News round-up: 6th May 2011

This week’s movers and shakers in the digital industry: Publicis | eModeration & Carat | MGID | wagamama | ADTECH | OpenAmplify & Kantar | eCircle | AWA and Javelin | nugg.ad | Webtrends | yBrant | JiWire | Shazam | LazyTown | Renegade | I Spy Marketing | PapayaMobile | GetJat | Faith Matters | Pauley Interactive | William Hill Bingo | One Iota | Zendt | 24/7 Real Media | Outside Line | TrustedReviews | Intellitracker | Tagman & Criteo | Vapour | Markel | StrategyEye | Hotwire | ebookers | Twenga |

Publicis Groupe Acquires Sao Paulo Agency GP7
Publicis Groupe has signed an agreement to acquire GP7, a Sao Paulo-based advertising agency focused on emerging social classes as well as travel and tourism. The agency will be renamed Publicis Red Lion (a unit of Publicis Brazil), and will be aligned with Publicis Worldwide. The CEO of GP7, Joao Fernando Vassao, will become Managing Director of Publicis Red Lion and will henceforth report to Orlando Marques, CEO of Publicis Brazil. GP7 was established in 2004 and employs 40 communications specialists. The agency offers the full range of advertising and communications services including creative work, corporate communication, strategic planning, media buying and marketing services. Key clients include CVC Turismo (largest tour operator in Latin America), Car System (car satellite monitoring system), Yakult (dairy products), Webjet Linhas Aereas (airline company), GJP Hotels & Resorts, and GJP Participacoes (investment company). This transaction follows Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Talent Group last week, as well as 2010 operations such as acquiring Taterka (minority share) and AG2. Bolstering its presence in Brazil remains a key strategic priority for Publicis Groupe. According to ZenithOptimedia forecasts (April 2011), Brazil ad expenditure grew by 18.1% in 2010. The forecasts predict a 9.5% increase over the course of 2011, followed by 7.0% and 7.2% growth in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Brazil is to become the sixth ad market in the world in 2011.
http://www.publicisgroupe.com
eModeration and Carrot Communications launch social media crisis management service
A new social media crisis management service for brands launches this week, a collaboration between social media and community management specialists, eModeration, and social communications and PR agency, Carrot Communications. In the same way that social media is now part of the vast majority of marketing campaigns, it is also an important part of crisis and reputation management plans. The new service from eModeration and Carrot is designed to ensure that social media is built firmly into crisis plans, and not added as an afterthought. The service tests existing systems and processes, and works with brands to develop crisis plans, infrastructure and processes that include social media at their core. Crisis simulation exercises are run on closed systems ‘as live’, fielded by a team of eModeration’s expert community managers, to demonstrate how an issue unfolds over platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums.
www.emoderation.com/services/crisis-management.
Web Traffic Exchange Giant MGID expands to UK
MGID, a traffic exchange servic, has revamped website following its debut in the UK. MGID has more than 2,200 partners from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and other countries, and uses a patent-pending technology to drive traffic to third party sites. Catering for quality publishers who have decent levels of traffic and content of their own, MGID operates in the areas of traffic exchange, traffic generation from a publisher’s content and targeted services to promote a particular product or service online. The service from MGID helps website owners increase their traffic at no cost by placing their content on to a huge network of participating sites. MGID uses a bespoke widget to display content from its partner publishers on each host website. Publishers sign up to MGID because they receive 150-300% targeted traffic back to their own site, making MGID an invaluable tool in the online marketing mix.
