Facebook IPO Fails to Beat the Hype After Glitch on NASDAQ

It wasn't a smooth launch at the NASDAQ this morning, but Facebook finally began trading for the first time as a publicly traded company. After a 30-minute delay that compounded the hype, concern and intense interest in the largest-ever tech IPO, the FB ticker was live and fluctuating on a more steady range than previous IPOs on day one.

The stock began trading at $42.02 and closed for the day at $38.23, parking its value near the initial $38 price set by the company on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal reported that nearly 571m shares of Facebook changed hands on Friday and more than 30 brokerages and banks were involved in the offering. Underwriters also reportedly stepped in multiple times throughout the day to keep shares above $38.

In one fell swoop, the IPO made 28-year-old CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg the 29th richest person on Earth, making him wealthier than Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, according to reports on Yahoo.

As if Friday wasn't busy enough for Facebook, the company also found time to buy another mobile startup. This time it was Karma, a mobile gifting app.

"We’re thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook. The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force. By combining the incredible passion of our community with Facebook’s platform we can delight users in new and meaningful ways. As we say … only good things will follow," co-founders Lee Linden and Ben Lewis write in a blog post announcing the news.

Posted on Sat, May 2012 07:45:41

Booking Company Blinks into Life

Accomodation booking company Blink Booking has launched in the UK, off the back of $2.5m investment. Blink, which has already launched in seven European countries, offers nightly deals at handpicked four- and five-star hotels.

“Existing online booking services remain search-driven on mobile devices," says Rebeca Minguela, co-founder and CMO. "With travel now so last-second, people don’t want hundreds of options, but a curated selection of premium accommodations at the best prices for easy, immediate booking. That’s exactly what Blink delivers.”

In Spain, where Blink first launched in November 2011, its app has been downloaded over 170,000 times.

Posted on Fri, May 2012 04:53:13

Veremis Praises Facebook Approach

Veremis: Facebook move "bursts the bubble around the inevitable growth of mobile marketing driven by growing impressions"Facebook has officially floated on the US stock market, with Mark Zuckerberg ringing the NASDAQ bell remotely from Facebook's California headquarters to signal the start of the day’s trading.

As it does so, Marco Veremis, president of Upstream, and a former senior advertising strategist for Grey, McCann-Ericsson and DDB, developing advertising strategies for brands such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Sony, has praised the company for stating its preference for "user engagement over short-term financial results" in a recent amendment to its S-1 filing.

Says Veremis: “Facebook has acknowledged something about mobile that no other major player has been prepared to recognise to date: that the growth in impressions available to marketers as mobile penetration grows does not equate to an opportunity to monetise the channel by bombarding people with advertising.

“Mobiles are very personal devices and people are very resistant to any form of mobile advertising. Research we carried out earlier this year showed why we have been contrarian to this for such a long time, with 79 per cent of consumers in the UK and 72 per cent in the US stating that they find advertisements on their mobiles or smartphones irritating. What’s more, only one in six (11 per cent) Brits and 15 per cent of Americans who have surfed the internet on their mobile phone have ever even clicked on a mobile advert.

“This move to denounce current practices by as big a name as Facebook at last bursts the bubble around the inevitable growth of mobile marketing driven by growing impressions and calls for greater emphasis to be placed on consumer response and conversion rates. To get consumers to respond over mobile a brand needs to speak less and employ the right technologies and formats that achieve true relevance and impact. Very few companies truly possess these tools and as such monetization so far has been disappointing despite the smartphone boom.”

Posted on Fri, May 2012 04:00:31

Video Report: In Store with Marks and Spencer

You might not know this, but Marks and Spencer has been testing out a new mobile scheme in stores. QR codes and in-store wi-fi have been introduced in a select number of locations - but what's it all about?

Luckily, mobile business development manager Rosie Srao was on hand at the Edgware Road branch to explain more.

You can watch the video below.

Posted on Fri, May 2012 02:37:18

NCM Syncs Up with Cinemas

Integrated media company NCM has launched its CinemaSync mobile technology, which will be integrated into its Movie Night Out second-screening app. CinemaSync uses image and audio recognition to serve deliver content, coupons and other value added services to cinemagoers.

And if the idea of a theatre full of growing screens fills you with dread, good news. Movie Night Out features a 'movie mode' which activates as trailers begin, dimming the screen and reminding moviegoers to turn their handset onto silent.

“Some moviegoers are already using their mobile devices in theaters before the film, so we designed Movie Night Out with CinemaSync to enhance that experience and channel it in a positive, courteous direction,” said Ken Venturi, executive vice president and chief creative officer of NCM Media Networks. “With CinemaSync, moviegoers will get extra content and valuable offers throughout their lobby and pre-movie experience, with the added benefit of an automatic reminder from Sprint to silence their mobile phone prior to the trailers and feature film start.”

Movie Night Out has already seen 1.2m downloads across Android and iOS, delivering reviews, trailers, and showtimes, as well enabling ticket buying, via  Fandango, and social media integration.

Posted on Fri, May 2012 01:37:28

Will Mobile Sink or Float Mobile's Boat?

As Facebook launches its IPO, analyst Informa Telecoms & Media warns that mobile could prove the social network's Achilles heel. It has so far struggled to incorporate advertising into its mobile offerings - and that's something Facebook itself knows all too well.

