Latin Americans are strongly engaged with social networking. Half of the top 10 worldwide markets ranked by time spent on social networking sites are in Latin America, with Argentina leading the region at 10 hours per month in June 2011.

Facebook.com strongly led the social networking market in Latin America, reaching more than 91 million visitors. Windows Live Profile ranked #2 with more than 35.5 million visitors in the region. Orkut held the #3 spot with 34.4 million visitors, largely driven by the site’s popularity in Brazil, while Twitter.com ranked #4 with 24.3 million visitors.

Five of the top 10 markets ranked by Facebook.com reach are in Latin America. Facebook reached 90.9 percent of all online users in Chile, ranking as the most penetrated market in Latin America.

No standard language communicates universally among mobile platforms. This creates a significant limitation for developers intending to efficiently distribute content across different mobile platforms. Apple’s iPhone SDK uses an Objective-C foundation. Application development on Google’s Android and RIM’s BlackBerry platforms are exclusively Java-based. Symbian, supported by Nokia with widespread US deployment projected in early 2010, is C++. No signal framework dominates the marketplace resulting in a fundamental constraint for application expansion.

Although the minutia of each framework varies, the root concepts behind many applications remain consistent. Variations exist among background color, character size, and font. Dynamic text is syndicated from a web feed and aggregated on an application. Video and audio content is downloaded from a source and syndicated to an application.

Your APP should be built to standardize frequent root processes, and generate custom libraries for specific development environments by editing only a small subset of manipulations. A programming protocol interprets dynamic data structures through common file types to efficiently deploy applications across all mobile platforms. A simple layout developed through Adobe AIR, interface for each specific application platform including (but not limited to): Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Java ME, Lazarus, Python, and Symbian. An MXML, or equivalent, mark-up language uses application libraries through two-tier architecture. The user interface, functional process logic, and data access act as independent modules for user input and functional libraries as output.

On the user interface tier, the user can to select from any number of standard functions including text creation, image layout, audio input, video display and popular application programming interface integration. Standard application layout and interchangeable markings further this process. Application programming interfaces included: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google and others. File types and data structures necessary to obtain content are expansive. File types include (but are not limited to): MOV, MPEG, MP4, WAV, BMP, PNG, and JPG. Data structures include (but are not limited to): RSS, XML, PLIST, or JSON. The function process logic combines the resources necessary to build libraries for the specific application. Due to file-type restrictions per specific platform, automated conversions will facilitate particular queries.

Using custom Flex modules and server-side processes, standard inputs are converted to platform-specific functions. Data output features custom libraries specific per platform. Foundations include (but not limited to) C++, Java, Objective-C, and Pascal depending on the platform. Rather than attempting to generate code that competes with an integrated development environment, libraries are manually installed inside the environment dependent of the logic process. Thus, a module can be customized to nomenclature and style to each of the seven mobile platforms.

Moreover, modules adapt best practices. For example, an XML input of textual content is converted to the preferred PLIST for the iPhone Objective-C platform, whereas it maintains original form for Android and BlackBerry Java platforms. Unlike other approaches that utilize classes across all platforms, individual modules can be highly tailored the particular platform.

Cross-platform applications will become widely available at a fraction of the cost and time and provide unparallelled abilities to update content across all your mobile APPS regardless of the platform.

Steve Jobs, whose creativity and creations such as the Macintosh computers, iPhones, and iPads have influenced more than three decades of students and teachers.

The consumer electronics and computer hardware and software company that Jobs co-founded in 1976, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, has long held devotees within the world of education. In the less than two years since Jobs stood on stage in his characteristic black mock turtleneck and blue jeans and introudced the iPad; the tablet computer has exploded on the Digital Education scene. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2011, the iPad surpassed all of Apple’s educational Mac desktop and laptop computer sales combined. Its popularity with classroom teachers, educators have said, is due to a combination of its portability, long battery life, and intuitiveness of use, especially for young students and students with disabilities such as autism.  While Jobs was not as visible a donor to educational causes as some other technology moguls, his company has consistently offered educational services and discounts to schools and educators.In 2007, Apple unveiled iTunes U, a channel on its media player computer program devoted to housing educational resources from colleges and universities, as well as other educational institutions. Both California and Texas established iTunes U channels for K-12 content during 2010.

