News round-up: 28th June 2010
- Added:
- Jun 28, 2010
This week's movers and shakers in the digital industry: Masters degree in Digital Marketing |Brightcove | Epsilon |FBI Recruitment | Out there media | the rubicon project | Orange | ADTECH | Arts Allinace Media | Goss | TradeDoubler | Vodafone| Vibrant| SportPost | Red Bull | R.O.Eye | Microsoft Advertising | Mosaic | TMW | Fredhopper | Jam | Nzime | GetJar TwentySix | MTV | LinkedIn | Joost | Kenshoo | Bauer Media | MandMDirect | Golley Glater & Search Ignite | Wapple | abacus e-media | smartFOCUS | MIG | i3
New Masters Degree in Digital Marketing Launched in London
A Masters degree in Digital and Experiential Marketing has been launched at London Metropolitan Business School. Students on the new course will explore the latest thinking on technology, digital marketing and brand experience campaigns, and then explore how they apply to brand management. The one year full-time course (or two years part-time) will combine contributions from London Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Computing and Department of Applied Social Science as well as the London Metropolitan Business School.
“Making sense of digital marketing is a top priority for most marketing professionals. This new course has been designed to explore the new digital world and expose students to the technical, social and commercial factors which are shaping the digital consumer. We want to equip students with the tools, understanding and skills they need in order to manage brands in the digital world,” said Dr Niall Caldwell, course leader at London Metropolitan Business School.
The new MA in Digital and Experiential Marketing will run for the first time in September 2010. The course structure includes six taught modules and a dissertation: Brand Equity; Data Mining Business Applications; Digital Marketing Fundamentals; E-Solutions and Digital Media Applications; Experiential Marketing; Marketing Research.
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/pgprospectus/courses/digital-expe...
Brightcove launches video platform for Android devices
Online video platform Brightcove has unveiled a solution for video on Android mobile devices. The new suite of platform capabilities, which includes the Brightcove App Software Development Kit (SDK) for Android and new mobile templates for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, spans both native apps and mobile Web experiences to enable customers to address wide-ranging video use cases on Android devices.
The Brightcove App SDK for Android expands the delivery options available to website publishers to include Android applications. The SDK provides a robust collection of resources for developers who want to create native, video-rich applications that consumers can download, install and use on their Android devices. These resources include pre-built components for playback, content discovery, and hooks into the Brightcove Media API services. In the near future, the Brightcove App SDK for Android will enable one touch sharing to popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, Cover Flow® playlist navigation, and the ability to surface related and popular video content.
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201006/06222010FlashPlayerAvailability.html
Epsilon brings social media functionality to email
Global digital marketing specialist, Epsilon International, is expanding its portfolio of email marketing services to incorporate social media solutions. Following recent report findings that 37% of companies avoid social media due to lack of understanding, Epsilon is leveraging it’s role as a digital solutions specialist to build customer confidence by helping them make social media relevant to current email campaigns.
Epsilon’s new services, which launched last month, allow marketers to engage with their customers in a number of innovative ways. For example, email newsletters can be personalised with social media ‘buttons’– embedded Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter links. This enables subscribers to post real time information directly to their personal social network pages and share online offers, vouchers and subscription information with their contacts. In a similar way, recipients can also expedite email form completion by logging-on to their social networking pages through mailed communications. This process automatically extracts personal information; simplifying the entire data entry process.
Data collation remains a key marketing objective and social media integration amplifies the reach of traditional methods such as email subscription lists and preference centres. That’s why as part of its new offering Epsilon is working with its clients to develop Facebook data capture boxes. These allow users to voluntarily sign up for special offers and gives marketers access to rich profile customer data.
Australian creative recruiter FBI expands into Europe
The founder of the southern hemisphere’s no. 1 creative recruitment company FBI Recruitment, Patsy Peacock, today announced that FBI is launching in Europe with former 180 Amsterdam head of talent Astrid Boesze as managing partner. At FBI Europe, Boesze will continue to build the bridge of great talent between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. FBI Europe will initially be headquartered in Amsterdam, with plans to open up a London office next year.
Headquartered in Sydney, FBI has been the number one creative recruitment company in the Southern hemisphere since its inception in 1994. FBI founder Patsy Peacock has placed top creative talent internationally, working for many of the world's hottest agencies.
Out There Media expands to Germany
Out There Media, an international leader in Mobile Advertising, today announces the opening of Out There Media Germany, which will be based in the city of Dusseldorf. Out of the Dusseldorf office, Out There Media will cover the entire Mobile Advertising community in Germany.
