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Vol 2, #20, May 18, 2010 |
411.ca continues healthy traffic growth 411.ca, Canada's Local Search Engine, is defying industry trends by generating steady monthly growth in online traffic over the past five months. 411.ca's popularity among Canadians continues to climb and has resulted in a 10% market share gain over competitors in the online local search space. The trend is expected to continue this year, as more and more Canadians switch to 411.ca. 411.ca is used by over 2.5 million Canadians each month. With a simple and friendly user interface, 411.ca enables visitors to find local businesses and individuals more easily and quickly. "411.ca understands local search should be simple and easy to use," said Stephen K. Curry, President and Chief Executive Officer at 411 Local Search Corp. "We have been committed from day one in developing and improving our search technology so that Canadians are able to find local businesses and individuals quickly and accurately." 411.ca features over 1.5 million basic and premium local business listings and is the only local search engine in Canada to provide consumers with the simplicity of a single search box. With intuitive keyword filters and category options, users get fast access to relevant information. 411.ca's traffic has grown by over 12% from January 2010 to April 2010. 411.ca has a reach of more than 2.5 million unique Canadian visitors who visited over 4.5 million times in April 2010. (Source: comScore Media Metrix, April 2010). Top of Page For anyone who has ever walked through the doors of their local grocery store thinking: What am I going to make for dinner tonight?, Campbell Company of Canada has launched a new App that will make it easier to find nourishing Campbell recipes on-the-go. The Cook with Campbell App, now available in Canada for free on iPhone and BlackBerry, gives people instant access to trusted, delicious recipes from Campbell. "With what seems like less and less time to shop and cook, many of us are looking for quick, easy ways to get nourishing meals on the table that we know our families will love," says Mark Childs, VP of Marketing, Campbell Company of Canada. "With our new Cook with Campbell App and our www.cookwithcampbells.ca website we've made it a breeze to find Campbell recipes on-the-go. Whether you're at your desk or at the grocery store, in just a few seconds you can be on your way to creating a crowd-pleasing meal." Once downloaded to their iPhone or BlackBerry, the Cook with Campbell App allows users to choose a few key ingredients and how much (or how little) time they have to cook. Alternatively, users can choose to follow the Showcase Recipe of the day or review the Star-Rating system that shows which recipes are the most popular. The Campbell recipe selections are diverse, from Foil Grilled Salmon ready in just 15 minutes to Easy Shrimp Paella or Rice and Lentil Pilaf in 30 minutes or less, and Moroccan Apricot Chicken in under an hour. All recipes have a few things in common: simple ingredients, easy to follow directions, time-saving tips and nutritional information. Once users have chosen a recipe, they can choose to save it to their favourites list and create an easy to follow shopping list. The Cook with Campbell App even allows users to tick off items on the list as they find them in the grocery store or email the list to someone else. Campbell Canada is committed to helping Canadians find easier ways to create better-for-you meal choices. The new Cook with Campbell App as well as the CookWithCampbells.ca website and mobile website are helping to bring this commitment to life by providing tasty, family-favourite recipes and nutritional information at your finger tips. Top of PageNew online resource for carbon capture, storage There is a new online resource for people wanting to know more about Carbon Capture and Storage technology (CCS). Launched today, the www.ccs101.ca website is a one-stop-shop for information on CCS. At CCS101.ca visitors can access the latest knowledge on CCS in Canada and from around the world. As Canada leads global CCS development, this website aims to make information on this important suite of technologies available to everyone both domestically and internationally. CCS101.ca was funded through the IEA GHG Weyburn - Midale CO(2) Monitoring and Storage Project and Canada's CCS Network. The project at Weyburn and Midale is the world's largest and most extensively researched CO(2) monitoring and storage project, involving researchers from around the globe. "It is important for us to look beyond the project and put forward information about this technology in a way that is accessible to people globally," said Steve Whittaker of the Petroleum Technology Research Centre, and Project Manager for the IEA GHG Weyburn - Midale CO(2) Monitoring and Storage Project. The new CCS101.ca website has three main navigation areas: CCS Basics informs people of the technology fundamentals, while the CCS Pro area has detailed project listings, RD&D projects and funding, the Canadian CCS Technology Roadmap, and virtually all public information on CCS. The CCS Communities section features videos of people living in injection areas and seeks to show how