News round-up: 1st June 2010
- Added:
- Jun 01, 2010
This week's movers and shakers in the digital industry: Companies compete for million pound start up funds; Hunt for ‘next big idea’; Underwired; TMW; Space; Brightcove; Hi-Media; Civic; I Spy Marketing; Steak; Constant Contact; Social networking site for innovators; Insurance firm targets over 50s; Mind Candy; FIFA.com; SapientNitro; Saffron Digital; Vodafone app prize; Genie Ventures; KMP Digitata
Companies compete for million pound start-up funds
Creative and digital entrepreneurs who are looking for funding for exciting technology projects are being invited to take part in an £18m competition to create the next generation of digital businesses. Companies are being invited to compete for a share of the fund by putting forward innovative ideas for research and development projects. Each bid must be in collaboration with partners from industry or academia.
The competition is being organised by the Technology Strategy Board, the government’s innovation agency. It will offer two levels of funding; projects of up to £99,000 as part of the fast track, or for larger projects funds of up to £2-3m are available. Successful projects will receive a grant to cover up to 50% of total project costs.
To help businesses understand the application process the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) is holding a series of free to attend briefing events across the UK during May and June. To register visit http://tinyurl.com/pfi2010
· May 25 – Newcastle
· June 2 – Bristol
· June 3 – London
· June 8 – Glasgow
· June 24 – Manchester
· June 29 - London
www.creativeindustriesktn.org/blog
Digital campaign hunts for ‘next big idea’
A new International digital campaign is challenging business audiences globally to make predictions about the future of business. The campaing features a worldwide competition to predict the future of business, with the winner to be decided by public vote, designed to drive traffic to a microsite which showcases the UK as a world leader in innovation and R&D. UK Trade & Investment appointed Start Asia to develop the campaign, which aims to promote inward investment in the UK and raise awareness of its investment services. The global campaign (in English and Japanese) runs until 30 July 2010 and will attract participants from around the world. In China it runs until 31 October 2010 to coincide with Shanghai Expo 2010.
The microsite profiles the UK’s heritage of innovation together with inspiring predictions from UK and global business leaders including Sir John Bond, Chairman of Vodafone, Gerry Grimstone, Chairman of Standard Life, and Architect Lord Rogers, Managing Director of RSHP. The best submissions will be showcased on a global website, from which the public will vote for the winners. There will be three global winners, one Japanese winner and six winners from China. Each winner will win two British Airways business class tickets to London.
McCain Foods eCRM programme increases segment sales 38%
In May 2008 FMCG giant McCain Foods hired digital agency and eCRM specialist Underwired to devise its eCRM programme, resulting in segment sales rising 38% over two years. McCain Foods asked Underwired if digital can engage customers with an FMCG brand as well as TV can. Underwired took over the existing email marketing programme, optimised the segmentation, and created a comms strategy. It was all designed to engage brand resistors (people who perhaps didn't feel McCain was right for them, or didn't like that kind of food at all) and deepen the relationship with brand engagers (people who already love McCain). Underwired's team devised creative for a monthly, segmented email campaign. Finally, a regular survey was created to compare against the TV audience brand tracking being done by brand research specialists Hall & Partners.
In the first year, engagement with brand resistors increased by 49%, which gave everyone confidence that they were heading in the right direction. In the latest half year results brand consideration has increased by 11% compared with the Hall & Partners benchmark. In six months, average purchase frequency went up 3% and the core "engagers" segment grew 29% in volume. And within this core segment, sales revenue went up by 38%.
Knorr website showcases chef Marco Pierre
Digital and direct agency, Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW), has redesigned a website for Unilever UK Foods’ brand Knorr. The stylish new website will offer consumers a unique, virtual, one-to-one cooking experience with three-Michelin-starred chef, Marco Pierre White that will give them the inspiration to try something new. Unilever is targeting ‘foodies’, who have a real interest in cooking, such as ‘yummy mummies’ and mums, who are often time-poor but want fresh cooking solutions for their everyday family meals.
TMW, part of the Creston Group of companies, has created an eye-catching website, based on the concept of Marco Pierre White’s Little Black Book. To support the launch of the Knorr website and the TV campaigns, banners will be posted both on lifestyle and cooking related websites. The rich media banners give a taster of Marco’s secrets of cooking made simple and his personality.