More recently, Apple has continued to manufacture products with education in mind, including its MacBook laptops, which it has continued to produce for educational purchases despite phasing out in other markets. “Steve Jobs was a true visionary who was one of the first to understand technology’s power to improve teaching and education,” said Jim Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense Media. “From ‘The Kids Can’t Wait,’ to iTunesU, Mr. Jobs always recognized that there were alternative ways for kids to learn using technology.”

By Ian Quillen

The contest is open to anyone and everyone. A $250 prize is awarded to the person who can acquire the most votes on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ProperBalanceHealthcare.

We leave it to your creative juices to create a video which explains the Proper Balance Health and Wellness Brand. This is the future of chiropractic care; a very state-of-the art facility that takes a holistic approach to your health.
Get your friends and family to vote, have some fun, win $250 dollars

• The contest runs Monday September 12th – Monday September 26th with the winner announced on the September 27th

• Your video should be uploaded to YouTube so you can copy the URL to Facebook and get votes..!

• The APP on Facebook will start accepting video’s Monday September 19th.

• Feel Free to share with friends and post any questions on Facebook

• Questions, email to enquiries@digitaladagency.com

More About Proper Balance Health and Wellness Center can be found here; http://www.properbalancehealthcare.com/

Location; (MAP)
733 S Wells St (between Harrison St & Polk St)
Chicago, IL 60607

Content consumption is shifting away from the desktop and more to mobile devices. Mobile social media consumption in Japan is growing at five times the rate of social media consumption on the desktop; this is not a fad. Some experts believe the mobile apps market is already creating a bigger impact than the online advertising industry.

15 reasons why every business needs a mobile strategy.

The average person has their cellphone within reach 14 hours a day. @Impiger

450 million smart phones are projected to be shipped in 2012 – more than notebook and desktop computers combined. (Brandanywhere and Luth Research)

83% of U.S. adults have either a cell phone or a smart phone. (Pew Internet)

There are an estimated 82 million U.S. mobile Web users. (Millennial Media)

35% of U.S. adults have accessed the Internet using their phone. (Pew Internet)

One in two consumers would give preference to a brand that has a mobile site.(Brandanywhere and Luth Research)

40% of U.S. women own smart phones. (comScore)

32% of moms in the U.S. owned a smart phone in 2010. (comScore)

1/3 of U.S women use the mobile web at least once a week. (comScore)

Only 4.8% of U.S. retailers have mobile-specific websites. (Brandanywhere and Luth Research)

By 2015, worldwide mobile advertising revenue will rise to about $24.1 billion.(Informa Telecoms & Media)

12.3 million U.S. mobile users have clicked on a mobile advertisement and then went on to purchase the item. (Lightspeed Research for mobileSQUARED)

U.S. mobile ad spending will reach $1 billion in 2011. (eMarketer)

Eight in 10 U.S. mobile users currently use or will use mobile text coupons within 24 months. (IHL Group)

94% of mobile phone owners have text included as a part of their phone plan.(IHL Group)

85% of U.S. retailers support the iPhone/iPod platform and 88% plan to do so.(IHL Group)

Mobile Sites vs. Mobile Apps
Every day more and more users get smart phones. Its predicted that the next largest number of online customers will come from smart phones, so having a mobile version of your website is important. One of the fastest growing activities people are doing on the mobile web today is search, and the growth of mobile search is soaring. The reason you need a mobile optimized website is because of the usability issues normal websites run into on the small mobile screens. Drop down menus, excess of content and large images all add to a bad experience, and sometimes an unusable website.

An App needs to provide some value to the user beyond the regular or mobile website. Just replicating the same content in the same format in an App does not offer that value. It should offer features that are not on the website. It should make it easy for the user to share the App and/or the App content with others. A successful App will also have one or more features that draw users back to the App on a regular basis.

Emanuele Bianchi stood atop a scaffolding and beheld a ghost town.

On the site of the former U.S. Steel South Works, weeds swayed in the wind. A lone structure, a series of walls that once held back piles of iron ore, cut a strange line alongside a narrow channel of water into the emptiness.

U.S. Steel and its development partner, McCaffery Interests, are trying to turn the huge site into a new community with town houses, shops and parks called Chicago Lakeside.

