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Quepasa Launches Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox

Quepasa Corporation (Pink Sheets: QPSA), one of the world’s fastest-growing Latino social networks, today announced the launch of its Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox. The launch of the Developer Interface is part of Quepasa’s overall strategy to open the site to third party Open Social developers who would like to develop applications for its global audience. The Company believes that this new Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox will become an easy mechanism for developers to test and submit their applications for inclusion in the site’s Application and/or Games sections and thus enhance the overall user experience and drive site traffic and monetization.

The Developer Interface consists of a toolbox that developers use when submitting an Open Social application for inclusion on any social site. The toolbox includes documentation of the interfaces available, a news area, a community built for the developers where they can communicate and interact with other application developers as well as with Quepasa’s development team, and the Open Social Sandbox where they can test completed applications with valid test data. The Open Social Sandbox also includes details of how to include Quepasa’s new virtual currency, QDollars, as the payment mechanism for premium applications and virtual goods.

“Having an open platform that allows access to Quepasa members through the Open Social framework is imperative to the growth of rich functionality for Quepasa.com and its growing user base,” said Louis Bardov, CTO of Quepasa. “The activity on Quepasa.com is based on user interaction and our users like to play social games with other members on the site, especially when there are possible rewards in the form of contests and virtual currency. While these contests have been very popular on the site, we are now going to invite and encourage Open Social application developers to build interesting and fun applications for the Quepasa community and we hope and anticipate that these developers will make the minimal modifications required to get adoption of their applications from our rapidly growing user base on Quepasa.com.”

Quepasa’s release of the Developer Interface and the Open Social Sandbox is the latest news in Quepasa’s growing success story. Since its launch as a social network focused on the growing Latino population just over 16 months ago, Quepasa has seen its user base grow to over 5 million registered users. This number continues to grow at an impressive pace because of Quepasa’s differentiated strategy of premium Latino content and entertainment. To date, this growth has been achieved solely through the viral acquisition, powered by Quepasa’s user base.

About Quepasa Corporation

Quepasa Corporation (Pink Sheets: QPSA), headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL with offices in Los Angeles, CA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Scottsdale, AZ; Miami, FL; and Hermosillo, MX, owns Quepasa.com (www.Quepasa.com), one of the world’s largest, trilingual, Latino social networks. Quepasa.com is an authentic Latino community that provides fun, interactive, and easy to use social tools, and rich multimedia content in English, Spanish and Portuguese to embrace Latinos everywhere, and empower them to connect online, compete in contests and games and share their interests, ideas, and activities.

Contact:
Mike Matte, Chief Financial Officer
Quepasa Corporation
(561) 491-4186

Source: Quepasa Corporation

Materialism in the Non-Material World

How many customers have you served at your café on Facebook, and how many friends have gifted you fertilizer or plants on FarmVille? The growing movement of social activity in the virtual world includes a great deal of very real economic activity, report researchers at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology.

While many futurists believe that the growth of virtual worlds would encourage movement away from consumption, materialism is apparently trumping nonmaterialism. As people spend more time online socializing, they are also spending real money, such as making micropurchases of heart or balloon icons to favor their friends, family, or celebrity idols.

The reason is simple: Humans behave as humans whether it is in the corporeal world or online, notes infotech researcher Vili Lehdonvirta. What we buy proclaims our identity and denotes our status, and we want to have status online just as we do in real life.

The advantage that consumption may have in the nonmaterial world is that it permits economic activity with reduced environmental impacts, says Lehdonvirta.

SOURCE: Helsinki Institute for Information Technology

Hispanic Viewers Consume More Content Via Interactive Outlets

Rentrak Signs Cinelatino – The Leading Spanish Language Movie Channel

— As Hispanic Viewers Consume More Content Via Interactive Outlets, Networks are Turning to Rentrak to Understand the Video-On-Demand Market —
Rentrak Corporation (Nasdaq: RENT), a multi-screen media measurement and research company serving the advertising and entertainment industry, today announced a multi-year deal with Cinelatino, the leading Spanish-language premium film channel in the United States that offers the most current blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the United States. To ensure it continues to offer the best programming based on viewer preferences, Cinelatino selected Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service in order to have access to detailed video-on-demand (VOD) insights.

