PENSAR COMO UNA EMPRESA DE SOFTWARES, UNA NUEVA NECESIDAD PARA LAS AGENCIAS DE PUBLICIDAD.

At the Apps for Brands event this past Wednesday, I moderated a panel that looked specifically at how marketers should attack the construction of a branded application. 

But one question we didn't get to address was: How much do marketers need to know about app development anyway?  The truth is, advertisers and brand marketers are entering a brave new world -- one where code is on par with content. The 21st-century ad isn't something to be looked at, it's something to be used. Our reliance on mobile tools, such as apps, position them as the perfect vehicles for brands. "Consumers" are now "users." So are "marketers" now "developers"?

"In order to make a successful app, you need to have these core competencies, or work with companies that have these core competencies, that are beyond marketing," said Ad Age's Nick Parish during the pre-panel call. J.B. Holston, president-CEO of NewsGator, saw this as his company's role. "Our clients would rather not have to worry about keeping up with latest and greatest [in platform releases]," he said. "They can focus a lot more on the brand, more what is the right expression of the brand here, rather than 'How do I use the video capability of the next generation iPhone?'"

But Matt Galligan, CEO and co-founder of CrashCorp, also a tech company, said that having someone who at least can help a creative team understanding how the software should look is very helpful. "I think having somebody like that, even if they are not the ones coding the app, helps bridge the gap between the technical and the creative," he said. "As we talk to various brands and agencies about working with our technology, there is sort of a disconnect."

AKQA gets around this with a "creative developer" role, which I've also heard referred to as a "creative technologist." People in this hybrid position work directly with developers to oversee the realization of an idea. "Pure creatives don't have the language to speak with developers," said Rei Inamoto, AKQA's chief creative officer. "These people act as translators."

Inamoto also pointed to the need for brand managers to have a new hybrid mind-set. "We need to educate and cultivate a new breed of people who understand tech from a marketing and brand perspective, who have a consumer mindset." These "brand technologists," as Parish called them, also lend a software company vibe around an agency.

This idea of agency as software company was the founding principle of The Barbarian Group, a boutique digital shop with offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco. Co-founder Rick Webb believes that the advertising industry has only had one major take-away from the web 2.0 world: User-generated content.

"What they should have been taking away all of this time -- and have increasingly begun to -- are the concepts of the constant beta and agile development," he says. "Marketers need to abandon the time-limited campaign online and start to think of it as a constant application of a rigorous discipline. They should think of their marketing the same way that Facebook puts out a new feature every two weeks, tweaks it, changes it, and re-releases it. It's not a coincidence that's brought Facebook 400 million users and Twitter 40 million. We've been applying them to Kashi.com for three years now and have seen results beyond anything that a single campaign could do on its own."

These hybrid employees that can bring digital know-how to Madison Avenue should not be hard for companies to find. Rising college grads have grown up using digital tools for their creative expression and academic pursuits. Even established employees are taking up code in their spare time, not only recognizing its value on the job, but also to realize their own ideas.

Agencies need to recognize that this digital and mobile literacy is essential to their survival -- both on the creative side and the account side. They need not do the building in-house, but they need to know how the bricks are laid. Just as Salvatore Romano, Sterling Cooper's Art Director, transitioned from drawing storyboards to producing commercial, this generation's mad men will need to make a similar leap into Advertising 2.0.

Fuente: Advertising Age

Link: http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=139329

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ALTOIDS REFRESCA SU COMUNICACIÓN CON UN PROYECTO ON LINE

"Mint Brand Takes Starring Role in Online, Mobile Series About Advertising Antics".   Imagine a comedy series built around internal rivalries, bad client pitches and every conceivable behind-the-scenes goings-on at an ad agency.  

You've got the everyman art director, the cocky jerk that management has hired to revive the struggling business and, obviously, the girl. What else is missing? A cool, edgy brand.    

Back in October, Mike Wallen, VP-creative director for Fox Mobile Studios, was on the hunt for a brand to star in "Brainstorm," an original series the studio developed for web and mobile platforms along with Los Angeles-based creative and entertainment shop Omelet, that lampoons the industry's suits and creatives.

Several months later, he found a willing and compelling star in Altoids, the "Curiously Strong" mint candy that enjoyed a rebirth in the 1990s after being discovered by the young, hip and urban. While the product still resonates with that crowd, the Wrigley-owned brand wanted to shake things up a bit, according to Mr. Wallen.

"Let's take the tin out of the drawer and put it back on the desk," Mr. Wallen said, referring to the mint's iconic and quirky red containers. "This effort was something edgy to turn the brand on its nose."

Audience-building efforts for "Brainstorm" began earlier this month, showing up in all the major social-media outlets, including Twitter, where the show's characters post. Fox is also driving PR, in addition to running banner-display and page-takeover ads on the online video destination Dailymotion.com. Altoids will additionally promote the series on its website.

A million views for a single branded entertainment video would be considered successful by any standard, Mr. Wallen said, but he's hoping the series' eight episodes will garner 2.5 million views over a six-month period. "Easy to Assemble," a web series starring actress Illeana Douglas which debuted last fall and appears on MyDamnChannel.com, has a million viewers and counting.

The series is the brainchild of Mr. Wallen, a former agency exec on the creative side of the business. Inspired by the growing popularity of TV shows set in office environments, he sought to weave a narrative around the back story behind client pitches and campaign work.

Taking punches

"We just want to tell the fun and crazy stories that are behind the scenes at ad agencies -- it's a group of ad execs and creatives that are so bad at what they do it's funny. They're struggling so much, they're so desperate and the desperation has an effect on their ideas and creatives," he said.

All of which means the team behind Altoids needs some thick skin to sit in the middle of all the provocative jokes, whether it's an African-American team member suggesting a pitch for Altoids around the headline "White power," or using the suggestive powers of a pitchman with the face of a rear end to convey the dire need for minty breath.

The crude humor can help elevate the brand's irreverence and edginess, so Altoids "has to take some punches," Mr. Wallen said.

"Brainstorm" marks Fox Mobile Studios' first branded-entertainment endeavor. But already, Mr. Wallen has some opinions on how to approach content-meets-advertising.

"It has to be a great entertainment piece, a funny show before it's a brand campaign. If it's not a funny show, or a great story, it doesn't matter what brand is involved. No one is going to watch it," he said.

When it feels forced, consumers will be turned off, but since "Brainstorm" is a show about advertising, it's only natural that a brand would play a central role. "It would only add credibility and texture and a sense of realism to have a real brand play and be involved," Mr. Wallen said.

"Brainstorm" will make its debut Sept. 28 on Dailymotion.com, and more than a week later will be distributed to outlets such as YouTube and MySpace and through mobile providers AT&T, Sprint and others.