As it said in its S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission: "We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven."

And as Facebook grows into emerging markets, where PC penetration is low, more and more of its traffic gets diverted to mobile. And, with its current strategy - or lack thereof - that makes those visitor difficult to monetise. According to Facebook, the number of daily active users has recently been increasing at a faster rate than the number of ads delivered on its network.

“Facebook has been in mobile for much of its existence," says Guillermo Escofet, senior analyst at Informa. “It launched its Platform for Mobile in 2007, a year after it opened up its membership beyond university campuses – but, to its credit, it hasn’t wanted to rush the introduction of ads on its mobile sites and apps for fear of ruining the user experience. The same fear stopped the social network from switching on ads on its fixed-Internet site until relatively late."

Currently, Facebook’s mobile monetisation strategy is largely dependent on its 'sponsored stories' service, which it extended to mobile in March.

“There’s no reason why Facebook cannot start enabling its sponsored stories with mobile location and presence data," Escofet adds. “Facebook should continue to look for ways of exploiting the unique advantages brought by mobile to target sponsored content, ads or whatever if might be more accurately with users’ needs and wants."

“Mobile is Facebook’s future. It has to make sure it doesn’t also become its undoing."

Paran Johar, CMO of mobile ad network Jumptap sees mobile as a huge opportunity rather than a risk for the social network. “Mobile should be a huge priority for the Facebook team, especially given the IPO," Johar says. "Traffic to social media sites on the Jumptap network from January 2011–2012 grew 107 per cent, and had a 28 per cent uplift in CTR for ads on the channel when combined with outside data sources. The social networking channel remains one of the most popular for our top verticals, including auto, retail and CPG. There is an incredible opportunity for Facebook to monetise their massive mobile presence. 33 per cent of their traffic comes from mobile devices and 85 per cent of their $3.7bn in revenue comes from advertising - monetising mobile is a billion-dollar opportunity.”

Posted on Fri, May 2012 12:15:26

Penguin Goes AR With Zappar

Penguin Books and Augmented Reality (AR) firm Zappar have announced a partnership to deliver interactive experience for the Penguin English Library – a new collection of beautifully designed books that celebrate 100 of the best novels written in English.

Using the Zappar App, readers will be able to bring elements of four of the books to life with a range of bespoke material, including animations of Coralie Bickford-Smith’s illustrated covers, video, audio and extracts. The app initially offer readers the Zappar experience on two novels, Moby Dick, and Lady Audley's Secret, with two further titles to come later in the year.

To experience the interactivity, download the free Zappar App from iTunes or Google Play, locate the Penguin content in the menu, point your phone at the cover of the book and watch as it reveals an array of digital content and online destinations. The companies say this signifies not only a first for AR, but also, an original and immersive way of introducing some of the best-loved books of the last 300 years to a new generation of readers.

Originally launched in 1963, the Penguin English Library published some of the most captivating works ever written in English. The new collection, which launched on 26th April, starts with Robinson Crusoe and spans two centuries until Dubliners was published just before the First World War.

“The Penguin English Library is about celebrating the ultimate readers’ editions that can be cherished, collected, given, and kept for a lifetime,” says Penguin Press marketing director, Nicola Hill. The striking designs really elevate this series, and we're delighted to work with Zappar on an inventive way of using it to celebrate and share a fresh publishing idea.”

Posted on Fri, May 2012 11:15:54

Chelsea FC Expands App Reach With Symbian Offering

Mobile marketing firm InfoMedia has launched an app for Chelsea FC for Nokia (Symbian) phones, ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. 

Chelsea already offers apps on other platforms.  Driven by the global footprint of the Nokia platform and its overlap with the Chelsea fan base this latest release means a dedicated application is now available for the vast majority of Nokia phones currently on the market.

The app includes the latest Chelsea FC news, including exclusive interviews and training ground reports for app users only. There is also on-demand video from Chelsea TV Online, including match highlights, interviews, daily news headlines, training ground reports and exclusive Chelsea video content. This content is only available to Chelsea TV Online subscribers.

Enhanced live match features include text commentary, team line-ups, stats, league position changes and live scores of all the matches being played across all English league, FA Cup, Carling Cup, UEFA Champions League and Europa League football. There’s also a section offering stadium information, club history and comprehensive player profiles, plus ticket information and integration with Nokia Maps to show the location of the Chelsea FC stadium. In addition the app is the only official Premiership Football team app for Nokia to feature live streaming match audio.

“Building on our work for other platforms, we are now expanding the Chelsea FC mobile footprint out on to Nokia,” says InfoMedia managing director, Michael Tomlins. For the club, this means that they continue to expand the ‘official’ rich, positive Chelsea FC mobile experience to as wide an audience as possible. This means a strong use of video and cohesive integration with other platforms that the Chelsea FC brand is active on.The sum total of this is a compelling offering with strong global reach.

“For the fans the app means the best content, delivered right to their phone in the run up to the UEFA Champions League final. But beyond this weekend, the exclusive content and proactive management of the app will mean better customer retention, as those fans will stay with the app through to next season.”

Posted on Fri, May 2012 10:20:20