Heading up the new office is Marc Wrobel, who joined the company in the role of General Manager of Out There Media Germany. Wrobel is a senior executive with a long and successful career track in the mobile sector in Germany, having served, prior to joining Out There Media, as Head of New Business & Partnerships at Vodafone MediaSolutions!, as well as Head of Media Sales and Business Development for the mobile advertising business at Vodafone previously. Marc Wrobel started his career at AOL Germany, while other milestones in his career include senior executive roles at VIVA Television GmbH, Titus Communications GmbH, and uboot.com.
the Rubicon Project opens office in Paris
After launching its ad revenue optimization technology in the French market in March, digital advertising technology company the Rubicon Project, announces the appointment of Fabien Magalon as Director of Publisher Development for its French subsidiary. Magalon has been tasked with implementing the REVV for publishers™ technology platform among French content publishers to help them optimize their inventory and sell it at the best price and to the most appropriate advertiser for the target audience.
Magalon, aged 32 and a graduate of the Bordeaux School of Business and Management, has nearly 10 years of experience in online advertising industry. He began his career in 2001 as a media buyer at the British subsidiary of the US ad agency Advertising.com in London and its expansion into France in 2002. In November 2003, he settled in Paris and was promoted to the position of Media Manager for Advertising.com France. In August 2006, he joined TradeDoubler France as Head of Publisher Services where his work entailed consolidating and developing the publisher partner network. A year later, he was named Head of Operations for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands of the DRIVEpm ad network, which is today part of Microsoft Media Network, and then EMEA manager of the Microsoft Media Network Business Unit in 2008 at Microsoft.
Orange UK launches mobile HD voice trial
Orange is testing High Definition (HD) Voice across its UK mobile network in the South of England. With its crystal clear, superior sound quality, Orange’s introduction of HD Voice is set to herald a new era for mobile communications and a new standard for the telecoms industry. The service virtually eliminates the distance between callers so that it makes calls sound as if they’re in the same room.
The trial, which commences immediately, runs across the Orange UK mobile network between the locations of Bristol, Reading and Southampton, with those participating, having been selected to represent a range of demographic groups, including small businesses and early technology adopters, as well as more mainstream users. Levels of call quality and customer experience will be monitored, and upon successful feedback from the trial, Orange plans to roll out the service nationwide across before the end of the summer.
ADTECH Targets the Apple iPad
ADTECH, the international provider of adserving solutions, and part of AOL Advertising, has today announced support for delivering online advertising across the new iPad from Apple. Available immediately ADTECH will now help its publisher, agency and ad network customers to specifically target iPad owners on the web.
“iPad owners have a high technical affinity and are a sophisticated target group,” says ADTECH CEO Dirk Freytag. He lists the rejection of flash by Apple devices as yet another reason for the concise identification of iPad users: “Much of the content available on the net is flash based, consequently it is an advantage for our customers if they use the targeting to deliver only flash free ads to iPads,” explains Freytag. More and more display ads now contain flash elements. The iPad targeting solution by ADTECH warrants that agencies, ad networks and publishers can now count on the receipt of their advertising messages by the user and on the proper presentation of the ads.
iPads are identified through the browser ID. To allow users to access the Internet, Apple has preinstalled an extra version of its Safari browser on the device. When they book campaigns, advertisers can now choose the iPhone, xBox, Playstation as well as the iPad as a browser. ADTECH customers have the option to book advertising specifically for the iPad on the adserver.
Cineworld signs deal with Arts Alliance Media for full digital rollout
Cineworld, the UK’s only quoted cinema chain, has announced that all of its 77 cinema sites will be converted to digital within three years. Partnering with Arts Alliance Media, a leading European provider of digital cinema technology and distribution services, the estimated cost of conversion for Cineworld is approximately £30m, in addition to the £10m already spent in 2009 and the first half of 2010.
The full digital rollout means that Cineworld, which is already the UK’s leading digital cinema chain with a third of its 790 screens digitised, will be able to show all films in high digital quality. In addition, the full digital roll out will allow Cineworld to continue to show the latest 3D films on more 3D screens; offer customers an increased range of alternative entertainment, including live sport, live opera, theatre, comedy and gaming; as well as capitalise on other venue uses, such as training and conferences.
Under the agreement, Cineworld will buy, install and operate digital projectors across the remainder of its entire cinema chain. The majority of the total cost to Cineworld will be recouped through a ‘VPF’ (Virtual Print Fee) deal, which Arts Alliance Media will collect from film distributors on behalf of Cineworld. Cineworld expects that over a seven-10 year period this VPF arrangement will refund a substantial proportion of the £40m total conversion cost.
