Rochester, NY—Kodak Moments released its new premium photo printing platform, which is designed “to help people effortlessly discover, curate and print the moments that matter the most to them,” the company announced. Kodak Moments is the consumer-facing division of Kodak Alaris, a company born from one of the world’s most iconic brands.
The new photo printing platform includes an e-commerce enabled website and expanded functionality on the Kodak Moments app. In addition, it offers a newly curated range of premium photo products. It’s also designed to provide an improved experience on thousands of Kodak Moments kiosks nationwide.
The platform was built to address the belief that authentic moments are harder to identify in culture today. By helping people more easily engage with their memories—both new and old—the platform’s design draws inspiration from a “Kodak moment,” according to Kodak. A “Kodak moment” is a phrase so ingrained into the global lexicon that it was entered into the Oxford Dictionary. Moreover, it currently has more than 450,000 hashtags on Instagram alone.
An estimate by InfoTrends suggests that 1.2 trillion photos will be taken globally in 2017. In addition, 4.7 trillion photos are digitally stored. However, as people take more photos than ever and thousands of photos are buried in digital devices, studies suggest current culture is losing the ability to memorialize the most important, authentic memories.
Moreover, an independent, commissioned survey showed that 55% of Americans believe current culture is losing its ability to identify what is authentic and meaningful. And 44% believe they’re bad at recognizing the moments in life that matter the most.
“Kodak Moments has always stood for and celebrated the real, authentic moments in life. They are the memories that we hold closest. They are the ones that tell a story or remind us of an experience,” said Nicki Zongrone, president of the Kodak Moments Division. “We have developed a full consumer offering that builds on our successful retail photo printing business. It is designed to give consumers a choice about where and how they print and encapsulate their memories simply and quickly.”
Kodak Moments Made for You
The new photo printing platform offers two industry-first features to directly address this problem and make it easier to rediscover one’s most memorable moments.
Within the Kodak Moments app, the Made for You feature searches images buried in mobile device camera rolls to identify the most meaningful photos. It then displays them on Kodak Moments products.
“The app now leverages our unique image science capabilities. It is designed to automatically surface your most important memories from within your camera roll on your phone or device,” said David Newhoff, vice president, Product, Kodak Moments Division. “It’s intuitive, simple and constantly reminds you of your key everyday moments.”
Moments Assistant
Second, the Moments Assistant function is a Facebook Messenger bot. The bot helps users find important moments buried in their Facebook albums. Moreover, it conversationally suggests images to print, in the place where most keep photos today—Facebook.
Kodak Moments plans to offer the bot throughout launch. Also, customers who find and share a photo identified by the Moments Assistant will receive a free Moments Card. The card can be mailed anywhere in the continental U.S.
“While our competitors simply expand their product range, we see an opportunity to create a more effortless as well as rewarding user experience,” added Rob Smith, chief marketing officer, Kodak Moments. “Everything we are building is in service of reducing the distance between capturing a moment and printing it. The Moments Assistant and Made for You features access your camera roll to suggest moments we may have forgotten. With as few as three touches on your phone, you’re able to place those moments into beautiful photo products to share with your friends, family or also yourself.”
The Kodak Moments Project
In addition, to raise awareness of the launch, Kodak Moments debuted its largest national ad campaign. It was developed with Chapter, a San Francisco-based experience design studio. Chapter also developed the Moments Assistant. The campaign was created in collaboration with Martin Parr, the Magnum photographer renowned for capturing the moments that most miss.
The Kodak Moments Project is a collaboration between Martin Parr, DMB and Chapter. It documents eight groups of people on film as well as in photographs to capture and celebrate the real, authentic moments in their lives. The films and photographs can be viewed at kodakmoments.com.
“One of the things I find most interesting is just the day-to-day life that we all live. My job is to find everyday things and demonstrate it’s much more interesting than we take for granted,” said Parr.
“In years to come, I’m looking forward to using these pictures as a real telling point about the times we live in right now.” kodakmoments.com
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