Fuente: Advertising Age

Link: http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=139161

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GUINNESS CELEBRA SU 250 ANIVERSARIO CON UN PROYECTO MÓVIL

Irish brewer Guinness is using 2D bar code technology to promote its 250th anniversary celebration.   Readers of Canada's Metro newspaper will have the opportunity to win a trip to Dublin to partake in Guinness’ anniversary celebration. 

The Guinness print ad within Metro is armed with a 2D bar code. Metro is also expanding the ScanLife technology to its daily newspaper and launching and iPhone application.

“Metro partnered with Guinness to give away a trip to Dublin in each of our six Canadian English markets,” said Chris Tindal, interactive content manager at Metro Canada, Toronto. “We believe this will drive awareness of the codes and encourage people to download the ScanLife application for the first time. 

“Once the application is on their phone they are much more likely to scan codes they find in our paper in the future,” he said.

Metro is a free daily newspaper published in over 100 cities in 19 different countries across Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Guinness is a popular beer that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness.  When a reader scans the code on the Guinness ad, they are taken to a landing page at http://m.metronews.ca that reads "Congrats on scanning to reveal the secret password! To complete your entry text [secret word] to 82442. May the luck of the Irish be with you!"

The secret word changes for each city because the promotion has one prize per city.  For the SMS portion, Metro is using Tagga technology.  "The Guinness promotion is a really smart way to get people using the technology right out of the gate,” said Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO of ScanBuy, New York. “People simply scan the code to see a secret SMS keyword which they can use to enter the sweepstakes.

“We have seen some great results from promotional campaigns like this with hundreds, or even thousands, of scans,” he said. “It’s a great way to engage an audience in a very innovative way.”

Metro’s demographic of young, urban and active 18-49 year olds are the kind of people who are up on technology and love trying new things, so the ScanLife technology is appealing to the audience.

Besides being used in the Guinness promotion, Metro is using the 2D bar codes to give readers more content than what is available in the print edition.   The ScanLife technology sends the readers directly to the extra content on http://m.metronews.ca.   “For example, if we have some extra in-depth coverage of a story, or if there are likely to be new developments throughout the day, we’ll use ScanLife,” Mr. Tindal said. “As we move forward we’ll look at even more ways we can use 2D bar codes to give our readers more value and help them interact with the paper.

“This technology is all about making traditional print media more interactive using the common camera phone,” Mr. Bulkeley said. “It makes it really simple to navigate to additional content right from the newspaper which over a million people are already reading every day.” 

Fuente: MobileMarketer

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/4134.html

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IPHONE EXHIBE COMERCIAL DE APLICACIÓN DE PIZZA HUT

"Chain One of Few Marketers to Receive Apple's Endorsement on TV". Pizza Hut's iPhone app will be featured in an Apple-sponsored iPhone commercial breaking tonight. The pizza chain's app was the first for the fast-food space, released this past summer.

Ian Wolfman, chief marketer for Pizza Hut's digital agency, IMC2, said that while the marketer had planned to contact Apple and campaign for a place in one of its commercials, the computer maker called the pizza chain first. "And they moved quickly," Mr. Wolfman said. The initial call came just three weeks ago.

Apple did not immediately return calls for comment. Pizza Hut declined to comment for this story. The commercial will appear during "House," "The Big Bang Theory" and "Monday Night Football."

The true boost from an Apple endorsement remains hard to quantify. Apple promotes apps from a variety of other marketers, including Whole Foods, Yelp, Facebook and the New York Times. But only a few are chosen for broadcast-TV plugs. And it's good to be singled out. For instance, the iBird Explorer, a field guide for casual ornithologists, got seven seconds of an Apple commercial, and quickly became the No. 1 reference app in a 35,000 app category.

Mr. Wolfman concedes that his agency developed the app with an Apple ad in its sights, delving into development manuals and trying to re-create "the Apple juice," or seamless use of cool features such as GPS and shaking, without adding unnecessary steps.

For instance, Mr. Wolfman said, consumers can shake off ingredients they've accidentally put on the pizza, and actually watch them fall off, with a resulting picture of the pie they would like delivered. This builds trust that their order will be correct. "One of the insights we have is that when people are ordering, they want to have confidence in what [the pizza is] going to look like," he said.

Pizza Hut, which also developed the first ordering platform for Facebook, expects to pass $1 billion in online sales by 2012. As part of that effort, the chain will begin promoting its app with five-second tags at the end of its TV ads, offering a whopping 20% off orders placed by iPhone. Pizza Hut's creative agency is BBDO, New York.

The chain is also looking for ways to boost sales. It has dramatically expanded its menu to include pasta and wings, and it has struggled in recent quarters. The chain's same-store sales fell 8% during the second quarter, because the brand is heavily slated to the more-expensive dinner category. Delivery pizza has suffered as a segment during the recession, as consumers have shifted to lower-priced frozen varieties.

Fuente: Advertising Age 

Link: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139178

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EL FUTURO DE LA BANCA MÓVIL ESTÁ EN LA TECNOLOGÍA

"Industry Looks to Grow in Emerging Markets With New Forms of Payment".   Recent technological developments that allow for deposits by iPhone and mobile payments could one day make ATMs as quaint as brick-and-mortar bank branches. 

But the biggest impact may be on the ability of banks -- and even nontraditional players such as Nokia -- to find new revenue streams as they branch into emerging markets where cash is still king.  

On the home front, the technology moves apace and isn't very hard to understand. The military bank and insurance provider USAA recently launched mobile check-deposit technology, which lets users deposit checks from anywhere using an iPhone. USAA customers take photos of both sides of a check with the phone and transmit the images to the bank, which then verifies and makes the deposit. The bank has only one branch in San Antonio and, because of its military legacy, has customers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

'Woven into our growth strategy ' 

"Mobile is definitely woven into our growth strategy as we continue to expand," said Jeff Dennes, executive director of USAA mobile. "We don't have branches and rely on our self-service channels, such as phones and the internet."

Bob Meara, industry analyst for information technology in financial-services research and consulting firm Celent, said USAA has deposit growth nearly triple the industry average over the past three years. Further, 17% of all its customers across investing, insurance and banking use USAA's mobile app, which also facilitates on-phone trading, filing claims for auto accidents, loan calculations and the usual access to account information.

Right now, USAA represents the bleeding edge of mobile banking technology, but has no plans to trumpet such technology in a marketing push, or to fight for more share.

Bank of America, which launched mobile apps in 2007, has more than 3.2 million mobile-banking customers that can access informational services such as account balances and history, make transactions and bill payments, transfer funds within the bank and locate ATMs. Chase also has an iPhone app, as well as text message-based services. Both banks have featured mobile services in ad campaigns.