New GOSS software to help with Public Sector efficiency savings
This week sees the launch of GOSS iCM (intelligent Content Management) version 9, an upgrade to the Web Content Management Solution built by GOSS Interactive. The solution allows local authorities and other public sector organisations to drive efficiency savings by delivering more services online, resulting in potential savings of up to £200,000 for clients.
Tom Stirling, New Media Officer at North Yorkshire Police, comments; "We're delighted with the new features in GOSS iCM v9. The forms designer in particular is very powerful, and is allowing us to create complex, transactional forms. This means that we don’t need to rely on expensive third-party products to provide our forms.
"The enhanced media management features help us maintain and improve our image and video libraries - particularly important for a police force where photographs and CCTV play an important part in the fight against crime.”
Rob McCarthy, CEO at GOSS Interactive comments; “At GOSS we are constantly evaluating, enhancing and developing the usability of our software. Our innovations help us make the process of web content management even easier for users.With GOSS iCM v9, we have looked to enhance the efficiency of client websites by making content creation and editing even simpler.
GOSS iCM v9 is available as a free upgrade to all current GOSS clients who have a support contract and is the standard version supplied to new clients.
New Regional Marketing Manager at Tradedoubler
Pan-European digital marketing company TradeDoubler has hired Josephine Correa as Regional Marketing Manager for the UK and Ireland. Based in the UK and reporting to Els De Witte, Marketing Director, Josephine’s key responsibilities include managing the company's B2B-Marketing, with a strong focus on refining brand awareness and developing market growth in the respective segments. Josephine joins from Nokia Interactive Advertising in Paris, France, where she held the position of Global Marketing Programmes and Trade Marketing Manager responsible for marketing programme planning across EMEA, content development and impact measurement in line with budget management at a global level.
www.tradedoubler.com
Vodafone UK announces major new sponsorship deals for Fashion, Festivals and Formula One
Vodafone UK is launching Vodafone VIP, a major new reward scheme for all its customers. Open to both Vodafone consumer and enterprise customers, it will offer access to a wide range of events throughout the year and across the country. Through the sponsorship of Vodafone London Fashion Weekend in September, thousands of Vodafone customers will get 48 hour advanced access to tickets plus the chance to win tickets to shows and previews.
Vodafone is offering the opportunity to win tickets to some of the best music festivals of summer 2010 including Leeds, Reading, Wireless sponsored by Barclaycard and T in the Park along with access to camping sites and parking. Vodafone customers and their mates can also soak up the atmosphere from an exclusive viewing platform at some of the festivals. Later in the year, customers will be able to buy tickets 48 hours in advance of general on-sale when booking opens for the 2011 season.
For Formula One followers, there is an exciting summer ahead. Vodafone customers have the chance to win a tour of the award-winning McLaren Technology Centre – the private headquarters of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. For those wanting to see the team race, Vodafone is offering tickets to Silverstone in July to watch the world championship winning duo of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton go for a home victory.
Vibrant Founders Win Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Metro NY
Co-founders Doug Stevenson, CEO, and Craig Gooding, CCO of Vibrant, a world leader in contextual advertising solutions and next generation hyperlinks, were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010 Award for Metro New York. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Award, organised by Ernst & Young LLP, recognises executives who demonstrate extraordinary success in the areas of innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Stevenson and Gooding were selected from among almost 70 nominations by a panel of independent judges.
Under the leadership of Doug Stevenson and Craig Gooding, Vibrant showed record revenues and record profits in 2009 and achieved double-digit EBITDA margins. Through Vibrant, advertisers reach over 164 million unique viewers each month on 4,500 websites. Working with the world’s leading global brands, Vibrant managed more than 50 billion hyperlinks in 2009.
SPORTPOST.COM heading for sports video top spot
SPORTPOST.COM, the new sports social media portal, has taken another giant step towards its goal of becoming the largest sport specific video on demand site in the world, after signing unique deals with the Football Association, and Europe’s largest action sports portal, MPORA.com. The media partnerships, unique to SPORTPOST.COM, have been designed to give media and brand owners the ability to freely distribute premium sports content via their own video players that simply plug in to the Sportpost network. Media owners can engage with sports fans from all over the world whilst at the same time remaining in control of their own advertising revenue.
Having only launched in March 2010, SPORTPOST.com has smashed forecasts, registering more than nine times the expected traffic numbers. The pioneering site encourages fans to ‘share your sport with the world’. It combines the very best videos, blogs, news and debates from the world of sport into one central location.