http://www.mgid.com
wagamama serves up app for nokia users
pan-asian restaurant chain wagamama today launches an app specially created for nokia handsets, with a fully-integrated ordering system allowing users to browse and order food from their phone. the new app is available to download for free from nokia’s ovi store at www.ovi.com. nokia handset owners can use the app to locate their nearest wagamama restaurant and browse the menu of delicious pan-asian cuisine. once they’ve chosen their dishes their order can be sent directly to the kitchen of the selected branch, mirroring the super-fast ordering system used by staff in wagamama’s restaurants. the app also refreshes itself automatically with delicious new dishes and specials as soon as they are added to the wagamama menu Users can choose a convenient pick-up time if they do not want to dine immediately and payment can be made securely with a debit or credit card. noodle-loving nokia owners can download the app free of charge by visiting the online ovi store and searching for ‘wagamama’ In addition to the new app, wagamama’s online take-out site wagamamatakeout.com is now fully optimised for use on smartphone handsets. the site boasts a super-quick ordering function designed for ordering on the move, with the mobile optimisation providing a better quality user experience across a range of handsets
www.wagamama.com
New CEO at ADTECH
ADTECH AG, international provider of ad serving solutions and subsidiary of AOL Advertising Inc., announced it has a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Erhard Neumann will take over worldwide management of ADTECH AG immediately – in addition to his function as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. He will continue to be supported by long-standing Chief Technology Officer Mark Thielen. Neumann has been COO since 2006 and has in addition been working for the company since 2001. With his nomination as CEO he succeeds Dirk Freytag, who will step down as CEO of the company and will be leaving after a transition period. The company primarily concentrated on developing from a banner supplier into a technology service provider for the entire online industry under the management of the previous management board. Founded in 1998 in Frankfurt, the company is now represented on five continents. ADTECH employs over 200 employees around the world. The company is wholly owned by AOL Inc.
www.ADTECH.com
Kantar and OpenAmplify debut Videolytics to track ‘social video reactions’
Kantar Video, a division of WPP’s insight, information, and consultancy network, Kantar, announceda partnership with OpenAmplify, The Meaning Platform. OpenAmplify will integrate with Kantar Video’s VideolyticsTM platform to create Videolytics SocialTM, giving marketers the ability to track online and mobile video ads and content, while analyzing the social discussion around specific client video during and after its airing. Analysis includes sentiment tracking, topics being discussed, the actions viewers are considering, and the ability to view aggregated comments.
Kantar’s ability to track and monitor online video provides a clear picture of a campaign’s audience and impact. This unique capability is further enhanced by OpenAmplify’s sophisticated natural language processing technology that uncovers topics that emerge from social discussion around videos distributed across microsites, blogs, social media outlets, digital press releases and elsewhere on the open web. This combination enables unprecedented insight into how audiences react to a campaign, what elements they discuss, and whether the video has incited action
www.OpenAmplify.com
www.kantarvideo.com
eCircle attains DMA DataSeal standard
eCircle has been awarded the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) DataSeal standard as a result of rigorous assessments examining whether the company has implemented appropriate information security measures. The DataSeal was launched in January by DMA in conjunction with BSi and is the only recognised standard for information security management systems other than ISO:27001. The qualification looks at a number of areas within data security including risk assessment, management responsibility, traceability and responsibility of data, virus/spy prevention, internet/network security, system/server security and data storage & elimination. Security is a very important topic, especially for email marketing providers. Being awarded the DataSeal accreditation guarantees that eCircle client’s will benefit from the highest standard of safe and secure products when dealing with data.
www.ecircle.com
Lakeland launches its new ecommerce website
Lakeland, the creative kitchenware company, has launched a new ecommerce website to support the growth of its multi-channel retail business.Responsible for the design and front end build of the new site, Leeds based digital agency AWA, worked closely with the Lakeland team to create an experience that simplifies the online buying process and helps customers shop online with the same ease they would encounter in a Lakeland store. AWA redesigned every part of the Lakeland website, from the homepage, category, product and search results pages, through to basket and checkout, ensuring that they were all clear, concise and accessible. The site was then subjected to several rounds of user testing as Lakeland were keen to ensure that customer feedback was used to guide each stage of the development. Implementation and integration on the hybris ecommerce platform was carried out by ecommerce consultancy and systems integrator Javelin Group.
