LaunchSquad’s Maroon Man FTW!
Despite more than 6,700 participants from 250+ companies, you couldn’t miss LaunchSquad’s crew in this year’s JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge…even if you were tirelessly out of breath or simply overwhelmed with the awesomeness of it all. Clad in gold (well, most of us — see picture), the LaunchSquad Running Club was well-represented in the 3.5-mile run down the Embarcadero (a change from previous years’ Chrissy Field course) for our 7th consecutive year participating in the event.
With a strong fielding of 16 runners (and a handful of loud and aggressive fan club members cheering us on), Emilie Cole led the way for the Squad, with a time of 25:13, and our very own Steve ‘Maroon Man’ Mnich was close behind with 25:46.
Overall, a tremendous team effort to make this event happen: From Emilie and Steve getting our shirts together in true last-minute fashion (pun somewhat intended; thank you Roger and Robin from Creative Origins), to Jason Mandell and Corey “Cee-Lew” Lewis for the Tres Agaves post-party festivus the Corporate Challenge was yet again a success for LaunchSquad!
With Exclamy premiering at last year’s event (that’s our attempt at turning our logo into a character), Maroon Man this year, only time will tell what mascot next year’s event will bring us. Until then…
ShareThis Shares The Wealth of Influencer Data
Geoffrey Fowler and Amir Efrati at the Wall Street Journal recently took a look at the Facebook “Like” button and what it has – or hasn’t – done for publishers so far. It’s an interesting read and one that features our client ShareThis’ CEO Tim Schigel, who talks about the need for publishers to retain the data they collect from readers, something that’s harder to do when they’re routed through Facebook.
Knowing which customers share website information is valuable because it lets publishers see which users are influential, meaning they drive a lot of traffic back to their sites. “To the extent that any third party comes in and knows more and can extract more value than the publishers themselves, they can be worried,” Mr. Schigel said.
ShareThis is really carving new ground for publishers and advertisers with their influence-based ad targeting platform. ShareThis believes everyone who shares is an influencer. From sending an e-mail to your mom to posting an interesting article on a friend’s Facebook page, sharing is the most valuable social interaction online. ShareThis’ segmentation methodology allows advertisers and publishers to reach and identify social influencers.
For example, during a recent campaign for skin care cream Mederma, ShareThis found a 56 percent rate of engagement among people who shared information about or related to scarring or stretch marks, as compared to 26 percent with traditional search and 8 percent with contextual display advertisement. This type of targeting is getting closer to the Holy Grail for advertisers and marketers: taking usage patterns, data and other information about how people use social media to build and segment audiences and use that to target audiences. This is also why sharing is so valuable – it holds the raw data necessary to connect these dots.
ShareThis is continuing to push the limits on what publishers and advertisers can extract from social media and use that to drive revenue, which, as we all know, publishers are very anxious to do nowadays. We’re excited to be along for the ride
Man’s Best Friend? We’ve Got a New Runner Up.
No longer is a teeny-bopper yapping away on her Nokia the image that readily pops into our minds when we think of cellphones. Today, cellphones are much more than simply a means of communication – they behave as an Internet browser, reading material, a compass, a toy, a video camcorder, a dictionary, a camera — the list goes on! Some of us use cellphones to quickly Google facts during a debate with friends, others use them as social lubricants when we have no one to talk to at a bar. We have SMS, GPS, RSS, and even CVS in our back pockets at all times. In 2009 alone, about 170 million mobile devices were sold. Phones have become indispensible, an extension of one’s brain, and quite frankly – man’s best friend.
So, what’s next? With mobile commerce rapidly growing — the next logical step seems to be acknowledging and rewarding the valued customers who frequently utilize these mobile services.
Usablenet, a mobile Web optimization platform, is helping many Fortune 500 companies do exactly this — create mobile rewards and loyalty programs on their mobile sites. Usablenet enables brands such as American Airlines, Delta, Staples, Marriott, Jet Blue, Wyndham, Starwood Hotels, OfficeMax, and American Eagle, to reward valued customers by offering discounts on their mobile sites, thereby establishing lasting relationships.
This functionality is especially rewarding to frequent travelers, such as businessmen who regularly take advantage of on-the-go flight check-in or hotel booking. Similarly, retailers can delight their repeat customers by strengthening brand loyalty and providing greater incentive to continue purchasing.
No longer do companies have to rely on buy-10-get-1-free cards (easily lost in wallets) to compel repeat visits. As brands seek to create intimate connections with their target audiences, mobile becomes a compelling channel through which to establish and maintain these relationships. But just because your smartphone helped bump you up to first class, don’t forget to take out the dog.
