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henderson bas kohn Dominates With 7 Wins At Communicator Awards

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:44 +0000

henderson bas kohn is known as a tough shop to work for, but the fruits of the hard work that the team and its founders do pays off time and time again as the industry takes notice and gives them their due respect and recognition. So it should come as no surprise that they have clean up at yet another awards program, this time at the Communicator Awards where they won 7 awards including 2 Gold.

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier client side professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Alloy, Brandweek, Coach, Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, Fry Hammond Barr, HBO, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, and Yahoo! The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honouring creative excellence; it receives over 9,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

The winning campaigns include:

Mercedes-Benz Drive & Seek – Online Advertising and Marketing (Campaign Business to Consumer) – Award of Excellence
Mercedes-Benz Drive & Seek – Web site (Automotive) – Award of Excellence
Mercedes-Benz Drive & Seek – Web site (Visual Appeal) – Award of Distinction
Mercedes-Benz Drive & Seek – Online Advertising and Marketing (Game or Application) – Award of Distinction
LG Power Up – Online Advertising and Marketing (Game or Application)- Award of Distinction
LG Power Up – Online Advertising and Marketing (Viral Marketing)- Award of Distinction
LG Power Up – Online Advertising and Marketing (Campaign Business to Consumer)- Award of Distinction

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Wave Accounting Goes For Gold, Secures $12M In Series B Funding

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:46:28 +0000

Wave Accounting secured $12M in a Series B round of funding for their cloud-based accounting software startup today, which marks another major milestone in the company’s history. In June of 2011, they secured $1.5M in seed funding, and then another $5 million in October, which helped them to acquire Small Payroll and start rolling out of their service into US. Today’s round was led by The Social+Capital Partnership (Social+Capital) with participation from existing investors Charles River Ventures (CRV) and OMERS Ventures.

Since launching back in 2010, the company has grow at a rapid rate and makes it one of the fastest growing financial applications for small businesses. A few of the companies key milestones include:

signed up nearly a quarter of a million businesses, and continues adding roughly 1,000 new signups every day.
attracted business owners in 200+ countries, with 70% of signups coming from North America.
tracked $24.3 billion in income and spending

Wave Account has started accepting advance invitations to US companies that want to use their service.

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Sid Lee Loses Dell, Lays Off Staff

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:35:01 +0000

Anytime that you lose business it is going to hurt at some point, unfortunately for the creative agency Sid Lee they recently lost a staple account as Dell moved their business over to Y&R, after having the account for only 15 months. We have now learned that the agency has laid off as much of 15% of its workforce. With Sid Lee getting hit this hard, one can only speculate as to what is going on internally and what will happen with other marque clients such as ADIDAS.

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CIBC & Rogers To Bring Tap & Go With Mobile Payment Solution

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:34:57 +0000

For years we’ve heard the promise of mobile payments, carriers, credit card companies and eCommerce players such as Paypal have all taked about this space for years. Jack Dorsey’s Square on many levels was the first to really bring the discussion to a physical product and get the ball rolling, as a result the Twitter Co-Founder has helped to foster an ecosystem that represents billions of dollars being spent around the world. This morning, CIBC & Rogers held a media event where they announced a new partnership that will see the two launch a mobile payment solution. With their new solution in place, consumers will be able to literally “tap and go” with their mobile devices to make payments. With “Near Field Communications” (NFC) enabled smartphone running on the Rogers network, consumers will be able to make payments to merchants by tapping special terminals that read your information stored on the SIM chip within your smartphone.

“As the leader in delivering mobile financial services innovations in Canada, we are pleased to introduce yet another innovation in the market that will shape the payments experience of the future,” commented David Williamson, Senior Executive Vice President, Retail and Business Banking, CIBC. “By teaming with Rogers, CIBC clients will soon enjoy the convenience of paying at the checkout with their mobile device while enjoying the existing benefits of their CIBC credit card, including loyalty rewards.”

“Canadians are embracing new technologies at an accelerated pace and we know they’re interested in using their smartphone for mobile payments,” said Rob Bruce, President of Communications, Rogers Communications. “We’ve been laying the foundation for mobile commerce and the ecosystem is ready to give Canadians the convenience, security, and peace of mind they deserve,” said Bruce. “Today’s announcement with CIBC represents an important first step toward a whole new world of mobile transactions which is a key growth area for the company.”

