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| Ads Worth Spreading: TED Announces Winners of 2012 Marketing Challenge | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 11:59 PM | Matt Petronzio |
|  TED, the non-profit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading," announced the winners of its 2011-2012 "Ads Worth Spreading" challenge on Tuesday. The 10 winners were revealed at the TED2012 conference in Long Beach, Calif. The non-profit stated on its website that the intention of this annual initiative is to find "ads that communicate ideas with consumers in the same way that TED wants to communicate with its audience." Agencies, producers and brands from 39 countries submitted to the 2012 challenge through an "Ads Worth Spreading" channel on YouTube. Six teams of two judges -- each one made up of a TED speaker and a "rising star" from the advertising industry -- worked together to nominate ads across six categories: talk, social good, cultural compass, creative wonder, brand bravery and storytelling. Additionally, 25 leading voices in the ad industry acted as "Advocates" to make nominations. This year's winners include Canal+, Chipotle, Engagement Citoyen, L'Oréal Paris, Mazda, Microsoft, NTT Docomo, Prudential, Rethink Breast Cancer and Sharpie. "We sought out ads that were driven by ideas," said TED Curator Chris Anderson in a press release. "At TED, we've seen the power of imagination and innovation. We want to reward companies that have invested in longer-form, beautifully crafted campaigns that value human attention and intelligence, and take the time to tell a thought-provoking story." In addition to being featured across TED.com, YouTube blogs and social media, the teams behind the winning ads will be honored at a special celebration co-hosted by TED and YouTube, which will take place in March at the Art Director's Club in New York City. |
| Gravity Personalizes Websites Based on Your Interests | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 11:01 PM | Alissa Skelton |
|  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Gravity Quick Pitch: Personalize website homepages for each viewer through interest graphing technology Genius Idea: Websites using Gravity can generated a personalized web page for each visitor based on the reader's engagement with their website. Gravity's interest mapping technology provides analytics for websites so they can better understand their readers' interests -- producing content readers want and increasing optimization. MySpace might not be rising from the dead, but three of its former executives plan to take the web by storm this year with what you could call MyWeb. Gravity, a Santa Monica-based startup, has been working for the past two years to up the ante on personalized web browsing. Amit Kapur, Gravity's CEO and former COO of MySpace, says there has been two major shifts in the way people consume the Internet. Website content was first organized by professionals. Well, it still can be organized by professionals, but Internet consumption has shifted to peer recommendations. Content shared by friends on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter shows another way people consume online content. Kapur's company has initiated a third way to filter through the content on the Internet - he calls it interest graphing. Gravity's technology graphs your interests and then organizes website content based on what you're most likely to be interested in viewing. Getting an interest graph and webpage analytics is highly scientific. Big brains are behind Gravity including well-known linguistics, engineering, computer science and statistics professors from Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, like Michael I. Jordan. The startup is backed by $10 million from David Hornick of August Capital and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures. Checkout the graphic above to see how the system completely works. Gravity "crawls, indexes and semantically analyzes web page, tweet, status update or post" to identify the stories going viral and then organizes content by interests, the website says. Gravity has worked with 10 websites including news organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and TIME while developing its interest graph model and analytics. For news websites, Gravity recommends articles promptly based on the kinds of stories you have already read. Publishers already using the technology have said click through rates increased dramatically, Kapur said. Allowing users to sign in with social accounts increases accuracy in the interest technology. Kapur compared Gravity's technology to how Pandora creates a personalized music playlist, or Netflix recommends movies. He said his startup is not doing the same task as Google Analytics. "I think you hear a lot of about data science, but we are just scratching the surface of implementing it," he said. "This type of technology has become increasingly necessary because of data overload." Take the Wall Street Journal for example. The site's home page is individually organized by Gravity for each logged-in visitor who arrives. There are three layers to Gravity's approach for organizing the WSJ - 1. There's a section that shows you what stories are trending, which is shown to all viewers; 2. The personalized area shows stories matching your interests based on previous activity on the site; 3. If you sign in with Facebook or another social account, socially relevant content will appear based on what you "Like" and what you and your friends are talking about on social media. Its product, usable with a browser widget or via Gravity's application programming interface (APIs), is free and might even make websites a few bucks from shared supported content revenue. Sites that opt for API usage have access to deeper website traffic analytics. As Gravity grows, Kapur said the site will begin to show interest-targeted ads in the same way it chooses interest-based stories for website visitors. Later this year, Gravity will become a self-serve system, but for now it is still working with partners. Kapur said he hopes the Internet becomes the personalized interest-driven web. When you visit a webpage, do you want content to be organized specifically for you? Tell us in the comments below. Graphics courtesy of Gravity. