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Archive for the ‘Sprout External’ Category

Sprout Product Enhancements V3.1

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

In our latest release of the Sprout platform, we’ve made some improvements and released new features that make creating rich media Engage Ads easier and more efficient. This latest release, known as 3.1, focused on our integration with FBML exporting, conditional content and expandable ad functionality. I will go into more depth on these three features and functionality below.

FBML Exporting

When you create a social campaign, the ability to add this content directly to your Facebook Fan Page or Application previously required a developer.  This is no longer the case.  With our direct-to-Facebook exporting functionality, you can embed your content using a simple snippet of FBML code.

FMBL_export

Conditional Content

As online display advertisements become smarter, they will show you content based on the interactions that you’ve already taken with that ad.  As part of the campaign we just launched with Disney for the movie, Alice in Wonderland, we developed an ad that will dynamically display your content after the first time you interact with it.  For example, if you “Mad Hatter” yourself once, then every additional time you see that ad, it will show your picture and give you access to an exclusive trailer.  Give it a try yourself:

(Tip: if you click the top right section of the ad, it will clear your image after you refresh the page)

Expandable Ads

As many of you have seen, advertisements have the ability to take over a section of your screen that is larger than the ad unit itself. This type of advertisement is called an, “expandable ad” and they are becoming more and more prevalent on popular web sites.  We now have the ability to create these using the Sprout platform.  See the example of an expandable ad for our upcoming event, below:

Social Media & Advertising Summit: New York on April 6th!

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

A Half Day Summit on Leveraging Social Media & The Next Generation Display Ads for Your Brand

Are you an Account Executive or Creative Director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to successfully build your brand and drive sales by combining the next generation of display advertising with applications that plug into social networking platforms. The event is produced by Sprout, one of only fourteen Facebook Preferred Developers.

Presentations will focus on unveiling the next generation of rich, interactive, and social display advertising, how social network platforms are evolving, what new opportunities are available, and how to work with creative agencies and technology providers to capitalize on these opportunities. Social media case studies will highlight campaign best practices and a panel discussion will address key topics such as moderation, metrics and reporting, social media strategy, and corporate policy around social media.

Lunch will be served after the presentations and participants will have an opportunity to network and socialize.

Join us for an exceptional event packed with valuable insight for your brand.

Agenda

8:30 – 8:45 Welcome & Breakfast
8:45 – 9:20 The Engagement Cycle – Roland Smart, Sprout
9:20 – 9:40 Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps: Julie Nielsen, appssavvy
9:40 – 10:00 The next generation of online display ads, Carnet William, Sprout
10:00 – 10:10 Break
10:10 – 10:45 The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking – Nick O’Neil, Founder All Facebook
10:45 – 11:15 Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program – John WIlliams, Mud Worldwide
11:15 – 12:00 Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

Events

SPEAKER SELECTION

Nick O'Niel

Nick O’Neil,

Founder, Social Times & All Facebook

The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking

Nick O’Neill is the Founder of Social Times, Inc., a digital media company focused on covering the growing social web economy. He is the
the social media industry expert, providing no holds bar commentary and insightful analysis on social networking and social media. Nick also speaks at conferences nationwide and has been written about in multiple national publications. With the opening of the Facebook platform, Nick saw a huge opportunity and has become fully dedicated to covering the social networking phenomenon via AllFacebook.com eventually expanding beyond with SocialTimes.com.

In 2009, Nick successfully led
Social Times Inc. to an acquisition by WebMediaBrands. Nick continues
to serve as the Director of Social Times and oversees daily content production as well as hosting events around the country. Nick graduated
Cum Laude from American University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. While Nick spends a lot of time writing content for sites, he
is a passionate coder, building tools to help readers track the rapid growth of the social networking space. Nick was also recently named one of the top 100 D.C. Tech Titans by Washingtonian Magazine.

Carnet Williams

Carnet Williams,
CEO, Sprout

The next generation of online display ads

Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.

Julie Nielsen

Julie Nielsen,

Director of Product, appssavvy

Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps

Julie Nielsen is director of product at appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space. She drives product strategies and integrated sponsorship programs between social media application developer and publisher partners, and the rapidly growing number of brands and agencies engaged in tackling the emerging opportunities involving social media applications.