Bank of America's Doug Brown, senior VP-emerging technology and business development, said that his bank's next-generation mobile functionality is headed toward touch-phone-to-pay, dubbed "contactless payments," and new ways to make deposits. "We want the phone to be a more functional tool, like a wallet at point-of-sale, where it becomes your payment credential, like a credit card," said Mr. Brown.

But for USAA, contactless payments are more of a long-term goal. In its sights are person-to-person mobile payments. "Person-to-person payments are next on our road map," said Jeff Dennes executive director of USAA mobile.

Nokia bets on electronic payments

And that's where Nokia comes in. The mobile heavyweight could use person-to-person payments as an entry-point to emerging markets -- and a new revenue stream. It's partnered with Redwood City, Calif.-based Obopay to launch Nokia Money, a service that lets users make financial transactions on their phones. With Nokia Money, which will start to roll out in 2010 in undisclosed markets, mobile users can send money to other mobile users, pay merchants and utility bills, or top up prepaid cellphone minutes. Nokia Money will charge users a percentage or flat fee per transaction based on the market.

While there are a few mobile-payment players in the U.S., such as PayPal, Boku and Zong, Nokia's global retail infrastructure means 4-year-old Obopay can expand these services to emerging markets, including to consumers without e-bank accounts. Shops that are currently used to top up prepaid minutes will act like Nokia Money ATMs that turn mobile payments into cash.

That means new territory for the world's largest handset maker, which has faced tough competition from the iPhone and Blackberry. For those global consumers who currently use mobile phones but don't have a bank account -- according to Nokia, there are more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts globally -- Nokia has the potential to be the first point of contact for consumers new to electronic payment services.

Mobile payment technology would take on a different role in North America and Western Europe, where there's such an established payment infrastructure with ATMs, branches, credit cards and e-payments, like paying babysitters, peer-to-peer payments and e-retail purchases. But for economies in South Asia and Africa where cash is central to financial transactions and people live outside the reach of banking infrastructure, phone-to-phone payments could be the developing world's answer to cashless payments. Person-to-person mobile payments are already gaining popularity in Africa and South Asia. For example, M-Pesa in Kenya has more than 6 million users.

"In the Western European and North American markets, there isn't a threat [to financial institutions] because we have a well-established payment infrastructure," said Red Gillen, senior analyst at Celent. "Nokia Money probably won't supplant anything in industrialized nations. But in Africa and South Asia, the mobile carrier would be the consumer-facing entity for financial services."

Why it stands a good chance

Betting on mobile rather than traditional banking isn't exactly a risky move.

Nokia claims there are 4 billion mobile phone users in the world and only 1.6 billion bank accounts. The World Bank's Consultative Group to Assist the Poor estimates there are 1 billion people in developing countries who have mobile phones but no access to formal financial services. What's more, mobile-industry trade organization Global System for Mobile Communications Association's dedicated mobile-money unit projects the unbanked-with-phones population will nearly double by 2012, representing $5 billion in direct revenue potential.

Kenya's M-Pesa mobile-payment service, which launched in March 2007, serves as a successful case study. According to the Central Bank of Kenya's FinAccess 2006 report, 38% of people in Kenya, a country of about 37 million, didn't use any form of financial service. GMSA tells us that in 2009, M-Pesa has nearly 7 million registered customers and this year's Finaccess report shows that M-Pesa has become the most popular method of money transfer in Kenya with 40% of all adults using the service.

Now scale that for India, the second-largest wireless market in the world, next to China, where 36% of people have mobile phones, according to Celent. The Boston-based financial-research and -consulting firm also reports that 84% of Indian households were unbanked in 2005 and that mobile banking in India has grown 94% since 2002. That adds up to projection of India's mobile banking active user base reaching 25 million by 2012.

Fuente: Advertising Age 

Link: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139136

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MARCAS GRANDES COMPROMETIDAS CON EL DESARROLLO MÓVIL

Nestlé, Kraft, J&J, Wal-Mart, Metro and Carrefour lead GS1 MobileCom initiative Leading brands and retailers committed to standards to connect businesses and consumers using mobile phones.

Brussels, Belgium, 16 September 2009 – Global brands and retailers such as Nestlé, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Metro and Carrefour are leading an effort by GS1 to define open standards and allow businesses and consumers to interact using mobile phones. These companies are now part of newly-formed GS1 MobileCom Steering Committee that will help drive the efforts of the GS1 MobileCom group together with local GS1 offices represented by GS1 Colombia, GS1 Hong Kong & GS1 France.

GS1 MobileCom is a cross-industry initiative involving over one hundred companies representing manufacturers, retailers, mobile industry companies and solution providers. The group aims for:

• all consumers to have access to trusted product information and related services via their mobile phones.

• all stake holders to use open standards to make this possible and so ensure interoperable, scalable and cost-effective applications.

“GS1 MobileCom has brought together a group of organisations dedicated to defining and using open standards as a foundation to unlock the potential of mobile commerce. It shows that brands and retailers are convinced that mobile is becoming a key touch point for engaging with consumers,” commented Vanderlei Roque dos Santos (Nestlé), co-chair of the GS1 MobileCom group.

The GS1 MobileCom group aims to represent all key stakeholders with global scope including manufacturers, retailers, mobile industry companies and solution providers. As a result, there are currently open positions on the Steering Committee for three companies from the mobile industry or the wider solution provider community.

“Working in collaboration with the mobile industry will make it possible to bring together the relevant stakeholders to make mobile commerce a reality,” said Diane Taillard from GS1.

“We are looking to GS1 MobileCom to positively develop a truly balanced vision for an interoperable mobile commerce ecosystem. The ultimate goal is a simple, reliable and intuitive mobile experience for all our customers,” said Olivier Raynal (Carrefour), co-chair of the GS1 MobileCom group.

The GS1 MobileCom group has released already a position paper on mobile barcodes and a handbook on how consumers can access information about products via their mobile phones using barcodes and open standards. This provides guidance for current and future initiatives and supports over 10 local GS1 offices running pilots.

The group is now working on a white paper describing the impact of mobile applications on retail stores and on retailers in general. Work will also soon start on the development of recommendations for mobile coupons and promotions.

Fuente: GoMo News

Link: http://www.gomonews.com/nestle-kraft-jj-wal-mart-metro-and-carrefour-lead-gs1-mobilecom-initiative-leading-brands-and-retailers-committed-to-standards-to-connect-businesses-and-consumers-using-mobile-phones/

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MENSAJES DE TEXTO CON "CALL TO ACTION" IDEALES PARA OBTENER RESPUESTAS DEL PÚBLICO

SMS may lack sizzle, but it can deliver the goods if provoking your audience to action is the goal, as Chicago's Shedd Aquarium recently discovered from its summer test campaigns. 

