Category: Percolate

What Alibaba Is Courting Hollywood For

Posted on by Lab Team

 Read original story on: AdAge

Armed with $25 billion from its historic IPO, Alibaba is now following the footsteps of Netflix and courting Hollywood for entertainment content to sell to Chinese consumers through its set-top boxes. Its founder Jack Ma is reportedly meeting with major Hollywood studios, including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Walt Disney Co., Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal, seeking either rights to distribute U.S. film and TV at home, or investments in studio stakes.

 

Twitter’s Audacious Plan To Eliminate Passwords And Infiltrate Other Apps

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge

Today at its first mobile developer conference in four years, Twitter announced two new ambitious products. First: it is releasing a new software development kit called Fabric that aims to transform Twitter from a business based purely on a single social platform into a diversified service aimed at every person and company that makes mobile apps.

In addition, Twitter is also introducing Digits, a login/password replacement service. Starting soon, developers will be able to use Digits to sign up users to their apps. The process has three steps: a login screen with an option to sign up via mobile device; a screen to enter your phone number, and a screen to enter the confirmation code Twitter sends you via SMS. How far will Fabric and Digits go to advance Twitter’s audacious expansion remains to be seen.

Nielsen Partners Up With Adobe For Cross-Platform Measurement

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: MediaPost

Adobe and Nielsen have announced a strategic partnership to build and support a cross-platform system for measuring online TV, video and other digital content across the Web and mobile apps. The collaboration integrates Nielsen’s digital audience measurement products with Adobe’s Analytics (digital analytics) and Primetime (online TV delivery) platforms. As consumers expand their video consumption across screens, the media industry needs stronger digital and cross-platform measurement like this to better adapt to the changing market.

Whole Foods Jumps In On Pro-Social Marketing

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: NYTimes

On Monday, Whole Foods introduced its first national brand marketing campaign, proclaiming that the national grocer provides value to shoppers through the eco-friendly standards it follows in deciding how to stock shelves.

This new campaign is the newest example of a popular trend on Madison Avenue known by terms such as “conscious capitalism,” “purpose marketing” and “pro-social marketing.” The idea is to appeal to prospective customers — especially the socially conscious millennials — by persuading them that a company operates in a socially responsible manner. It is a marketing approach that brands such as Chipotle, Kiehl’s and Panera Bread all have been experimenting with for a while now.

 

Google Addresses Security Concerns with Physical USB Key

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Lifehacker

With news of security breaches popping up everyday (this week so far: credit card breach at Staples stores and targeted phone system hacking), strengthening digital security has become a growing concern among consumers. To address this issue, Google is now launching a two-step verification feature with Security Key, a physical USB security key that only works after verifying the login site is truly a Google website. Such a move clearly indicates Google’s intention to move away from the single password standard for consumer security. Whether the users would be willing to sacrifice a little convenience for added security measures, however, remains to be seen.

Apple Pay Update: Banks Are Racing To Be The Default Card

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge

With Apple Pay officially going public yesterday, banks and credit card companies are now in a tight race to be the first ones you load onto your iPhone. For one thing, banks are keen to have their customers use a digital wallet over a credit card because it could save them the considerable cost of making, distributing, and replacing plastic cards.

More importantly, Apple Pay can work with multiple credit and debit cards loaded into Passbook. But most of the time people will probably be relying on the default card, avoiding the hassle of unlocking the phone and tapping around in Passbook. It’s no wonder banks are competing eagerly for prime real estate on Apple Pay.

 

 

Is TV Advertising About To Change Forever?

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdAge

As we reach the tipping point over whether broadcast ad budgets will start shifting to digital video, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. With cable companies gradually giving in to the pressure to unbundle — like CBS and HBO did last week — we’re on the cusp of entering a digital TV landscape where TV just becomes a homescreen to video, while TV channels become apps. In this new landscape, programmatic buying would become the norm. That would enable more targeted audience buying, more personalized cross-platform advertising, and more connected calls for real-time response. 

 

How Apple Pay Could Bring Competitive Edge To iAd

Posted on by Lab Team

Source: Digiday

To nobody’s surprise, Apple Pay will soon be integrated into iAd, Apple’s mobile ad network. According to reports, the updated iAd mobile ad network will feature Apple Pay in the form of a tap-to-buy button embedded in mobile ads, which could potentially boost direct response and impulse purchase. As iAd struggles to compete with Google’s AdWords, this integration could give Apple the competitive edge it needs.

Obama Signs Initiative To Speed EMV Card Adoption

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Ars Technica

Last Friday, President Obama signed an initiative to help speed the adoption of more secure credit cards in the US. The initiative, nicknamed “BuySecure,” will require credit card companies to produce EMV-standard cards with embedded chips that offer more security measures, instead of the magnetic stripe cards that are common today. With this initiative in place, many national brands — especially the ones suffered credit card breaches like Home Depot and Target — pledged to start using chip-and-pin terminals for EMV cards by January 2015. It will be interesting to see how the more secure cards stack up against the competing NFC-based mobile payment approach led by Apple Pay.

Look Out: A Microsoft Wearable Is Coming Soon

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Forbes

Microsoft is reportedly set to launch a wearable device soon. The gadget is a fitness-focused smart watch that will track vitals and work across different mobile platforms. It also purportedly boasts a battery life of more than two days of regular use. Reports claim that Microsoft will be pushing it out to retail within the next few weeks — just in time for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Whether an early launch ahead of the much-anticipated Apple Watch would help it conquer the market remains unclear.