Mobile Potential Scoops Award in US Venture Challenge

A sold out crowd of over 300 people gathered at the NASCAR Hall of Fame to hear start-up business pitches from nine innovative high-growth companies on Thursday evening. This year’s competition awarded $113,500 in prize money and including the $50,000 grand prize from Charlotte-based Vaterra Capital.

The event featured remarks by Mayor Anthony Foxx on the importance of entrepreneurship in the Charlotte region. Dr. Robert G. Wilhelm, Vice Chancellor, Research and Economic Development at UNC Charlotte opened the event with an update on the university’s commitment to entrepreneurship support. Paul Wetenhall, president of the Ben Craig Center, Inc., offered insight into the region’s collaborative efforts to build a strong entrepreneurship and innovation platform.

Eighteen finalists waited with anticipation for their names to be called as one of the 9 teams to make a final five-minute pitch and respond to rapid-fire questions from the judging panel. Having already competed earlier in the day to determine the category winners the teams now were pitching to win the $50,000 grand prize.

The judging panel included multiple perspectives from experienced investors. Panelists included Paul Grim, Sunbridge Capital, John Cambier, Idea Fund Partners, Marjorie Benbow, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Rajeev Kulkarni 3D Systems, and Mike Marvin, MDM Advisors.

Grand prize winner, CanDiag, Inc, will receive a $50,000 convertible-debt note from Vaterra Capital. Founded by UNC Charlotte researcher Dr. Pinku Mukherjee the company has developed a novel technology that accurately detects early breast cancer. Dr. Mukherjee observes, “The investment will pave the path for further clinical validation and regulatory approval to offer women an early detection breast cancer blood test.  The anticipated impacts are greater peace of mind to women from a more accurate test, and improved survival with early detection.  Further, it is expected that healthcare costs will be lowered with the reduction of redundant expensive testing. “

Prior to the evening event the 18 finalists went before panels of experienced angel investors to determine the category winners and who would present at night. The Ben Craig Center hosted 20 angel investors from throughout the Carolinas that brought their knowledge and investment dollars to judge the finalists in Charlotte.

The $10,000 Category winners included New Energy and High Tech category winner InfoSense, Inc (Charlotte, NC); IT and Informatics category winner Deal Cloud (Charlotte, NC); Consumer Products and Services category winner Mobile Potential (Asheville, NC); and Life Science and Biotech category winner Qualiber, Inc. (Chapel Hill, NC). The student category winner was Instruct Health from Queens University. The social enterprise category winner in partnership with Queens City Forward was Bamboo Apparel (High Point, NC). The J. Chris Murphy award was awarded to the top UNC Charlotte student team PipePro.

Over the course of the evening the audience reviewed each of the pitches in preparation for their chance to choose the People’s Choice winner. When the audience was asked to cast their vote via text message the $1,000 People’s Choice Award went to Deal Cloud of Charlotte, NC.

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The One Chart You Need To See To Understand Mobile in the US

ComScore has data out on the US phone market and Asymco breaks them down, including this great chart at right on the evolution of the US phone platform install base.

Smartphone base in the US, Android, iPhone

It highlights a few key points, some of which are already known, but some of which don't get talked about enough:

  • The Blue Ocean is still HUGE. For all that we (justifiably, more on which below) talk about who among Apple, Google, RIM, Microsoft et al. is winning in smartphones, the biggest opportunity remains the Blue Ocean of getting smartphones in the hands of non-smartphone users. (This is true of the US, but also very true of developing markets where the shift to mobile is enormous.)
  • In turn, this means the game is far from over. Given that most of the market is still a blue ocean, the opportunity for newcomers is great. Particularly for platforms with lots of resources and distribution, i.e. the Microsoft-Nokia duo. 
  • Holy cow, Android! With all these caveats out of the way—the other thing that jumps out is how big and how fast growing Android is. Google's open-source, broad distribution strategy is textbook disruptive innovation, and at least so far, seems to be working just like it should: i.e., it is eating the market. 
  • Yes, Apple should be worried; but no, it's not over, far from it. First of all, Apple is huge and still growing very nicely. Second of all, because the mobile wars are platform wars, smartphone marketshare undercounts iOS marketshare because of the enormous successes of the iPad and iPod Touch, which aren't phones but are still mobile iOS devices.