www.lakeland.co.uk
mediasports appoints nugg.ad
mediasports, Germany’s largest independent online sport publisher, founded at the beginning of 2010, and nugg.ad, Europe’s largest targeting platform, have agreed a collaboration initiative. With immediate effect, attractive target groups, broken down by socio-demographics and product interests, are available for online campaigns across the entire mediasports portfolio. More than 7 million users frequent mediasports each month with more than 70 million visits; its offer includes portals such as kicktipp.de, Formel1.de and SPOX.com. With its participation in the nugg.ad Open Targeting platform, mediasports is also available for large-scale cross-publisher branding campaigns.
www.nugg.ad
Webtrends launches Analytics 10 to improve digital measurement
Webtrends, the global leader in mobile and social analytics, has today launched the newest version of its core analytics product, Analytics 10. Featuring a highly intuitive user interface and enhanced capabilities for data insight across digital channels, the innovative new platform represents a leap forward for digital measurement. Analytics 10 was featured at Webtrends’ Engage user conference in San Francisco in February, receiving an enthusiastic response from customers and industry analysts.
http://www.webtrends.com/Analytics10.
Ybrant Digital Unveils Facebook ‘Quality Control Center’
Ybrant Digital, the global digital marketing company, today unveiled the Facebook Quality Control Center (QCC), a new technology solution for complying with Facebook’s latest regulations for advertising on apps. The QCC was built on AppNexus, the real-time ad platform for ad networks, demand-side platforms and other online advertising companies, and is designed to protect the user experience and ensure that only the most relevant and acceptable ads are shown to visitors. It offers a “plug & play” solution for Facebook application publishers, which allows them to instantly adapt advertisements to Facebook’s new parameters. Using technology available through the AppNexus platform, Ybrant Digital now overlays an “X” in the upper right of each creative that will provide a Facebook user the opportunity to close the ad and flag it. The user is prompted to respond to a short, voluntary survey asking if they found the ad “irrelevant,” “offensive,” “misleading,” “repetitive” or “other.” This consumer data is emailed to Facebook and Ybrant Digital’s QCC and ultimately shared with the advertisers for valuable feedback that can immediately improve future ads.
www.ybrantdigital.com
JiWire boosts Gap click throught rates threefold
Gap launched a campaign to promote its 1969 line across JiWire’s location-based media channel in the US. Gap is leveraging a network of location-based apps across JiWire’s mobile channel and is reaching customers through Compass (its new app-in-an-ad platform) across its Wi-Fi channel. Since launching in December, JiWire’s Compass adverts have seen three times higher click-through rates vs. standard online advertising. Gap saw an average of over a minute engagement on ads on mobile.
Using JiWire, the retailer can connect with its customers while they are out of the home and office and drive traffic to its physical stores. The latest JiWire Insights report showed that 42 percent of the on-the-go audience was interested in receiving store locations within location-based services. Gap has taken to innovative promotions and it has found its next great opportunity is in location-based ads. The interactive Compass ads, running on Wi-Fi, allow engagement with the brand and its products and help customers find stores nearby.
www.jiwire.com
Shazam Launches “Unlimited Tagging” Globally in Free App for Android
Shazam has updated its Shazam App for Android which brings with it two exciting new features: unlimited tagging sponsored by eBay for all Shazamers using the Shazam Free App and “Shazam Friends”, a real-time feed within the App of songs that Facebook friends have tagged, creating a continuously updating list for Shazamers to discover and share new music with their friends. This is the first exclusive App sponsorship deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world, and the first time Shazam has selected a partner to provide free services to their customers. This update of the Shazam Free App – which usually comes with five tags per month – will enable new and existing users to receive free unlimited Shazaming until January 1, 2012. Shazam Friends is already available in both Shazam Free and Encore Apps on Apple’s iOS devices and now on Android devices. Shazamers can manage the sharing of their tags and decide to stop sharing at any time, while still being able to see their friends’ tags. For two friends to see each other’s tags, they both have to connect their Facebook accounts to Shazam.
