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Sony Pictures Interactive Opens a Hotel Game on Facebook

16 Aug

CULVER CITY, Calif., Aug. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/

Sony Pictures Interactive has launched the company’s first premium social game, The Hotel Transylvania Social Game (facebook.com/hoteltgame), it was announced today by Bob Osher, president, Sony Pictures Digital Productions, and Emmanuelle Borde, executive vice president and general manager, Sony Pictures Interactive.  Featuring the iconic setting of the upcoming Sony Pictures Animation monster comedy Hotel Transylvania, the Hotel Transylvania Social Game capitalizes on the popularity of Facebook games to bring fans an exciting new way to play in the world of the film.  Hotel Transylvania opens in theaters nationwide onSeptember 28, 2012.

“This game was a natural brand extension for us and a great way to introduce our film and characters online,” said Bob Osher. “It’s the best possible scenario when those opportunities are created internally between divisions like Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Interactive.”

In the Hotel Transylvania Social Game, players are tasked with building, decorating, managing and maintaining their own Hotel Transylvania, where a host of fun monsters, inspired by the upcoming animated film Hotel Transylvania, come to get away from the stresses of the human-inhabited world.  Grow zombies in your hotel graveyard to create hotel staff, and keep guests happy with a host of torturous amenities.  Players can check back daily to collect rewards, share gifts with friends and entertain their hotel guests.

“Social games are a key entertainment activity for millions of people online,” said Emmanuelle Borde. “Sony Pictures Interactive has always focused on building digital experiences that drive community and conversation.  The move into social games was a logical evolution for our business.”

The Hotel Transylvania Social Game was designed and developed entirely in-house by Sony Pictures Interactive.  “Our goal was to build a game that is fun to play while taking advantage of the full range of social tie-ins that experienced gamers expect from social games,” said Scott Nourse, senior vice president of production, Sony Pictures Interactive.  “We are proud of our achievement in that regard and are excited about the framework we have built which will enable us to build more games in the future.”

The Hotel Transylvania Social Game is free to play and available to anyone with a Facebook account at http://facebook.com/hoteltgame.  Players who wish to augment gameplay through purchase of in-game currency will have the ability to enhance and personalize their individual experience.

Sony Pictures Interactive is planning on launching one to two new social games a year.  The next game is currently set for launch in April 2013.

About Hotel Transylvania
Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters — Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more — to celebrate his daughter Mavis’ 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem — but his world could come crashing down when a human stumbles on the hotel for the first time and takes a shine to Mavis.

Columbia Pictures presents a Sony Pictures Animation film, Hotel Transylvania.  The film features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, and CeeLo Green.  Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.  Produced by Michelle Murdocca.  Screenplay by Peter Baynham and Robert Smigel.  Story by Todd Durham and Daniel Hageman & Kevin Hageman.  Executive producers are Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel and Allen Covert.  Music by Mark Mothersbaugh.  Music Supervision by Liza Richardson.  Imagery and Animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc.

About Sony Pictures Interactive
Sony Pictures Interactive is an award-winning digital marketing and production studio dedicated to building entertaining and impactful brand destinations in the online, mobile and social space.  Sony Pictures Interactive provides brand management, marketing strategy, creative campaign design and development for a diverse roster of clients across multiple business verticals, including entertainment, music, consumer products, sports and non-profit.  The studio also publishes games and mobile applications and is a leader in developing unique solutions for engaging consumers across social media platforms. Sony Pictures Interactive is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions.

Website:  www.SonyPicturesInteractive.com.

About Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of animated entertainment for audiences around the world.  The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the 2011 hybrid live action/animated family blockbuster, The Smurfs (3D) and the 2009 mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (3D)—with the family comedy Hotel Transylvania (3D) in September 2012 and the Smurfs 2 (3D) in July 2013.  Sony Pictures Animation, in conjunction with Aardman Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed feature films:  the CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas (3D); and the stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of Misfits (3D).  In 2007, Surf’s Up received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.  The division, whose first feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie franchise, is turning 10 this year.  Sony Pictures Animation is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

SOURCE: Sony Pictures Interactive http://www.sonypicturesinteractive.com

PR Newswire

Salesforce.com Completes Acquisition of Buddy Media

13 Aug

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/

Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Buddy Media, the world’s leading social media marketing platform. With the close of the acquisition, the Buddy Media team joins the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Comments on the News

  • “Salesforce.com now has the number one players in social listening and marketing – Radian6 and Buddy Media,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “With the rapid growth in technology spending by CMOs projected over the next five years, our Marketing Cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity.”
  • “Social media has caused the biggest transformation in marketing since the Mad Men era, causing CMOs to completely re-think their strategies,” said Marcel LeBrun, SVP of Salesforce Radian6. “By bringing together market leaders Radian6 and Buddy Media, we are doubling down on the Salesforce Marketing Cloud to provide CMOs with the ability to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle.”
  • “Buddy Media’s mission is to eliminate the current state of anarchy in social marketing,” said Michael Lazerow, co-founder and CEO, Buddy Media. “With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, marketers will be able to unify their efforts to better organize their teams, optimize their social programs and deliver real business results.”