To herd visitors to its new Fantasea aquatic show, Shedd Aquarium put a couple of direct-response tactics to the test to see if consumers preferred SMS or web-based calls to action. 

At the end of 30-second spots that aired on Chicago's NBC, ABC and Fox affiliates, the aquarium announced a contest with prizes that included a hotel stay and VIP seats for the Fantasea premiere. The commercials were identical across the networks except for the calls to action: All the ads directed viewers to a website to register for the contest, except one spot, which gave viewers an additional mobile option to enter the contest by sending a text message to a special code. 

The SMS call to action generated 325% more entries than the web-based call-to-action, making up 52% of the total entries, though it ran in only 25% of the ads. 

To Shedd's assistant marketing director, Jay Geneske, the results show that the "phone is always with you, it's nearby and immediate," even when you're watching TV. Shedd also ran a one-day print campaign in a local paper with a text call-to-action, yielding the highest or near highest number of responses for a single-day print piece, Mr. Geneske said. 

"SMS reveals a greater sense of urgency," said Jed Alpert, founder of Mobile Commons, the technology company that managed the campaign's SMS piece. "It's more actionable and convenient, and people have a more direct connection with their phones." 

Additionally, when people are watching TV, they're more likely to have their cellphones near them than a computer. 

Fresh impressions

"The mobile phone gives the consumer the ability to respond to the advertisement in real time, while the impression is still fresh in their heads," said Aaron Watkins, a former mobile-marketing agency executive turned independent consultant. 

To get consumers to respond via the web, on the other hand, means they not only have to be interested in the ad but need to recall the website address later if they were not near a computer when the ad ran. The likelihood that they will remember the address drops "exponentially," given the nonstop barrage of messages and media that hit people every day, Mr. Watkins said. 

Mobile works best when overlaid with mass media such as TV and radio, because they radiate that much more reach, compared to, say, mobile apps or display banners, Mr. Alpert said. 

More than 90% of U.S. handsets are SMS-capable, with the number of text messages starting to outpace voice calls in 2007, according to Nielsen. 

For consumers to text in, however, the offer has to be compelling and valuable, whether it's entertainment, information or access to something special. Shedd's campaign worked well because the short code was part of the narrative and script, rather than an afterthought of just slapping a code at the end of the commercial. 

Mr. Alpert said it cost Shedd less than $10,000 to trial SMS in its TV campaigns. Given the relatively low outlay, marketers may want to consider SMS trials in their out-of-home and broadcast campaigns if for nothing else than to capture users for their mobile-marketing database. Mr. Alpert said over the hundreds of mobile campaigns his agency has managed, an average 85% of those who opt into a campaign will respond to more requests for information, such as age and ZIP code. 

Fuente: Adage

Link: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139156

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FOURSQUARE, UN HIT DENTRO DE LAS APLICACIONES MÓVILES

Many of us have been anxiously awaiting a smarter Twitter that not only lets us update our status and connect with friends online, but also lets us find our Twitter friends — in real-life — when we’re in the same place at the same time. Wouldn’t that be genius?

As with most of our Twitter-related needs, a creative application developer has used the Twitter API to build what Twitter never will. And as for the challenge of finding Twitter friends in the same vicinity, we can now turn to the hottest mobile app to take over this year’s SXSW: Foursquare.

Foursquare is essentially a re-envisioning of Dodgeball, Twitter’s precursor and a cult phenomenon until Google left it for dead, and actually hails from one of the guys that worked to build that app. Foursquare, which offers an iPhone app or mobile browser experience, works by letting you tell the app where you are and then lets your friends know where to find you. All you need to do is check-in via SMS (text to 50500) or mobile app.

Using the Foursquare iPhone app, you can automatically check-in and post shouts based on where you are and what you’re doing. You can also find your friends, search venues, earn badges, and add friends.

Since you can add your favorite Twitter friends and auto-post your checkins to Twitter, Foursquare provides a convenient way to connect your Twitter network with your every on-the move activity. You can even allow Foursquare to send your friends DMs when you check-in.

Foursquare is also a game, so each check-in earns you points, with interesting check-ins earning you badges (awards), and the more you check-in the more Foursquare features you can unlock.

We really like Foursquare’s fresh approach to location-based social networking, and definitely hope to see them have more staying power than their Dodgeball predecessor.

Fuente: Mashable “The Social Media Guide” 

Link: http://mashable.com/2009/03/16/foursquare/

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CONCURSOS INTERACTIVOS Y MARKETING ON LINE

BearingPoint Contest

New York based marketing agency About Face Digital approached us wishing to run two campaigns on behalf of a client: one, an interactive contest and two, an incentive-based survey. 

About Face Digital was able to easily and cost effectively run both of these promotions using our technology.   About Face Digital, a New York-based advertising agency, has used our app to run two promotions on behalf of its clients. The first, a "Green Contest", solicited ideas from consumers on how to make company workplaces more environmentally friendly. It was part of a broader campaign launched by the client, a consulting firm, to promote new thinking among businesses. The contest generated numerous innovative and actionable ideas to reduce the negative impact of businesses on the environment. Word about the contest was spread via newsfeeds which were generated when participants submitted or voted for an entry and friend invites 

The second promotion was an incentive-based survey. In return for completing a survey about their banking behaviors and preferences, participants received a $25 voucher from restaurants.com. Participants were encouraged to invite their friends and newsfeeds were generated each time the survey was completed. 

Fuente: Wildfire

Link: http://wildfireapp.com/customers/digital_face

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RED BULL SE SUBE AL ADVERGAMING

RedBull se sube a una de las últimas tendencias en publicidad interactiva: El Advergaming

La marca de bebidas energizantes eligió a la empresa FreeStyle, como desarrolladora de sus juegos y entretenimientos, para atraer y generar lazos efectivos con sus consumidores: http://www.redbullsoapboxracer.com/

La firma originaria de Austria selló un acuerdo con la desarrolladora de software para generar diversos videojuegos. Según informó la publicación Business Week, la firma tecnológica está trabajando en un video game llamado B-Boy, y también para la consola del play station. 

El juego “brake dance” es una de las primeras incursiones de ambas empresas en conjunto. Este acuerdo marca la importancia de generar una experiencia de marca dentro de los juegos. Los consumidores actuales son mucho más eclécticos en lo que se refiere a su forma de entretenerse. Cada día pasan más tiempo expuestos a medios interactivos como internet o los video juegos.

El desarrollo de branded entertainment, en especial el advergaming, es una de las nuevas tendencias que encontraron las marcas para vincularse con estos nuevos consumidores. Por otro lado, el creciente mercado de las consolas de video como la xBox o la Playstation, son un claro signo que representa el espacio en donde podrán encontrar a los próximos consumidores, que ya están llegando.