ww.shazam.com
LazyTown and Castle Builders Launch Their BooClips App for Children
LazyTown Entertainment is launching its first free iPad app for children, called the LazyTown BooClips, developed by an Israel based technology company Castle Builders (IL). This digital book narrates children stories using rich multimedia, vivid animations, video clips, music and songs from the LazyTown TV series. The BooClips are the new way to read books with a variety of fantastic features such as word for word narration, voiceover recording, 3D, sign language interpretation, translation to different languages, easy navigation between pages, an animated magnifying glass, a dynamic bookmark that remembers where the reading was stopped for the next time the app is running, and other features easily accessible with the touch of a finger. The LazyTown BooClips app combines fantastic videos and songs from the TV show, including Sportacus’ Sportclub workout, a video that motivates children to get up and exercise with him. The app’s high level of interactivity encourages children’s independence, providing them with full control of the reading pace. In addition, they can take part in the story, by using the remarkable voiceover function. With this exceptional feature from Castle Builders, children can narrate the story in their own voice with full synchronization with the text, while the background music and special effects are added to their own narration. This easy-to-use feature is the perfect solution for parents and grandparents who want to read the stories to their children in their own voices – whether they are stay-at-home moms, working parents who work long hours or a parent who travels often on business.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lazytown-booclips/id424736849?mt=8
Renegade expands search team
PR, search and social media agency, Renegade Media, has expanded its specialist digital team to meet client demand for integrated PR and digital services across its broadening customer portfolio. The Gloucestershire-based agency welcomes Lee Porte as a search executive. Porte joins Renegade after two years working for public sector business service, GWE Business West, as a marketing executive, which saw him turn his hand to a variety of digital disciplines, including search engine optimisation, search marketing, and website development. Key projects he has worked on include developing the social media strategy for UK Trade and Investment and providing strategic, design and digital advice for the Bristol 2050 project’s website.
www.renegademedia.net
National Express Appoints I Spy for Conversion
NationalExpress.com and Eurolines.co.uk have hired digital marketing agency, I Spy, to establish precision analytics tracking aimed at improving user experience and conversions. I Spy will begin work in early April 2011 I Spy has been tasked with setting up analytics tools for both sites and creating regular reports based on the resulting data. I Spy will consequently identify quick win improvements to user experience and carry out conversion tests when appropriate. National Express is also keen to use I Spy to help the business achieve data driven changes to its online strategy.
www.ispymarketing.com
PapayaMobile Secures $18M Funding Round from Keytone Ventures and DCM
PapayaMobile, a social gaming network on Android, has secured $18 million in a round of Series B funding. The round was led by Keytone Ventures, a leading venture capital firm in China with a heavy investment focus on the mobile Internet industry (Analogix Semiconductor, Borqs), and DCM, a global venture capital firm with a strong investment focus on social networks and gaming (RenRen, Trion, RockYou, PlayFirst). PapayaMobile’s latest funding will help expand the growing PapayaMobile developer ecosystem in both the U.S. and Europe, while strengthening the portfolio of PapayaMobile products. PapayaMobile hosts mobile games on its social network comprised of over 15 million users and offers mobile developers the tools to build high quality social gaming experiences with access to the most comprehensive social graph for gaming on Android & iOS. PapayaMobile has experienced over 375% growth in its user base since opening its social gaming network in June of 2010. Growth has primarily been driven through games that have integrated either PapayaMobile’s Social SDK or Papaya Game Engine. With offices in Beijing, San Francisco, and London, PapayaMobile expects growth to accelerate even further throughout 2011 as Android continues to gain momentum in western markets and China.