“The Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing demographic group in the U.S. and OnDemand Essentials will provide Cinelatino with key information needed to meet the growing demand for quality Spanish language content on the on-demand platform,” said Carol Hinnant, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Advanced Media and Information division at Rentrak. “With almost 20 different VOD channels targeted at the Hispanic market, Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service provides the necessary knowledge and trends to help programmers targeting the Hispanic demographic get a competitive edge by understanding what resonates with consumers.”

“The video-on-demand platform offers significant insight into our consumers’ viewing preferences,” said Jim McNamara, Chairman, Cinelatino. “The information provided by OnDemand Essentials is the knowledge we need to ensure we continue to deliver programming that meets our target consumers’ desires and maintain our position as the leading destination for ‘event’ movies and series in Spanish.”

Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials processes daily, census-level on-demand data representing 70 million set-top boxes from 33 MSOs and 100% of the top-25 operators offering video-on-demand with their extensive on-demand data being used by more than 125 content provider subscription clients.

About Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ: RENT)
Rentrak Corporation is an industry-advancing media measurement and research company, serving the most recognizable names in the entertainment industry. Reaching across numerous platforms including box office, home entertainment, on-demand and linear television, broadband and mobile, Rentrak provides exclusive and actionable insight for our clients and partners. From the introduction of our revolutionary Pay-Per-Transaction® distribution and revenue-sharing system, which equipped Rentrak with the intelligence and ability to deal with large, complex data streams, to the company’s exclusive Essentials(TM) suite of services, Rentrak has redefined digital audience measurement. Rentrak is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami/Ft Lauderdale. For more information on any of Rentrak’s services, please visit www.rentrak.com.

About Cinelatino
Cinelatino is the leading Spanish-language premium film channel in the United States, with more than 3.6 million subscribers on major cable, satellite and telephony providers throughout North America. Cinelatino offers the most current Spanish-language blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the U.S. Cinelatino is jointly-owned by Grupo MVS, InterMedia Partners and Panamax Films.

SOURCE Rentrak Corporation

A Media Revolution: the inclusion of Social Media

Tribune Co. Launches National Marketing Initiative

In a major national marketing initiative, Tribune Co. today announced the launch of Tribune365 (www.trb365.com), its multichannel sales solutions group providing customized marketing programs to advertisers looking to reach consumers across a variety of media platforms. Tribune365 gives marketers unprecedented, consolidated access to the nation’s top markets, and makes its official debut in a national media campaign of its own that breaks today in ad trade publications.

Tribune Co., whose properties across the U.S. include major-market newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel, 23 local TV stations (including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York), and radio, digital, and mobile assets, will deliver results for national and local advertisers at a time when they are demanding solutions that work. Tribune365 was recently selected by the Dallas Morning News to serve as its national sales representative.

“As a content company, we’re in the business of delivering the local news, information and entertainment that consumers are looking for when, where and how they want it,” said Don Meek, president, Tribune365. “Tribune365 gives our marketing partners unique access to innovative, multi-platform solutions that help reach their target audiences and meet their business goals.”