Fuente: iprofesional.com

Link: http://marketing.infobaeprofesional.com/notas/49365-Red-Bull-se-suma-a-una-desarrolladora-de-video-juegos.html?cookie

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TACO BELL SPICES UP MARKETING STRATEGY WITH MOBILE

Fast food franchise Taco Bell has spiced up its marketing strategy with the introduction of a mobile component to its “Why Pay More” promotion.

Taco Bell launched the “Why Pay More Shaker” iPhone application, which calculates the various 79, 89 and 99 cent items on the restaurant’s value menu. The application was created by the Hyperfactory. 

“iPhones are considered to be the latest and the greatest,” said Dave Everett, vice president and partner at KaOoga, Newton, MA. “They are made for people on the go and this fits in perfectly for fast food chains.”

“The demographics also match up well as the iPhone users’ age group skews towards a younger crowd,” he said. “Another iPhone advantage is the enormous screen size – an advertiser’s message is impossible to miss. “Having mobile outreach gives fast-food chains an opportunity to push new products, specials and deals.” 

Taco Bell first launched its Why Pay More value menu last year and it couldn’t have been a more perfect time. The battered economy has taken its toll on fast-food chain sales in general and the Why Pay More value menu is a great incentive to drive sales. 

The Taco Bell value menu includes a variety of menu choices including burritos, tacos and nachos. To use the app, users just need to enter the prices of the value menu items they are buying. Then, they have to shake their phone to trigger calculation. 

The application is meant to show consumers that Taco Bell is dedicated to helping consumers save money during this tough time. The application also calculates how much change consumers are to get back. 

Customers with a limited amount of money in hand can enter the amount they have and the app will show them what combinations of menu items they can afford to buy. The app also has a store locator link that helps find the nearest Taco Bell. 

“Quick service restaurants view mobile apps as a new way to engage their customers, from a simple store-finder function that helps customer find the nearest restaurant to full remote ordering and payment right from the app,” said Noah N. Glass, founder CEO of Gomobo, New York.

Gomobo built an iPhone application for fast-food chain Burger King. The Burger King app lets consumer place orders and pay for them their iPhone. Additionally, Gomobo helped Subway with its mobile ordering service. 

“Restaurant self-service technology has evolved from in-store kiosks, to online ordering, to the mobile device,” he said.

Fuente: Mobilemarketer

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/3610.html

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REALIDAD AUMENTADA: TARJETAS DE PRESENTACIÓN

“La realidad aumentada” está de moda, y las tarjetas de presentación no son la excepción para generar un impacto y capturar la atención del espectador. 

Por esa razón Jonas Jäger desarrolló las tarjetas de realidad aumentada. Que no solo muestran el correo electrónico y número de teléfono de su portador, si no que lo exponen como una figura real que cumple la función de desplegar información de contacto como: Teléfono, SMS, e-mail y por supuesto las redes sociales. 

Estas tarjetas de presentación muestran también información actualizada, así como el portfolio de una persona con sus respectivas actualizaciones dentro de la web y las redes sociales. Como un verdadero FAN de ‘La Guerra de las Galaxias’, Jonas Jäger buscaba lograr un “holograma” para efectos de las presentaciones, y lo hizo. 

Para ver esta holográmica innovación, ingrese al link. 

Fuente: Brandlife Blog 

Link: http://www.brandlife.es/2009/07/tarjetas-de-visita-en-realidad-aumentada/

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TYLENOL MOBILE CAMPAIGN DRIVES 3,000 APP DOWNLOADS

Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare drove discovery of its free branded "Tylenol PM Sleep Tracker" iPhone application with a mobile campaign on AdMob’s ad network, according to a presentation at digiday: Apps.

The Tylenol application, which was created by Deutsch, is available as a free download in the App Store and is promoted with the tagline “See how beneficial a good night’s sleep can be.” A click-to-download banner ad campaign that ran across iPhone sites and applications drove close to 3,000 downloads and increased Tylenol’s ranking in the App Store from No. 120 to 14, which in turn drove additional organic viral spread of the application.

“With tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, promotion is crucial to getting your app highly ranked, which is critical for discovery,” said Tony Nethercutt, vice president of sales at AdMob. “Consumer discovery is difficult with 50,000 apps, so being ranked in the top 25 most popular apps in your category is critical to getting more downloads.

“Brands get a steady flow of organic distribution through placement in the App Store rankings,” he said. “We can tell you the exact ROI you get in terms of the amount of apps downloaded directly from the ads served on our network, but there’s also a halo effect, and ROI will continue to improve well after you’ve stopped spending.

“The Tylenol PM application is a highly successful brand extension to what they were already doing that provides utility to consumers, and advertising with AdMob effectively and affordably drove downloads of the app and increased its ranking.” 

AdMob has served mobile ads promoting iPhone applications from Bank of America, NBC Universal’s “Bruno,” Choice Hotels, Walt Disney’s “G-Force,” Ford Flex Photo Lab, Kraft iFood Assistant, Nissan Cube Party Round Up, Taco Bell Why Pay More Shaker, Target and Sherwin Williams ColorSnap.

An AdMob survey asking “How do you usually download apps from App Store?” found that 93 percent of consumers download applications using their iPhone, with only 7 percent using their computer.

AdMob also asked “How do you discover the apps you decide to download?” Sixty-two percent were searching for a specific type of application, 60 percent were browsing through the top App Store rankings, 46 percent heard about the application via word of mouth, 20 percent see ads while using other applications and 19 percent discover applications from press stories or blog reviews.

Driving app downloads with mobile ads The Tylenol brand of pain-relieving drugs is owned by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, an American pharmaceutical company and a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

The Tylenol PM Sleep Tracker iPhone application lets users track their sleep hours and moods, see their sleep history over time, add notes and customize their icons and get tips to help them sleep better.

Tylenol is promoting the application as part of its “Get Ready for Bed” campaign. Tylenol PM Sleep Tracker ads across AdMob’s network issued a call-to-action urging consumers to click through to the App Store to immediately download the application. 

While specific click-through rates weren’t revealed, AdMob claims its clients see conversion rates between 5 to 20 percent, with the average being closer to 10 percent. While ranging between $0.15 and $15, brands’ average cost-per-download directly from the click-to-iTunes mobile banner ads typically ranges between 1 and 2 dollars, according to AdMob.

“Those cost-per-download numbers are not counting viral downloads — we cause an organic bump, which continues somewhat even after the ad campaign ends,” Mr. Nethercutt said. “Ranking in the App Store is critical for discovery.