http://papayamobile.com
GetJar revamps mobile site with Facebook integration
GetJar, the world’s largest open app store with over 1.5 billion downloads, becomes the first leading app store to fully leverage social media in an app store. The new portal includes Facebook Connect, which allows users to share their app download activity and comments through wall posts and news feeds. They can also inform friends of must-have apps and what to steer clear of, with “like” and “dislike” buttons. GetJar’s recent App Meter survey found that only 21.6 percent of app consumers actually discover apps in app stores. Since discovery continues to be such a big issue for developers and brands, GetJar set out to leverage what consumers care about most, the opinions of their friends. The new site also allows consumers to track their personal downloads with GetJar’s My Apps feature, which consolidates the user’s downloaded app history and makes it accessible for reference. If consumers still want recommendations or to search for apps on their own, they’ll benefit from GetJar’s new user interface. The new mobile app store interface includes: navigation tabs for fast browsing, improved search to find apps with ease, a Top Apps section to identify popular apps and Just In section for the latest and greatest selection of apps.
www.GetJar.com
Faith Matters launches app listing top 100 mosques for Muslim women
Faith Matters has developed an iphone and ipad app which lists the top 100 mosques which provide ‘excellent services’ to Muslim women. The ‘Developing Diversity’ app was produced to show examples of good practice in relation to the involvement of women in mosques. Over 100 Muslim women took part in the focus group interviews in towns and cities that included London, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Manchester and Bradford. Consultation with 480 mosques in England around 5 key areas of core service delivery took place to identify the top 100 mosques. The guide is intended to be used by other mosques who want to develop more inclusive and accessible services for all their visitors, and provides contact information for 100 individual mosques and a summary of their good practice.
www.faith-matters.org
Pauley Interactive launches Design and Innovation consultancy
Pauley Interactive has launched a new offer for companies requiring specialist expertise to push their business forward via design and innovation. Established as a 3D digital visualisation company, the multidisciplinary digital content provider has expanded into future-oriented design-driven innovation. Pauley Interactive currently aims to increase a company’s audience engagement, validate the visual business case, improve the commercial proposition, drive sales and deliver real competitive advantage with visually stunning presentation for products, services or brand.” Through 3D modelling and immersive audience engagement, Pauley Interactive utilises 2D-to-3D conversion, digital concept design, product visualisation, future design trends, interactive website optimisation, 3D productions and corporate presentations to facilitate service management and design strategies and help project clients into forward-facing business strategies.
www.pauley-interactive.co.uk/
William Hill Bingo to give away £100k
William Hill Bingo is set to give away a staggering £100,000 over the next 10 days – in one of the biggest ever bingo promotions. There will be a £10,000 prize jackpot to win every single day between 23rd April and 2nd May and everyone who’s playing the jackpot winning game will win a share. Whoever calls “House” to win the jackpot will take away £5,000, and William Hill Bingo will share another £5,000 between everyone else playing in the game.
http://bingo.williamhill.com
TradeDoubler Appoints Rob Wilson to Spearhead UK Growth
TradeDoubler, the number one pan-European performance marketing company, has appointed Rob Wilson as Market Unit Leader North West to run its UK & Ireland operations, and join the company’s Senior Leadership Team. His appointment completes TradeDoubler’s new leadership team, designed to drive growth in line with the company’s new strategy. Based at TradeDoubler’s London office, Mr. Wilson will officially commence his role in mid July and will report directly to Urban Gillström, CEO. Gavin Ailes will continue in his role as Acting Market Unit Leader, North West, ensuring a smooth and comprehensive transition, before resuming his role as Commercial Director.
www.TradeDoubler.com
Republic Signs ‘Facebook Deal’ With One iota
Leading fashion retailer Republic has joined the likes of Debenhams and Argos to launch a new Facebook Deals service. Implemented and managed by One iota, the mobile and Facebook commerce provider, Republic will give shoppers access to exclusive offers and promotions. Deals will be activated when users ‘check-in’ on their mobile phone through Facebook to Republic stores in Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds and London. Republic has recently embarked on a period of rapid expansion. In 2010, the retailer launched a social media strategy that has already clocked up over 43,000 Facebook fans. Using Facebook Deals, Republic hopes to drive local retail footfall through Facebook and tap into the growing number of mobile users who are using their phones to source products, compare prices and seek out the best deals on the high street.
