Earlier this month the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) asks Canadians to show off their .CA website in their Showusyour.ca video contest.
The deadline to enter has now passed, CIRA has shortlisted the finalists, and now they need your help picking the winners.
The grand prize winner will receive a MacBook Pro and will be featured in a future .CA marketing campaign - a pretty big deal considering CIRA's National marketing budget. As well as the grand prize, the first runner-up will receive a 64GB iPod touch, and the second runner-up will receive a Flip UltraHD camcorder.
Voting closes on March 26th, so head over to Showusyour.ca to vote today.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a not for profit Canadian corporation that is responsible for operating the dot-ca Internet... [more]
In a world where we find our personal privacy slipping away First Orion PrivacyStar’s mobile app allows people to take control.
Available for Blackberry, the simple app allows users to block all unwanted calls, ID unknown callers using their caller lookup and makes is simple to report those annoying and unwanted telemarketing violations with all the information needed for the law and regulatory authorities to take action. This is the first and only app available to provide this type of functionality regarding telemarketing calls and it is now available through MobiHand in Canada.
The app became available a few weeks ago and has already seen significant growth in their user base. In the digital world where people are giving away their privacy like never before this app allows you to take some of it back.
First Orion CEO Jeff Stalnaker reports that their data has shown that people are using the app to identify unknown callers with the caller look feature and then they can choose to block the caller or add them to their address book.
What makes this product unique is how it handles telemarketing calls. It is the only application that gets all the information needed for the authorities to investigate. The application also has a personalized web portal that can help you to manage your blocked caller list and provide additional details on potential violations while helping you to manage your PrivacyStar account.
Their partnership with MobiHand will allow Blackberry users in the US and Canada to tap into the power of this app. The PrivacyStar app is free for the first 30 days, after the trial the service is available for USD $2.99 a month. In addition to getting the app through MobiHand, it is also available at the PrivacyStar website, through Blackberry App World or by texting “myprivacy” to 74700.
The following is a guest post from Trevor Doerksen, CEO of Calgary's Mobovivo - a digital media company focused on the challenges Broadcast and Media companies face in marketing and delivering premium content to audiences on alternative platforms.
The new Canada Media Fund, to launch the last week of March, is driving television funding requirements towards alternative-to-broadcast distribution. A core mission of the fund is to support convergence between new and old media. So, what is alternative distribution anyway?
Since the alternative-to-broadcast distribution requirement was announced by the Canadian Heritage Minister a year ago, comprehensive industry consultation has taken place and a new language around television and storytelling has emerged.
Trying to make sense of the requirement, the TV industry has begun using words and phrases like: platform, device, streaming, download, microsite, entitlements, social engagement, user-generated content, app, monetization, white-label, transcoding, mobisode, interactive and so on.
And it seems nobody can decide on common terms. No easy task, as even Apple's product branding is confusing – “is that an iPod, a Touch, or a Classic?” And it's getting more difficult. Consider the iPad – it seems to be a cross between a laptop, e-reader, iPod Touch (not the iPod Classic) and iPhone without the phone.
Of course, we know stories are distributed and communicated. Well scripted, high quality, professionally produced stories are distributed - people will always pay for access to compelling stories. Casual, brief, shocking, funny, emotional stories are communicated - and audiences will pay for access to be part of the communication.
The iPod, iPad and iPhone are, of course, one (or five) alternative-to-broadcast distribution opportunities for the television producer. One (or five) of how many? Which will qualify under new guidelines? Which are profitable? What about rights, copyright and territories? Do distribution windows apply? Where is all the advertising money? Do people pay for content? What about streaming on Facebook - is that an alternative-to-broadcast strategy? This is what an industry undergoing significant change sounds like.
Then of course, there are online services or alternative distribution platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube - three of the most popular websites in the world. These sites have proven to be powerful communication tools, and can't be overlooked as key marketing tools. However, they are unproven when it comes to the sustainable distribution of premium content. Recognizing the difference between successful creative marketing tools and sustainable distribution strategies is very important.