Julie was the first employee outside of appssavvy’s two founders. Since joining the company, she has been instrumental in the more than 200 socially-based campaigns appssavvy has delivered for brands, including Kimberly-Clark, Sony Pictures, Oakley, Coca-Cola, Target and Purina, among others.

Previously, Julie was part of leading Freewebs’ widget initiative. She began her career at Unit 7, a DM agency under the Omnicom umbrella of marketing companies. At Unit 7, Julie was active in developing campaigns for Pfizer, Wyeth, AstraZeneca and P&G. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

JOhn Williams

John Williams,
President, Mud Worldwide

Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program

As President of Mud Worldwide, a Social Branding and Marketing Agency based in Sausalito, California, John draws from a solid background in consumer packaged goods in addition to experience in a broad range of B2B product and services marketing. On the Agency side he has worked with Ted Bates Worldwide, Ketchum Communications and his earlier company The Sausalito group serving clients such as Colgate Palmolive, Warner Lambert, Bristol Meyers, Bank of America, E*Trade, McKesson, Chevron, Palm Computing and Motorola. On the client side he has held senior management positions at Manhattan Marine and Electric Company
and Semphonic a leading web analytics practice. From his native Australia he has worked in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US and brings new perspectives to issues surrounding best practices from strategic planning to execution of communications programs.

Roland Smart

Roland Smart,

Sr. Marketing Mgr., Sprout

Presenting on the social network engagement cycle, and Moderating the Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion

Smart describes himself as “a marketer on a mission to evolve marketing away from the mess that traditional marketers have made. It’s time to stop broadcasting messages with megaphones and to start engaging the communities that form around brands. While companies understand what it takes to build products and services, it’s the community that understands how they actually work in the wild. Following this, I embrace the mission of Marketing 2.0, which recognizes that brands are built by communities, not just by companies. My work focuses on leveraging the fact that communities want to grow the brands that improve their lives. Thus, I’m interested in new social media tools, like Sprout, that empower communities to spread the word about the products and services they love. You can learn more about me and how I approach marketing on my blog at www.rolandsmart.com.”

Sprout Engage Launches With Disney

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Sprout is proud to announce the introduction of Engage Ads, the next generation of online display ads that integrate rich media, interactivity, and social connectivity into standard IAB ad units.

Disney is our first customer, using Sprout Engage Ads to promote Alice In Wonderland. When users encounter these ads on IMDB.com, X, and Y, they can join the Alice In Wonderland experience by ‘Mad Hattering’ themselves, using their web cams to take photos that go directly into the ad unit. Check out the experience below:

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Sprout Introduces Sprout Engage Ads

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

downloadpdfFlashBased Solution Gives Brands a Better Way to Connect With Consumers Through Personally Relevant Online Display Ads

La Costa, CA – February 23, 2010 – At the IAB Leadership Conference, Sprout, the leading technology platform for creating rich, engaging ads and social media applications, announced the Sprout Engage Platform. This platform is designed to take display advertising to the next level by bringing personally relevant data right into a standard Flash ad unit. Sprout Engage Ads allow brands to make stronger connections with their audiences by providing a fun, interactive experience, wherever their audiences travel online.

“The landscape for how brands market to consumers on the Web has changed over the last couple of years,” said Carnet Williams, Founder and CEO of Sprout. “Broadcasting messages is quickly being replaced by two‐way conversations and branded experiences on social networks. We think the future of online advertising is bringing application‐like engagement and interactivity into the standard display ad unit. We know brands and customers will benefit when ads contain personally relevant content, be it a Twitter feed, a friend’s endorsement, social data, or an engaging Flash experience,” Williams added.

“Brands have been coming to Sprout for rich, engaging social applications and Fan Pages,” said Adam Taisch, VP of Business Development. “Now, for the first time, brands have an end‐to‐end solution that extends the conversations beyond the walls of Facebook to any site that runs display ads. The result is a consistent user experience across social networks, brands’ Web sites and display ads,” Taisch added.

Disney will be running Sprout Engage Ads on IGN, Fandango, Movietickets, YouTube, and Addicting Games to support the March 5 release of “ALICE IN WONDERLAND.” “’ALICE’ is a rich, immersive film that’s on the cutting edge,” said David Singh, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. “It’s important for us to give our audience an innovative first‐to‐market experience every time they come across our film. Sprout Engage Ads will provide that experience through our online display ads.”