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| The Marketer's Guide to Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 5:06 PM | Zoe Fox |
|  Pinterest, the darling digital pin board that's turned the social media world upside down, is now a top traffic driver for brands. That's a good sign marketers should get their butts up to speed on the latest pinning tips and tricks. Fortunately for you, MDGadvertising has created an infographic explaining the nooks and crannies of the social network. Many brands -- such as Etsy, Real Simple, Whole Foods and West Elm -- are on board and have already amassed significant followings. This infographic explains some Pinterest basics, such as explaining what a Pin, Repin and Board are, and provides five tips. You should first decide whether Pinterest is a fit for your product. Selling life insurance? This might not be a helpful platform for you. If you think Pinterest is right for your brand, go ahead and add a "Pin It" button to your site. Make sure to use great visuals. Pin products you love but don't sell -- this site isn't all about self-promotion. Add some early Pinterest all-stars and learn from their strategies. SEE ALSO: Pinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined/a> You're probably not surprised that 87% of Pinterst users are women. However, you may not realize that the site has a significant age range, with 80% of users fairly evenly distributed between 25 to 54. If you haven't caught the Pinterest bug yet, be assured many others have. According to a comScore report, it was the fastest standalone site in history to pass the 10 million users mark, which happened in January. Are you a marketer using Pinterest? How have you jumped on board the Pinterest train? Share you best practices in the comments. |
| Twitter Brings More Advertising to Mobile | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 4:40 PM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Twitter is swiftly bringing more of its Promoted Products to its apps for iPhone, Android and the mobile web (m.twitter.com). The short-messaging service announced Tuesday that it has updated its iPhone and Android apps to display Promoted Accounts. Promoted Tweets in the timeline (pictured) will be introduced "in the coming weeks," Twitter said in a blog post. Some of those Promoted Tweets may appear at the top of users' timelines from brand they already follow, the company added by way of warning. Twitter was careful to note that as users scroll down their timelines, Promoted Tweets will flow with them. Users complained loudly when Twitter rolled out the "Quick Bar" -- more commonly referred to as the "dickbar" -- last March. The bar hovered at the top of screens as users scrolled, prominently displaying a rotating list of trends, including those paid for by sponsors. The Quick Bar was removed within a month of its release. The new version of Promoted Tweets for mobile appears to be Twitter's more user-friendly compromise. Advertising accounts for the bulk of Twitter's revenues. The company generated $139.5 million in ad sales in 2011, according to estimates from eMarketer. Ad revenues are expected to grow 86.3% to $259.9 million this year. |
| Don't Want Your Video to Become a Viral Sensation? Givit Controls Who Sees It | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 3:46 PM | Veena Bissram |
|  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Givit Quick Pitch: Givit is private video sharing made easy. Genius Idea: Desktop and mobile apps designed to control who can view and forward the videos you share. If you just recorded a video of your daughter's first ballet recital, chances are you don't want to share it publicly on the Internet. That's why Givit makes private sharing simple and easy by limiting who can view and forward the videos you share. Unlike popular sites such as YouTube and Vimeo that are designed for public sharing, Givit is limited to only private sharing. Users can privately share unlimited videos from any camera, smartphone or camcorder without having to adjust any privacy or security settings. "Even if you are a very public person, you don't always want to share everything with everyone," Greg Kostello, founder of Givit, told Mashable. "We believe you should have a source to share your videos privately that makes you feel confident and safe." Sharing videos on Givit is easy - just sign up for free or sign in with your Facebook account and upload the videos you want to share. Choose one video, add the recipients' e-mail addresses, write a quick message about the video and then decide whether you want to give your recipients the option to re-share your video. Users can always go back and add or remove recipients once they're done sharing. To