When it comes to distribution of stories, nothing fundamentally has changed. Consumers purchase access to media. People pay for cable, magazines, newspapers and music - no matter the format. This has been the case since free over-the-air broadcast was replaced by cable and VHS was replaced by DVD, then Blue-Ray, then digital download.
So perhaps then, nothing is new. Well, not quite. There are a lot of options that fragment the marketplace and our lives. Households don't have one record player or television. They have devices in every room and in their pockets. This is not new, just more fragmented.
As for creative marketing strategies, many musicians and producers have learned that engaging community and "being interactive" is hard work. Managing communities on YouTube, mySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and a website seems like as much work as directing a feature film - and it never ends.
Understanding the difference between technologies suited for distribution and technologies suited for marketing is key to taking advantage of fragmentation and disruption in the marketplace.
To understand alternative-to-broadcast distribution, producers and broadcasters need go no further than file-sharing tools to determine which distribution formats are popular. They will realize that there is no illegal trade in webisodes. Short clips may be there, but nothing compared to the popularity of full programs. They will see that both streaming and downloading premium movies and TV shows are extremely popular. They will notice there are several hundred programs to transcode videos from one device or format to another. In addition, they will notice that not only is a lot of this illegal, it is extremely complicated to search, download, transcode, and sync a video to your device. Despite the complications, doing so is extremely popular.
As an industry, we must make it easier, not harder, to purchase access to media for particular devices and favourite mobile and web destinations. This is what the Canada Media Fund should help the industry achieve.
A creative marketing strategy requires that television producers continue to do what they have always done - give people something to talk about. They need to engage with community by seeding the conversation with their shows, ideas, themes, experts, actors, and so on in a sustainable way. This is only possible if producers embrace the communications power of innovative new technologies, and provide the means for audiences to join conversations about their stories. Communications and marketing drive distribution and distribution feeds the overall strategy towards sustainability. Winning creative marketing strategies recognize that the human desire to communicate is fundamental.
The Canada Media Fund will ask the industry for proposals that bring great made-in-Canada stories to the world, supported by sustainable and innovative made-in-Canada solutions for marketing and distribution. Creative marketing plans leverage cost effective and powerful communications, social networking, and user-generated content tactics. And the alternative-to-broadcast distribution plan earns money by taking advantage of the numerous ways people choose to view TV.
Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Parliament through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montréal, Telefilm... [more]
Earlier this week PayPal Canada GM Darrell MacMullin blogged about their new iPhone App that lets Canadians send money for free. With the PayPal Send Money application for iPhone, Canadians can now pull out their phone instead of their wallet when they want to send or receive money.
If you are like me, whenever you leave your house you check to make sure you have three things – your keys, your wallet and your phone. With the launch of our next generation Send Money application, PayPal took one step closer to a future where your phone will become your wallet.
We’ve also added some unique and useful features that will make Send Money one of your favourite apps. Send Money features integrated Bump technology which lets two iPhone users transfer money by bumping their phones against each other. Split Check helps you divvy up a restaurant bill and then request as many as 20 people chip in their share. Collect Money helps people remind their friends to square up for group gifts, team dues or concert tickets.
The new PayPal iPhone App is free at the iTunes Store.
Earlier this week Calgary's Mob4Hire released a first look at the results of their Global Wireless Satisfaction Survey conducted in collaboration with Business Over Broadway in February of this year.
The unprecedented 111 country survey analyzes the impact of mobile apps on operator’s churn - # of new customers acquired minus # of existing customers lost - as well as many dimensions of the app ecosystem as it relates to mobile user behavior and satisfaction.
This Mob4Hire research results demonstrate the importance of mobile apps to today's sophisticated mobile phone users with 75% of respondents reporting that mobile apps are important when choosing their new operator.
While Mob4Hire's research indicates that the dimensions of wireless coverage and service are still the MOST important factor when choosing their new operator, the importance of mobile apps are a close second and will no doubt raise the bar for operators.
Kudos to Mob4Hire for assembling this data - it demonstrates a great use of their community of more than 40,000 people in 146 countries on 364 network operators.
Mob4Hire has made the research available free of charge on this 8-page report on Slideshare.
Mob4hire is crowdsourced mobile application testing. [more]
