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Vol 1, #8, May 5, 2009 |
LG Canada's "text wars" raise brand awareness Building on the success of last year’s Canadian Texting Championships, LG Canada is once again leveraging the popularity of texting to raise their brand awareness and reach their goal of dominating the full keyboard phone market. The nationwide contest allows Canadians to show off their texting skills in order to strip last year’s winner of his title as Canada’s fastest texter. This year LG has added on online component to the contest in order to expand the reach of the contest without increasing the media buy. Implementing Web 2.0 tactics also allows LG Canada to have conversations with consumers in both spaces and give them an experience online that translates into a physical experience. In this case, social networkers can enter to win the LG Canadian Texting Championship Facebook competition by using their circle of influence (i.e. Facebook friends). The person with the most friends wins a trip for two to Toronto to compete in the finals. “LG research showed that full keyboard phones would be an area of growth for the next few seasons,” says Frank Lee, Senior Manager Public Relations and Sponsorship for LG Canada. “So we’re using key media drivers to raise awareness of our product offerings. We want to dominate the full keyboard phone market.” Information gathered from contestants will be used to build databases and expand their permission marketing strategy. “This information is important for us because it allows us to talk to targeted, active audiences who are engaged and hungry for information,” says Lee, who was surprised to discover just how many people beyond the youth market are texting. “Having this type of customer feedback also makes us more confident about investing in this technology.” Top of Page DoubleClick Studio from Google will help marketers and agencies produce rich media ads and to expand the number of advertisers using display advertising as part of their marketing strategy. Rich media ads allow for added interaction with consumers visiting a site. This can be achieved with ads that expand when users click or roll over them and can even include the addition of HD video or the ability to click to make a phone call. Making rich media ads requires complex technology to ensure that all of the ad behaviours function properly and that all of the interactions can be measured properly. So in addition to enabling the development of the ads, DoubleClick Studio also provides analysis and preview functions to make sure that the ads work the way they should. Top of Page Olive Media delivers targeted ad opportunities With 2.2 million unique visitors per month, Prevention.com targets women through a focus on health, nutrition, fitness, the mind, beauty, and medical issues. “Olive Media is thrilled to partner with Prevention.com. No other brand is as well positioned to deliver this important demographic to advertisers,” says Theresa Smith, Director of Audience for Olive Media. “This partnership is another significant step in our goal to provide advertisers with the best opportunities to reach select target audiences." Top of Page Peer 1 brings data centre online “We have seen consistent demand from our customers for a hosting facility in Europe,” said Fabio Banducci, president and CEO of Peer 1. “Strong demand, favourable exchange rates, falling real estate prices and a UK market growth rate of 25 per cent make this an opportune time for Peer 1 to expand its presence in Europe.” The new office will support more than 500 UK and European-based customers who currently utilize Peer 1’s North American hosting services, and expand quickly to help additional businesses manage their online presence. Top of Page Recover from cybercrime with McAfee service The CRU helps small business owners identify if they have been the victim of a cybercrime and recommends the next steps. The free ionline service directs victims to appropriate law enforcement, credit agencies and other resources to address their situation. The site also provides a forensic scanning tool based on McAfee’s Global Threat Intelligence and assesses whether businesses have malware running on their computers or has visited malicious web sites that may have stolen personal information. Specifically the CRU helps users to:
An agreement with online comparison shopping site PriceGrabber.com® will enable merchants who use the McAfee SECURE™ service to add the SECURE trustmark to their PriceGrabber.com online product listings. The program is designed to help consumers stay safer when shopping online and is currently available to e-tailers. The partnership means that the 26 million consumers who use PriceGrabber.com to search and compare information will now have a safer comparison shopping experience. Websites that display the SECURE trustmark have had their web sites scanned and tested for vulnerabilities that pose a threat to sensitive customer information. E-commerce websites that pass the required McAfee tests can display the SECURE trustmark, letting customers and prospects know that the e-tailer has worked to ensure its website is less vulnerable to hackers. On average, McAfee sites see an 11 per cent increase in online sales conversions. “Research shows that trust often trumps price when consumers shop online,” said Tim Dowling, VP and General Manager of McAfee’s Web Security Group. “The McAfee SECURE trustmark service provides added visibility for merchants who want to reach the millions of consumers who not only comparison shop, but who want ehe added assurance that the web sites where they shop are concerned about the security of their personal and financial information.” Top of Page Tungle tackles online scheduling nightmares The application is a free and comprehensive web-based platform that increases the value, improves the effectiveness and extends the life of current electronic calendaring systems by linking and syncing its platform to provide advanced features for Outlook, Exchange, Google Calendar, iCal and Entourage to name a few. “Despite