Specifically, Tribune365’s national marketing initiatives include:

  • National advertising campaign: Using the tagline “Tribune. We Deliver.”, the campaign includes a series of executions in major advertising publications, both in print and online. In the ads, consumers are depicted in various locations (on the beach, on the train, at home) getting their news from Tribune’s collection of diverse media properties. The campaign positions Tribune as a multimedia company that is innovating amidst the evolving media landscape and delivering news to consumers according to their preferences.
  • Proprietary research: In partnership with Cincinnati, OH-based firm Personal Media Research, Tribune365 commissioned a national study on local media to more closely examine the way in which consumers get their local news and information, and the way advertising across various media platforms influences their purchase decisions. Among the study’s findings, consumers consider local news and information particularly valuable in their purchase decisions. Newspapers, in particular, rank stronger than all media on key measures related to ad trust and the shopping occasion. While no single medium has the “magic bullet”, the study finds that the best marketing solutions involve a combination of media as consumers choose to get their news from a variety of media and platforms throughout the day.
  • Web/podcasts: Through a microsite, http://trb365.com/tribunewedeliver, Tribune365 developed a series of podcasts featuring conversations with key members of the company’s leadership team, who speak to the vitality of newspapers and offer insights into how consumers get their local news across a variety of platforms.

“A good offense is always the best defense and we’re committed to evolving the business we’re in and leveraging the power of our local media assets,” said Meek. “We are already seeing positive results from advertisers who have come to us for innovative solutions to connect with their consumers.”

About Tribune365

TRIBUNE365 National Solutions Group is the new national, cross-platform sales team for Tribune Company, offering advertisers customized, innovative, multi-market solutions across all media platforms, including TV, print, digital, mobile, direct and event marketing. For more information about TRIBUNE365, including sales contacts, visit www.trb365.com.

About Tribune Co.

TRIBUNE is America’s largest employee-owned media company, operating businesses in publishing, interactive and broadcasting. In publishing, Tribune’s leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Sun Sentinel (South Florida), Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Morning Call and Daily Press. The company’s broadcasting group operates 23 television stations, WGN America on national cable, Chicago’s WGN-AM and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Popular news and information websites complement Tribune’s print and broadcast properties and extend the company’s nationwide audience. At Tribune we take what we do seriously and with a great deal of pride. We also value the creative spirit and nurture a corporate culture that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

SOURCE Tribune Co.

Social Media Success Story Flawlessly Executed

A brilliant example of an Advertising campaign and Social Media success story with flawless  execution and of how to measure social media results:

Social Media Success Story: media exposure equaled $6.67 million in ad spend

The campaign “One Thousand Casmurros,” made for the biggest TV network in Brazil, Rede Globo. It was the agency’s first entry in Cannes.

Commemorating 100 years since the death of one of the greatest writers Brazil has ever seen, Machado de Assis, Rede Globo launched a miniseries inspired by one of his best-known books, “Dom Casmurro.” In order to promote it, LiveAd divided the book contents in a thousand pieces and organized a collective reading of the entire text, inviting people to upload their homemade videos reading in front of their webcams. The videos were posted on a special social network.

To pay tribute to one of Brazil’s most respected writers, Machado de Assis, the largest TV network in Brazil was launching a mini-series based on one of his books, Dom Casmurro.

Through the launch of the mini-series, we needed to build up TV Globo’s reputation with a new generation, disconnected from the television.

We created a website with the book and divided it into one thousand excerpts. In the website, people could choose and record pieces in real time with their webcam. We enabled a large scale collective reading.

At the same time, we hid one thousand DVDs with unique scenes in public places for people to find them and hide them again once they had seen it.

The results were astonishing: Spontaneous media exposure equaled $6.67 million in ad spend.


One Thousand Casmurros from Livead on Vimeo

In less than a month, the reading was completed ending in a total social media success story.

Influential admirers talked about it in public. 33 million viewers watched the series’ first episode. The media called it the best tribute to Machado de Assis of 2008.

Almost 106 million people were exposed to press notes related to the mini-series.

The subsequent media exposure was worth the equivalent of 6,7 million dollars in advertising spend.