projects are perceived by the people who actually live in areas with CCS development. "We hope this new online portal will become one of the world's most robust websites on CCS, with links to every other online resource on the subject. CCS101.ca is excellent example of how researchers, industry and governments can work together to build better public understanding," said Dr. Frank Mourits, who initiated work on CCS101.ca as the Government of Canada's Project Integrator for the IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO(2) Monitoring and Storage Project. Top of Page Lind-Waldock launches Chinese website Lind-Waldock Canada, Canada's premier commodity futures broker for individual investors, has launched its online services in Chinese, allowing Chinese speakers in Canada to have access to more than 700 futures contracts worldwide. The website has been written in traditional Chinese format and can accommodate both Mandarin and Cantonese language speakers. Not only will Chinese speaking investors be able to trade online but they can also receive live assistance from a Chinese speaking person by phone between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 24 hour live assistance in English. Lind-Waldock offers multiple, state of the art trading platforms that are user-friendly and can be customized to match the individual investor's trading strategies, experiences and needs. "We are very excited to bring the Lind-Waldock name and experience to Chinese speaking Canadian investors," said Keith Riddoch, Managing Director, Retail Sales of Lind-Waldock Canada. "Chinese investors in Canada have increasingly shown interest in the commodity futures space and this website is our commitment to developing a relationship with the Chinese investing community," Riddoch said. The Chinese website can be accessed by selecting Chinese from the top menu at www.lind-waldock.ca. Lind-Waldock also holds a series of webinars online, in Mandarin and English that cover commodity trading strategies. The next webinars offered in Mandarin are on May 12 and May 26 at 4:30-5:30 PM (EST). Please check the website for further information. Lind-Waldock is owned by MF Global Ltd., and in Canada it is a division of MF Global Canada Co. MF Global's retail clients in Canada have now been served by Lind-Waldock since July of 2009, with offices located in Toronto and Montreal. To learn more about Lind-Waldock's premier offerings and service in Canada, investors can visit www.lind-waldock.ca. Top of Page Scholar's Choice web store, e-books drive sales Scholar's Choice, a national retailer of educational toys and teaching supplies based in London, Ontario is taking their personalized customer service to a new level. Scholar's Choice has launched four new websites and has introduced Teachers and Educators to e-Books. Scholar's Choice has once again positioned itself to be the leader in online educational toys and teaching supplies. Scholar's Choice has developed and designed four distinct websites to service their customer's distinct needs. Teachers, Early Childhood Providers and Parents can now shop directly from the site that is tailored to their distinct product and service needs. The new teacher site features e-Books, an electronic version of a resource book. e-Books provide teachers with the ability to download resource books to a computer, use the information in a classroom immediately and are electronic whiteboard compatible. e-Books allow teachers and students the flexibility to navigate through a worksheet electronically as well as create additional PDFs to share with students working from home or to create power point presentations. Enhanced e-Books are also available and provide users the additional freedom to copy and paste the text to a variety of digital formats, post lessons, create tests or answer keys on websites. Scott Webster , President of Scholar's Choice, has commented that "As the leader in Educational Materials and School Supplies in Canada, we made the conscious decision to be first to offer e-Books to our teachers. We are the leading provider of teacher resource books in Canada and this is a natural extension of what we already do." Teachers across Canada will now have resource materials in a reproducible format at their finger tips. Publishers who were forced to discontinue materials because of reprint costs will now be able to keep content rich materials available in the e-Book format. Teachers will now have access to thousands of titles in an electronic format. e-Books will save teachers time, money, and resources by allowing them to print only what they need, when they need it. Scholar's Choice retail locations are thrilled to be released from physical storage limits and can offer their retail customers unlimited instant access to the full range of every resource book. Top of Page IABC 2010 conference blog now in sessionThe International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is holding its 2010 World Conference from June 6-9 in Toronto. In the weeks leading up to the event, the recently launched blog, InSession, will feature discussions on the conference program, blog posts and podcast interviews with conference speakers. Already posted on the site are interviews with conference keynote