Already, just over two months since launch, brands including Nike Football, Red Bull, Monster Energy, UFC and Euroleague Basketball are running premium High Definition channels on SPORTPOST.com. A number of innovative partnerships have also been set-up, including a Ladbrokes-powered betting portal, and content agreements with over 150 different sources. The additional partnerships with the Football Association, and Europe’s largest action sports portal, MPORA.com, will see SPORTPOST.COM move towards becoming the largest sport specific video on demand site in the world.
www.sportpost.com
TradeDoubler Poland Ranked #1 Among Local Affiliate Networks
TradeDoubler Poland, the Polish entity of the number one pan-European digital marketing company, has been confirmed as one of the country’s leading Affiliate and Online Marketing providers. Offering performance-based marketing solutions, TradeDoubler has received outstanding results in the first Internet 2k10 report, published by the local online portal Internet Standard. As part of the IDG group, Internet Standard is one of the largest IT-focused publishing houses around the globe, issuing more than 300 magazines in 80 countries, with the latest news and research from the online and media industry.
The ‘Internet 2k10’ report analysed the financial state of 275 major companies in both the e-Commerce and online industries across Poland. The data analysed has been retrieved from 2008 and 2009 financial statements of companies registered in KRS, Poland’s Commercial Registry. Following these results, TradeDoubler Poland has been ranked #1 among all Affiliate Networks and #2 if other digital marketing services are considered as well. Taking into account all factors analysed, and the fact that all companies included in this analysis provide highly established digital marketing solutions, TradeDoubler has been positioned as one of the leading companies in this segment.
www.tradedoubler.com
Red Bull and Dave TV team up for video mash-up comp
Red Bull and Dave TV are calling on the UK’s aspiring editors and filmmakers to take Red Bull’s archive of X-Fighters footage, images and sounds to create a high-energy mash-up that gets the adrenaline pumping for the Red Bull X-Fighters event in London. The winner will be Red Bull’s VIP guests at the two remaining stops of the X-Fighters World Tour at London’s Battersea Power Station and the season’s finale in Rome! They’ll also have their film played on joinDave.co.uk, in cinemas across the UK and at the London leg of the X-Fighters World Tour.
The theme selected is “Red Bull X-Fighters is coming to London”, the winning film will need to sum up in just 30 seconds the high intensity, extreme nature of the X-Fighters World Tour. Entrants should head to www.joindave.co.uk to download the X-Fighters collection of footage, pics and sounds. Once they’ve created their mash up, they should upload it to Youtube or Vimeo and send it to the Red Bull team by Monday 19th July. All films will be judged by a panel consisting of a number of folk from Red Bull and UK FMX rider, Chris Birch. Each film will be judged based on how well it answered the brief and the creativity demonstrated by the applicant.
Virgin Holidays appoints R.O.EYE
Virgin Holidays has appointed affiliate marketing agency R.O.EYE as it embarks on an ambitious growth plan to step up activity in the affiliate channel. R.O.EYE will develop a long-term strategic approach for the tour operator, beginning by launching a new programme that will not only further support existing affiliates but increase the number of affiliates Virgin Holidays works with. It will also ensure the brand is reaching the best audiences with its products.
Virgin Holidays launched its ‘Rockstar Service’ campaign in May this year, and affiliate marketing activity will help push the message of its key brand differentiator of unbeatable service over the next 18 months.
Chevrolet and Microsoft Advertising Rev Up the Test-Drive Experience for New Chevrolet Volt
Chevrolet and Microsoft Advertising demonstrated at the 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival today an example of the first multiscreen advertising campaign that incorporates Kinect for Xbox 360 as a way to promote the Chevrolet Volt electric car launch later this year. Formerly called “Project Natal,” Kinect for Xbox 360 delivers a whole new way to play, with controller-free games and entertainment. For advertisers, it provides an innovative way to connect with consumers by enabling them to physically explore and engage with a brand through voice and gesture.
When Kinect for Xbox 360 launches this fall, consumers will have the opportunity to take the test-drive concept to a new level by driving a Chevrolet Volt in “Kinect Joy Ride,” the first controller-free racing game from Microsoft Game Studios. After viewing the video advertisement in-dash on Xbox LIVE or on the Web, consumers will be able to unlock the Chevrolet Volt in “Kinect Joy Ride” to actually drive the car in the game. Kinect for Xbox 360 opens a new world of controller-free games and entertainment. A special sensor recognizes players and responds to their movements and gestures. Kinect can also take pictures during gameplay, which players will be able to upload to their favorite social sites when the game ends.
http://advertising.microsoft.com
Porky Whites launches online competition to celebrate 75th anniversary of sausage brand
Speciality premium sausage brand Porky Whites is testing customers’ barbecue skills with an online competition created by digital agency Mosaic Brighton. The ‘Great Sausage Sizzle-off,’ launched to celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary, is being promoted at point-of-sale on 300,000 packets of sausages at supermarket retailers including Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Tesco, Morrison’s and Waitrose.