Roundhouse Mini Cooper London guerilla marketing ads
Have a Social Media Crisis Plan
Social with Hispanics
Elianne Ramos is the principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of Communications and PR for LATISM.
never lose your sense of wonder

Quepasa Launches Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox

Quepasa Corporation (Pink Sheets: QPSA), one of the world’s fastest-growing Latino social networks, today announced the launch of its Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox. The launch of the Developer Interface is part of Quepasa’s overall strategy to open the site to third party Open Social developers who would like to develop applications for its global audience. The Company believes that this new Developer Interface and Open Social Sandbox will become an easy mechanism for developers to test and submit their applications for inclusion in the site’s Application and/or Games sections and thus enhance the overall user experience and drive site traffic and monetization.

The Developer Interface consists of a toolbox that developers use when submitting an Open Social application for inclusion on any social site. The toolbox includes documentation of the interfaces available, a news area, a community built for the developers where they can communicate and interact with other application developers as well as with Quepasa’s development team, and the Open Social Sandbox where they can test completed applications with valid test data. The Open Social Sandbox also includes details of how to include Quepasa’s new virtual currency, QDollars, as the payment mechanism for premium applications and virtual goods.

“Having an open platform that allows access to Quepasa members through the Open Social framework is imperative to the growth of rich functionality for Quepasa.com and its growing user base,” said Louis Bardov, CTO of Quepasa. “The activity on Quepasa.com is based on user interaction and our users like to play social games with other members on the site, especially when there are possible rewards in the form of contests and virtual currency. While these contests have been very popular on the site, we are now going to invite and encourage Open Social application developers to build interesting and fun applications for the Quepasa community and we hope and anticipate that these developers will make the minimal modifications required to get adoption of their applications from our rapidly growing user base on Quepasa.com.”

Quepasa’s release of the Developer Interface and the Open Social Sandbox is the latest news in Quepasa’s growing success story. Since its launch as a social network focused on the growing Latino population just over 16 months ago, Quepasa has seen its user base grow to over 5 million registered users. This number continues to grow at an impressive pace because of Quepasa’s differentiated strategy of premium Latino content and entertainment. To date, this growth has been achieved solely through the viral acquisition, powered by Quepasa’s user base.

About Quepasa Corporation

Quepasa Corporation (Pink Sheets: QPSA), headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL with offices in Los Angeles, CA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Scottsdale, AZ; Miami, FL; and Hermosillo, MX, owns Quepasa.com (www.Quepasa.com), one of the world’s largest, trilingual, Latino social networks. Quepasa.com is an authentic Latino community that provides fun, interactive, and easy to use social tools, and rich multimedia content in English, Spanish and Portuguese to embrace Latinos everywhere, and empower them to connect online, compete in contests and games and share their interests, ideas, and activities.

Contact:
Mike Matte, Chief Financial Officer
Quepasa Corporation
(561) 491-4186

Source: Quepasa Corporation

Materialism in the Non-Material World

How many customers have you served at your café on Facebook, and how many friends have gifted you fertilizer or plants on FarmVille? The growing movement of social activity in the virtual world includes a great deal of very real economic activity, report researchers at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology.

While many futurists believe that the growth of virtual worlds would encourage movement away from consumption, materialism is apparently trumping nonmaterialism. As people spend more time online socializing, they are also spending real money, such as making micropurchases of heart or balloon icons to favor their friends, family, or celebrity idols.

The reason is simple: Humans behave as humans whether it is in the corporeal world or online, notes infotech researcher Vili Lehdonvirta. What we buy proclaims our identity and denotes our status, and we want to have status online just as we do in real life.

The advantage that consumption may have in the nonmaterial world is that it permits economic activity with reduced environmental impacts, says Lehdonvirta.

SOURCE: Helsinki Institute for Information Technology

Hispanic Viewers Consume More Content Via Interactive Outlets

Rentrak Signs Cinelatino – The Leading Spanish Language Movie Channel

— As Hispanic Viewers Consume More Content Via Interactive Outlets, Networks are Turning to Rentrak to Understand the Video-On-Demand Market —
Rentrak Corporation (Nasdaq: RENT), a multi-screen media measurement and research company serving the advertising and entertainment industry, today announced a multi-year deal with Cinelatino, the leading Spanish-language premium film channel in the United States that offers the most current blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the United States. To ensure it continues to offer the best programming based on viewer preferences, Cinelatino selected Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service in order to have access to detailed video-on-demand (VOD) insights.

