Tel Aviv-based startup Apester provides publishers with visual and interactive content tools.
Apester, a Tel Aviv-based startup that provides publishers with tools to create visual and interactive content, has partnered with media giant Time Inc. for the second consecutive year to poll readers about who they think should be in the TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
Voting for Time’s poll list began March 28 and will end on April 17 at midnight Eastern Time. The names of those who made it to the Time 100 list — across five categories: pioneers, artists, leaders, titans and icons — will be announced on April 19.
The Apester platform allows publishers, enterprises, and content marketers to tell their stories visually. i.e, to transform text-heavy content into visual and easily shareable content, using its editorial tools. The tools allow the creation of polls, quizzes, and interactive videos that can be used by publishers to interact with their audience. The company also creates exclusive content tailored for selected publishers.
This year, Time is polling its readers using a new Apester story format — a gallery of multiple slides with interactive buttons for people to click on to choose their preferences.
Launched in February and inspired by Snapchat and Instagram, Apester said its story format is the only one available to news and commercial websites, allowing them to create multi-slide galleries that contain text, images, videos, GIFs, and custom-made interactive buttons. For instance, for April Fool’s Day, Apester launched “Fake or Real” interactive buttons for publishers to test their audience’s knowledge.
Candidates for this year’s Time poll include activists like the Parkland students, who are advocating for gun control and The Dreamers, who are fighting for immigration rights; Hollywood figures including Israel’s Gal Gadot; TV stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert and Kris Jenner; musicians such as Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, and Rihanna; statesmen and royals including Donald Trump and Prince Harry; athletes such as Roger Federer, Chloe Kim, and Cristiano Ronaldo; and business and tech moguls such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bob Iger.
Since the start of the voting, Korean boy band BTS has received the highest approval ratings with 96% of the votes, followed by the Parkland students with 67% and former US president Barack Obama.
The TIME 100 poll lets the audience rank the candidates according to their popularity. The final list of influential individuals is, however, exclusively chosen by TIME editors.
Apester’s clients include CNN, Entertainment Weekly, People, Essence, Trusted Reviews, and NME.