speakers: technology guru and former Apple Computer evangelist, Guy Kawasaki; and founder of the Free the Children charity and the revolutionary social enterprise, Me to We, Craig Kielburger. InSession will serve as a space for conference attendees to keep abreast of events and developments, and for out-of-town attendees to learn more about Toronto, the host city. It will give the community a chance to network with other attendees, speakers and staff before the event. Over the next few weeks, InSession will feature posts from speakers, photos related to the conference, information about the conference hotel, the Sheraton Centre Toronto, and much more. Communication through social media channels is a hot topic in the podcast interview with Guy Kawasaki. When asked about the top ways that communication professionals can leverage or activate social media in their work, he said: "For communicators, the answer is Twitter. They need to get on Twitter, they need to develop their following, their brand's following. They need to push stuff out. They need to be known as a good source of information. By earning that status then you earn the privilege of being able to promote through Twitter every once in a while." Download the podcast to hear more from Kawasaki. In his podcast interview, Craig Kielburger talks about the inspiration behind the work he has done since starting Free the Children to address global issues: "It's all about inspiring young people and students and schools, getting a whole generation excited about global active citizenship." Kielburger talked about the value of clear communication and engagement among employees saying, "People want more than a paycheck. They want to be inspired-especially as communicators." Download the podcast to hear more from Kielburger. IABC's annual World Conference brings together more than 1,400 business communication professionals from over 40 countries to explore the latest developments and best practices in communication. The sessions address a variety of topics in business communication and include tracks focused on employee communication, public relations, communication leadership, change management, marketing and brand, skills development, and strategy and counsel. Readers can keep updated on blog entries by subscribing to RSS feeds at http://insession.x.iabc.com/feed For more information on the World Conference and to register online, visit http://www.iabc.com/wc. Top of Page Grocery Shopping Network offers GSN OutReach Grocery Shopping Network is pleased to announce the release of their second and newest digital advertising network, GSN OutReach; which combines national reach, neighborhood optimization, and true purchase behavior to allow retailers and brands to target based on their goals. GSN OutReach has an ad network reach potential of 110 million grocery shoppers across the country. “CPG brands and grocery retailers now have access to a powerful new way to advertise online. GSN OutReach delivers brands and retailers an effective vehicle to reach their super-targeted audience that guarantees an effective ROI,” said Andy Robinson, CEO Grocery Shopping Network. “At GSN we’re unlocking our expertise in reaching power grocery shoppers anywhere in the purchase process – GSN OutReach clients will reach their most valuable shoppers with online display advertising that combines neighborhood level geo-targeting with lifestyle, demographic, psychographic and offline sales data intelligence.” With the continued trend of shopper’s pre-planning before reaching the retail store, this second ad network placement early in the traditional purchase funnel will complement the super-impactful value of GSN’s other ad network, GSN StoreSite, and its moment of decision delivery at the bottom of the purchase funnel. Available in the second quarter of 2010, this new ad network provides brand advertisers and grocery retailers with a method to optimize their online advertising effort by precisely targeting their best customers based on the “purchase clusters” where they live. This level of targeting eliminates neighborhood zones that don’t deliver your strongest target audience. In doing so it enables unprecedented efficiency and return on investment. GSN OutReach assists in the acquisition of new customers, reminds your most loyal purchasers and provides the ability to target purchasers of your competitor’s product – on the web – prior to shopping. Top of Page Pageflex powers the BouncyBugs website Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc. and a leading developer of enterprise variable publishing and web-to-print solutions, announced today Pageflex technology has been used by PhotoBooks Plus, LLC to create their BouncyBugs website for personalized children’s books and gifts. Built with Pageflex Storefront, and using a combination of form filling and online design and editing features from Pageflex, the BouncyBugs site gives users the power to create their own customized and gifts and stories using a child’s name and relevant information. BouncyBugs.com features an intuitive interface that guides users through the process of creating a range of customized products, including photo gifts, placemats, photo story books, greeting cards, coloring pages, baby announcements