ensure the people viewing your video are the ones you shared it with, all recipients are required to sign up on Givit before they can see the video. A small mail icon lets users see who has and hasn't opened the shared video. The app also has a private commenting feature that lets recipients comment back and forth on the video in a private thread. Givit securely stores all your videos in one place and accepts a wide range of video formats. To provide the best delivery process, Givit stores the master copy of each video and then transcodes it into different formats to support a variety of browsers and smartphones. The time it takes to send videos depends on the user's Internet connection. Although there are no restrictions on the length of the video or the number of videos a user can upload, users can only upload a file up to 1GB in size. Givit users are given 2GB of storage for free when they sign up. After the 2GB is used, the annual costs for extra storage are $29.99 for 10 GB, $49.99 for 20GB and $99.99 for 50GB. Givit was launched in 2011 and is currently in public beta. The app is available for MAC and windows desktops and iPhone and iPad devices. Givit plans to release the app for Android next week. Image Courtesy of iStockphoto, kaisersosa67 Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| Street Fashion Spotters Get Their Photo App: Thre.ad | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 1:17 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  If you've always wished you could tweak Instagram so that it would show only unfiltered fashion photos, a service launching Tuesday might make your day. The startup, Thre.ad, is a visual news feed for fashion inspiration. Thre.ad aggregates user-submitted, fashion-focused photos and makes them browsable based on content from friends or deemed most popular. While submitting photos through the free iPhone app or website, users tag the brands and items (i.e. striped shirt) within them, and each of these also becomes a browsing mechanism. If you want to see more photos of striped shirts, for instance, you can click that tag in a photo. Thre.ad's founder, Mimi Nguyen, wants the app to fill a niche for individual expression, especially street photography. She also hopes that fashion bloggers, stylists and photographers use it as a home base rather than scattering their curated content across services like Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest. "There are hundreds of millions of blogs and individual sites, but nothing that brings it together under one hub," she tells Mashable. The idea of a visually based fashion discovery app isn't original. Kaleidoscope, Snapette and Pose all tout similar services.Thre.ad, however, does bring a somewhat different tone to the idea. Although self-portraits and in-store items do sneak into the mix, most of the 2,000 beta users have stuck to the idea of spotting fashion on the street. Recounting advice that her boyfriend Alan Chan, the co-founder of Bre.ad (yes, that's Thre.ad and Bre.ad), Nguyen notes: "The best ideas are when you've seen something done that you know you can do better." Does Thre.ad do fashion discovery better? Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments. |
| Check in at Foursquare's Swanky New HQ [PICS] | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 10:41 AM | Lauren Drell |
|  The Startup Spaces Series is supported by Turnstone, a Steelcase brand. Running a small business is hard enough, having a great space to work in should be easy. myturnstone.com. Checking in to Foursquare HQ is so meta -- and it's really flippin' awesome, too. The geolocation startup recently moved its HQ from New York's Cooper Square to a ginormous space -- two floors of 28,000 feet each -- joining other startups Thrillist, ZocDoc and 10Gen at 568 Broadway. It's no surprise that Foursquare is growing -- the platform has 15 million users and more than 1.5 billion check-ins, and Foursquare is seeing more than 5 million check-ins each day. To help fuel this growth, Foursquare's team recently surpassed 100 people, who are split between New York and San Francisco. But despite the 3,000 miles between these offices, the team is able to keep in touch via big-screen videochats and a tight-knit company culture. The New York office is littered with references to badges, Foursquare swag (Snuggies, anyone?) and plenty of treats in "Fat Denny's" cafeteria. Mashable went on a tour of the new digs, which houses the startup's 85 New York employees. The company just moved in in January, so there's more decorating to be done, but you can get a sneak peek at the team's design and decorating process and get a sense of what's to come. Trust us, after looking through these photos, you might want to apply for a job there. Series supported by Turnstone
The Startup Spaces Series is supported by Turnstone, a Steelcase brand. Turnstone, ready when you are. For more information please visit Turnstone. |