“The Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing demographic group in the U.S. and OnDemand Essentials will provide Cinelatino with key information needed to meet the growing demand for quality Spanish language content on the on-demand platform,” said Carol Hinnant, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Advanced Media and Information division at Rentrak. “With almost 20 different VOD channels targeted at the Hispanic market, Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials service provides the necessary knowledge and trends to help programmers targeting the Hispanic demographic get a competitive edge by understanding what resonates with consumers.”

“The video-on-demand platform offers significant insight into our consumers’ viewing preferences,” said Jim McNamara, Chairman, Cinelatino. “The information provided by OnDemand Essentials is the knowledge we need to ensure we continue to deliver programming that meets our target consumers’ desires and maintain our position as the leading destination for ‘event’ movies and series in Spanish.”

Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials processes daily, census-level on-demand data representing 70 million set-top boxes from 33 MSOs and 100% of the top-25 operators offering video-on-demand with their extensive on-demand data being used by more than 125 content provider subscription clients.

About Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ: RENT)
Rentrak Corporation is an industry-advancing media measurement and research company, serving the most recognizable names in the entertainment industry. Reaching across numerous platforms including box office, home entertainment, on-demand and linear television, broadband and mobile, Rentrak provides exclusive and actionable insight for our clients and partners. From the introduction of our revolutionary Pay-Per-Transaction® distribution and revenue-sharing system, which equipped Rentrak with the intelligence and ability to deal with large, complex data streams, to the company’s exclusive Essentials(TM) suite of services, Rentrak has redefined digital audience measurement. Rentrak is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with additional offices in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami/Ft Lauderdale. For more information on any of Rentrak’s services, please visit www.rentrak.com.

About Cinelatino
Cinelatino is the leading Spanish-language premium film channel in the United States, with more than 3.6 million subscribers on major cable, satellite and telephony providers throughout North America. Cinelatino offers the most current Spanish-language blockbusters and critically-acclaimed titles from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and the U.S. Cinelatino is jointly-owned by Grupo MVS, InterMedia Partners and Panamax Films.

SOURCE Rentrak Corporation

A Media Revolution: the inclusion of Social Media

Tribune Co. Launches National Marketing Initiative

In a major national marketing initiative, Tribune Co. today announced the launch of Tribune365 (www.trb365.com), its multichannel sales solutions group providing customized marketing programs to advertisers looking to reach consumers across a variety of media platforms. Tribune365 gives marketers unprecedented, consolidated access to the nation’s top markets, and makes its official debut in a national media campaign of its own that breaks today in ad trade publications.

Tribune Co., whose properties across the U.S. include major-market newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel, 23 local TV stations (including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York), and radio, digital, and mobile assets, will deliver results for national and local advertisers at a time when they are demanding solutions that work. Tribune365 was recently selected by the Dallas Morning News to serve as its national sales representative.

“As a content company, we’re in the business of delivering the local news, information and entertainment that consumers are looking for when, where and how they want it,” said Don Meek, president, Tribune365. “Tribune365 gives our marketing partners unique access to innovative, multi-platform solutions that help reach their target audiences and meet their business goals.”

