not offering something the user is interested in. I think Huggity can reverse that trend. Once users find and tag themselves on our highly-detailed image, they can share it with friends on Facebook, Twitter or via e-mail.”

The technology that powers Huggity was first showcased at last year’s Glastonbury festival in the UK. Over 9,000 people attending the festival tagged themselves afterwards, generating in the region of 1.1 million wall posts on Facebook. Huggity is an Irish-owned software company and is based in Dublin.

www.huggity.com/Huggity/