Sprout is happy to be working side by side with Adobe, EyeWonder, Greystripe, Medialets, MediaMind, and PointRoll on this ad format launch. We’re also the only ad creation platform in the lot so we’re thrilled about that as well. We’ve created three ad units for the launch which you can see here.

Our units are built in HTML5 using AdVine and include a unit for Nike that features our pananle image component. The video below showcases how the ad unit was built in 45 minutes, a fraction of the time it would take to build it using Flash Pro.

We’re happy to announce that Sprout won the sfBIG award for ‘Next BIG Digital Startup/Technology Company’ at the ‘BIG Star Awards’ in San Francisco last week. It’s a real honor to stand side by side with the giants of the Bay Area advertising industry, especially considering we’re relatively new to the industry. We’ve come a long way in three years and look forward to being an ongoing part of the sfBIG community!

In the last six months Sprout has been working hard to revolutionize the online display advertising space. With the introduction of Sprout’s  Flash and HTML5 authoring solution in April, we were the first companied to introduce a combined workflow for the creation of rich media ads that run on both desktop and mobile devices. These recent innovation and our latest work led to Sprout’s award, but we were also a runner up for the “Best Use of Social Media” category as well as the “Best Digital Campaign from a Local Agency” category. You can see all the categories and finalists here.

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

SPEAKER SELECTION

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,
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,

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,
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,

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.”

Sproutbuilder: #SWAT Summit was great. A lot of exciting fervor around the companies who build apps and social media marketing tools. 9:07 PM Jul 18th 2008

I have realized that we’ve come a long way in the Twittersphere. As of June 23rd, 2009, we have reached 1800 followers and are at the tipping point where our followers will soon exceed the number of people we are following.  I have constantly tried to keep my tweets conversational and representative of Sprout as a personable start-up, sophisticated software company and a business with clear goals.  There have been customers who’ve raised concerns, given praise and started conversations with us on Twitter.  I have always been there to answer their questions and respond in a timely manner.   It is this transparency and willingness to openly communicate that separates us from many organizations out there who aren’t embracing social media.

Having just attended the #140Conf put on by Jeff Pulver, my passion and understanding of twitter, as it pertains to business and the community, is much stronger.  Teaching a super model how to tweet while I was there certainly didn’t weaken my passion towards Twitter.  A lot of great minds came together and discussed the power of a platform that is so effective at addressing communication in the “now.”  Jeff Pulver goes into more depth about what the #140Conf meant to him and the community in this post and you can see all the panels/speakers here.

Yesterday marked another huge milestone in our presence on Twitter.  I had been spending the last couple months working to secure a new username for our Twitter account.  Since my first tweet, we have been using the username: Sproutbuilder.  This made a lot of sense when the only product we were promoting was Sprout Builder.  Sprout is our company name, not Sprout Builder.  I am very proud to announce that we now have the Twitter username: Sprout.

I need your help to ensure this transistion is smooth and efficient. When replying, linking or telling your friends about us on Twitter, all you need to tell them is @sprout or twitter.com/sprout I also encourage you to open up the conversation and send your tweets my way!

Photo credit: jenconsalvo

Please follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

As with many software startups, we work in sprints to get our software out the door in the most efficienct manner.  Each of our sprints have a numerical value, in this case, tonight we will be pushing version 2.2.  I will be adding some information on the new features to this post shortly.

This blog is going to be the main voice for all Sprout products. Please bookmark and subscribe as we will be updating it frequently with information about Sprout Builder / Studio and everything related to our company.

Thanks for stopping by.