Criteo Personalizes Ads, Helps You Shop and Gets Love from Retailers
Curious about how those online advertisements somehow recognize your shopping preferences, accurately displaying product recommendations for the pair of shoes or sweater you’ve been looking at for the past two weeks? So were we, until we met the folks at Criteo. What we’ve learned is that their technology is smart. Crazy smart.
The personalized retargeting provider recently packed up its corporate headquarters in France and set up shop in Palo Alto, CA. Since arriving in the states, the company has been on a roll, partnering with dozens of the Top 100 global retailers to display the most personalized and interactive advertisements across the Web. And we’re not just talking the basics. Criteo’s technology is changing the way online advertisers retarget consumers, enabling retailers to re-engage and re-connect with those who visited their site. With Criteo, retailers are getting a second chance at connecting with their customers and do so on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, meaning retailers only have to pay when the shopper clicks on an ad and comes back to their site.
In fact, in just five months, Criteo alone has generated more than $1 billion in sales for their ecommerce clients.
If shop online, then you’re likely among the 95 percent of online shoppers who leave a site before making a final purchase. Why? Because there are plenty of other options, and comparison shopping is as intriguing as speed dating. However, at the end of the day, you know what product was right for you because you keep going back. Fortunately, Criteo knows this too, and makes it easier for you to finalize the sale and get the product you’ve been wanting.
So what’s the future of online advertising look like? Criteo is delivering it, and it’s working, and it’s making our shopping lives a little bit easier.
Love Evernote? Get a room – Er, Venue! Evernote Meetups are here!
If you’re like us, you love Evernote and you love talking ears off about how you use it, how you can’t function without it, and the times it’s saved you in a jam (“OMG. I forgot all my travel documents but had saved my confirmation numbers in Evernote! Phew!”). Well, the folks at Evernote took your conversations to heart and created Evernote Meetups. Thanks to Meetup’s new Meetup Everywhere platform, Evernoters can organize multiple Meetups around the world through one Meetup group –
…and boy did they ever.
Since launching Evernote Meetups in late May with only 11 planned events, over 300 Meetups have been created all over the world. Check it out, there’s probably one in your city – and if there’s not, create one!
Evernote Meetups kick off today, June 23rd. Clear your schedules for a memorable Meetup!
Crisp Wireless Solves the App vs Mobile Web Debate
The ongoing debate between mobile Web and “in-app” is no surprise to the advertising crowd. Since the launch of the iPhone, brands have been trying to create in-app experiences that surprise and delight consumers. Despite the popularity of gaming and entertainment apps, the majority of mobile web users still consume most of their content via the mobile web on premium sites. On top of that, with new devices like the iPad, Android and others, advertisers are keen to develop campaigns that run across multiple platforms.
Our client Crisp Wireless has a mission of solving this problem by providing a rich media mobile advertising platform that helps brands develop more engaging mobile ads and helps publishers maximize their mobile revenue.
Over the last few months, Crisp Wireless has unveiled their Adhesion ad placement technology, which brings the best of in-app advertising to the mobile web (view the video here) and expanded Adhesion support to the iPad and Android. They’ve also signed a partnership agreement with Jumptap to deliver rich media ad formats to their publishers, and just this month announced that the Wall Street Journal Digital Network would be joining their line-up of premium publishers which includes CBS, CNN, Fast Company, MTV Networks, Hearst Digital, A&E and Discovery Communications.
All things combined, Crisp is leading the pack in mobile advertising solutions for big brands and publishers. With more tablet-like devices launching over the next year, the mobile device ad market is only going to become more fragmented, and advertisers will need a comprehensive solution to manage a multi-platform campaign. Enter Crisp.
For the WEBBY’s Win
When you work with Internet technology clients who are going to change the world, the Webby Awards are the highest honor, the tallest Olympic podium, the fastest draw in the West, the Great Bambino, the Colossus of Clout – sorry, our Jerry’s softball team won our game last night. We’ve got some Sandlot on the brain!
We were delighted, earlier this Spring, to have three clients selected as finalists for Webbys:
Evernote – Best Mobile App
Next New Networks had a number of their videos up for awards in various categories:
Indy Mogul’s Backyard FX – How-to and DIY
ThreadBanger – How-to and DIY
Auto-Tune the News – Remixes/Mashups
Auto-Tune the News – Viral
The Reel Good Show – Variety
$99 Music Videos – Music
Vook – Best Use of Mobile Video
This morning we were notified that both Next New Networks and Evernote had won Webbys! Next New Networks’ “Auto-Tune the News” on the Barely Political network won both the Judge’s Award and the People’s Voice Award in the Video Remixes & Mash-Ups category of the Online Film and Video section of the Awards. While “The Reel Good Show” on the independent filmmakers network Indy Mogul took home the People’s Voice Award in the Variety category. This year, Next New Networks were among the most nominated companies in the Webby Awards, with a total of six nominations equal to The Onion and College Humor, and yeah up there with the BBC and NYTimes.com. Since launching in March 2007, Next New Networks has grabbed a total of eleven Webby Awards, making them one of the biggest winners on the web.