Specifically, Tribune365’s national marketing initiatives include:

  • National advertising campaign: Using the tagline “Tribune. We Deliver.”, the campaign includes a series of executions in major advertising publications, both in print and online. In the ads, consumers are depicted in various locations (on the beach, on the train, at home) getting their news from Tribune’s collection of diverse media properties. The campaign positions Tribune as a multimedia company that is innovating amidst the evolving media landscape and delivering news to consumers according to their preferences.
  • Proprietary research: In partnership with Cincinnati, OH-based firm Personal Media Research, Tribune365 commissioned a national study on local media to more closely examine the way in which consumers get their local news and information, and the way advertising across various media platforms influences their purchase decisions. Among the study’s findings, consumers consider local news and information particularly valuable in their purchase decisions. Newspapers, in particular, rank stronger than all media on key measures related to ad trust and the shopping occasion. While no single medium has the “magic bullet”, the study finds that the best marketing solutions involve a combination of media as consumers choose to get their news from a variety of media and platforms throughout the day.
  • Web/podcasts: Through a microsite, http://trb365.com/tribunewedeliver, Tribune365 developed a series of podcasts featuring conversations with key members of the company’s leadership team, who speak to the vitality of newspapers and offer insights into how consumers get their local news across a variety of platforms.

“A good offense is always the best defense and we’re committed to evolving the business we’re in and leveraging the power of our local media assets,” said Meek. “We are already seeing positive results from advertisers who have come to us for innovative solutions to connect with their consumers.”

About Tribune365

TRIBUNE365 National Solutions Group is the new national, cross-platform sales team for Tribune Company, offering advertisers customized, innovative, multi-market solutions across all media platforms, including TV, print, digital, mobile, direct and event marketing. For more information about TRIBUNE365, including sales contacts, visit www.trb365.com.

About Tribune Co.

TRIBUNE is America’s largest employee-owned media company, operating businesses in publishing, interactive and broadcasting. In publishing, Tribune’s leading daily newspapers include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Sun Sentinel (South Florida), Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Morning Call and Daily Press. The company’s broadcasting group operates 23 television stations, WGN America on national cable, Chicago’s WGN-AM and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Popular news and information websites complement Tribune’s print and broadcast properties and extend the company’s nationwide audience. At Tribune we take what we do seriously and with a great deal of pride. We also value the creative spirit and nurture a corporate culture that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

SOURCE Tribune Co.

Social Media Success Story Flawlessly Executed

A brilliant example of an Advertising campaign and Social Media success story with flawless  execution and of how to measure social media results:

Social Media Success Story: media exposure equaled $6.67 million in ad spend

The campaign “One Thousand Casmurros,” made for the biggest TV network in Brazil, Rede Globo. It was the agency’s first entry in Cannes.

Commemorating 100 years since the death of one of the greatest writers Brazil has ever seen, Machado de Assis, Rede Globo launched a miniseries inspired by one of his best-known books, “Dom Casmurro.” In order to promote it, LiveAd divided the book contents in a thousand pieces and organized a collective reading of the entire text, inviting people to upload their homemade videos reading in front of their webcams. The videos were posted on a special social network.

To pay tribute to one of Brazil’s most respected writers, Machado de Assis, the largest TV network in Brazil was launching a mini-series based on one of his books, Dom Casmurro.

Through the launch of the mini-series, we needed to build up TV Globo’s reputation with a new generation, disconnected from the television.

We created a website with the book and divided it into one thousand excerpts. In the website, people could choose and record pieces in real time with their webcam. We enabled a large scale collective reading.

At the same time, we hid one thousand DVDs with unique scenes in public places for people to find them and hide them again once they had seen it.

The results were astonishing: Spontaneous media exposure equaled $6.67 million in ad spend.


One Thousand Casmurros from Livead on Vimeo

In less than a month, the reading was completed ending in a total social media success story.

Influential admirers talked about it in public. 33 million viewers watched the series’ first episode. The media called it the best tribute to Machado de Assis of 2008.

Almost 106 million people were exposed to press notes related to the mini-series.

The subsequent media exposure was worth the equivalent of 6,7 million dollars in advertising spend.

Roundhouse Mini Cooper London guerilla marketing ads
Have a Social Media Crisis Plan
Social with Hispanics
Elianne Ramos is the principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of Communications and PR for LATISM.
never lose your sense of wonder