But Bianchi, a Chicago businessman and bike racer who was born in Italy, intends for it to include something else — an indoor velodrome.

From the scaffolding, he pointed north. Bianchi, a lean, compact bundle of energy, plans to build the Chicago Velo Campus there.

A sleek oval building would house the nation’s second indoor velodrome. Inside would be other attractions to help generate revenue: a running track. An Olympic-size pool. A volleyball court. A restaurant, a bike shop and indoor and outdoor BMX courses. He would have to raise $45 million.

“It’s a big dream,” said Bianchi, who owns a high-style pet accessory company.

It was also a surprising one to his friend and sailing buddy Michael Quintos, head of a social media-focused digital ad agency. The two men were out on the lake, Quintos recalled, when Bianchi pointed to the shore where the steel plant once stood.

“Someday, there will be a velodrome there,” he said.

“What’s a velodrome?” Quintos asked.

A velodrome is a banked track used for bike racing and training. The Chicago area already has one. But the Ed Rudolph Velodrome in Northbrook is outdoors and can’t be used in rain or snow. It is also not banked as steeply as a regulation velodrome, Bianchi said, making it less satisfactory for training.

Bianchi — no relation to the bike brand — was running the junior development program of Chicago’s XXX Racing-AthletiCo team and trying to figure out how young racers, including his son, could get better training.

What they needed, he concluded, was an indoor velodrome. There is only one in the country, near Los Angeles.

“The World’s Best Velodrome,” as he calls it on chicagovelocampus.com, would transform Chicago into a training mecca and draw world-class cyclists from all over, Bianchi says.

The velo campus would also serve the city’s youth, hosting racing competitions for young people and running a program that would give donated bikes to local kids while teaching them how to make repairs.

“Anybody would have a chance to become an Olympian and develop in a sport that is healthy and develops character,” Bianchi said. “Kids will start riding bikes to school. The city will turn into a city like Muenster in Germany, or Amsterdam in Holland.”

Bianchi has an architectural plan by design firm RTKL, a project sponsor. He has a promise of the land and support from U.S. Steel and McCaffery Interests. He has the support of the two local aldermen. He has the developers’ support to erect a temporary outdoor track on a former parking lot to jump-start the project; he says it will open in July.

Does he have a chance?

Some in Chicago’s active racing community think so. “It’s going to be a concerted effort on the part of our marketing team and our whole team to make it work, but it’s very doable,” said John VandeVelde, who has competed on two Olympic teams.

“A couple of people have talked about trying to get a velodrome built before, but Emanuele has definitely gotten the farthest, getting the designs and a piece of land,” said another racer, John Tomlinson. “He’s a very motivated guy.”

“It’s more than a pipe dream,” said Ald. John Pope, 10th. “Emanuele’s been a great leader; he’s been active in the community. … We’ve got to translate that into reality in terms of financial interest.”

“The city of Chicago supports it,” said Brian Steele, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation. “It would be in keeping with the bike improvements we’ve made. … And it is certainly in keeping with the vision Rahm Emanuel has for accelerating the growth of biking in the city.”

Quintos, the sailing friend who knew nothing about velodromes, is now the Chicago Velo Campus’ vice president of public relations.

There is just the little matter of $45 million.

There are plenty of companies that could put up $10 million without blinking, according to Bianchi, ticking off names like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Walgreens.

Bianchi is banking on a fundraising concert at the Adler Planetarium on June 3 featuring Evgeniy Gurev, trumpet soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre.

“We will invite all the big managers of all the biggest companies, all the big families,” Bianchi said. “We hope the Pritzkers will take the invitation and say, ‘Yes, we want to hear great music played by great musicians; we want to hear about the Velo Campus.’”

But tepid response has forced him to scale back his plans for two nights of concerts to one, and to lower the top price of tickets.

He is undeterred. In his office overlooking Millennium Park, he waved a magazine that had written of his quest.

“They said I was like the Cubs,” he said, miffed. “They said I was going to lose.”