Customers will be directed to the competition microsite, www.porkywhites.co.uk/sizzle, to guess how long it takes to cook the perfect barbecue sausage. Participants are in with a chance of winning a £500 barbecue kit. “Fun promotions like this help us to engage with customers long after they’ve picked up our product in-store,” said Chris Price, MD of Porky Whites. “The British public likes to think it’s a dab-hand when it comes to the summer barbecue so we’ve launched a competition which involves the concept of making the perfect sausage.”
Bertolli launches campaign to show consumers that ‘Passion makes perfect’
Unilever’s Bertolli Spread, the UK’s leading olive spread, which has a strong Mediterranean heritage, is launching an integrated campaign to increase awareness of its new and improved taste and drive loyalty among core buyers. Digital and direct agency, Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW ), has developed the campaign based on the theme ‘Passion makes perfect’. The campaign will encompass DM and an eCRM programme.
Bertolli will target consumers who are conscientious about their health but who love to eat good food. Bertolli spread, made with olive oil, makes it easy for consumers to replace saturated fats, and positively contribute to a healthier diet. Bertolli will send out 250,000 direct mailpacks and deliver regular emails to consumers driving them to a blog – bertollipassions.co.uk TMW, part of the Creston Group of companies, developed the strategy and creative approach, which takes consumers on a journey to experience the ‘passions’ of the Mediterranean. To provide added depth and engagement with the target audience, TMW has teamed up with travel/food writer Katie Bishop, who will journey through seven regions of the Mediterranean including France, Spain, Greece and Italy and share her experiences in a blog. The site with its bold and ‘sunny’ feel aims to capture the healthy, outdoor living associated with life in the Mediterranean. While Katie will share her personal discoveries of local specialities and hidden treasures. In addition, the target audience will also receive a DM pack, which will be sent out at the beginning of July to drive purchase of Bertolli spread and drive awareness of the blog.
The White Company improves online shopping experience as customer base grows
The White Company is improving the online shopping experience of its growing web customer base. E-commerce technology provider Fredhopper has been tasked with enhancing the lifestyle retailer’s buying journey and better optimising the site to manage large numbers of people browsing product ranges.
“The technology will enable us to present our catalogue in a far more versatile, dynamic and interesting way,” said Peter McKenna, Director of Direct Sales at The White Company. “Fredhopper’s merchandising team will continue to assist us in giving our web customers an easy, seamless experience.”
The White Company specialises in stylish home accessories and clothing, selling through other channels including mail-order catalogues and in-store. The website sees hundreds of thousands of customers each month.
New commercial director at Jam
International digital creative, marketing and online PR agency Jam announces today the appointment of Philip Rose as Commercial Director. With a career in film PR and marketing which spans almost two decades, Philip has worked for major US studios Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox; film sales and finance company Intermedia and most recently he directed the film team at international entertainment PR agency Premier PR.
Consolidating Jam’s position as one of the leading digital entertainment agencies, Philip joins Jam during a busy period of growth for the company to lead new business development and marketing for Jam within the fast-moving and competitive digital creative and media environment. With offices in London and Los Angeles JAM is an award-winning, international digital creative, marketing and online public relations agency which specialising in providing services for the film and entertainment industries.
Nzime appointed by Microsoft game developer Rare
Nottingham-based design agency Nzime has been appointed by Rare, one of the world’s largest Microsoft Game Studios, to help develop a series of extremely high profile websites. The new contract will see Nzime handling the rebuild of www.rare.co.uk, the site that will spearhead the repositioning of Rare - from a renowned UK game developer to a global, digital leisure and entertainment leader.