Telegraph campaign to find the ‘World’s Best Places to Live’
The Telegraph Media Group is launching an integrated campaign - The Telegraph World’s Best Places to Live – for the international edition of The Telegraph following the success of its Best of British Awards. Leading integrated marketing agency, Space, created the idea and developed a creative look and feel, which has translated into paper and on to the website. The aim of the campaign is to drive awareness, boost subscriptions to The Telegraph’s international edition, and increase web traffic and brand engagement. The campaign runs until November and drives consumers to register and vote online at telegraph.co.uk/expat.
In addition to running in the international edition of The Telegraph, it will also feature regularly in the property supplement of the Daily Telegraph's Saturday edition. The campaign involves consumers placing a pin on the World’s Best Places to Live map and explaining why they think it’s such a great place to be, such as great healthcare, schools and the weather. They can add as many locations as they want and they can also rate and comment on other people’s choices, too. In addition, if consumers add a pin and register their details by 31October, they will be entered automatically into a prize draw in which five lucky couples will win a free trip to visit the place of their dreams.
The FA Scores with New Brightcove-powered Online Video Initiatives
Online video platform Brightcove has announced that The Football Association (FA), England’s governing body for the game of football, has launched a host of new online video offerings for TheFA.com, as well as a dynamic new iPhone app, using the Brightcove platform. The FA is also leveraging Brightcove to support a variety of video initiatives around the official website for England’s World Cup team, including interviews with players and highlights from previous games and tournaments.
With Brightcove, The FA is able to deliver high quality, interactive online video viewing experiences for football fans worldwide. Brightcove also makes it easy for The FA to significantly expand the audience reach of its video content through advanced social sharing tools for popular sites like Facebook and Twitter and a wide-range of third party distribution capabilities. Brightcove’s “white-list” status by Facebook gives The FA the ability to embed Brightcove players directly into the England team’s wall, as well as on the FATV section of the team’s Facebook page. The FA also recently introduced a fan-friendly mobile app using the Brightcove iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and Brightcove Mobile Experience solution. The app is designed to enable fans to keep in instant touch with the England team through the latest news from the World Cup camp, including exclusive video highlights of great England games, goals and legendary players.
Hi-Media hires Jaanimagi to expand UK publisher network
Ad network Hi-media has appointed Jonas Jaanimagi as Head of UK Publisher Solutions. The hire will support Hi-Media’s growth strategy to expand the number of quality publishers the company works with, while maintaining and strengthening the company’s existing relationships.Jaanimagi’s role will see him working closely together with Hi-media’s current high-quality publisher base to better understand how to maximize the yields of the potential online advertising space available and the cutting-edge technologies utilised to segment and target the key audiences being generated. This will involve him consulting with premium partners such as The Independent and growing the network in key vertical markets, including business and finance, automotive, news and travel media.
Prior to his role at Hi-media, Jaanimagi was Managing Partner at WebAds UK, where his focus was to launch and establish the company as a specialist business and finance network. He also worked for Digital Look, where he helped set-up and grow the company from start-up to the UK's foremost research website for private investors. Jaanimagi will report to Neil Scoble, Hi-Media’s UK Managing Director.
www.hi-media.com
Civic develops exam website for Scottish qualifications board
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has launched a new website developed by CIVIC. The site will encourage a wide variety of users to interact with the education authority. CIVIC is an independent creative digital agency with a strong track record in the public and private sector. SQA, the national accreditation and awarding body in Scotland, was one of the first clients to sign up with CIVIC following the establishment of the agency in 2001.
The website comprises over 10,000 pages and over 30,000 documents and expects to see more than two million page views during May. The new site was developed from scratch, engaging four members of CIVIC’s staff full time over a four month period. The SQA website provides diverse information to many different audiences so its structure and searchability is paramount to serving its users. To address this, a new Information Architecture was developed by behavioural research consultancy Bunnyfoot and implemented by CIVIC in the design and build.
I Spy Marketing develops commercial property iPhone app
Digital agency, I Spy Marketing, has created the world’s first smart phone app for FlexiOffices, one of the UK’s largest commercial property agencies. FlexiOffices has adopted a consumer digital marketing approach for its commercial property business, which locates office space for clients including BBC, Disney, Hewlett Packard and ICI.
Initially operating on Apple’s iPhone, the application enables commercial property clients to search for available office premises anywhere in the UK. Created entirely in-house by I Spy, the app contains a raft of features including an easy navigation map, GPS positioning, on-demand quotes and ‘agent call’ option make the process of locating prime office space on the move, easier and cost effective, thanks to real-time access to FlexiOffice’s database.
http://www.ispymarketing.com/uptimisation.asp
Dixons appoints Steak for SEO task
Steak has been appointed by DSG international, one of Europe’s leading specialist electrical retailing groups and UK market leaders, to work on behalf of its UK brands Currys, Dixons.co.uk and PC World. The account, won in a four-way agency pitch, will see Steak provide search engine optimisation services to DSGi, creating defined natural search strategies for each of the three brands to achieve online revenue targets and effective integration with other digital and offline marketing activities.