The Chicago Velo Campus may be an uphill battle; Bianchi may be Don Quixote on a track bike. But the analogy that annoyed Bianchi has another side:

We watch the Cubs because we hope they’ll win.

bbrotman@tribune.com

The myth of Digital Nirvana.
The proverbial elephant in the room, so-called digital shops have begun to recognize that even their best and brightest people want to do something other than online campaigns. If these staffers perceive their shop to be digital-only they get antsy. This is why so many of those shops are exploring ways to build out their advertising capability. They want to make fabled 360 marketing campaigns just like everyone else, and not just because of increasing revenue streams but because their people want it, too. The creative staff craves the permanence of print and the notoriety of TV. Ask any headhunter. Despite all the talk of digital platforms killing TV, TV is precisely what many so-called digital specialists want to be making!

The lowdown on digital space
A good guide for the novice; a wake-up call for those who think they know it all. It would be lovely to have been born 60 years ago. Everything was so much simpler then. Marketing required the understanding of just a handful of channels and media types. We could rely on decades of accumulated marketing experience to guide us. And the rules were well defined. But we weren’t. Like it or not, we’ve all been born into the digital age and the information economy. It seems the only rule is that change is constant, random and relentless. It’s no wonder that traditional advertising agencies have often been the slowest to embrace this change. When you’ve spent years honing and refining the craft of the 30-second spot or the full-page ad, having to master a new bunch of nerdy tools is a bit too much to ask. For years, most agencies chose to outsource all the digital stuff, hoping in vain that they could become digital by osmosis. It never happened. Some agencies established elaborate digital departments internally but tended to force them to play by the old rules — and operate as a separate silo; just another ball to juggle and another piece of the revenue pie to carve up. And a few visionary agencies got with the program, re-inventing themselves completely. They embraced change, maintaining all their old skills but re-skilling in new ones. So with more than a decade’s worth of fits, starts, successes and failures to learn from, what are the attitudes and behavior an agency needs to thrive in the digital age?

The myth of 360 campaigns.
Rare is the client that wants all its marketing from one agency. Despite our much pimped credentials to do it, we have precious few clients that want 360 marketing campaigns from us and us alone. This is a bigger deal than one might first think, impacting the people, the place and the work. For example, if an agency has a sizable client that only does work below the line, say direct marketing, catalogue and digital, then the agency has to staff accordingly. Those employees tend to be specialists, whether they like it or not. I say that because though the employees may be virtuosos at creating direct mail campaigns chances are they want to expand their skill sets, doing TVC’s for example. Because the agency has allocated them primarily for doing this work on that client, these individuals can feel pigeonholed, which frankly they are. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had my hand slapped trying to use some of these people on other projects. “They are not paid by that client. You have to look elsewhere for help.” Your staff becomes resentful and demoralized. “I thought this was an integrated shop,” one might say. “But this is all I ever work on.” In the long run nobody is happy with this arrangement. Employees complain and/or defect. If they stay their work becomes rote.  It’s not just about technology. It’s about psychology… and sociology.

An understanding of human motivation and socio-cultural trends is still the key to any successful campaign. Observations and insights must dictate the most appropriate technology to employ, not the other way round. It’s not about your knowledge. It’s about your network.
No-one knows it all. If they claim to, fire them immediately. The most valuable team members know what they don’t know. And better still, they know the people who do know. It’s not just about telling. It’s also about selling.

You can’t force someone to become digital.
But you can convince them that it is beneficial to do so. A little enthusiasm and evangelism never goes astray. This goes for clients as well as employees. It’s not just about learn and do. It’s about do and learn. One of the most exciting parts about digital projects is that more often than not, you’re embarking on something that’s never been done before. There are few templates or guides. We’re forced to make it up as we go along. Therefore, each project must serve as an opportunity to learn, share, grow and improve. It’s not just about learning. It’s an equal dose of unlearning.

You’re going to need experts. And you’re going to need executors. Experts need people to help them execute their ideas and strategies. Executors need experts to teach them best practices. It’s not about a digital department.

It’s about digital projects.
If you want to get your team moving swiftly up the learning curve, get them on the doing curve. Just make sure they have the experts, processes and resources in place to support them. It’s not about making digital agency the new buzz word of the company. It’s about making it permeate.

It’s tempting to buy in a high-profile digital team and give them the star treatment. Equally important is investment in training, research, processes and systems. It may even be better to not have a digital department at all — instead, infiltrating digital experts within existing departments. It’s not about geography. It’s about chemistry.
The beauty of the digital age is its virtual nature. One’s location is no longer a barrier to getting things done. But you have to get the chemistry right: good communication and collaboration tools and systems to allow people to play well together in this new borderless world. It’s not about digital creative or digital ‘strategy’. It’s about problem solving using digital tools.