www.oneiota.co.uk
Zendit launch marks new era in cloud services development
Social storage service Zendit has launched, marking the formal unveiling of a unique cloud application service platform scheduled to underpin the launch of a raft of new online applications in 2011. Billed as the first of a new breed of cloud media solutions, the social storage service offers users a new way to create, store and engage with digital content. Built using a platform designed to lend organisations the ability to produce cloud-based solutions faster, cheaper and more effectively than any of the available alternatives, the Zendit system also provides developers with the tools they need to create powerful and flexible services that utilise the latest technologies without breaking the bank.
Founded by Scottish entrepreneur Dr Kevin Bradshaw, the man behind the mobile entertainment pioneer I-Play (formerly Digital Bridges) and Steve Wexelstein, one of the country’s most experienced online engineers, the Zendit team includes highly experienced creators of original cloud applications. The company uses its own bespoke cloud-based technology to provide comprehensive, scalable support for the new generation of Internet apps, available through multiple devices, browsers, smartphones and online handsets.
www.Zendit.com
Blyk appointed as Media Sales Partner for Orange Shots
Blyk, the mobile messaging media company, today announces it has extended its relationship with Orange UK, by being appointed to manage all elements of the operator’s media sales program, and support the company’s commercial ambitions in developing advertising revenues from its successful “Orange Shots” service. Blyk has worked with Orange since 2007 and extended that relationship by exclusively providing its Blyk media service in 2009. More recently Blyk has secured its position as a commercial partner of Orange providing strategic support for the creation, deployment and on-going management of the operators media and advertising messaging propositions. With immediate effect Blyk will build a media sales function in the UK dedicated to the operators mobile advertising service – ‘Orange Shots’. Orange Shots is a powerful service that uses Blyk’s messaging media format, enabling brands to engage and interact directly with targeted segments of the Orange customer base.
www.Blyk.com
24/7 Real Media updates ad management platform
24/7 Real Media is pleased to announce the release of Open AdStream® 11, its proprietary ad management technology platform that provides publishers and ad networks with flexibility, control and the tools they need to streamline ad management operations and drive value and revenue from their inventory. Online advertising is estimated to reach £706 million for the overall display market in the UK in 2011 according to GroupM and it continues to grow at a fast pace. The release of Open AdStream 11 provides Web publishers and ad networks with the capabilities to participate in the upswing of growth in display and video advertising.
www.247realmedia.co.uk.
Outside Line appoints Leach to chairman’s role following management buyout
Creative digital agency Outside Line has completed a restructuring deal in which its senior management team has acquired investor Ingenious Media Active Capital’s shareholding and appointed Steve Leach as Chairman of the board. The agency, which has orchestrated award-winning campaigns for a raft of major brands including Becks, British Gas and Arla Foods, sees former European Entrepreneur of the Year Leach join as non-executive director following a fresh seven-figure investment in the firm. Currently celebrating its tenth year as an independent, Outside Line’s executive team plans to use the new funding to expand its operations in the UK and abroad. With a staff of 60 based at its London office, Outside Line works with household name brands across a variety of sectors to deliver creative and impactful digital campaigns. Representing a diverse portfolio that ranges from Disney to Lurpak with a blend of dedicated websites, smart phone apps, social media campaigns and viral content, the agency has won a raft of industry awards under the management of directors Ant Cauchi and Lloyd Salmons, the partnership behind the multi award-winning Now Play It service.