Nzime, which has also recently won major projects for Crusha and Elastoplast, won the sought after new account after pitching against several leading London and regional agencies. “This is a great account win on a number of levels. We get to work with an iconic leisure brand that we all respect and as Rare is Microsoft owned, we have now become an official vendor of Microsoft, which is the highest supplier category,” explains Nzime’s creative director and founder Andrew Horner-Glister, who led the pitch team. “This is the type of account that most agencies in the digital space would love to work on and we’re pleased to announce that as well as impressing Rare with our creative abilities, they were also astounded by our developer Will’s Xbox 360 gamer achievement total of circa 52,000!”
www.nzime.com
Cnectd captures over half a million downloads in less than a week on GetJar
GetJar, (www.getjar.com), the world’s second largest app store, today announced that Cnectd, an IM client app that works across smartphone platforms such as iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Symbian has achieved over half a million downloads in under a week using GetJar’s App Download Page (ADP) solution. This makes Cnectd one of the fastest, most downloaded apps since Facebook on GetJar. This announcement follows GetJar’s recent release that Facebook achieved over 50 million downloads in just six months using ADP - and currently continues to generate over 5 million downloads per month. Cnectd placed all versions of their app on GetJar and promoted the ADP link to consumers through their website and Twitter. It became an instant viral sensation as fans of the app started to re-tweet the ADP link to their friends all over the world.
To help publishers leverage the power of ADP and easily promote their apps, GetJar has invested in automating the ADP process so that each and every app uploaded to GetJar will automatically get its own ADP url in the form of http://getjar.com/appname. Publishers can then promote this URL / page in any way they like be it via Twitter, Facebook, TV, print, Web or any other medium of communication.
www.getjar.com
Twentysix creates ‘extreme gamer’ viral
Full-service digital agency twentysix has launched the follow-up to the successful ‘Extreme Gamer’ viral for Epson that generated over 1 million engagements from the target audience and delivered 9% CPR. The second instalment sees the Extreme Gamer take to the road with his friends around Europe in a custom-made Stealth Gaming Van in an effort to find the best gaming surfaces. The van – fully loaded with the best consoles, an awesome sound system and Epson’s cutting edge projectors – takes in Paris, Barcelona and England’s South Coast.
The film is designed to promote Epson’s range of consumer projectors, demonstrating that all the fun of big-screen video gaming can be enjoyed anywhere. The power and clarity of the Epson projector allows the Extreme Gamer to light up buildings and rock faces like a cinema screen and play video games wherever he likes. The film features Extreme Gamer suited in his extreme mobile gaming suit with an Epson EH-TW450 HD-ready projector mounted to the front. The van, customised by Asylum Films and produced by Your Mum is packed with a top-of-the-range JBL sound system, Epson white TW 3500 inside the van and the massive Epson EB-Z8000WU on the roof as well as a telescopic cinema screen mounted on the side. The trip culminates in the ultimate gaming session on the White Cliffs of Dorset, playing an exclusive beta release of Disney’s Split Second. Building on the popularity and success of the previous film the viral is supported by Twitter and has its own Facebook page (on http://www.facebook.com/EpsonRoadTrip/ .)
You can view the film here.
Swatch And MTV Create Design Mash Up
MTV Networks International (MTVNI), owned by Viacom Inc (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), today announced that hot on the heels of last year's successful contest - which gave the global art scene's future stars the chance to share their visions and ideas with the world - Swatch and number one youth entertainment destination, MTV, have joined forces once again to launch the Swatch MTV Playground Creative Competition 2010.
Young designers around the world from Argentina to Australia, France to China, are challenged to create an original and innovative design for a Swatch watch. Entrants are really forced to flex their creative muscles, having to work within a set of strict guidelines and parameters, using a classic blank Swatch as their canvas. An established industry panel will choose an overall winner who will win return flights to Shanghai, VIP entrance and guided tour of the Expo, full transfers, visa assistance, travel insurance for two, plus 1000 Euros pocket money. In addition, 10 Runners Up will all win a Swatch Colour Codes watch. The competition is open until 31 August.
http://www.swatchmtvplayground.com/
LinkedIn launches updated BlackBerry app
LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with over 70m members, today announces the launch of BlackBerry 1.1 which can be downloaded now from LinkedIn and will soon also be available from BlackBerry App World. Blackberry 1.1 will support Blackberry Tour, Curve, Bold, Pearl, and Storm devices running BlackBerry OS v4.3 or later. With the new version of LinkedIn for BlackBerry, members can see who of their connections have been updating their profile, highlighting which sections have been changed (education, headline, experience, etc.), as well as when connections add applications like an Instant Messenger or Twitter account.
