Village Gamer

CIBC has furthered its mobile innovation for clients by launching its mobile stock trading App to investors across the country. The new CIBC Mobile Brokerage App will empower investors by giving them the opportunity to make trades on the go through their mobile device, in addition to a wide range of features to help clients stay on top of the market including real-time quotes, portfolio monitoring, and more.

“We are excited to be the first bank in Canada to deliver a mobile stock trading App to Canadian investors through our new CIBC Mobile Brokerage App,” said Michael Martin, Senior Vice-President, Alternate Channels, CIBC. “Investors will now be able to receive market information and make trades in real-time through their mobile device, without having to get to their computer. We know from research that there is huge demand for the benefits that this App will provide. It will change the investing landscape across Canada.”

The CIBC Mobile Brokerage App is available to clients using an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android device, and offers features to meet the growing demand from Canadians to have access to their finances while on the go, including the ability to:

• Buy and sell stocks
• View cash and margin balances, book values, and market values for individual account holdings
• Search for stocks
• Transfer cash between your CIBC brokerage and bank accounts
• View market indices, commodities and exchange rate information
• Get quick quotes on stock prices
• Create/modify Watch Lists for an at-a-glance view of stocks
• View the status of your trades and cash transfers, and
• View the transaction history for your account

“The market can move quickly, and our clients are increasingly looking to stay connected to market developments at all times,” added Mr. Martin. “The new CIBC Mobile Brokerage App represents the next level of access and choice for investors in how they manage their portfolios. Clients will be able to execute trades while they are away from their computer, on the golf course, or even from their deck at the cottage.”

Mobile trades made with the new App using a CIBC Investor’s Edge account are eligible for $6.95 per trade pricing for investors with combined balances of $100,000 or more in CIBC products. This pricing structure was introduced in January for online trades and has proven very popular with investors. “Not only are we introducing mobile trading to Canadian investors, but we continue to offer outstanding value to clients through our $6.95 per trade pricing for CIBC’s Investor’s Edge clients,” added Mr. Martin.

Today’s launch is the latest in a series of mobile innovations from CIBC. In February 2010, CIBC launched its mobile banking App, and client feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. More recently, the bank launched the CIBC Home Advisor App, free to all Canadians homebuyers. The App provides access to neighbourhood pricing trends and demographics along with the ability to access mortgage calculators and advice.

Adconion Media Group has announced the expansion and enhancement of Joost’s innovative video offerings in Canada effective immediately.  Refreshed with a new logo, Joost is committed to building brands online by providing premium brand solutions for Canadian advertisers and marketers seeking to reach their targeted audience with engaging and high impact in-stream and in-banner video advertising.

Joost offers a suite of advanced products to help advertisers obtain greater reach and scale with online videos. Joost products include pre-roll, in-banner video and expandable and Splash Ad video units. It also provides exclusive site and inventory representation, and offers full page overlays, roadblocks and custom site skins and integrations – all providing a more comprehensive set of powerful tools to better achieve partners’ ROI.

Supporting Adconion Canada’s growing video market share is its recent VAST 2.0 certification.  Adconion is one of the first ad networks to become IAB VAST 2.0 compliant in Canada. The objective of VAST is to overcome the challenge of the various technologies in play by providing a standardized communication between ad servers and video players. IAB research over the last two years has indicated that in-stream video has grown and VAST will play a significant part in its roll out.

Understanding and adopting the leading industry’s authority in video standardization, Adconion Canada now can greatly improve 3^rd party video integrations by making the process more effective and seamless to both publishers and networks. Campaigns will run more efficiently across multiple properties. And by being at the forefront of marketplace change, Adconion Canada is poised to significantly increase the number of pre-roll ads it can serve, as well as allowing it to accept 3rd party ad serving redirects.

“We are committed to bring to market the best brand solutions for our partners,” said Tina Mooney, VP of Adconion Canada. “With Joost’s cutting edge products and adopting the industry’s latest practices, we know that we can shift brand metrics from TV to online. And this is just the beginning.”

In Canada, Adconion reaches more than 14 million unique monthly visitors. Globally, Adconion reaches nearly 325 million unique users, or one-quarter of the global Internet population, every month.

The joy of choosing new school supplies doesn’t extend to all students during the back-to-school season. That’s why Staples Canada, and its customers look forward to helping children in the community receive the tools they need to learn, during the 6^thannual Back-to-School Supply Drive, which begins on July 23. Since its inception, Canada’s largest office supply retailer has helped raise over $3-million for students in need.

“When the school bell rings, not all children will have the supplies they need to succeed. Help give students-in-need the confidence to learn, by making a donation at your local Staples store,” said Steve Matyas, president of Staples, Canada.

Every Staples store in Canada will collect funds for the Back-to-School Supply Drive, and all donations collected, will remain in your local community.

“We hope Canadians keep up their good will by continuing to support the School Supply Drive,” says Matyas. “Last year, we raised over one-million dollars, and we would like to match or exceed that figure again this year. Giving back within the communities where we operate has always been important to us, and we want to continue to help support children’s education.”