and personalized notebooks. Also included on the site are For Kids By Kids story books which enables kids, parents, and those who love them a way to create a books which feature themselves as the main character. Future plans for PhotoBooks include developing similar photobook sites specifically designed for weddings and keepsakes. The creation of BouncyBugs is a realization of a long-time dream of PhotoBooks Plus founder and CEO Anita Thomas. Her work began studying a range of publishing and design technology, which eventually led her to purchase book publishing equipment and to start her own company devoted to building and publishing books. The acquisition of Pageflex Storefront provided the technological piece that enabled the BouncyBugs site become a viable ecommerce site. As Anita Thomas describes, “Providing kids with a way to create and publish their own books has been a dream of mine for some time. I had the idea, the design expertise, and the equipment all ready to go; the only thing what was missing was the right technology. Pageflex solved that problem perfectly, giving me the software to bring this site online and enable my customers to personalize their own stories and gifts. In addition, the site skinning capability in Storefront will enable me to easily add future sites. For all these reasons,Pageflex was the technology I needed to turn dreams into books.” “Pageflex Storefront is a robust technology, enabling our customers to deploy online sites that enable the creation, customization and distribution of all kinds of documents. The BouncyBugs site is a great example of how Pageflex Storefront supports a consumer-focused site that produces a range of graphically rich and fun products. We are delighted by the work of PhotoBooks Plus and they way in which they have used Pageflex to advance their business.” States Anna Magliocco-Chagnon, president and CEO of Bitstream Inc. Top of Page SES Toronto announces social media panels and discussions Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto, Canada's largest search engine marketing (SEM) conference, is being held at the Hyatt Regency Toronto on June 9-11, 2010. SES Toronto 2010 is the premiere event for search marketers wanting to learn more about how to implement marketing strategies involving social media. Social media, which utilizes web technology to foster interactions between people online, is a crucial lynchpin in any online marketing strategy. For example, Facebook.com, the leading online social network, currently has over 400 million users and is growing. Online video sharing network YouTube currently has over 300 million registered users. Microblogging service Twitter currently has 105 million registered users and is growing rapidly. SES Toronto will offer four core sessions to help attendees learn about and implement social media marketing programs. "By now marketers know how important social media is for any online marketing strategy. The problem lies with designing and implementing a social media strategy designed to maximize ROI that actually works," remarked Matt McGowan, Publisher and Head of U.S. for Incisive Media. "Attendees at SES Toronto are in luck. SES has always been the most up-to-date, cutting-edge show and this year is certainly no exception. If you are interested in cashing in on social media, I can give no higher recommendation than to sign up for SES Toronto in June!" Social media panels and presentations include: Video: The Next Marketing Frontier--YouTube.com now streams more than 6 billion videos each month. Video ad networks and premium sites (like Hulu) are beginning to have some staggering reach. This panel will cover the latest developments in video marketing and why it is essential to a comprehensive marketing program. Successfully Integrating Search and Social Media--Today, blogs, user generated content, and social media profiles from networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are ranked above all else in Google search. In this session, attendees will learn how to tie together search and social media strategies into one cohesive operation to ensure success. Twitter Nation--Twitter is the hottest 140-character microblogging service around. Its marketing potential has been well publicized but the question is how to get your tweets heard in the endless stream of the Twitterfeed. Participants will learn not only which strategy works best, but how to implement it successfully. Search, PR, and the Social Butterfly--Social media is spreading its wings with the advent of services like Google Social Search and Bing. This is a good opportunity to hear firsthand from some of the most respected social media experts in the industry how to be adept at implementing a social media strategy that includes Profiles, Fans, Tweets, Friends and Follows. SES Toronto will attract thousands of marketers who come to learn about the latest trends and issues and see the newest search products. The conference offers presentations, panels and networking events for marketing professionals working in mainstream marketing and the search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) arenas. Register at a discounted rate until May 21. Top of Page |
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