Can I get a Mobile App with that TV show… and a diet pop?
You’ll need a diet cola to offset the calories you’ll be consuming vicariously through the television as the first episode of Eat St airs tonight at 9:30pm ET on the Food Network.
I’ll warn you, the show will make you experience food-envy and hunger (even if you just had dinner). Paperny Films, an independent Vancouver-based production company, took a simple concept of food-carts and turned it into a fast paced, mouth-watering television series.
For an extra download, the show comes with an iPhone app, developed by Invoke Media (well known as the creators of HootSuite). With the fusion of traditional and digital mediums, Eat St. will revolutionize the way we look at food-carts in North America. I’ll admit it; I was ignorant to think food-carts only served hot-dogs.
After watching the first episode, my jaw dropped at the various food carts they profiled. Kind of felt the need to visit L.A. and discover the Grilled Cheese Truck, only to devour the Cheesy Mac & Rib. Sounds gluttonous? You bet! The sandwich consisted of a southern-style macaroni and cheese, pulled smoked pork and caramelized onions.
Luckily, for those food-cart lovers and potential food-truck aficionados, the Eat St app, is very well thought out and delivered. At any location in North America, the app will help you find the closest food-cart or you can search based on your cravings – say you want tacos, pizza, Schnitzel, or something ethnic like Indian food -- it will list the ones in your vicinity. The Eat St app is a perfect marketing tool for the food-cart vendors as they can update their menu, hours, location, prices, and include their Twitter stream. You can even get proper directions to the food-cart!
Paperny Films was strategic to expand the show into the mobile space, as it serves as an effective promotional tool. On the home screen of the app, you can click on ‘TV Show’ and it’ll navigate you to the show’s website so you can watch full episodes. The cool thing is that the Food Network will be running ads to promote the Eat St. app.
I’ve got my app downloaded, now I’m off to L.A. to located the Grilled Cheese Truck!
The Eat St. App is available free at the iTunes App Store. Watch the television series on the Food Network Canada, Wednesdays at 9:30pm EST / 10:30pm PST starting tonight. For more information, check out www.eatst.foodnetwork.ca or follow them on Twitter @EatStTweet.