Customers can make a donation from July 23 until September 6 at any Staples store, and in Quebec from July 31 until September 4.

Cambridge based software company iVenuto has launched its first business app for the Apple iPad platform. Sign In, the reception desk visitor registry app is now available on iTunes App store for the introductory price of $24.99 (regular price $28.99). This innovative app is the first of its kind, allowing users to convert their iPad device into an easy-to-use Visitor registry.

Most offices require all visitors or contractors to “sign in,” satisfying the needs of health and safety concerns providing an accurate head count in the event of an emergency. The head count is given to emergency officials when asked if everyone is present and accounted for during a fire evacuation, for example.

The problem is: most visitor registries are paper binders with a collection of illegible scribblings, purposely so to keep competitors unaware of appointments or to hide personal information when asked for an email or license plate by the host company.

The “Sign In” app addresses this problem by keeping all information private. Visitors enter their own information on a graphical interface that mimics a paper page in a book. Visitors can not see the information on previous visitors.

Data collected on each visitor is unique to each company’s policy. The data is then easily accessible to only administrative staff. A custom report writing tool allows users to quickly create instant reports. The software also has a badge printing feature – creating personalized & dated color badges for each visitor (according to the software’s FAQ, this is done via AirPrint). The software also assigns a Sign In and Sign Out time stamp, managing a dynamic “on-premises” report.

Canadian-based manufacturer of satellite, RF equipment and microwave systems, Advantech Wireless Inc., has announced the launch of its newest generation of VSAT Hubs – the Discovery Series. The Discovery Series Hub is the perfect starter system offering better value for your dollar than any other manufacturer. The Discovery Series is a two-way, open standard (DVB-RCS), broadband satellite access system and includes a fully functional hub with 4 inbound carriers, scalable as your needs grow, all for under $50,000.

Overwhelming customer demand has driven the company to create a new series of Hubs for each market. The new Discovery series allows small to medium private satellite networks, commercial enterprises or government to get started today at the lowest possible cost.

As you grow, your investment remains intact, as the solution will scale with your needs. Advantech Wireless has removed all barriers to entry and has configured many systems for quick turnaround. For example, those companies seeking a turnkey package can opt for a complete, fully functional Hub along with 50 Remote Terminals (the S4120) from Advantech Wireless for less than $100,000.

• Lowest Entry Level Price: Starting at less than $50,000 for a fully-functional Hub
• Unmatched Features: 4 inbound carriers (Upgradeable to 32 carriers at a low incremental cost)
• Maximum Flexibility for Economical Scalability
• Up to18 Mbps Throughput
• Support for up to 500 terminals
• Minimize CAPEX and OPEX, instantly improve ROI
• DVB-RCS, DVB-S/S2
• Includes an Advantech Wireless Layer 3 Router!
• Advanced options available

Virgin Mobile is bringing something awesome to the East Coast today as it opened the doors to its first flagship store in Canada’s Atlantic region at Halifax’s Mic Mac Mall.

“This flagship store truly amps up our presence in Halifax and brings the experience of Membership to life like nothing the East Coast has seen before,” says Robert Blumenthal, President, Virgin Mobile Canada. “We’ve created a full-on experience – from a great atmosphere to the best range of smartphones and more.”

The awesome space, helping spice up Nova Scotia’s largest mall, shows off all the hottest phones and gadgets that are up for grabs on the super-speedy 4G network. Plus, the new flagship store will sell tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry Playbook. For a limited time, Virgin Mobile is also offering a special deal of $100 off to Members who activate a smartphone in store.

Virgin Mobile’s flagship store was designed by IIBYIV Design Associates and is located in Mic Mac Mall at 21 MicMac Boulevard. Members and Member-wannabes can check out the store Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. and noon – 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Mazooma, which is an American company with an office in Toronto, has unveiled their new micropay-in-a-box solution, which has as much as a 71% reduction in merchant fees for digital content merchants.  With 25% year-over-year growth, digital content is currently the fastest-growing eCommerce sector, driving an explosion in small-ticket transaction volumes. However, merchants selling digital music, games, books, and videos are underserved by traditional payment options. Mazooma’s new micropay solution fills this void, enabling these merchants to sell their goods faster, safer, and more cost-effectively.

Mazooma’s micropay-in-a-box solution is available to Discover’s direct merchants using the Centinel® Universal Merchant Platform through CardinalCommerce Corporation. For a merchant using Centinel, it is as simple as placing the Mazooma payment button on their checkout page to support a new payment option that enables consumers to pay using their online banking account. For these merchants, there is no implementation required and no changes to existing settlement and reporting from Discover. It is a turnkey solution that makes it easy for merchants to offer the new Mazooma payment brand.

An online banking-based payment solution, Mazooma connects consumers directly to their bank account from the merchant’s checkout page, enabling secure, instant payments for online purchases. Other features of Mazooma’s micropay solution include a processing fee of 1.5% + $0.05 per transaction without the need to aggregate transactions, and a streamlined checkout in two clicks, with no offline sign-up process.