www.outsideline.co.uk
TrustedReviews revamps site
IPC Media’s today unveils a major relaunch, broadening its appeal and accessibility and building on its position as the ultimate source of technology product reviews and informed, insightful news. The relaunch follows a year of extensive consumer research and development, which has uncovered key insights into purchasers of technology products, and given TrustedReviews a deep understanding of how different consumers buy technology products. In response to this research, the new TrustedReviews caters for a broader consumer audience, still offering its extensive, indepth content but now with easier navigation, product summaries and direct comparison features to help buyers make the right purchasing choice. IPC Media acquired TrustedReviews in October 2007.
www.TrustedReviews.com
Intellitracker Ltd rebrands as Cognesia
Intellitracker Ltd has been rebranded as Cognesia Ltd, with the new brand being adopted on the website, email addresses and sales & support materials. The name of the firm’s analytics service will also be changing. Over the last 2-3 years the firm’s original singular focus on web analytics has been replaced by a broader focus on site optimisation, visitor profiling and behavioural targeting. The re-branding will include a new website using the new visual identity. After much deliberation the company has selected the new name Cognesia, which roughly translated means “Intelligent Recall”. The Cognesia logo symbol is a mixture of protective bubble, button, person and arrow and has been designed to encompass the company’s vision of interactive personalisation.
www.cognesia.com
Criteo and TagMan Collaborate to Enhance Retargeting Capabilities
TagMan provider of the leading real-time attribution and tag management system, today announced a strategic collaboration with Criteo (, the global leader in personalized retargeting. This relationship simplifies, accelerates and enhances the implementation of Criteo retargeting campaigns and benefits marketers with increased visibility to retargeting?s role in the consumers? path to conversion. TagMan’s cooperation with Criteo demonstrates the commitment of both companies to providing flexibility and transparency to e-commerce clients who desire to accurately attribute ROI of their online retargeting campaigns, in real-time across all channels – not just search or display. Criteo clients that choose to use TagMan’s Tag Management System will be able to manage and unify a unique customer’s path to conversion across attribution touch-points that now include retargeting, organic & paid search and social, while engaging tighter controls on targeting, privacy, and page weight challenges.
www.TagMan.com
http://www.criteo.com
Vapour revamps design agency
Following an expansion, Leeds-based brand design agency Vapour, whose portfolio includes work for Aqua, Island Records and Nike ACG, has re-launched with a new positioning, expanded service offer and a new website. Established in 2007, the agency initially offered straight print design services, but it has grown to include successful campaigns such as a new website for Island records, a pan-European product catalogue and flash microsite for Nike ACG and a deluxe digital iTunes pack for Oasis’ greatest hits album Time Flies… 1994-2009 The launch of the new site reflects the agency’s full offer which now includes branding, design, digital, social media and general marketing.
www.wearevapour.com
Specialist insurer Markel unveils new website and brand
A specialist insurer today announced its new website and the cutting edge technology it used would spearhead its drive for a bigger share of the billion-pound business insurance market. Markel UK’s brand – Markel Direct – has launched with a new website incorporating technology that will enable it to offer quotes in just 90 seconds; the fastest in the industry. Markel UK, with over 20 years’ experience in offering business insurance for professionals, confirmed that Markel Direct’s new website would simplify the process of setting up business insurance cover. A complete trading process is delivered, where customers can receive quotes and pay and activate their cover online. will enable SMEs to trade directly with Markel for the first time. Leading products start from just £5 per month and pioneering technology enables Markel Direct to offer some quotes in just 90 seconds. The Leeds based company, a division of A-rated Markel International, confirmed that the launch of Markel Direct formed the first stage of a new distribution operating model that would see significant investment in IT infrastructure.
