April, 2010
LinkedIn is now providing members with a new feature to follow businesses. When following any business, members can receive company updates, recent hires and new opportunities. The members can decide how often they want updates through the Following Settings.
April, 2010
Textie, from the creator of Tweetie, will provide iPhone users with an alternative option to sending SMS/MMS messages through their phone. To send free messages, users can select contacts who also have the service. The messages will be sent to the receiver’s application, rather than their phone. The application currently has ads that pop up amid conversation, and users can opt-out of receiving ads by paying a monthly fee of $1.99.
April, 2010 Warner Bros. will offer mobile users of the new HTC Desire Android handset from T-Mobile the ability to rent movies straight from their phone. Starting next month, consumers will be given two free rentals including “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “The Hangover.” Eight other movies will also be offered for a 48 hour rental period.
April, 2010 Universal Pictures is tapping into the mobile gaming sphere by offering applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod for the new release of MacGruber. MacGruber hits theatres May 21 and is based off the Saturday Night Life character. The apps offer games such as the Bomb Defuser, the Mullet photo tool and a soundboard with audio from the movie.
April, 2010
Spotify, a streaming music application, has upgraded its service by creating a Library where users can upload their own music and star anything they like. In addition, the application has made itself more social by adding a Facebook application that will connect users with friends who also have the service. By adding the service to the users personal page, they will also be able to send tracks directly to their friends.
April, 2010 The professional hockey team, the Phoenix Coyotes, are offering their fans mobile video updates of home games for the rest of the season. Consumers can simply text-in to receive the video on their mobile phones. The Coyotes are teaming up with Thwapr, a mobile video-sharing company, to offer this new service.
April, 2010
Pampers is set to launch their first mobile app for the iPad called, “Hello Baby”. The app will help expecting mothers track their baby’s growth through their pregnancy. The app also provides mothers with comparable sizes for their baby’s growing weight and length. P&G is looking to use the app to gauge the need for mobile and online presence.
April, 2010 A recent study by Ground Truth reported that more than half the amount of time spent on mobile Internet is on Social Networks. Falling behind Social Networks in time spent on mobile Internet are Portals, Operators, Messaging and Downloads.
April, 2010
1800Flowers will roll out a 360 degree mobile marketing campaign for the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday. The campaign will circulate through SMS messaging, downloadable apps, mobile websites, and optimized mobile advertising. The goal is to ensure all types of mobile phone are able to access their marketing during their busiest season.
April 2010
Rec.fm is a new community-based social media site that provides users with unbiased product reviews of 140 characters or less. In addition, users can add their favorite charities to their profiles and help raise money when other users perform a click-through and make purchases based on the reccomendation.
April 2010
Snacksquare, in partnership with Foursquare, allows users to find restaurants and deals before they even leave the house. Merchants eager join in on the program can notify users via push SMS notifications when in proximity to their resturaunts.
April 2010
The History Channel partnered with Foursquare to promote it’s 12-hour television special, America, The Story of Us, on how America was invented. When users sign into Foursqare from different cities, they have the option of learning about historical facts of the area and can unlock the History Channel badge.
April 2010
Twitter partnered with Virgin to launch its Promoted Tweet program. Virgin’s Promoted Tweet program includes value discounts for cheap flights as well additional flight information. Virgin plans to test the efficay of Promoted Tweets by abandoning traditional media and revealing information regarding flights from a new city soley through Promoted Tweets.
April, 2010 Chef Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef) launched a social media campaign, “Jamie’s Food Revolution” in an effort to change children’s eating habits in America. The revolution utilizes Oliver’s site, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and direct email in an attempt to promote healthier eating among kids.
April, 2010 Harley-Davidson steps in the realm of Chatroulette using an iSight camera pointed on a cardboard ad that reads, “Sorry, I’m on the road.” The brand utilized the video platform for an extended period of time and achieved both high impressions and positive reactions.