“With Mazooma’s micropay-in-a-box solution, Discover merchants selling digital content can enjoy instant, online payments, as well as ease of implementation, less technical resources and consolidated settlement and reporting,” says Farhan Ahmad, General Manager, Prepaid & Director of Emerging Payments at Discover. “At Discover, we aim to provide our merchants with more payment choices, and we believe the relationship with Mazooma will do just that.”

“We’re pleased to be able to leverage Centinel to extend the Mazooma payment option across the Discover Network of retail merchants,” said Janet Kapostasy, Vice President, Financial Institution Services, CardinalCommerce Corporation. ”The micropay solution addresses a key pain point in the digital goods vertical.”

Pixel to Product has launched its final wave for the Canadian Digital Marketing Outlook for 2011. This portion of the Pixel to Product research wave is an introspective look at how brands are using social media, mobile and email marketing. Through this research, Pixel to Product aims to understand how organizations are using social media, mobile and email marketing to promote their products and services, engage their customers and drive brand awareness.

I fully concur with Justin Kozuch, Pixel to Product’s Lead Researcher, who stated that “too often, we’ve been forced to rely on US numbers to make informed decisions for our Canadian clients or rely on outdated, expensive and inaccessible data to help us better understand the trends in social media.”

The company’s goal is to survey 1000 of the world’s biggest brands. They are aiming to better understand how Starbucks is using mobile to engage and inform their customers, and Pixel to Product is interested in better understanding how Dell is using social media to provide customer support over Twitter.

While this survey is focused primarily on Canadian companies, Pixel to Product is also interested in gathering data from American and international companies. To make this process as easy as possible, they’ve written copy to support that communication. If you’d like to use this copy in your communications, don’t hesitate to send Justin an email and he’ll be happy to provide it to you.

Finally, if you’re responsible for your organizations digital marketing efforts and a have deep understanding of how your organization uses social media, mobile platforms and email marketing, please take a few moments to complete the survey.

As with the recently issued report on the Canadian digital media economy, Pixel to Product will be making the report available free of charge. This report will be made available for download from their website in Q4 2011. In addition to the final report, Pixel to Product will be releasing the raw, anonymized data sets in a variety of open data formats. For an example of what the final report will look like, take a look at their report on the Canadian digital media economy.

I wish I’d known this yesterday morning when I was at Casual Connect, because I could have had a chat with the Arkadium booth representatives. Apparently it may be time for me to start a serious contemplation of acquiring either a smartphone or a tablet with web access – in the not-too-distant future, budget permitting.

Arkadium, one of the largest providers of game solutions for some of the biggest brands in the world, is opening the doors to its first Canadian office in Toronto.  With offices already established in New York, Los Angeles and Ukraine, the new Toronto office will focus on HTML5 and iOS development – with the goal of bringing ten new games to market in the next 12 months.  Arkadium will be drawing from the extensive local talent pool in Toronto to staff the office and will be actively hiring in the next few months.

“With mobile game market sales anticipated to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014, it’s the perfect time for us to have a dedicated team focused on our mobile efforts,” said Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium.”  We’re excited to bring new IP to the iPad and Android and to port our library of 300+ games to HTML5, insuring their continued enjoyment for the foreseeable future.”

Arkadium has been creating online casual games for over ten years, and recently expanded and found success with social game development.  As new channels emerge and gain wide market penetration, this mobile initiative aligns with the company’s goal to bring the best of casual online games to consumers wherever they are.

The Toronto expansion is a result of a collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade in partnership with the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA).  The financial support offered by the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC) administered by Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) were key factors.

Deal Exchange company Wantsa has introduced its “Request a Deal” button for search and directory companies looking to provide consumers with deals they are interested in. This is the first “Deal Exchange” that connects consumers and merchants in a mutually beneficial exchange that delivers what each group wants.

Until now the deal industry has centered around outbound email marketing where consumers receive random daily deals from local merchants offering deep discounts in exchange for pre-purchasing consumers walking through their doors with personalized vouchers.

To deliver what everyone wants, Wantsa created a simple button called “Request a Deal” for any online or mobile publisher that displays Directory Listings for local merchants. When this “Request a Deal” button is added to the publisher’s directory of business listings, consumers can simply click the button next to the listing of the business they are interested in to register their “request” for a deal.

Through its automated process, Wantsa delivers to the publisher the aggregated consumer demand for the deal. The publisher, in turn, shares this information with the merchant, showing a proven “demand” for the deal. Through this unique process, publishers and sales agencies are able to deliver relevant offers to consumers anxiously awaiting deals from specific local merchants. In addition to connecting merchants directly to qualified consumers, Wantsa also has the capability to administer quick surveys to capture market research or leads.

To help publishers solve the problem of deal inventory, Wantsa has created a “Deal Exchange” where any company who has deal inventory can simply submit their supply into the “Deal Repository” and, conversely, publishers seeking deal inventory can access deals from various sources.

“Think of Wantsa as a major evolution of Ad networks. The only difference is that instead of creating an Ad that results in a click, companies are creating offers that result in real consumer transactions,” said Atif Hussein, Head of Product and Engineering for Wantsa.

Wantsa “Request a Deal” creates a win, win, win for all parties: Read the rest of this entry »