Buddy Media – The World’s Leading Social Media Marketing Platform
Founded in 2007, Buddy Media started as an idea to empower chief marketing officers (CMOs) and agencies to organize their teams and optimize their social media marketing programs. The Buddy Media platform allows customers to publish content, place and optimize social advertising and measure the effectiveness of social media marketing programs. As a result, customers can determine which content is driving the most engagement, test different strategies and understand which campaigns are delivering the greatest return on investment. Leveraging Buddy Media’s award-winning social media marketing platform, companies can connect and engage with more than a billion customers across Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and more.

With 8 of the top 10 advertisers as clients, Buddy Media is the clear leader in social media marketing. The company currently has nearly 1,000 customers, including major global brands like Ford, Hewlett Packard, and L’Oreal and the world’s largest marketing agency groups such as IPG (Interpublic Group), Omnicom, Publicis and WPP. Buddy Media is the only company to be named a charter Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer, Google Engagement Solutions partner and LinkedIn Certified Developer.

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Transforming Marketing for the Social Era
The marketing industry is undergoing the biggest transformation it’s seen in 60 years, and it’s all being driven by the unprecedented growth of social networks. Today’s leading brands are looking to completely transform their traditional marketing strategies for the social era. Industry analysts predict that CMOs will surpass CIOs in spend on technology within the next five years1 and that social advertising will be the largest growth area of online advertising by 20132.

By combining Buddy Media, the world’s leading social media marketing platform, with Salesforce Radian6, the world’s leading social media listening platform, salesforce.com will deliver the first comprehensive Marketing Cloud that will allow customers to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs. With the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, CMOs will be empowered to manage the entire social marketing lifecycle. Delivered by salesforce.com, the Marketing Cloud seamlessly integrates a company’s social marketing into its sales and service programs.

Salesforce.com plans to showcase the Marketing Cloud at its upcoming Dreamforce event. Dreamforce 2012 is the industry’s largest cloud computing and enterprise technology event, welcoming more than 70,000 registered attendees to experience the power of the social enterprise. With more than 650 sessions and 350 cloud companies in the expo, attendees can participate in interactive sessions, hands-on training with cutting-edge technology, thousands of live demos and unparalleled networking. In addition, Dreamforce welcomes special guests Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group; Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric; Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State; Tony Robbins, Entrepreneur, Author & Peak Performance Strategist; and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dreamforce 2012 offers attendees everything they need to succeed as a social enterprise in four days, under one roof.

About Salesforce.com
With more than 100,000 customers, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that is leading the shift to the social enterprise. Social enterprises leverage social, mobile and open cloud technologies to put customers at the heart of their business. Based on salesforce.com’s real-time, multitenant architecture, the company’s platform and application services allow customers to:

  • Create employee social networks with Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce Rypple and Salesforce Force.com.
  • Develop customer social networks with the Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Data.com, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Salesforce Site.com.
  • Connect with customers on public social networks with Salesforce Heroku and Salesforce Radian6.
  • Empower small business to become social enterprises with Salesforce Desk.com and Salesforce Do.com.
  • Extend a company’s social enterprise with apps from the leading enterprise app marketplace, AppExchange.
  • Run apps on Database.com, the first social enterprise database.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM.” For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

About Dreamforce
Dreamforce 2012 is the industry’s largest cloud computing and enterprise technology event, welcoming more than 70,000 registered attendees to experience the power of the social enterprise. With more than 650 sessions and 350 cloud companies in the expo, attendees can participate in interactive sessions, hands-on training with cutting-edge technology, thousands of live demos and unparalleled networking. In addition, Dreamforce welcomes special guests Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group; Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric; Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State; Tony Robbins, Entrepreneur, Author & Peak Performance Strategist; and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dreamforce 2012 offers attendees everything they need to succeed as a social enterprise in four days, under one roof.

Sources:
Gartner http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&resId=1871515&ref=Webin
eMarketer Forecast Sept 2011 http://www.emarketer.com/PressRelease.aspx?R=1008629]

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements about salesforce.com and Buddy Media, including statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning salesforce.com’s acquisition of Buddy Media, the expected relative spending by CMOs and CIOs in the future, expectations regarding market opportunities, size and growth, the combined capabilities of the companies’ products, transformations in marketing, anticipated product information, capabilities, scale and strategy, including the social media listening and marketing market, the benefits of the acquisition, salesforce.com’s social enterprise strategy, Marketing Cloud and its impact, market and industry trends, and general business outlook. When used in this press release, the words “can,” “will,” “intends,” “expects,” “is expected,” similar expressions and any other statements that are not historical facts are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements. Any such statement may be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of salesforce.com or Buddy Media, that could cause actual outcomes to be materially different from those projected, described, expressed or implied in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the anticipated synergies and benefits of the combined companies may not be achieved, the combined companies may experience delays, unexpected costs or be unable to complete integration activities in a timely manner, if at all, the possibility that key personnel of Buddy Media may not be retained by salesforce.com, responses from competitors, customers, users and partners, general economic conditions in the markets in which either company does business, and the possibility that salesforce.com or Buddy Media may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors.

In addition, please refer to the documents that salesforce.com files with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. These filings identify and address other important factors that could cause salesforce.com’s financial and operational results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements set forth in this press release. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Neither salesforce.com nor Buddy Media is under any duty to update any of the information in this press release.

Copyright (c) 2012 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the “no software” logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: salesforce.com

How Agencies Are Spending Online Media Budgets

22 Sep

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How Social Media Agencies Are Spending Online Media Budgets

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