www.markeluk.com
Telegraph picks StrategyEye for community site
StrategyEye, a provider of next generation online intelligence solutions, today announces the launch of its first open site platform, StrategyEye COMMUNITY.StrategyEye COMMUNITY was recently employed by The Telegraph to provide an interactive guide to the companies shortlisted for its Tech Start-up 100 awards. The interface allows the audience to click into eight high level technology categories on a visual map and then easily see lists of the premier European start-up companies in that category. Each company can be then viewed to see live news, company descriptions, background, dated founded, CEO and investment history. Aimed at organisations that wish to better engage with their user bases, the new COMMUNITY suite delivers global content relevant directly to their industry or topic area in a visually compelling way within a highly structured environment. Hosted by StrategyEye, the platform allows community owners to generate revenue from sponsorship, lead generation, job posts and Google Ad Words whilst simply, quickly and cost-effectively delivering filtered data to their audiences.
www.strategyeye.com
Hotwire dials up success to launch national billmonitor mobile report
Hotwire, the international communications consultancy, announces its selection by mobile bill analysis firm, billmonitor, to support its public relations needs in the UK. Hotwire started the campaign in March with an initial brief to launch its national billmonitor mobile report to UK media, analysts and online influencers. The launch, taking place this week, marks a bold entrance into the wider UK market for the new organisation. Founded by Oxford University mathematicians, billmonitor is a bill analysis engine for mobile phone users. Employing highly developed statistical methods, billmonitor analyses online bills to establish phone usage patterns, analysing the results against available contract deals in the market in order to match consumers to the most cost-effective contract. Hotwire launched the national billmonitor mobile report on 11th April 2011, based on the scientific analysis of over 28,417 mobile phone bills and matched against over 8,530,118 mobile phone contracts available online from the major networks and retailers. Hotwire devised a three stage strategy to launch these complex findings to the media, encompassing national, broadcast and regional, tech and lifestyle media. The first stage briefed key influencers from the national and international English language media under embargo to secure detailed, longer length and analytical coverage that would go beyond the headline-grabbing findings of the report. This approach delivered 16 pieces of national and international coverage, including analysis by The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal Europe, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. The second stage saw Hotwire pre-brief broadcast media to secure broadcast coverage on the day of launch which supported the first wave of national print coverage, ensuring that key messages were reinforced and cemented in the consumer consciousness. The resulting 23 pieces of broadcast coverage secured included repeated, longer length news, analysis and feature pieces with BBC Breakfast News, BBC Lunchtime News, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and Channel 4 News. Finally, Hotwire launched the report to regional, tech and lifestyle media, securing over 200 pieces of coverage. This included major regional titles as well as influential personal finance, tech and lifestyle titles such as Money Saving Expert, Moneywise, Totally Money and Techwatch, Computer Business Review, TechCrunch and MSN.
www.hotwirepr.com
ebookers.com launches new television ad campaign and reveals brand refresh
Online travel agent, ebookers.com, today reveals its new nationwide television campaign which will go air tonight across a range of terrestrial and satellite channels. Forming part of the company’s brand refresh, the £850,000 TV campaign will focus on the ‘book easier, travel happier’ brand message to drive awareness amongst mainstream consumer audiences. Developed by award-winning creative agency Watermill Ltd, the new advertisement tells the story of a couple looking to book a holiday with ebookers.com and creatively highlights city and beach breaks to draw out the ‘travel happier’ aspect of the brand proposition.
www.ebookers.com
Twenga Provides Missing Link between Social Networks and Online Shopping
Shopping search engine Twenga has launched its social shopping feature to bridge the gap between social networks and products available online for purchase. Twenga’s innovation gives consumers confidence in their purchases by creating a direct link between consumers, trusted peers and online retailers – connecting the shopper with both its trusted online communities and the 350 million plus products from more than 160,000 online retailers on its sites. According to research by UK digital marketing agency Clicky Media published in March 2011, there are nearly 30 million Facebook users in the UK and that number is increasing by 1 million UK users each month. Factor in that three in four Brits shop online and spend an average of £750 a year , and what results is the perfect intersection for social networking communities to truly socialize with online shopping sites.
www.twenga.co.uk.