April, 2010 Dr. Seuss with Oceanhouse Media has released another iPad/iPhone app based on the book The Lorax, meant to teach children about the importance of caring for the environment. Lorax Garden for the iPhone supplements the ebook as a game where users can plant trees and send email postcards.
April 2010
Twitter launches CPM ad platform called Promoted Tweets. Twitter claims that Promoted Tweets are far from spam, but rather relevant tweets from companies and advertisers that add value to the users’ experience.
April, 2010
MySpace added a calendar to their site to help users organize their social events. Not only adding the user’s events, the site will also add any of their friends’ events to the calendar as well as any concerts by the user’s favorite artists. Marketers will have the ability to buy space within the calendar to target specific users.
April, 2010
Golf.com saw a rise in unique visitors during the Masters Tournament this past week. Unique visitors to the mobile site were up 131 percent while total page views were up 140 percent. Vice President and General Manager of Sports Illustrated Digital, New York, Kenneth Fuchs, said, “The rise in Golf.com mobile traffic can be attributed to a combination of the overall growth of Internet usage on mobile devices along with the quality of content that Golf.com provides both in terms of live, real-time scoring and on-the-ground coverage from our team of reporters and photographers.” In addition to their iPhone app, Golf.com offered an opt-in service that would relay the tournament scores twice a day.
The hit TV show Glee recently launched apps for the iPad and iPhone. Within the app, users can download songs played within the show and sing along with provided lyrics. The app also allows users to record their own versions of the songs and share them with other Glee app users through Smule. After sharing their song, users can also listen in on other users’ renditions of their favorite songs.
April, 2010
Google released “Google Follow Finder” to help searchers find new Twitter users to follow. Through the app, the user can input their Twitter name and find recommended users to begin following. However, users won’t be able to find new people to follow until they choose to follow at least one person, then they are able to log-in.
April, 2010 Six Flags is targeting consumers in their park with an interactive iPhone application that allows consumers to see their exact location. The app also allows for consumers to tour the park and check out how far they are from certain rides and venues.
April, 2010
Apple has accepted Opera’s request to add an app in their app store for the iPhone and iTouch. Debate surrounded the request as Apple has previously turned down requests for apps that would compete with Apple’s built-in features. The app will be available for free in the app store for the next 24 hours.
April, 2010
UPS has added another app to their portfolio, now for the Android platform. Donna Longino, Spokeswoman for UPS, Atlanta, said, “The UPS Mobile App for Android is part of UPS’ overall mobile strategy to use the latest technology to make the lives of our customers easier by making UPS services as accessible as possible.” The app provides users with UPS store locations as well as tracking capabilities. In addition to the apps, UPS also has a mobile site that can be visited by phone or computer.
April, 2010
Yahoo launched a new initiative with its YQL service called “Firehose”. Firehose promises to provide web devlopers with rich and relevant social media content from search results, comments and reviews from sites like Flickr, Delicious, Twitter and YouTube.
April, 2010 McDonald’s is targeting consumers on the go as they check the weather with mobile banner ads. The ads will run exclusively on the Weather Channel’s iPhone application.
April, 2010
Farmville partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi to allow users to grow Elite Taami Nitz branded peanuts. This is the first time a branded crop has been introduced on Facebook’s popular game, Farmville.
April, 2010
Kroogi is a community based website that allows users to pay for music, photographs and other art related media at a price they determine. Kroogi provides users an alternative to illegal pirating of media content and paid content through services such as iTunes. Kroogi allows artists to capture profits in the gray zone where users want to pay for content, but at their own set price.
April, 2010
Foursquare partnered with Firefox to launch a new toolbar called Foursquarefox. The add-on allows users to perform check-ins, add and locate friends and locations, etc.
April, 2010
Bing partnered with Foursquare to provide users with the ability to integrate Foursquare data on Bing maps. This partnership gives users the ability to view, in real time, Foursquare updates regarding check-ins leveraging Bing’s smooth Map interface.