Read more: 

Mobile Marketing Association Awards – Brandtone selected as a finalist

Mobile Potential congratulates Brandtone, a long standing client, for being selected as a finalist in this global award.

New York, NY, 31 October, 2011 – Today, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the leading global trade association for the mobile industry, announced the marketer and agency finalists for the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership. The finalists represent the best-of-the- best in mobile marketing from across the globe.  
 
“The over 25% increase in submissions from all over the world is indicative of how mobile marketing is being embraced by major brand marketers everywhere as integral to their marketing mix, ” said Greg Stuart, Global CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association. “Chosen from an extraordinarily competitive field of entrants, our finalists showcase the immense potential of the mobile medium.”
 
The MMA Global Award Winners are currently being reviewed and judged by an all-star panel of international marketers and agency leaders. The winners will be recognized for excellence at the MMA Awards Gala in Los Angeles on November 17, 2011, which culminates the MMA Forum Los Angeles. In addition, the MMA will unveil a new name for the awards – one that reflects the growth and unique character of the mobile channel.
 
Sponsored this year by presenting sponsor Motricity and supporting sponsor Millennial Media, the MMA Awards is the world’s only global mobile marketing awards program recognizing and celebrating outstanding achievement within the industry. The 2011 MMA Mobile Marketing Awards finalists are:
 
BRANDING
  • Coca-Cola and UM and McCann Worldgroup Ltd. for "Coca-Cola Summer Campaign" Hong Kong / APAC
  • Converse and R/GA for "Converse The Sampler" USA/NA
  • OMO washing powder and BRANDTONE for "OMO 'DOOR TO DOOR CHALLENGE' – BRANDTONE mobile engagement" South Africa/EMEA
  • Louis Vuitton and Ogilvy France for "Louis Vuitton" France/EMEA 
CROSS MEDIA INTEGRATION
  • Pringles and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for "Pringles Crunch Band App"
  • Old Navy and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for "Old Navy Records"
  • Coca-Cola and Scholz & Volkmer GmbH for Coca-Cola "Snowglobes" iPhone Application Germany/EMEA
  • National Geographic Society and One to One Interactive for "National Geographic Kids Almanac 2012 QR Code Campaign" USA/NA 
DIRECT RESPONSE
  • Pepsi MAX for "Cut to Max – Clubhouse in the Corn" USA/NA
  • Situation Sthlm and Mobiento for "Sms is King!" Sweden/EMEA
  • Unilever and BRANDTONE for "SUNLIGHT LAUNDRY BAR – BRANDTONE Mobile engagement campaign" South Africa/EMEA
  • Garanti and Rabarba for "Garanti-The Last Person on Earth Who Doesn't Use Online Banking" Turkey/EMEA
PRODUCT/SERVICES LAUNCH
  • MINI / MINI and MOBILE DREAMS FACTORY for "MINI COUNTRYMAN" Spain/EMEA
  • Lawry's and R/GA for "Lawry's Digital Dinner Bell" USA/NA
  • HBO and PHD for "HBO GO" USA/NA
  • Peugeot and NAVTEQ Media Solutions for "Peugeot RCZ launch" UK/EMEA
PROMOTION
  • Coca-Cola and UM and McCann Worldgroup Ltd. for "Coca-Cola Summer Campaign" Hong Kong / APAC
  • United Airlines and Barrie D'Rozario Murphy for "Promotion for Travel Options" USA/NA
  • Pepsi Co. and Rabarba for "Pepsi-Content In a Bottle" Turkey/EMEA
  • Adidas and Mobiento for "What the … fast" Sweden/EMEA
  • Mars Canada and Proximity Canada and for "M&M's Find Red" Canada/NA
 