Included in the new BlackBerry app update are Italian and Portuguese versions in addition to the seven languages it’s already available in. Existing users will also see improvements in use of fonts, as well as improvements to updating the BlackBerry Contacts application when enabling address book integration with LinkedIn. LinkedIn currently offers mobile applications for BlackBerry, iPhone and the Palm Pre.
http://www.linkedin.com/blackberry
Joost hired for pre-roll ads on Demand Media
Joost, the world’s largest content distribution and monetisation platform, today announced a global sales and technology partnership with Demand Media. Under the terms of the agreement, pre-roll inventory on Demand Media owned and operated websites, including eHow.com, Cracked.com and Mania.com will become part of the Joost Video Network, powered by Adconion’s complete suite of online video advertising products and services.
“’How To’ content is experiencing exponential growth that can be seen in the dramatic increase in users consuming sites such as eHow.com, one of the seven popular Demand Media properties. This site alone attracts over 61MM people seeking answers in areas of personal interest from Arts and Entertainment, to Electronics, to Health and Travel” said Nick Higgins, director of global video for Adconion Media Group. “Demand Media has an acute understanding of their audience needs, just as Joost has an acute understanding of our audience behavior. This exciting partnership symbolises the future of content creation and monetization that will benefit both users and advertisers”.
By joining forces, the Joost Video Network will be able to present Demand Media’s growing global audience to its premium brand partners around the world through audience and vertical channel sales packages. As a part of this agreement, Demand Media will leverage the Adconion video ad serving platform to deliver all premium video campaigns sold by the Demand Media sales force, as well as deliver network advertising pre-roll inventory to the Joost Video Advertising Network. As part of this partnership, Adconion will provide the Adconion video technology platform to power all of Demand Media’s in-stream video advertising needs, including trafficking, optimisation, and reporting. The Joost video platform delivers millions of in-stream video ads to millions of targeted end users. Joost offers the technology and the targeting needed to comprehensively monetise Demand Media’s in-stream video advertising opportunities.
KENSHOO and Havas Digital Announce Global Partnership for Online Demand Generation
Havas Digital, the digital arm of Havas Media and one of the world’s largest global interactive advertising and communications groups, has selected KENSHOO, the leading provider of online demand generation solutions for the enterprise and local markets, to be their exclusive technology partner for search engine marketing.
Havas Digital will be using KENSHOO Search, KENSHOO’s third generation end-to-end campaign automation platform to consolidate search, social and mobile campaign management and optimization. The award-winning, feature rich, fully scalable platform will be used by agencies under the Havas Digital umbrella around the world. KENSHOO Search offers advanced features for enterprise agencies such as automated RealTime campaigns, bid management, dynamic graphical reporting, full support for all languages and currencies along with countless other capabilities.
Bauer Media KG to work with nugg.ad Predictive Behavioural Targeting
Bauer Media KG, the publishing and online marketing partner for the Bauer Media Group, will be working with Europe’s largest targeting platform, nugg.ad. A particular focus of this collaboration will be Bauer Media KG’s use of the Predictive Behavioural Targeting service by nugg.ad. Bauer Media KG markets a broad range of online services in various subject areas, including, amongst others, tvmovie.de, BRAVO.de, LECKER.de and the women’s site Wunderweib.de, reaching a total of 2.88 million unique users per month.
MandMDirect.com Adopts Peerius Recommendation Engine
Peerius the recommendation technology specialist has signed up one of the UK’s largest and most successful online retailers - MandMDirect.com, following a trial that reported an immediate revenue uplift of 8% after just one week of serving live recommendations.
MandMDirect.com is one of the UK’s leading fashion and sports etailers. It sells a range of top brands such as Nike, Timberland, Miss Sixty and Berghaus through its website, offering up to 75% off UK recommended retailer prices. The Peerius recommendation engine is being used to generate personalised product recommendations that are individual to each MandMDirect.com customer. It builds individual profiles for each shopper using a combination of shopper preferences, the attributes of the products they look at and their browsing behaviour historically and within each current shopping session. After a three-week period 16% of MandMDirect.com orders now contain a recommended product.
Golley Slater and SearchIgnite boost digital media ROI for Center Parcs
SearchIgnite, a provider of search optimisation and media attribution solutions, and Golley Slater, an integrated agency specialising in digital transformation, today released a comprehensive cross-channel measurement and attribution report. The report outlines Golley Slater’s and SearchIgnite’s five step process for analysing and attributing digital media to maximize ROI and includes a case study showcasing how the methodology successfully increased ROI by 54% for leading UK travel marketer, Center Parcs.
Like most online marketers, Center Parcs historically gave all credit for their online leads and sales to the last media channel that a customer was exposed to prior to converting, an approach known as “last click attribution.” This approach made it difficult for the company to gather an accurate picture of their real ROI and each digital channel’s contribution to the marketing funnel.