According to their pres release, some of the features include:

Full access to a client’s existing CIBC credit cards on their smartphone at no extra cost – whether Visa or MasterCard – this gives clients the opportunity to earn loyalty points on purchases as they do today.
Multiple layers of security – Paying with your NFC-enabled smartphone will be as secure as using your credit card today. Clients will receive the same fraud protection they do with their contactless credit card, and secure encryption technology will add to the layers of security already in place on credit card purchases. Clients will also have the option to set additional password protection.
No “stickers” on your phone – this new payment capability will leverage the secure SIM card inside a mobile device for payments, meaning clients can manage their credit card credentials on a secure platform, and won’t need to worry about stickers attached to their phone.

Their new solution will only work with BlackBerry smartphones, but Rob Bruce expects to see it working on Apple and Android-based devices in the near future, and further commented that it is in the best interest of manufactures to deliver devices that are driven by consumer demand and need.

During the Q & A period of the session the following was discussed:

Q – When will the mobile payment solution launch?

A – No specific date was given, other than “soon”
With yesterday’s

Q – Are there any additional fees to consumers or merchants?

A – No

What other consumer information will be captured?

Nothing additional will be captured by the solution of your mobile device

Can this solution be used outside of Canada?

Yes, anywhere that you can use a credit card today, you will be able to use this mobile payment solution tomorrow

Overall it is a smart move on the part of Rogers and CIBC, and another way that Rogers will look to lock customers into contracts.

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Dealuxe Rebrands To eLUXE, On Track To Dominate Canadian Fashion

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:13:47 +0000

In May 20111, Joanna Track gave birth to her second startup, Dealuxe and earlier this week the year old the online fashion destination has rebranded to eLUXE. The name is said to help better reflect the company’s focus on further developing its authority in the fashion marketplace. Which also sounds like Joanna has some big plans ahead, and most likely do a few things that others have failed to do and become a dominate force in women’s fashion.

“With eLUXE, our intent is to dominate the Canadian online landscape as the country’s top destination for consumable content,” said Joanna Track, CEO & Founder.

As part of their new brand they have also laid our their guiding principles:

EDIT – Bringing you the best contemporary clothing from recognized and emerging brands across the globe.
EDUCATE – We’ve got you covered – from the latest runway trends to timeless essentials; we’ll do the homework for you.
ENTERTAIN – Devour new and exciting editorial content, shop exclusive promotions, and get a daily dose of inspiration.
EMPOWER – Equipping you with the tools to create and transform your wardrobe.
ELEVATE – Enjoy shopping right off the pages of your favourite editorial features.
EXPERIENCE – Shopping with us is simple and seamless, from browsing and placing orders to delivery and customer service.
ENGAGE – We keep you coming back for more with our relevant content and exciting promotions…
EDITORIAL – Full spread magazine editorials entice you with the latest fashion and beauty trends.
EXCLUSIVE – We bring you hard-to-find and one-of-a-kind – just ask one of our virtual stylists.
EVOLUTION – Changing the way Canadians shop, one click at a time.
eLUXE – Changing the way Canadians shop, one click at a time.

Look out old school, there is a new Queen of Fashion ready to rule!

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Women In Tech, Where Do They Fit? [Infographic]

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:04:06 +0000

There are a few things that you can count on to occur within the technology industry, and one of them is the debate on women in technology. Many often suggest there are not enough women in the industry, while another argument that we often hear is that women should be doing more to get themselves noticed. Women Who Tech put together this interesting infographic below that women within the technology industry:

According to the compiled data, 40%of women believed that companies do not spend the right amount of time addressing diversity whereas 82% of men believed companies do spend enough time addressing diversity – it does reveal that women are making strides in the sector:

Of Harvard University second-year students who declared computer science as their major in 2011, 41% are women.
Fortune 500 companies that had at least three women directors saw more than 53pc increase in return on equity, and return on invested capital increase by at least 66pc.
Worldwide, 187 million women are currently starting or running a business enterprise.
In appears women are great consumers of tech, too. Fifty-five per cent of Twitter and Facebook users are women, and 60pc of Zynga’s social games players are women, according to the infographic.

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Rogers To Hold Media Event Today, Could They Be Launch Rogers Bank?