Constant Contact Acquires NutshellMail
Constant Contact has added a new social media offering to complement its email marketing, event marketing, and online survey tools for small businesses and nonprofits. Through the acquisition of privately held NutshellMail, based in Menlo Park, Calif., Constant Contact now provides a tool for small organizations to monitor and engage with social networks right from their email inbox, the hub of their customer communications. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Constant Contact also announced it will open a Bay Area office, details of which will be announced later this year.
NutshellMail is a free service that makes it easy to monitor, manage and interact with friends, fans and customers through social media. It works by collecting and organizing the latest messages and activity from social networks — including Twitter™, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace— into an interactive email snapshot that is delivered directly to your email inbox. Users can customize the content they want to track, add search terms, and choose how frequently they want to receive email updates.
http://www.constantcontact.com
Agencies Launch Dedicated Social Networking Site For Innovators
A new online community was launched today which promises to promote and support innovation across the Yorkshire region and beyond. Yorkshire Innovation, the regional Science and Industry Council, has unveiled www.yorkshire-innovation.org.uk where thought leaders in the fields of innovation, science and technology can meet virtually to exchange ideas and share best practice in an interactive environment.
The online community is based around a social networking platform where users create profiles and link to blogs, share tweets and ideas and use open and closed forums – it is the first time any of the UK’s science and industry councils have adopted such a platform. Two agencies are working on the Yorkshire Forward-funded account with Epiphany Solutions providing the platform, web development and a link building campaign and Umpf providing PR and social media support.
www.yorkshire-innovation.org.uk
Insurance firm targets over 50s
Over 50s specialist insurance provider RIAS has launched a regional multi-media brand marketing campaign, across TV , radio, online, PR and regional events , targeting over 50s in the Central ITV region, to further support its brand vision and proposition.
The RIAS ‘Better with Age’ campaign will run for an initial three month period from May, and is centred around a 30 second TV advert highlighting real life consumer stories of people who have all achieved something extraordinary since they turned 50 years old, as well as a new 30 second radio advert, both directing consumers to the micro site, www.betterwithage.co.uk. The campaign complements RIAS’ brand positioning of ‘where insurance gets better with age’.
www.betterwithage.co.uk, the dedicated micro site, features a number of interactive elements, with consumers invited to share their own personal experiences, as well as featuring consumer prize draws and competitions, and information on the range of products and services that RIAS offers.
Slim-Fast launches campaign to drive awareness of its new 3.2.1 Plan
Unilever’s Slim.Fast is launching an integrated campaign to increase awareness about its improved product range and encourage dieters to lose weight using the New Slim-Fast 3.2.1 Plan. The plan is based on three snacks, two shakes and one sensible meal a day. Digital and direct agency, Tullo Marshall Warren has developed the digital side of the campaign, based around a brand new site and eCRM programme.
Slim.Fast will target yo-yo dieters, typically women aged 25-40, who struggle with willpower. They find it difficult to change their lifestyle on a long-term basis, but want to lose weight and probably have a short-term goal in mind – either a holiday, a work event or a special birthday coming up. To stay on track, they need something structured which they can follow and the Slim-Fast 3.2.1 Plan is simple and easy – allowing people to eat six times a day and still lose weight! TMW, part of the Creston Group of companies, has developed the site around the reasons why people want to lose weight. After registering, people can start the plan by entering their weight loss ‘trigger’, personal details and food preferences, and then receive a personal plan, especially for them, counting down to their event or dieting milestone. This dovetails neatly with the ATL campaign, which runs headlines such as “Because you can’t wear a snowsuit in the pool” and “Because your cousin invited your ex to her wedding”.
Mind Candy Launches Moshi Monsters Membership Cards At Retail
Mind Candy, the UK-based developer of the hildren’s free-to-play online game Moshi Monsters, today announced the widespread launch of their first-ever membership gift card in conjunction with InComm. Initial retail launch partners include major drug, grocery, and specialty retailers including Blockbuster, GameStop, Sainsbury’s, WHSmith and more. The new “Game Time” cards will offer consumers one and six-month memberships to the world of Moshi Monsters, one of the fastest growing children’s sites in the world with fast approaching 20 million registered players.
With both one and six-month cards available, the Moshi Monsters membership cards are a great way to gain access to all of the membership-only features including lots of fun additional games and content.
http://www.moshimonsters.com/timecard.
