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Pick up free tickets with technology

New smartphone app allows users to pick up virtual multimedia at real geographical locations
Belfry
Belfry Theatre publicist Mark Dusseault shows off the theatre on his iPhone. Tech savvy people can now use their own phones to get free Belfry tickets.

If you are looking for a free pick-me-up, Repudo might just be the ticket.

The new smartphone app, allowing users to pick up virtual multimedia at real geographical locations across the globe, is changing the way companies, including the Belfry Theatre, are doing business.

“Here is a new technology that may enable us to sell more tickets and engage with people in a different way,” said Belfry publicist Mark Dusseault. “If you are in marketing or communications, things like this offer tremendous opportunities.”

Currently only available on the iPhone, with apps for Blackberry and Android on the way, Repudo allows users to drop text, video, voice messages, photographs or music anywhere around the world for the public, or for specific users to retrieve.

Music singles, movie trailers, or even virtual geocaching-type scavenger hunts are just the beginning for the new technology.

Secret messages leading to free Belfry Theatre tickets have already been dropped at Victoria locations including a local yoga studio, in support of On the Edge, the current Belfry production in which one of the characters is a yoga enthusiast.

“As we gain knowledge there are going to be a number of really cool things we can do around shows,” Dusseault said. “This summer we will be doing a musical and there will be an opportunity to drop music in all sorts of places throughout the city.”

Despite the Belfry being a heritage site, Desseault hopes to keep the approach to their work as modern and contemporary as possible and he believes social media, including Repudo, will play a big part moving forward.

“The Belfry does contemporary work. We address issues that affect people right now,” Dusseault said. “We intend to reinforce in a way (that) what we do on our stage reflects back on (our audiences’) own lives.”

Much like a physical object, Repudo objects can’t be copied for others, but can be passed on to others and then automatically removed from the iPhone.

Objects can be picked up once, or in select cases, many times over.

Already several Repudo users have collected Belfry messages and collected free theatre tickets for their efforts, but there are still more out there and more to come.

The Spark Festival, running March 12 to 25, is the Belfry’s next big event, and Dusseault hopes to include the app in the festival in one way or another. People may just have to keep their eyes and their iPhones open to find out what it is.

“It is important in marketing or communications (that) you are learning and have a knowledge these tools exist,” Dusseault said. “Who would have thought something like that would have caught on, but it is unbelievable. This is fantastic.”