Evernote, wildly popular note-taking application and external brain to 3 Million users – as announced today, won both the Judges’ Award and People’s Voice Award for Best Mobile Application having gone up against giants like The New York Times and MLB.com!
Congrats to our clients, both winners and nominees! We’re pumped to see these companies being honored as the innovators that they are and for doing their part to make the Web a better place!
For a complete list of winners and details on the Webby Awards Gala see: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php
SeatGeek is Doing the Math to Save Consumers Money on Event Tickets
Buying tickets on websites like StubHub or TicketNow can be an unnerving task for consumers. They’re often blindly engaging in transactions without an informed idea of what’s available, what should be considered a fare price, or when it’s the optimal time to buy. On top of this, large transactions fees frustrate the already uninformed consumer and build up anxiety and doubt in their choice to purchase tickets.
By giving consumers an all-encompassing view of the market and providing forecasting data that alerts ticket buyers to the optimal time to buy, travel websites like Farecast have been saving consumers real money for the past several years. But, where does one go to find the right time to purchase tickets to see the Mets (never, in their case) or to go see the LCD Soundsystem concert next month at Terminal 5? A new LaunchSquad client, SeatGeek, answers this question by using a sophisticated algorithm to alert consumers – via email or Facebook notifications – of the optimal time to purchase tickets to an event they’re interested in attending.
The forecast ‘formula’ is made up of several factors – winning streaks, weather, travel schedule and win percentages, for example – which all lead to an 85% success rate in the forecasting projection. At the top of every event page, SeatGeek suggests to consumers when they should purchase tickets. So, if SeatGeek predicts that ticket prices will increase in the coming weeks, they will tell consumers to ‘buy now;’ however, if prices are predicted to drop, SeatGeek will instruct consumers to ‘buy later.’ In addition, most event pages show an interactive seating chart – color coded by best value – giving the buyer a look at every available ticket on the resale market, and a real-time chart that shows the fluctuations in price for that given event.
SeatGeek goes beyond the ticket buying process with TicketPortfolio, a tool for season ticket holders that shows the real-time value of their seats (portfolio), advices them on what tickets to sell, and provides the touch point to actually sell tickets on other secondary market websites. The whole TicketPortfolio package is available to season ticket holders on a subscription basis.
In the end, it all comes down to saving money; SeatGeek helps ticket buyers and sellers with the decision making process – a very powerful tool that should show tremendous growth during the next several years.
Discover the Best of the Web with Springo
Our Web is cluttered with over 200 million websites, and it’s getting harder to navigate and uncover your favorites. A new company called Springo just launched a navigation and discovery solution that locates specialized websites and adds some really valuable tools to enhance your search experience.
Springo guides you to sites, organized by popularity and topic, that offer the best solutions and services for your needs. Navigating the Web with Springo is akin to having an expert point out popular websites and destinations just for you.
Also, Springo launched a super useful (and unobtrusive) browser add-on called Springo Express that enriches your traditional search experience. Imagine this: you’re feeling guilty about last night’s pizza binge and searching for diet tips on the Internet, but your results are crowded with Grapefruit Diet and Jenny Craig ads, not to mention gym websites and Food Network healthy recipe articles. Not exactly what you’re looking for! If you search Weight Watchers within a search engine, Springo Express automatically generates a list of similar diet websites in your browser toolbar to help broaden your investigation. Or if you had just searched “diet,” Springo Express would have popped-out to offer a visual display of the best health guides and dieting websites to explore. Additionally, Springo Express enables direct navigation by just typing a site’s name or even a topic into your browser address bar – no more memorizing tedious website addresses!
To keep tabs on Springo check out their blog and Twitter handle. You can also read Clint Boulton’s eWeek story announcing Springo’s launch last week.
SalesFail Contest: Earning Commission Off Your Worst Sales Story
With every new client comes a new area of innovation, and our long-standing clients are constantly transforming and delivering new breakthrough technologies, ideas and visions. However, industries don’t generally create and adopt innovative new solutions overnight.
To celebrate the pitfalls and deadends that people experience along the way to success, Sales Intelligence provider InsideView is sponsoring a contest with great comedic (and educational) potential – The SalesFail Contest.
The SalesFail contest is out to find the funniest, worst and most random sales stories. With an award of $2,500, sales professionals have the chance to cash in on their most epic failed sales experience. In other words, somebody will be earning commission from what would otherwise be a rather forgettable sales call.
If you happen to be in sales, or have ever (unsuccessfully) tried to sell anything, enter the contest SalesPop (or check them out on Twitter or Facebook).