FIFA chooses Slough to house 75 super computers for World Cup
FIFA.com, the world’s official football website, today announced the tech spec for its server farm in SLOUGH to house its 75 super computers to support a massive 70,000,000 page views per hour during the World Cup.
FIFA.com is expected to serve over 5.5 billion page views to fans over the 2010 World Cup, compared to the 4.2 billion recorded in 2006. Over the past four years the world has acquired an appetite for online video, which FIFA.com will satisfy with the help of two petabytes (2,000 gigabytes) of video streaming bandwidth. To put the statistic into context, the CGI extravaganza Avatar required just one petabyte of local storage to render its spectacular 3D effects.
http://www.fifa.com
SapientNitro named lead digital agency for Chrysler
SapientNitro, part of Sapient, and the largest independent interactive marketing services firm in the world, today announced that it has been named by Chrysler Group LLC as digital agency of record (AOR). SapientNitro will oversee interactive duties for the Chrysler Group brands that include Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Truck, and Jeep. The scope of services will include interactive experiences, site design and development, and online advertising, in addition to digital work across the spectrum of the Chrysler Group businesses – from online promotions across the nameplates and support for the multiple international websites, to corporate content and dealer support.
Saffron Digital Provides Tech for NBC Digital Video Platform
Video delivery platform provider Saffron Digital has announced that its video technology will be powering a new video digital platform developed by NBC Universal International. The video delivery platform will be used on websites in 20 countries worldwide. The new platform will extend NBC Universal's premium television brands online and enrich its broadcast output.
The wholly localised video will be available across the globe in
both Western & Eastern Europe including the UK, Germany, Spain, Russia, and Portugal, as well as Latin America, South Africa and Asia Pacific. Episodes of top-rated series such as V and Human Target have been streamed on the Syfy site (http://www.syfy.co.uk), and selected content also features ad-loading, with advertisements integrated in the video stream.
FlickrShow from Portugal scoops Vodafone app prize
Vodafone has announced the winner of its Vodafone AppStar competition. FlickrShow was declared the best new app in Europe following a public vote. Pedro Campos, an independent mobile developer, has been awarded a prize of €75,000 – on top of the €25,000 local prize he picked up from the first round of the competition. Beating off competition from seven other country winners, FlickrShow was awarded the top prize for its innovation and the great user experience it offered. FlickrShow accesses Flickr in an unprecedented way, offering stunning slide slows and allowing you to search photos by keyword, username, colour and even by location using your phone’s GPS system. Find out more at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXrZnI2jiFs
Pedro, aged 26, only took up mobile app development nine months ago and was attracted to the Vodafone 360 platform due to its open web standards policy and its cross platform reach, which he felt offers an intelligent and developer-friendly approach to the market. Based in Porto, Portugal, he is planning on using his winnings to invest in a local Portuguese web development company, to expand its mobile section.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9768dlwnB0
http://developer.vodafone.com.
Genie Ventures welcomes new Head of Business Development
High-performance UK internet marketing and lead generation company, Genie Ventures, welcomes Warrick Lambert as its new Head of Business Development. Warrick will take charge of business development across the entire Genie Ventures portfolio, which includes; broadband comparison site, Broadband Genie http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/ and Deskspace Genie http://www.deskspacegenie.co.uk/, a portal for freelancers and small businesses looking for places to work. In particular he will concentrate on maintaining relationships with key partners and clients, building the partner network and expanding the number of people using the Genie Ventures white label functionality.
With a wealth of experience in this field, Warrick joins the company following a five year stint as Head of Client Services at leading global affiliate network, buy.at. As part of senior management during a period of massive growth, he was responsible for the expansion of services to meet the demands of the company’s merchants and affiliates. Leading a 20 strong account management team, Warrick was instrumental in bringing on board new clients and consolidating relationships with existing customers, representing buy.at in the UK and New York.
http://www.genieventures.co.uk
KMP Digitata Launch the Manchester Airport iPhone App
KMP Digitata has launched the Manchester Airport iPhone application. The app has been developed to give all travellers passing through Manchester Airport real time information at their fingertips. The Manchester Airport iPhone application has been designed to save both time, money and enable the traveller to plan their journey and time in the terminals more productively, be it exploring the many retail outlets or airport lounges. The Manchester Airport iPhone application is the perfect accompaniment for both business and leisure travellers.The Manchester Airport iPhone application is free to download from the Apple Store and more information can be found at the Manchester Airport website.
www.manchesterairport.co.uk/iphone