“Anything in top 25 is good, although our personal goal is to get you into the top ten,” he said. “There are a few apps we’ve gotten to No. 1, which is obviously the best.”

Fuente: Mobile Marketer

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/3913.html

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CITI MOBILE OPTIMIZES FOR SMARTPHONES

Citibank is expanding its mobile offerings to smartphones, including iPhones, Palm devices and most BlackBerry smartphones.

Checking account balances or paying a bill used to involve a trip to the bank, and in recent years, logging on to a PC, but mobile banking services continue to grow. Citibank customers can now access and manage their bank accounts via their smartphone's mobile browser, without having to download an app.

“We’re constantly looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to manage their money,” said Marylou Dowd, director of customer experience for Citibank Online and Citi Mobile, New York. “Citi Mobile for Smartphones is one more way in which the growing population of mobile users can access their Citi accounts anytime, anywhere.

“It complements our dedicated iPhone app, launched earlier this year, which has already enjoyed great adoption,” she said. “Our aim is to make mobile banking increasingly easy for our customers, regardless of what type of device they use.”

Citi Mobile for smartphones is a mobile banking application built by Citibank with support from Mobile Money Ventures, a joint venture of Citi and SK Telecom that provides mobile financial services applications worldwide.

Citibank was the first major U.S. bank to launch a downloadable mobile banking application in 2007.

Citibank is a member of Citi, a global financial services company with approximately 200 million customer accounts. It does business in more than 140 countries.  It has become clear that consumers are no longer using their smartphones for business purposes only.

According to Nielsen's Q1 2009 Mobile Insights survey, 62 percent of recent smartphone acquirers use their devices for personal reasons, such as taking photos or texting friends, while only 10 percent use them solely for business.

Additionally, consumers are switching to smartphones at a rapid pace, with smartphones accounting for 22 percent of all devices acquired in the past six months, increasing total market penetration in the U.S. to 16 percent.

Citi says that it is targeting the mass market with its smartphone platform. “We’re not focusing on any specific segments, because a surprisingly broad range of demographics appear to be behind the recent surge in smartphone sales,” Ms. Dowd said. “And as recently reported, many people are also increasingly untethered, depending on mobile devices for more and more of their connectivity—voice and data too.

“And across all segments, there are early signs that mobile banking is also finding a role in the home and at the office,” she said. “In other words, users don’t have to be on the move or out on the street in order to find mobile banking useful.”

The new Citi Mobile offering lets users of Web-enabled mobile devices such as RIM’s BlackBerry, the Palm Pre and Apple’s’ iPhone view Citi account balances and account activity, pay bills and set up recurring payments.

Citi customers can also use their smartphone to make transfers between Citi accounts, locate Citi branches and ATMs and connect to customer service.   

Citi Mobile for smartphones provides navigation on virtually any device that has a mobile browser and an Internet connection.  To sign in, customers enter the same personal user ID and password they would use on their home computer.

Citi Mobile launched its new offering because millions of Citibank customers are banking online, many visiting the site at least once a week, and more consumers are switching to smartphones everyday.

Citibank makes Citi Mobile available to all its customers free of charge, because mobile banking is now part of customers’ expectations.

“The added convenience for customers is the fact that they can now manage their accounts on the go,” Ms. Dowd said. “Mobile banking is reaching a stage where it’s not an add-on or a luxury—it’s part of the cost of doing business for any financial institution.

“Citibank.com and our branches are the main venues for advertising the new Citi Mobile for Smartphones,” she said. “We will also be using our other regular channels of communication with our users to make them aware of this new feature.”

Fuente: Mobile Marketer

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/banking-payments/3808.html

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HILTON HOTELS USES MOBILE TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

Hilton Hotels has launched a new mobile Web application giving iPhone users accessibility to the hotel chain’s Internet features.

The new mobile services for German and British users, including the ability to book from the iPhone, were launched in conjunction with Dublin-based Mobile Travel Technologies Ltd. Users can access and change bookings and view hotel images and information. 

“Hilton has launched the innovative mobile service to ensure customers have the best possible means of booking and managing their hotel accommodation, with ease,” said Geraldine Calpin, vice president of global ecommerce services for Hilton Hotels in Britain.

The mobile service has integration with the hotel company’s Hilton HHonors for the benefit of Hilton loyalty club members and a Hilton downloadable application will soon be available to British users.

The downloaded application will give users three ways to search for a hotel: text search, country or city, or by current location with the iPhone’s GPS capability showing a list of nearby Hilton hotels.

“In this digital age it's important we respond to the new needs of customers and now we can offer them the convenience to select and book a hotel, access and change bookings and view hotel images and information, whilst away from their PC,” Ms. Calpin said.

The technology was designed to be usable by both high-end and low-end software. “The technology provides an optimized view for each device,” said Gerry Samuels, founder and executive director of MTT, Dublin. “We took the lowest common denominator approach, it’s optimized for low to high-end and in the U.K. over and above we’re providing a genuine iPhone experience.”

“It’s all about convenience, to service road warriors when they are away from PC,” he said.

The new Hilton Hotel British and German mobile Web application joins the American version powered by Usablenet. Similarly, hotel chains like the Hyatt, Wyndam and Marriot all use Usablenet technology.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. launched mobile sites for its Wyndham Hotel Group to address growing consumer demand for mobile commerce and to offer a more complete travel resource to customers.

Travelers now have access to Wyndham Hotel Group properties through 10 newly created branded mobile Web sites. Sites were created for Wyndham’s Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8, Wingate by Wyndham, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and Knights Inn brands (see story).

“By launching local mobile services in the U.K. and Germany, we create a new distribution channel for our products and at the same time improve customer service, as customers enjoy the convenience of making and changing bookings on-the-go,” Ms. Calpin said.

Fuente: MobileMarketer 

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/3875.html

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BRIXX PIZZA SERVES UP MOBILE COUPONS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC

Regional restaurant franchise Brixx Pizza is seeing a spike in sales and increased customer traffic from mobile offers during the normally slow Monday-through-Thursday period.

Before the mobile campaign, Brixx had worked with Money Mailer on a number of shared-mail campaigns. While the direct mail ad worked well for them, Brixx viewed a mobile campaign as a tactic to improve targeting and increase the number of potential customers the restaurant could reach. 

“Brixx Pizza wanted to grow their revenue and differentiate the restaurant from the local competition and drive traffic to the restaurant at non-peak times,” said Carol Kelly, co-owner/partner of Money Mailer, Charleston, SC.

There are 13 Brixx Pizza locations across Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. Brixx Pizza of Charleston, SC, is located in a busy shopping center close to a heavily traveled interstate Through the shared mailing and mobile marketing campaign, Money Mailer was able to assist Brixx in their effort to bring in first-time customers while enticing current customers to increase their visits.