| Facebook Teams Up With Mobile Carriers for Payments | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 9:56 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Facebook has inked deals with some top wireless carriers to facilitate mobile payments, the company announced Monday. The company's new partners include AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, among others. Under the new deal, consumers will be able to pay for their Facebook Credits via carrier billing. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor (pictured) said the payments experience on the web is "broken" and added, "Even with operator billing support most require a step called SMS device verification. That means if I'm in the middle of the game and want to pay 99 cents, I have to wait for an SMS to arrive," according to Inside Facebook. In a further annoyance, Taylor said that after the SMS arrives, the user has to verify that their device is connected to their Facebook account. "Then I have to awkwardly memorize the code and resubmit the transactions," he said. "If I manage to make it this far, then I can finally go back to playing the game." Facebook reps could not be reached for further comment. The announcement comes as Facebook is prepping for its $5 billion IPO and is said to be setting its sights on monetizing its mobile operations via advertising. It's not clear what Facebook's stake in mobile payments would be. According to reports, Facebook is promising the telecoms a greater share of revenues and influence that the current mobile titans -- Apple and Google -- offer. Taylor also told The Telegraph that if Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook today it would be a mobile app, rather than a web-based entity. Image courtesy of Flickr, Jolieodell |
| Zmags Unveils Shopping Tool to Reach Tablet, Smartphone Users | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 8:52 AM | Samantha Murphy |
|  Zmags launched an online shopping environment on Tuesday, aiming to blend the physical store experience with that of flipping through a magazine or catalog. The media merchandising company has created a beautiful platform for merchants called Zmags Convergence that takes the user interface of a tablet, smartphone, Facebook brand page or website to introduce shoppers to a world beyond what's traditionally seen on e-commerce sites today. The company -- which worked with Dick's Sporting Goods, Kenneth Cole, Lenovo, Celebrating Home and Pearson to create and build the product -- designed the platform primarily with the iPad in mind, but it works with various devices. When a shopper visits a participating retailer on a mobile device, the ZMags user interface presents a virtual table of contents that allows users to find and browse the items they want. It aims to invite shoppers to discover new products, encourage engagement and ultimately make a purchase. The platform also includes a page-turning feature, similar to flipping through a catalog or magazine, and allows shoppers to easily drop items into a shopping cart, share findings on social networking sites and make purchases. Zmags seeks to make the most of the trend of more customers turning to social and mobile channels to shop, according to W. Sean Ford, the company's COO and CMO. "Most retailers have treated the Facebook experience as an extended blog and if it doesn't work for them, they think there is a flaw with the channel," Ford said. "ZMags is taking different channels and packaging them in a way that is appealing to customers and how they want to shop." The move is indeed a part of a growing trend among retailers to implement news kinds of commerce strategies to appeal to tablet, smartphone and social shoppers. "It will be important to design natural shopping experiences that mirror the way consumers like to browse and shop rather than forcing them down non-intuitive paths,"Van Baker, Research VP of Gartner, Inc., said in a statement. |
| Zmags Unveils Shopping Tool to Reach Tablet, Smartphone Users | | Tuesday, February 28, 2012 8:52 AM | Samantha Murphy |
|  Zmags launched an online shopping environment on Tuesday, aiming to blend the physical store experience with that of flipping through a magazine or catalog. The media merchandising company has created a beautiful platform for merchants called Zmags Convergence that takes the user interface of a tablet, smartphone, Facebook brand page or website to introduce shoppers to a world beyond what's traditionally seen on e-commerce sites today. The company -- which worked with Dick's Sporting Goods, Kenneth Cole, Lenovo, Celebrating Home and Pearson to create and build the product -- designed the platform primarily with the iPad in mind, but it works with various devices. When a shopper visits a participating retailer on a mobile device, the ZMags user interface presents a virtual table of contents that allows users to find and browse the items they want. It aims to invite shoppers to discover new products, encourage engagement and ultimately make a purchase. The platform also includes a page-turning feature, similar to flipping through a catalog or magazine, and allows shoppers to easily drop items into a shopping cart, share findings on social networking sites and make purchases. Zmags seeks to make the most of the trend of more customers turning to social and mobile channels to shop, according to W. Sean Ford, the company's CEO and CMO. "Most retailers have treated the Facebook experience as an extended blog and if it doesn't work for them, they think there is a flaw with the channel," Ford said. "ZMags is taking different channels and packaging them in a way that is appealing to customers and how they want to shop." The move is indeed a part of a growing trend among retailers to implement news kinds of commerce strategies to appeal to tablet, smartphone and social shoppers. "It will be important to design natural shopping experiences that mirror the way consumers like to browse and shop rather than forcing them down non-intuitive paths,"Van Baker, Research VP of Gartner, Inc., said in a statement. |
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