The latest from TechCrunch
- PDA Inventor Slaps HTC With Another Patent Infringement Lawsuit
- Video Ad Startup FreeWheel Raises $16.8M From Turner, Disney And Others
- Wildfire Raises $4 Million For Social Media Marketing Platform
- How To Use Hot Chicks To Spread Your Brand Message On YouTube
- Rhapdosy App For iPad, iPod touch, & iPhone Lets You Download Music Now, No Internet Connection Required
| PDA Inventor Slaps HTC With Another Patent Infringement Lawsuit | Top |
| First Apple goes after Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC over infringement of no less than 20 of its patents , and now the man who invented the PDA (personal digital assistant) is targeting the company. Entrepreneur and inventor Judah Klausner , or rather his company Klausner Technologies , has filed suit against HTC for patent infringement under its U.S. Visual Voicemail patents. The lawsuit is based on the unveiling by HTC of its MyTouch 3G mobile phones , which Klausner Technologies claims alleges uses its patented Visual Voicemail technology. The company adds that various other HTC models with the Visual Voicemail feature are already covered under Klausner Technologies Visual Voicemail patent licenses granted to certain mobile operators for their Visual Voicemail services. Klausner Technologies says it currently has 27 Visual Voicemail patent licensees under its U.S., European and Asian patents, including major U.S. and European mobile operators, international cell phone manufacturers, cable/VOIP providers as well as other providers of Visual Voicemail services. Just last week, BT Group subsidiary Ribbit entered into a patent license agreement with Klausner Technologies, settling their outstanding litigation. Perhaps HTC can take some comfort in the fact that it isn’t exactly the first company to get taken to court: Klausner Technologies had earlier sued Verizon Wireless, Google, Apple, Skype, Comcast, AT&T , LG and others claiming that their visual voicemail feature infringes on Klausner's patents, as well as Motorola and Research In Motion more recently. CrunchBase Information HTC Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Video Ad Startup FreeWheel Raises $16.8M From Turner, Disney And Others | Top |
| Video advertising company FreeWheel has raised $16.8 million in funding from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures , and existing investors, including Turner Broadcasting System, Battery Ventures , and Foundation Capital . This brings the company’s total funding to nearly $30 million. Founded by former DoubleClick employees in 2007, FreeWheel allows marketers and publishers to manage video advertising campaigns across a variety of distribution sites. FreeWheel’s technology allows media companies to operate an advertising platform for online video, including managing ad sales rights, producing inventory forecasts for live or on demand content, delivering a yield-optimized set of ads, and analyzing video business performance. FreeWheel, which was recently speculated to be an acquisition target, will use the new investment to build out product development and scale its infrastructure. FreeWheel’s media clients include Turner, VEVO, CBS and MLB.com and serves over two billion ad impressions per month. The company also announced formalized agreements with both Discovery Communications LLC and ESPN Internet Ventures to help manage ad businesses and monetize both companies’ digital video content. CrunchBase Information FreeWheel Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Wildfire Raises $4 Million For Social Media Marketing Platform | Top |
| Wildfire, a platform for building viral marketing campaigns, has received $4 million in Series A funding led by Summit Partners with additional investors, including Jeff Clavier , Aydin Senkut and Gary Vaynerchuk , participating in the round. Wildfire's platform makes it relatively easy for marketers to create attractive, branded social media marketing campaigns (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, coupons, giveaways, quizzes, virtual gift campaigns and more) and to simultaneously publish them on Facebook fan pages, on company websites (integrated with Facebook Connect) and on Twitter. A fbFund company, Wildfire launched its offering last year, reached profitability within 1 month of launching its product and won the fbFund twice . The company’s product has gained considerable popularity over the year as a dead simple way for brands to reach consumers across various social networks. The startup has built up a very impressive roster of clients, including Pepsi, Sony, CNN, Universal, AT&T, Victoria's Secret and even Facebook itself, which has used the service for multiple campaigns. The investment will be used for product development initiatives. CrunchBase Information Wildfire Interactive Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| How To Use Hot Chicks To Spread Your Brand Message On YouTube | Top |
| Brands are trying to figure out this whole social marketing thing, but the success stories are still few and far between. “I think everyone is grappling with how to use digital these days,” says Judy Hu, who is in charge of advertising and branding for General Electric. She oversees one of the world’s largest advertising budgets which spans TV, print, and the Web. I spoke with her last week about one early success GE is seeing with an online video campaign organized by Howcast that is generating millions of video views on YouTube as part of its larger Healthyimagination branding effort. The key to the campaign was to get YouTube video personalities such as Smosh, iJustine, Alphacat, Rhett and Link, and Brittani Louise Taylor to take a physical challenge and make original videos about getting healthy. So far, all together these videos have been viewed more than 8.5 million times, rated more than 250,000 times, and attracted more than 110,000 comments. The message GE is trying to get across is “better health for more people,” says Hu. Smosh won the challenge by applying kung fu to many heads of lettuce (1,019,526 views), Brittani Louise Taylor took the linkbait approach with her video HOT CHICKS PLAYING TENNIS! (508,584 views, see image above), Rhett and Link used children as dumbells (193,393 views, also below) and invented some new yoga moves (291,746 views), iJustine did a silly dance on the street (686,238 views), and Alphacat wrote a pretty decent rap with an updated Schoolhouse Rock kind of vibe (49,955 views). The campaign was organized by Howcast, which also created about 20 custom How-To health videos such as “How To Fill Awkward Silences With Your Doctor” , which have been viewed an addition 350,000 times. Producing such advertorials (aka, “branded entertainment” ) is one of Howcasts’s main revenue streams . GE’s Healthyimagination ads also took over Howcast’s Top-100 YouTube channel , and each video contains both a pop-up rollover ad and a post-roll video ad. The ads have been watched about 4 million times, with a 28 percent completion rate. It is the most successful campaign Howcast has ever done. GE was surprised as well. “We were astounded by how fast it took off,” says Hu. She plans on doing more campaigns like this in the future. This is an important case study because it shows that branded advertising can work on the Web. I think there are a few reasons why this took off. The sponsored videos are authentic. The video makers were given a topic (live healthier) and allowed to run with it any way they wanted. GE was okay with giving up total control of the message to a bunch of Youtubers, who know better than anyone else how to communicate to their respective audiences. The videos are clearly presented as sponsored fare. GE isn’t trying to sell anything other than its overall brand image. Below are a few of the videos. Are they more or less effective than a standard 30-second TV commercial? CrunchBase Information General Electric Howcast Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Rhapdosy App For iPad, iPod touch, & iPhone Lets You Download Music Now, No Internet Connection Required | Top |
| Rhapsody , the digital music service, has released an updated App for the iPad , iPod touch , and iPhone . It's free to download but requires a subscription to use. The big deal here is that not only can you listen to your Rhapsody playlist while connected to the Internet, but you can also download individual songs to local storage. Yes, that means you'll be able to listen to your favorite song—Rhapsody has a catalog of more than 9 million songs—while in areas without Internet access, such as the subways of New York. It marks the first time that Apple has allowed a third-party music subscription App to be able to download songs in the U.S. Yes, it's a reasonably big deal. | |
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