“This latest distinction gives Perion competitive reach capabilities and positions the Company to drive global ad objectives,” a provided statement explains.

According to Doron Gerstel, CEO of Perion, being named a Snapchat Partner enhances Perion’s offering, “adding to our long term organic growth strategy, taking us to the next level with a more expanded one-stop ad solution for our Fortune 500 clients worldwide.”

Backed by a survey collaboration with IFOP (Institut français d’opinion publique), MakeMeReach can now deliver high level Snapchat ad management to its existing social platform allowing advertisers to launch campaigns on any size budget and optimize performance on their platform.

“This new integration will allow our clients to run campaigns on Snapchat and benefit from the expertise of our team on this rapidly growing mobile platform. Being recognized as a Snapchat Partner marks a new milestone for MakeMeReach, and for Perion as a whole. Further to successful partnerships with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, we can now deliver the ultimate social media ad management platform, creating a stronger synergy among Perion’s business divisions in the process,” concluded Pierre- Francois Chiron, co-founder of Perion’s MakeMeReach division.

The post Perion’s Social Media Division Named a Snapchat Partner appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to a joint press statement, the solution integrates IBM Watson Analytics with insights based on aggregated and anonymized MasterCard transaction data through MasterCard Advisors Local Market Intelligence (LMI).

Per MasterCard’s latest research, more than 7 out of 10 smaller businesses in Asia Pacific expect higher business costs in 2016.

With this enhanced analytical platform powered by MasterCard Advisors and IBM, merchants will hence be better equipped to make informed decisions that lower costs based on a deeper knowledge of their business’ financial strengths and pitfalls.

Starting mid-2016, merchants who accept MasterCard will be able to access this new offering upon subscription, the companies announced.

“There is an increasing wealth of data today that merchants can leverage to better understand their market and consumers. However, smaller merchants often don’t have the resources to maximize the insights,” says Eric Schneider, Senior Vice President of MasterCard Advisors. “That’s the value of this platform turning Big Data into smarter data that is easily accessible and actionable.”

The post MasterCard, IBM Want to Make Big Data Work for Smaller Businesses appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This new relationship, an emailed statement to MMW reads, forges two communication channels, “allowing companies to send the best message to the right contacts, at the right time through the channel of their choice – SMS or Email.”

“As mobile devices continue to be an important tool for both our work and social lives, it’s become clear that mobile marketing must be part of a business’ overall marketing strategy. And we are excited to offer an integrated solution to both our customers and Benchmark customers,” says John Wright, CEO of 3seventy Inc.

“Email continues to be a primary marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. As we watch email open rates increase on mobile devices and contacts jumping back and forth between SMS and email, it’s become important to offer solutions that cater to the customer’s preferred channel,” adds Daniel Miller, Customer Service and Partner Director of Benchmark Email.

The post 3seventy, Benchmark Email Working on a ‘Complete Marketing Toolbox’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is guest contributed post by Deidre Bakker-Riches, owner of a boutique marketing firm and consultancy, Twlv31 Marketing, and the Head of Communications for Las Vegas advertising agency, Up All Day Creative Solutions (originally published by Mobile Leaders Alliance).

Being able to better analyze and target a consumer’s behavior has always been a vital component of the overall marketing mix. Understanding whom your target it is, what their preferences are, and what drives their purchases is invaluable data for any marketer to obtain. With this in mind, Tapad Inc., the leader in cross-device marketing technology, is delivering even more value to brands and agencies by integrating audience profile data into its cross-device media platform.

Today, Tapad announced its clients will have access to more than 500 million new audience profiles for cross-device targeting through VisualDNA’s psychographic audience-profile data. The addition of VisualDNA’s technology will further augment the Tapad Device Graph, which operates the longest-running cross-device algorithm in the market today.

VisualDNA utilizes data science expertise, partnerships with leading academic institutions, and a team of psychologists to build audience profiles that offer reliable, relevant insights for brands to better understand purchase intent and online behavior. These profiles are built by analyzing responses to personality quizzes, which consumers take voluntarily through social media and the company’s online portal.

For example when I took the quiz, I was asked everything from my demographic information, including age, gender, relationship status and income range, as well as product/ brand preferences, such as my choices for clothing, cars, technology, where I get coffee, and much more. In addition, the quiz also asks how you would react in certain situations and what imagery most appeals to you, providing marketers with further insight about your social behavior. At the end of the quiz, I was presented with results for my level of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism and how these various traits apply to my everyday life.

Tapad’s Founder and CEO, Are Traasdahl said that when it comes to psychographic audience data, VisualDNA’s profiles are unmatched in-depth and accuracy. With this partnership, he added, it gives their clients access to a powerful new set of data for reaching relevant audiences.

Jim Hodgkins, Managing Director of Marketing Services at VisualDNA, added that deep consumer understanding, regardless of device or channel, is a crucial piece of the ever-changing marketing equation. By partnering with Tapad, they are delivering a true understanding of consumer behavior within an actionable platform, giving marketers a way to strategically reach their most relevant audience.

By having access to this priceless information, brands and marketers will not only have a better grasp on exactly who their consumers are and what products and activities they prefer, but they will also gain a deeper understanding of what kind imagery and situations ultimately drive their purchase behavior — and the best part, the consumers provide this data completely voluntarily while also having a little fun.

