Nine high tech companies from Israel signed up to an incoming mission set up by our partners MIW to visit the UK last week, Brandsforce had an issue with their flight so unfortunately didn’t make it, but are still receptive to introductions from any interested parties. Mixing Digital organised a seminar event, followed by demo pitches and one-on–one meetings to aid with identifying big trends in the UK market in their core areas of video, social and advertising and to facilitate networking and pre-arranged meetings with possible partners and clients. The incoming companies were actually very interesting and entrepreneurial. Some brand new ideas like Willook’s if-I-die Facebook app that allows you to leave messages after you die for your loved ones on Facebook and myThings who are replicating an already successful model in the retargeting ad network space.
The companies who attended are listed below and please feel free to contact them if you would like to learn more about them and establish business links.
1) Peer TV - http://www.peertv.com PeerTV is a leading developer of hardware and software solutions to the Internet-based TV market.
2) Infogin - http://www.infogin.com/ InfoGin is the world’s pioneer and market leader in innovative mobile browsing solutions for mobile carriers and publishers.
3) myThings - http://www.mythings.com/ MyThings is the fastest growing personalised retargeting provider in Europe, personalising billions of impressions per month and increasing return conversions for dozens of the top online retailers
4) Social Clicks - http://www.socialclicks.com SocialClicks is a powerfully growing media technology company, specializing in optimizing advertising and quality user acquisition on Facebook.
5) Magisto - http://www.magisto.com/ Magisto automatically turns plain videos to beautifully edited and produced Movies, perfect for sharing.
6) Property Away - http://www.propertyaway.com/ Property Away lists real estate and properties from over 100 countries worldwide and allows searching, buying and selling houses, flats and apartments.
7) TDNet – http://www.propertyaway.com/ TDNet is an Information Management company that provides innovative tools and services, to help libraries and information centers to effectively discover, access, manage and maintain their electronic resources.
8) Willook – http://www.propertyaway.com/ Willook develops unique social applications, and launched the successful facebook application ‘ If-I-Die’ that allows users to record their last message to be published after they die. Please visit: https://apps.facebook.com/if_i_die/ for further information
9) Brandsforce – social Media marketing has the potential to engage users in a profound, way while creating higher ROI for marketing campaigns. To fulfill this potential, research has shown, that there is a need to engage with a wide range of users. These users will include not only the Thought Leaders who have high exposure but the masses who long to engage with the brand in a meaningful way. Accomplishing this task requires marketing professionals to engage each group in a different way from the early contact to the continuous engagement and monitoring. Brandsforce enables brands to fulfill this task and through a unique platform which seamlessly controls the marketing cycle on social media platforms.
The seminar programme for the day was very informative and we had around 80 delegates in attendance, listening in to the likes of Mike Shaw, from Comscore who reinstated the fact that if-I-die are on the right track with their service as the over 55’s are the fastest growing group on Facebook and with 3 in every 4 minutes of social media usage now taking place on Facebook. Google+ might start to give Facebook a run for its money though with a surge to 25m users in less than one month, faster than any other social network although they have an advantage in terms of the establishment of social media usage and their already massive audience to tap into.
Comscore also mentioned some interesting video stats and recorded that 35 million people watched an average of 253 videos each in November, totalling a massive 8.85m overall. I have to ask though, who are these people who have time to watch 253 online videos in one month, surely they either work for YouTube or are in need of useful employment? I don’t doubt Comscore’s research naturally.
Caspar Schlickum, who heads up Xasis, (which is part of WPP and Groupm) was up next and thinks that 2012 will bring further consolidation in the agency world throughout Europe. With Datazoo buying Mexad being a good example. Another big impact will be felt from the new data protection rules which, will have a massive effect on the advertising industry if enforced. On a positive note, Caspar feels that 2012 will be the year of the video ad as it moves to the top of the funnel in general marketing plans.
Lots of people are saying ad networks will die. Caspar thinks they will reinvent themselves as service agencies and they certainly need to be doing more than just aggregating inventory to survive. However, Real Time Bidding (RTB) is making it possible for publishers to make their inventory available immediately. This development means that niche audiences could attract high figures, as real time bidding is encouraging the right price of inventory to come through, Technology is definitely helping publishers.
Moving on to mobile, we had a panel session chaired by David Murphy, editor of Mobile Marketing Magazine (who are hosting their inaugural Mobile Retail Summit just this Thursday January 26th http://www.mretailsummit.co.uk/ ). He was joined by Jessica Butcher from Blippar, Malcolm Graham of Limetree, Doug Chisholm from Rippll and Grant Passey of Snapp fame. The main themes from the discussion were the growth on mobile payments, how your mobile device has truly become a guide to living your life with apps, maps, content and buying capability. Doug from Rippll, thinks there will be further blurring of the online and offline world and that even small businesses can now get an app, maybe your local hairdresser or favourite local restaurant with some apps coming in at less than £1,000 but well worth the investment to have 1,000 downloads from 1,000 loyal and fully informed regular customers. This tied back into Infogin, one of Israeli guests, quite well as they actually provide a service for companies to instantly convert their web presence into a mobile friendly presence making it accessible to all businesses.
Alchemy Social, a Techlightenment and Experian company, told us it’s view on how Facebook will impact the marketing mix in 2012. Facebook has a massive penetration in Israel with 46% of the overall populations having an account and 90% of the internet population. users will have increased relevance of content by using keywords such as drinking and eating, as well as liking on Facebook and we will see more engaging content.
Closing off the morning was Russell Goldsmith of markettiers4dc, The company grew from being a traditional broadcast PR agency into a full service agency it is now is heavily involved in online PR.
Presentations are available, please email charlie@mixigdigital.com if you would like copy.
Comments are closed.