all of the advances in communications and online meeting tools, people often still feel hopelessly frustrated when trying to schedule a meeting for a group of people from different organizations because of the difficulty in accessing calendars,” says Mark Levitt, vice president for Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Strategies at IDC. “Tungle changes this paradigm by accelerating the process of sharing relevant calendar information to allow people to focus on having productive meetings, rather than on meeting logistics.” Tungle works in sync with leading electronic calendars so users don’t have to switch over to an entirely new system. Top of Page CTV brings shows to web-savvy audiences Server 5.0 makes BlackBerry more efficient Yesterday, Research In Motion announced the availability of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 – the next generation of RIM’s secure, push-based server software for business mobility. Server 5.0 supports advanced IT administration features and smartphone controls that help improve the productivity of mobile workers and more effectively meet the demands of large-scale, mission critical enterprise deployments. “We are proud to unveil the next generation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server software,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. “BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 significantly raises the bar for advanced IT manageability, high availability, system monitoring and reporting. It has undergone testing in real world environments for over a year and is available now for customers.” BlackBerry Enterprise Transporter Tool makes upgrading to BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 easy and seamless. It streamlines the transfer of multiple user accounts from one BlackBerry Enterprise Server domain to another without impact to or action required by end users. “The smartphone is essential for enterprises looking to improve employee productivity, accessibility, and responsiveness in today’s economic environment,” said Chris Hazelton, Research Director, Mobile and Wireless at The 451 Group. “As smartphones take on greater relevance in the enterprise and deployments grow, the demands on IT departments grow exponentially, making manageability, control and high availability must-haves in the supporting mobile infrastructure.” Top of Page Asset management solutions for netbooks This new solution for netbooks gives IT asset management and theft recovery to commercial customers who have been the first to make widespread use of ultra-mobile computers. “For IT asset management and data security personnel, the job of managing and securing mobile devices is becoming ever more complex and expensive,” said John Livingston, Chairman and CEO of Absolute. “Computer populations now include desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets and now netbooks – often of different ages from a variety of manufacturers. Our goal is to provide visibility and security regardless of form factor and computer brand.” Livingston also feels that in today’s economic environment, companies need this type of service to be delivered as a simple, managed service. With Computrace for Netbooks, customers can:
Canada 3.0 examines country's digital future The event is hosted by the University of Waterloo Stratford Institute and the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN). “The advent of social media, the explosion of the web as a forum for a wide range of rich content, and the growth in high-tech handheld devices to access this content anytime, anywhere are creating new demands and opportunities,” said David Johnston, President of the University of Waterloo and a speaker at the conference. "Educators, those that set public policy pertaining to digital media, and content developers all have a vested interest in ensuring Canada takes its place as a leader in digital media." The forum addresses four themes - content and entertainment, technology and business, government, and research and education - and will provide participants with opportunities to actively engage industry leaders and speakers. “Anyone who wants to be part of Canada's digital future has a vested interest in being at this forum," said Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer at Open Text. " Canada has the opportunity to lead by enabling a groundswell of entrepreneurial businesses in the digital media space. Next-generation content and technology will claim Canada's stake in the competitive digital economy." The Council of Canadian Academies has identified new media as having the greatest momentum and the highest growth prospects for Canada, second only to the oilsands. Worldwide, the digital media sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the knowledge economy, projected to be valued at US$2.2 trillion over the next five years. " Canada has the talent, expertise, and business environment to ensure that we lead in the digital economy," said the Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, who is participating in the forum. "There's a digital revolution afoot and with the current economic shifts we're seeing, it's imperative that we support this growth that holds the promise of increased business opportunity and more jobs for Canadians." The federal government recently recognized this huge economic opportunity by investing $10.7-million in the CDMN, in part to establish UW's Stratford Institute and to host opportunities like Canada 3.0. "Innovative thinking is key to overcoming a challenging economy today and emerging as a successful player on the global digital media stage tomorrow," said Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson, who will speak at the conference. "Bringing together leaders from diverse backgrounds will help jump-start the innovation process, and both help to grow existing companies faster while creating successful new ones. That's why a key part of Ontario's economic plan is supporting the ideas that will shape our future." Top of Page |
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