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
  • National Healthy Mothers; Healthy Babies Coalition, with Syniverse and Voxiva, for "Text4baby Campaign" USA/NA
  • Dressbarn and MSLGROUP Americas for  "Dressbarn Mobile Fashion Club" USA/NA
  • Nike+ and R/GA for "Nike+ GPS App" USA/NA
  • Hennessy V.S.O.P. and Cherrypicks for "World's first location-enabled Augmented Reality Vision; iPhone and Android App"
INNOVATION
  • Converse and R/GA for "Converse The Sampler" USA/NA
  • ESPN and Wieden + Kennedy for "WatchESPN" USA/NA
  • Coca-Cola and UM and McCann Worldgroup Ltd. for "Coca-Cola Summer Campaign" Hong Kong / APAC
  • Old Navy and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for "Old Navy Records"                                  
SOCIAL IMPACT
  • Giorgio Armani and R/GA for " Aqua di Gio Armani Drops for Life App"
  • TakePart/Participant Media for “Waiting for 'Superman' Social Action Campaign”
  • YoungAfricaLive & Praekelt Group for “YoungAfricaLive”
  • Busday and  TELiBrahma for "Busday gets buzzier"                                 
MOBILE MARKETING ACADEMIC OF THE YEAR
  • Jeff Rohrs and Morgan Stewart for “SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS”
  • William F. Humphrey, Jr., MBA; Debra A Laverie, Ph.D. for “Brand Community and Location Service Social & Mobile Research”
  • Ramin Vatanparast 

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Mastercard research shows mobile phone usage across Banked and Unbanked above 87%

The survey also showed that the communications revolution has not bypassed lower-income individuals. A decided majority across both groups owns mobile phones and uses them for text messaging (see Figure 3). This indicates that text messaging can be used as a channel for communicating to current and potential consumer reloadable card users.

mobile for underbanked

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KPMG Report: Global retail banks consider new business models in the race to monetize the mobile payments space

As payments made from mobile phones and other mobile devices increasingly become a popular preference over checks, cash and even debit cards, many banks around the world are rapidly re-evaluating and evolving their business models. New competition from non-traditional sources such as Apple, Google and PayPal is forcing banks to move quickly in order to preserve their payments revenues and take advantage of emerging mobile platforms, according to new report from KPMG International.

With almost 85 percent of respondents to KPMG International’s survey of banking and financial services executives saying that mobile payments will have significant importance to their business within the next one to four years, a select group of banks are quickly moving ahead of their peers by leveraging mobile platforms to gain customer loyalty, reduce costs and – ultimately – secure their place in the mobile payment value chain.

“Our survey shows that – around the world – banks tend to fall into two camps: those that see themselves as innovators, and those who prefer to be followers.” said David Sayer, Global Sector Lead for KPMG International’s Retail Banking practice. “And while a number of barriers still stand in the way of the mass adoption of mobile payments today, both camps will need to focus on overcoming these challenges if they hope to maintain their hegemony over the payment value chain.” Read more.

Prepaid airtime could be ticket to GO

Up till now, the world of prepaid cellular users has been largely anonymous, but now one mobile service has come up with a incentive for prepaid airtime users to get on the radar – a prepaid rewards programme.

All you have to do is buy a prepaid starterpack from any Nashua Mobile store, register your SIM card on the NMGO website at http://www.nmgo.co.za and you're in with a chance to win one of five smartphones each week until 31 August.
iol scitech july 19 airtime pic
Members will also be eligible for a special offers, benefits and competitions, as well as discounts on branded items and access to some vey special events.

Buy airtime to the value of at least R200 before 31 August 2011 and you'll be in line for the grand prize of a R60 000 trip to anywhere in the world you like. The winner will be announced on September 12. Read More.

Pick ‘n Pay launches Rewards Card

PnP CEO Nick Badminton looking smug

The suits behind Pick 'n Pay (PnP) have clearly upped their game in recent months. First the launch of The Mecca on William Nicol Rd (which sells Sinnful ice-cream, swoon), then PnP Travel and now this! Enter PnP Smart Shopper, a customer loyalty program that allows customers the opportunity to accrue a point for every Rand spent. For every R1000 spent, a minimum of 1% of that will be available to be redeemed as cash back via the Smart Shopper card (that percentage increases through double, triple and bonus points accrued, and no, physical cash cannot be redeemed).

That’s nice, but what about giving back? No problem, you can donate your accrued points/cash to a charity of your choice. Read more.

$4m Airtime Give-away

 

The groundbreaking Redd's Get Chatting promotion with over R25 million airtime up for grabs began at the beginning of April 2011. And the best part of all? Entry via cellphone is absolutely FREE for consumers – a revolutionary first in South Africa!

How does it work?
Consumers purchase either a 660ml or 340ml specially branded promotional bottle of Redd's. They open the bottle and send in the PHOLA code found under the crown. A reply message instantly confirms if their bottle of Redd's contains free airtime. Read More