The post Tapad Announces Partnership With VisualDNA to Provide Cross-Device Audience Profile Data appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“Innovation is coming to financial services, and now is the time for Washington to help enable a modern financial system that is more accessible, affordable, and secure,” said Brian Peters, Executive Director of Financial Innovation Now. “This alliance of remarkably innovative companies brings a new voice to Washington’s financial conversations, and we look forward to engaging on a wide range of opportunities. Whether it is protecting consumers, growing small businesses, or promoting financial literacy and savings, Financial Innovation Now wants policymakers to understand how new technologies can help solve today’s policy challenges.”

According to details shared with MMW, the organization and its member companies believe that financial innovation will empower consumers by improving access to financial tools and services, increasing convenience and ease of use, and helping users save money and lower costs.

“In addition,” the statement notes, “it will enable small businesses to grow and succeed with greater access to capital and analytical tools to make strategic, data-driven decisions, and strengthen authentication and security solutions for everyone.”

The post Tech Industry Leaders Team to Encourage Innovation in Financial Services appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The deal, we’re told, is worth $5.9 billion.

As of this writing, it is expected that the acquisition will be completed by Spring 2016.

Activision Blizzard “believes that the addition of King’s highly-complementary business will position Activision Blizzard as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, and positions the company for future growth.”

“The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment,” says Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard. “With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.”

The post Activision Blizzard Acquiring King Digital Entertainment appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“Today,” the firm tells us, “software development kits (SDKs) allow advertisers to collect in-app mobile event and engagement data. What we have learned is that mobile app retention is a significant challenge. Reports have shown that over 80% of mobile apps are abandoned within the first week of install. Quickly reaching and captivating those abandoners is essential, as up to 40% of users who do not return within the first day and 60% of users who do not re-engage within a week, will never return.”

So what is Marin doing about it? To address this challenge and keep mobile users engaged, marketers must be able to quickly onboard their mobile engagement data and integrate it into their media buying platform for seamless targeting.

Marin Software is excited to announce new data partnerships to the Audience Connect platform with mobile measurement and tracking solutions AppsFlyer, Tune, and adjust, so that marketers can quickly onboard their existing mobile audiences onto the Marin Display platform for retargeting — the result being that customers may now seamlessly sync in-app events into Marin Display and automatically build mobile audiences for retargeting with in-app banner and interstitial ads.

“The integration between AppsFlyer and Marin Software opens fantastic opportunities for mobile app marketers. By tracking the impact of each media source and campaign across channels, marketers can optimize their paid, owned, and earned media performance in real-time and maximize their impact,” said Elad Mashiach, Director of Business Development at AppsFlyer.

To learn more about Marin, click here.

The post Marin Software Scores New Partners for Faster Mobile Audience Onboarding appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Additionally, sandwiched into this week’s announcement, is news that Taiwan Mobile Payments Co. (TWMP) has tapped Mozido as provider for its HCE and tokenization services to its consortium of 27 Taiwanese banks and financial institutions.

Mozido’s HCE solution will provide a hybrid mobile wallet capability for TWMP that supports both existing consumers using hardware secure element based NFC phones, and consumers using HCE cloud-based NFC phones.

“We chose Mozido because they’re the only company that offers the flexibility and customization we need as a joint venture representing dozens of banks across the nation,” said Wei-Jong Pan, president of Taiwan Mobile Payment Co. “Mozido’s demonstrated strength in mobile wallet platforms and as a Trusted Services Manager, along with its ability to combine payments technologies into existing applications, makes them the best partner for us in our endeavor to bring faster and easier mobile payments to banking consumers.”

The post Mozido Launches Mozido HCE Product and Secures New Deal with TWMP appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This week, the companies jointly announced an expanded partnership to provide merchants with innovative mobile marketing solutions ahead of this year’s Singles Day promotion.

The expanded mobile marketing partnership will explore new avenues to leverage Tencent’s leading social communication platforms, Weixin and Mobile QQ, and use its massive big-data resources alongside JD.com’s leading e-commerce platform and its vast wealth of data about online shopping trends and behavior.

The collaboration, we’re told, will offer businesses advanced online tools to more precisely reach their target customer groups, build brand recognition and increase marketing ROI by providing brands access to Weixin and Mobile QQ users.

“JD.com’s groundbreaking collaboration with Tencent already has redefined the mobile e-commerce user experience in China over the last year and a half, and in the months ahead we look forward to transforming mobile marketing as well,” said Richard Liu, the CEO of JD.com, in a news release.

The post Partners Aim to Transform Mobile Marketing for eCommerce in China appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

With over 200 active users, the free integration with AppsOnChat allows users to:

• Collect responses from your Slack members
• Create multiple polls and run in various channels or communities on Slack
• Once the channel/community members have started to run polls, individual responses can be viewed on AppsOnChat
• Functionality to download in CSV format for further analysis

Tracking responses has become more difficult but more important as businesses go global and organizations expand. AppsOnChat hopes to bridge that gap by collecting real-time responses within your pre-existing channel, leveraging the power of your community.

Currently accessible on Slack, you will soon see integrations and “chatlets” being released across multiple chat platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype, Yammer, WeChat, Telegram etc.

Surveys and Polls are an effective way of internal & external communications helping organizations reach a consensus. AppsOnChat aims to be the one stop response processing solution across multiple chat platforms.

“AppsOnChat provides Slack admins the ability to manage member responses without them ever leaving Slack,” says Ralph Vaz, Co-Founder & CTO of CollateBox Inc. “A user can start or stop a poll at any time, drill-down to view individual responses, or run multiple polls at the same time. Currently, AppsOnChat is live with Polling on Slack but we are looking to include other chatlets like RSVP, Quiz, HR rating system, Feedback system, and Expense Management.”

The post Slack Integrates with AppsOnChat appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.