Brixx’s top priority was to attract more customers to the restaurant by building a database of mobile-phone numbers.  Using the database, it could then market relevant offers directly to customers on a regular basis.  The restaurant also wanted to use the mobile coupons to increase frequency of visits by current customers.   Realizing how competitive the restaurant business is in Charleston and how extremely value-conscious the pizza dining crowd is, Brixx saw mobile marketing as a cost-effective way to target them.

Money Mailer introduced the mobile coupon text messaging campaign program to Brixx’s management and staff, demonstrating how it worked on a mobile phone.  Brixx decided to integrate the communication tool into their marketing program, using the keyword BRIXXMTP and Money Mailer’s short code—686868—in all their other advertising such as radio ads. 

The shared-mail campaign was sent to thousands of consumers that fit the restaurant’s customer demographics—at least 30,000 homes throughout the nine counties in and around Charleston, SC. The offer was spelled out simply so that consumers knew how to opt-in.

Money Mailer, in tandem with Brixx, reinforced the offers with in-store collateral such as banners, buttons, window stickers and table tents with the SMS call-to-action.

The restaurant’s wait staff shared the opt-in code and offer with customers. As an incentive, customers who opted-in received a free appetizer.  “The waiter says, ‘How would you like a free appetizer today?’” Ms. Kelly said. “Patrons say ‘Sure,’ the waiter tells them how to opt in, and they opt in.”

Once consumers opted in, Brixx sent them mobile coupons, which included 50 percent off, buy-one pizza get-one free and two kids eat free with one adult purchase.  An example of a push message sent via SMS: “Brixx Pizza: kids eat free Sat. 4-8 with adult purchase, dine-in only.” Consumers have to show their mobile phone at the point of sale to redeem the coupon.

Money Mailer sends out Brixx mobile coupons to the opted-in database roughly once a week, no more than four offers per month.   Integrating the shared-mail program with mobile coupons led to more than 517 opt-ins and counting.  Brixx Pizza’s management said that they experienced a definite spike in sales due to the mobile initiatives.

As an important gauge of the program’s success, the campaign increased customer traffic during the normally slow Monday-through-Thursday period.  “The mobile coupon program has been working well,” Ms. Kelly said. “Brixx Pizza has achieved a huge volume of increase in traffic due to the mobile campaign—in the triple digits.”

Fuente: MobileMarketer

Link: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/3819.html

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MEET GOOGLE'S NEWS SOCIAL NETWORK: iGoogle

Outside of social networks, start pages like My Yahoo, AOL, and iGoogle are among the stickiest in terms of occupying users’ time. Thus, it makes sense that the latter is moving to make its service a lot more social in an effort to take up even more of users’ attention.

Today, iGoogle is launching a series of new features that transform the start page into a social network of sorts, complete with its own social graph, activity feed, and applications. It’s not the first attempt to make iGoogle more social by any means, but it’s certainly the most sweeping, and with millions of users in play, it represents an important new push by Google. 

Google’s VP Search Products & User Experience, Marissa Mayer, told me in an interview yesterday that essentially, these changes can be thought of as a “new set of gadgets and functionality that augments our existing iGoogle and allows them to be social.” Indeed, there are already thousands of gadgets available in the iGoogle ecosystem, though only a few of them are taking advantage of the new social capabilities as of today. Here are three examples of them:

YouTube: This gadget now lets you filter by “Shared Activity” – i.e. – the videos your iGoogle friends have shared, as well as instantly share it yourself and leave comments. That activity is then visible to your friends in their YouTube gadget, as well as on their “Updates” page.

Scrabble: This is just like Scrabble for Facebook, but for iGoogle. There’s no time limit on moves, so games can be played over days or even weeks between iGoogle friends. 

To-Do: Though quite simple, this could actually be a gadget that lures lots of users into iGoogle’s social features – shared to-do lists. 

An important thing to note about these features is that the social graph – i.e. who sees your comments and shares – is separate from other Google products like Gmail or Google Reader. Hence, what we’re basically talking about is a separate social network for iGoogle, where the “Updates” link is akin to Facebook’s News Feed, showing activities from your friends on iGoogle. Meanwhile, for developers looking to target iGoogle’s users with social gadgets, all of these features are now a part of the iGoogle Gadget API.

It would certainly seem that iGoogle now has all of the makings of a social network: millions of users, activity feeds, and an ecosystem for apps. The challenge – and it’s no small one – is getting those users to start doing things like sharing their to-do lists and favorite YouTube videos using iGoogle, which will ultimately build out the user networks that something like this needs in order to succeed. 

Fuente: Mashable. The Social Media Guide. 

Link: http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/igoogle-social-network/

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NIKE, FRITO-LAY CAN'T DISRUPT EVIAN'S VIRAL-VIDEO DOMINANCE

The Nike SB (that would be skateboarding) effort and Frito-Lay's "A Woman's World", campaign are the fresh videos on this week's chart, which was still dominated by Evian's rollerskating babies. 

Is it a good day when your skateboard gets run over by a car? Only, apparently, if you're pro skaker Paul Rodriguez (aka P-Rod), the car is driven by Ice Cube and the soundtrack is his '90s classic "Today Was a Good Day." The Nike SB (that would be skateboarding) effort and Frito-Lay's "A Woman's World" campaign are the fresh videos on this week's chart, which was still dominated by Evian's rollerskating babies. 

The Nike SB work is the only debut on the chart this week, securing the No. 6 spot with 221,000 views; helping it, suggested Visible Measures, which compiles the chart each week, were the release of various additional and behind-the-scenes assets. Meanwhile, Frito-Lay's "Woman's World" effort returned the chart (it originally made its debut in May), thanks to "Jeans," the latest video in the "Woman's World" series. Visible Measures pointed out that "Jeans," which launched July 21, benefited from YouTube-home-page placement.

And for all those keeping track at home, it's Cadbury's 20th week in a row on the chart. When will people tire of the "Eyebrow Dance"?

Fuente: Advertising AGE

Link: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=138299

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AUGMENTED REALITY

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

As yet unseen footage of the first stable version of levelHead, an augmented-reality spatial-memory game by Julian Oliver.  Warning! This is a spoiler for the first 3 cubes: the easy Red Cube, the tricky Green Cube and the ridiculously difficult Orange Cube.

NB: This footage was captured using desktop screencapture software. This reduced the performance of the game a bit.   You can read more about levelHead and how it works here: julianoliver.com/levelhead

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LAYAR, WORDLS FIRST MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY BROWSER

Una nueva aplicación para iPhone, permite a los usuarios encontrar lugares y opciones como: Apartamentos en alquiler o venta, desplegando información importante como precio, dirección y contacto. 

