MTV looks for drinking buddies with CYD

The mobile application helps people keep track of the number of drinks they have had and also helps in dividing the cost among a group of friends.

While heading out for a big celebration or a night out, one always wants to keep tabs on the number of drinks he or she will have, a resolution that often becomes inconsequential once one or two pegs are downed and promises are forgotten.

Here comes a mobile application that helps people keep track of the drinks that they have had. Also, if one is dividing the cost among a group of friends, it splits the cost according to who's had what.

Called 'Count Your Drinks' (CYD), the app acts as a personal drinking buddy that gets people through the night without worrying about the bill. This app will allow people to keep a count on drinks and also help to split the bill, hassle free.

As per MTV, this is actually the first of an initiative done as a part of the channel's mobile product strategy for the next couple of years. Besides, CYD is less of the brand and more of a utility for MTV fans.

Speaking about the idea behind the product, ‎Ekalavya Bhattacharya, head, digital, MTV India says that the idea is not to sell the product rather, the aim is to play the data game coupled with MTV branding.

"Since our soft launch on January, the application has been able to track 9000 drinking sessions across the country. It is still at the nascent stages of being launched completely and once it rolls out completely, one can imagine the amount of data we will be gathering about our audience. Not many media companies do that these days and this is a great way to build a brand," he adds.

The app has been made available both on Android and iOS app stores. On Android, the app has so far received around 5000 downloads.

As per Bhattacharya, they have however kept many avenues open where a brand can associate with MTV on the CYD app. In the future, cafes and pubs can partner with MTV on the app, but currently it is a product that sets up the big data plans for the network.

To promote the app, the team has also shot a promo video that has been made live on YouTube and other video platforms. Besides, the app is also being promoted on various MTV branded pages online. The video will also be aired on the MTV network for some time.

The channel uses digital to a great length to enhance its offerings. In February this year, it launched a new channel called MTV Indies and extended it with a music recognition app (similar to Shazam) that also recognises independent music. The complete back-end for recognition of Indie music is being built. All the data and songs are being meta-tagged and the app will be up and running by the end of this month.

MTV had launched 'Rock the Vote' campaign in December, 2013 in an attempt to draw the youth to register to vote in the upcoming Assembly Elections and then, vote. MTV claims to have launched the campaign as a non partisan initiative to drive awareness and education of the young generation to vote in the upcoming General Elections.