Jones Soda is another brand adopting Sprout Engage Ads. “On the Jones Soda web site, we allow our customers to personalize their soda labels,” said Mike Spear, Marketing Director at Jones Soda. “We think this personalization drives brand loyalty and sales. We love the idea that customers can have that same interactive experience wherever they encounter our display ads on the web. I think this will drive increased soda sales.”

Brands interested in running Sprout Engage Ads and publishers interested in offering Sprout Engage Ads can email info@sproutinc.com

About Sprout:
Sprout gives you a better way to connect people with your brand through personally relevant Engage Ads and Engage Apps across all the leading social
networks and publisher sites. Sprout Engage Ads give your brand better ad performance than traditional rich media ads. Sprout customers include Disney, Warner Bros., Intel, Toyota and MTV. Funded by Polaris Venture Partners, Sprout is based in Honolulu, HI and San Francisco, CA. To learn more, please visit http://sproutinc.com.

Sprout Builder Service Transition

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Dear Sprout Builder Users,

One of the toughest decisions that a start-up faces is where to focus its efforts and resources. Sprout Builder was our first product and has always been near and dear to our hearts. More importantly, we value the customers who have gotten us to where we are today. However, we have made the hard decision to shut down the Sprout Builder subscription service to focus on our enterprise product lines. The only service level that we will continue to offer for Sprout Builder is geared towards enterprise customers. The cost is $2999 a year.

If you are a paying customer you will receive an email from PayPal saying that your account has been cancelled. This is to ensure that you will not be autobilled. You WILL still have access to Sprout Builder until March 30th.

We know you probably have a lot of questions about the transition so please review the FAQ for details.

Sincerely,

Carnet Williams

Co-Founder and CEO

Building Brands on Social Networks Presentations

Friday, February 5th, 2010

sprout iconThank you to everyone who attended our event yesterday. We were thrilled to have a packed room and so much enthusiasm. Big thanks to our presenters and to San Francisco Social Media Week and the San Francisco Chapter of the American Marketing Association for their help getting the word out. For those who were unable to attend we’ve placed links to the presentations, and the Justin.tv broadcast, below.

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Sprout Service Maintenance Downtime

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

JustLeaf150by150Transparent_biggerSprout Builder subscribers take note!

We’ve been notified by one of our service networks that they will be conducting data center maintenance on January 21 between 1AM and 2AM PST.   The service will only take about 10-15 minutes and will fall sometime during this window. Published Sprouts will NOT be affected, however, the Sprout Builder application will not be available at this time.

Thanks and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Event: Building Brands on Social Networks

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

We’re happy to announce the return of our Building Brands on Social Networks event series. We’ll be visiting 5 cities in the upcoming months and hope you’ll participate when we come to your area. This is your chance to meet with one of the few Facebook Preferred Developers.

A Half Day Summit on Leveraging Social Networks for Your Brand

Are you an account executive, creative director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to be successful building your brand and driving sales on social networking platforms.

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Ustream Integration, Broadcast Your Event on the Sprout Platform

Monday, January 11th, 2010

The Sprout platform is now integrated with the live-streaming technology, Ustream. We are also working with other live-streaming partners to bring multiple options of live video broadcasting technology to all our customers.

What exactly is Ustream and how does it work on Sprout?

Ustream allows anyone with a camera and an internet connection to broadcast live video to a global audience.  Using the Ustream technology, you can setup a channel and engage your audience within a matter of minutes. Ustream has been used to live broadcast events such as political debates, talk shows, sporting events and more.  While Ustream offers basic embedding functionality, many of our clients asked us for the ability to embed a live broadcast directly into the Sprout Platform so that they can completely customize the look and feel of their broadcast. This is now possible with the integration of Ustream in the Sprout Platform.

We are proud to announce the launch partner for the newly released Ustream component, Dick Clark Productions for the Golden Globe Awards.  Here is the fully functional Ustream live broadcast within a Sprout social experience:

Let us know what you think and if you’d like to run your own Sprout campaign with live stream functionality.

Jones Soda Fan Page Launched

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Jones Soda LogoSprout is happy to announce that Jones Soda’s new Facebook fan page is Sprout-powered! The page combines discounts for custom printed Jones Soda bottles, a slide show of user-generated labels which fans can vote on, a link to the Jones Soda iPhone application, a Twitter feed, and the latest Jones Soda video! Check out the Jones Soda home away from home on Facebook. (more…)