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:59:10 +0000

Back in September 2011, we wrote about some speculation that Rogers was looking to become a Canadian bank, there are so many reasons why this seems like an unrealistic thing to happen given the conservative nature of the Canadian government. However we received a media invitation to an event that Rogers and CIBC are hosting later this morning. So could the big announcement where Rogers and CIBC have partnered to launch a online bank? You may remember years ago CIBC did experiment with an online bank as they had launch BizSmart, there were no branches, everything was done over the Internet. BizSmart was shut down after about a year, but at the time it was revolutionary, now with some new technology in play, a national wireless carrier and things could be very different. We’ll have more for you on this story as it unfolds later today.

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Yahoo’s CEO Thompson Out, Levinsohn, But Will He Finally Show Respect To Canada?

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:29:41 +0000

Well it looks like “Resume-gate” has finally have come to an end, Yahoo has released an official statement, Scott Thompson is no longer heading up Yahoo after the botched way he handled the resume and his subsequent mis-represention. As an added bonus, activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point who was the one to bring the situation to light will be getting the additional Board changes he was looking for.
Thompson’s replacement on will be none other than Ross Levinsohn (for the interm), Yahoo’s Global Media Head, and some may remember the guy who bailed on making an appearance in Toronto at Yahoo! Canada’s Upfront last fall. This was a critical time for the company to show support and the Canada as the then CEO Carol Bartz was just fired, but instead it showed the hundreds in the room that supporting and were customers of Yahoo, that Canada is an after thought. With the advances in technology there really wasn’t anything that Ross could do in Sunnyvale that could not have been done in Toronto.

If Ross does in fact take over as the new CEO of Yahoo on a permanent basis it will be interesting to see what changes will take effect here in Canada. Back in January 2012, he was interviewed by Marketing Mag and shared comments such as “an emerging market for us, a growth market and an incredibly important strategic market.” but this is hard to do with an arm’s length management style. Michel Protti who is the General Manager of Yahoo! Canada is also based in Sunnyvale, which is a very different way to manage such a “strategic market” when you compared to all the other players that have an actual presence and Canadian-based Country Manager.

Maybe we’re wrong, maybe Yahoo has the secret on how to run Canada, no wait they can’t even seem to hire a CEO that stays for longer than one year. One thing we can say for sure, Yahoo has had a number of people in Canada that at one point would “bleed purple,” and one by one they have pissed, fired, layed off and just frustrated them away.

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Survey Says: 12% Of Young Moms Use Cell Phones During Sex

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:26:29 +0000

As we took the day to say Thank You to mom yesterday, we come across some surprising survey data that says 12 percent of young mothers use their phones during sex. Are they texting, updating their Facebook status or maybe playing Farmville? The survey was done last November and December by Zeldis Research Associates for Meredith Parents Network.

As further evidence, 21 percent of these moms use their phones in the bathroom, although the surprise there is that the figure isn’t higher. It’s hard to go into any public restroom these days without hearing those of either gender on the horn while they’re on the john.
Among the other findings:

81 percent of Millennial moms said shopping was the No. 1 way they use their smartphones
They have an average of 13 apps on their phones, and two-thirds say that fewer than half of those apps are for their kids.
They have a “love-hate relationship with Facebook.” While more than 8 in 10 moms use the social network, 72 percent are frustrated by “all of the recent Facebook changes to its format and privacy policies,” and 53 percent said they feel Facebook “wastes their time.”
55 percent of time-starved moms said they de-friended companies on Facebook, with “too many messages and ads being the No. 1 reason,” Meredith Parents Network said

A “nationally representative sample” of Millennial moms, with children from infants to age 12, was taken, and 1,041 complete questionnaires returned.

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Olive Media’s Infamous Summer Party Returns June 14

dforde@profectio.com (Dave Forde) — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:20:56 +0000

As a reader of Profectio, you know that the online advertising industry knows how to party and host a damn good one! By far the best party of 2011 was hosted by Olive Media, second best was Microsoft Advertising. We were on hand with the Olive crew last year and had a blast, here are some of the photos, and the unique themes they pick each year. For 2012, their theme is “Heros vs Villains” which will be sure to bring out some kick ass costumes by Olive Media staff and attendees, speaking of which last year they blew the doors off with an attendance close to 1,000 from across Toronto’s advertising and marketing community.

With the track record that Olive Media has for hosting the best party in the advertising industry, the pressure is on even more this year for newly appointed CO-CEOs Kristie Painting & Theresa Smith. Since the recent transition, Kristie & Theresa aka “Cagney and Lacey” have fought crime in the boardroom and continue to lead their team to winning more and more business and bringing more value to advertising with innovative campaigns.

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50 Canadian Corporate Blogs » Profectio
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