Esta aplicación está utilizandose también en la búsqueda de empleo y otro tipo de servicios similares y funciona en tiempo real, como una especie de escáner.   El video de presentación explica a detalle el funcionamiento de esta innovación.  

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AXE DARK TEMPTATION EN VIDEOJUEGOS

No es noticia nueva que AXE es la marca que revolucionó la categoría de productos para “cuidado personal masculino” en el planeta. Un éxito para la transnacional UNILEVER y un hit para agencias como la argentina Vegas Olmos Ponce, quien llenó de chocolate el planeta con su campaña “AXE DARK TEMPTATION”.

Mientras el famoso “hombre de chocolate” alborotaba a las mujeres del planeta, ofreciendo partes de su cuerpo. Unilever posicionaba el nuevo desodorante con aroma a chocolate, por medio de esta famosa campaña. 

El “hombre de chocolate” también tuvo su aparición en canales digitales de países como Brasil, en donde se lanzaron proyectos como: http://www.axe.com.br/dark/site/, para el cual se desarrolló un excelente videojuego, en donde el público podía manipular al hombre de chocolate de AXE para escapar de un grupo de mujeres, evitando que estas lo comieran. Los jugadores además de llevar la fantasía AXE DARK TEMPTATION al extremo, ganaban premios como KITS de productos AXE y Máquinas de videojuegos. 

Esta estrategia publicitaria posicionó la marca y su campaña a través de los canales digitales, en mercados sudamericanos tan importantes como el brasileño, promoviendo la interactividad para efectos promocionales y ofreciendo al público opciones de fácil aceptación a través del concepto de advertainment, una estrategia de mercadeo muy utilizada por otras marcas de la casa Unilever a nivel mundial. 

Si bien la promoción ya ha concluido, aún se puede jugar este sexy videojuego en el sitio web de AXE brasil, en donde el público podrá ser parte de la experiencia AXE DARK TEMPTATION. 

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UNILEVER JUEGA ONLINE

El desarrollo de videojuegos ha sido las tendencias de la temporada y ya son varias las marcas que incluyen este recurso dentro de sus campañas 360, bajo el concepto de advertainment. 

Unilever es una de las transnacionales que mejor ha invertido en proyectos de esta naturaleza. Un ejemplo notable fue su campaña “REXONA POWER PAMPLONA”, que contó con desarrollo web y programación de videojuegos, por parte de la agencia mejicana Grupo W. 

Esta campaña inició con la creación de videojuegos flash, con la temática de la famosa corrida de toros de “San Fermín”, España. El público podía jugar el videojuego en páginas como www.miniclip.com y juegorama.com, mientras tanto, en los medios tradicionales e internet circulaba el spot publicitario que anunciaba la nueva campaña. 

“REXONA POWER PAMPLONA” orientaba al público a un website de campaña, en donde los consumidores se encontraban con un segundo videojuego con niveles de mayor complejidad. El website además promocionaba viajes hacia la localidad española, para ser parte de la emocionante tradición de San Fermín. 

Con una fina dirección de arte y una excelente programación, esta campaña logró posicionar el desodorante REXONA en el top of mind de millones de consumidores alrededor del mundo, a través de un videojuego que apelaba a insights propios del target, en donde la aventura reta al individuo y lo lleva a situaciones fantásticas. 

El juego está disponible en el website: 

http://www.quienesfermin.com/

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PAPA JOHN’S DEBUTS ‘AUGMENTED REALITY’ FEATURE

Papa John's customers can visit a new Web site that allows them to participate in the company's new "augmented reality" feature.

Augmented reality is an online application that allows the user to interact in real-time with computer generated imagery. For Papa John's, customers can log on to the site, download and print an icon of the 1972 Z28 Camaro that founder John Schnatter sold 25 years ago to open his first restaurant, and virtually drive that same Camaro when the image is recognized by a user's webcam.

While driving, customers will be granted discounts to future Papa John's purchases, displayed on virtual billboards along the virtual road. Next month, the same icon will be available on the bottom of pizza boxes.

For those without a webcam, the Papa John's augmented reality application will also be featured on the site as an interactive flash demonstration. The site will also include a guide and video demonstration on how to optimize the augmented reality experience.

Link: www.pizzamarketplace.com

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IMPORTANTE AVANCE DE LA BANCA MÓVIL EN AMERICA LATINA

Latinia ha publicado un estudio sobre la “Banca móvil en Latinoamérica”, según el cual en los últimos 18 meses se ha producido un significativo avance en la oferta de servicios financieros móviles.

Latinia ha publicado un estudio sobre la “Banca móvil en Latinoamérica”, según el cual en los últimos 18 meses se ha producido un significativo avance en la oferta de servicios financieros móviles (SFM) en la banca latinoamericana, cuya penetración ha pasado del 38% al 51% (64 bancos), dato que llevado al mismo índice del primer estudio (100 bancos analizados), el porcentaje se eleva hasta el 55%, una mejora de hasta el 70%. 

“Aunque lógicamente se observa un claro liderazgo de las principales economías del continente, podemos concluir que la incorporación del móvil o celular a las estrategias multicanal de las entidades financieras en Latinoamérica ya no es un fenómeno asociado a mercados concretos, si no a la necesidad de innovar y atender la demanda generada por la aplastante lógica de economías con más del 80% de penetración celular”, según Francesc Perez, primer ejecutivo de la empresa en Latinoamérica.

Se observa un claro liderazgo por parte de la mensajería SMS (Banca SMS), presente tanto en SMS para alertas, como en SMS para consultas, está presente en el 65% de los bancos con oferta de movilidad. Con la mitad de presencia respecto de la mensajería, encontramos a la tecnología WAP. Hasta 20 de las 64 entidades con oferta de servicios financieros móviles (SFM), disponen de un portal WAP (31%). Le sigue de cerca la presencia de aplicativos descargables J2ME, con casi 1 de cada 4 bancos con oferta de SFM. Mucho más atrás (4 de 64), aparecen las aplicaciones con tarjeta SIM del terminal (para lo cual resultan imprescindibles acuerdos Banco-Operadora, exclusivos o no).

En cuanto al análisis por países, destacan dos, uno por números absolutos (Brasil), y el otro por diversidad (Argentina); ambos pueden posicionarse en el estatus de tier 1 en Banca Móvil. Ambos conjugan exitosamente volumen de servicios (diversidad) con tamaño (bancos involucrados). México y Chile le seguirían de cerca, con morfologías similares en SFM, tanto por volumen y penetración de bancos como por perfil de servicios en liza. Sí sorprendería la escasa penetración de Banca Móvil en Venezuela, atendiendo a la espectacular adopción de la mensajería SMS en el país.

Link: http://www.ebanking.cl/

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