Following an extensive search for a marketing technology partner to help them overcome this challenge, Golley Slater and Center Parcs selected SearchIgnite because of the platform’s ability to attribute performance across digital channels including PPC, SEO, display, email and affiliate, as well its proven media optimisation capabilities.
The full report outlining this 5 step process and case study can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/betterattribution
Wapple helps 1Goal stay on target
Wapple has lent its skills to the 1Goal education charity campaign to develop a mobile web site that will promote the importance of education for all in the fight against world poverty. Supported by some of the world’s biggest names in football such as Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand, Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry, along with a host of celebrities and world leaders, 1Goal is seizing the power of football to bring together sport, charities, business, governments and fans in the hope that education for all can be a lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup.
Visitors to the 1Goal site - http://www.join1goal.org/ – using a mobile phone will be automatically redirected to the mobile site where they can sign up to the 1Goal cause and find out more about the campaign. With the help of GSMA and some 30 mobile companies covering over 150 operators, 1Goal will reach nearly 1.5 Billion phone users during the World Cup, making it one of the biggest ever global mobile marketing campaigns.
Abacus e-Media e-recruitment platform available on G-Cloud
Abacus e-Media announces that the latest version of its online recruitment solution for the public sector, Recruit, has been selected to be part of the Quick Wins trial in the government’s G-Cloud programme. Abacus has set up the Recruit SaaS application platform, and has partnered with BT who are providing the Cloud Infrastructure Platform.
G-Cloud will enable public sector bodies to select and host ICT services from a secure, resilient and cost-effective shared environment. Other participants in the G-Cloud pilot are from organisations like Oracle, Accenture, Google, Microsoft, Siemens and Capgemini, and all aim to use this platform to improve public service delivery, improve access to public services and increase the efficiency of public delivery. Recruit provides a comprehensive online recruitment solution from initial job specification and online advertising, through to short listing, candidate communication, interview management, reference control and contracts, together with talent bank and integration to HR and payroll systems if required.
PartyGaming plays unbeatable hand with smartFOCUS
smartFOCUS, a global provider of intelligent multi-channel marketing software, has been chosen by PartyGaming, the world’s leading listed online gaming company, to implement a high performance marketing solution to increase both the volume and value of player activity across the range of PartyGaming brands including PartyPoker, PartyCasino, PartyBets and PartyBingo. PartyGaming has purchased the full suite of smartFOCUS software and services, including analysis, campaign management and reporting, to deliver a complete and centralised view of its customers. PartyGaming is now able to profile players segmented by life-stage, value, recent activity and frequency of play, then take advantage of highly granular data.
smartFOCUS was selected for the performance, scalability and usability of its software. PartyGaming is now benefitting from an in-house solution that enables marketers to compare and analyse different player segments by the types of games they are playing. With increased insight PartyGaming is improving the targeting of cross-sell and reactivation marketing, understanding the lifetime value of affiliate partners and improving the profitability of its gaming products.
BskyB partners with mobile interactive technology to drive interactive solutions
Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT) has been appointed by Britain’s largest multi channel television provider BSkyB, to power a range of Interactive Services through MIT’s Messaging Platform MIDAS including BSkyB’s SMS Alerts Services and a range of micropayment mechanics.
BSkyB will benefit from the expertise provided by MIT’s dedicated Interactive Production Team and Operations Team, as well as strategic support on how to best to deliver their mobile and digital interactivity over the coming 24 months.
The service went live in February, enabling Sky consumers to be 100% up to date with real-time news and sports, and to actively participate and share their views via SMS and much more. To access the Sky Mobile TV go to www.sky.com/mobiletvv , enter your mobile number in the required field and a free SMS message will be sent to your mobile phone with a link to sign-up to the service.
i3 Group appoints President and Group COO
Fibre optic infrastructure specialist, i3 Group, has today announced the appointment of Greg Mesch as President and Group COO to drive the business forward in the delivery of its Fibrecity networks, H2O Networks and international business models of fibre-based infrastructure for business and residential markets. Mesch has a reputation for growing and managing rapidly expanding businesses around the world which will be key to the i3 Group as it is now firmly moving into the international fibre to the home (FTTH) infrastructure market and follows a new Group structure that was put into place in 2009.
The i3 Group has pioneered the use of new technologies including existing ducts in the water networks to build low cost fibre optic infrastructures that bring super fast connectivity to homes and business. Known as the FS System, this and other innovative methods enable the i3 Group to lay fibre optic cables quicker and more cost-effectively than traditional civil works.