A piecemeal strategy is doomed.
The best digital idea in the world cannot work in isolation. The more closely aligned each component of the strategy is, the better it works.  Types of advertising agencies  Ad agencies come in all sizes. They include everything from one or two-person shops (which rely mostly on freelance talent to perform most functions), small to medium sized agencies, large independents, and multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group,WPP Group,Publicis, Interpublic Group of Companies and Havas.

Full-service, or Media-neutral advertising agencies have the talent and ability to produce creative and advise clients for a full range of media, for virtually any type of account, or company. Some agencies specialize in particular fields such as medical, charitable, FMCG, white goods, retail, etc. Other agencies specialize in particular media, such as print ads or television commercials.
Interactive Agencies may differentiate themselves by offering a mix of Web Design/Development, Search Engine Marketing, Internet Advertising /Marketing, or E- Business/E-Commerce consulting. Interactive agencies rose to prominence before the traditional advertising agencies fully embraced the Internet. Offering a wide range of services, some of the interactive agencies grew very rapidly, although some have downsized just as rapidly due to changing market conditions.

Today, the most successful digital agencies are defined as companies that provide specialized advertising and marketing services for the digital space. The digital space is defined as any multi-media enabled electronic channel that an advertiser’s message can be seen or heard from.  The ‘digital space’ translates to the; Internet, Kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and Lifestyle Devices (iPad, PSP, and Mobile devices). Interactive Agencies function similar to advertising agencies although they focus solely on interactive advertising services. They deliver services such as strategy, creative, design, video, development, programming (Flash and otherwise), deployment, management, and fulfillment reporting. Often, Interactive Agencies offerings are; Digital Lead Generation, Digital Brand Development, Interactive Marketing and Communications Strategy, Rich Media Campaigns, Interactive Video brand experiences, Web 2.0 website design and development, e-Learning Tools, email marketing, SEO/SEM services, Content Management Services, web application development, and overall Data Mining & ROI Assessment.

Lately, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) firms have been classified by some as ‘agencies’ due to the fact that they are creating media and implementing media purchases of text based (or image based in some instances of search marketing) ads. This relatively young industry has been slow to adopt the term ‘agency’ however with the creation of ads (either text or image) and media purchases they do qualify technically as an ‘advertising agency’ as well as recent studies suggest that both SEO and SEM are set to outpace magazine spending in the next 3-5 years.  Not all advertising is created by agencies. Companies that create and plan their own advertising are said to do their work in house.  An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client’s products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotion for its clients.  Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organization and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce single ads or, more commonly, ongoing series of related ads, called an advertising campaign.

All marketing campaigns are an invitation to solve a problem.
Being digital just means understanding how the new toolkit can help solve certain problems. If a low-tech solution is cheaper, faster or better, then why go high tech? Whatever works best, works best. It’s not even about digital. It’s about integration.

Maintain Control:
Rather than restricting out clients to a rigid platform, our projects are built from the ground up with specific objectives in mind. Your campaigns are unique to your brand, shouldn’t your creative reflect that? From the creative media, to back-end and reporting, our solutions are tailored completely to client objectives.

Here is just a small sample of the apps our clients have had enormous success with:

Contests: Explore one of the most successful methods for increasing fan engagement and awareness on Facebook with contests. From fan submissions, to lottery drawings, the dividends from contests keep paying out long after the event is over.

Surveys and Polls: Allow your fans’ voices to be heard with surveys and polls. Engage them by getting their opinion on everything from industry events, to controversial topics sure to attract hundreds of comments!

E commerce: Allow your customers to purchase items directly from your facebook page without having to leave the social network. Rather than sending customers to your webpage, keeping the interaction within the confines of Facebook increases conversation and decreases abandoned shopping carts.

Video: Take advantage of the most shared media on Facebook with embedded video. With built in share functionality, your brand can increase awareness of both your video content and Facebook page.

Hidden Content: Drive Likes with exclusive hidden content that is revealed when your page is ‘liked.’

Quizzes: Quizzes are a fun and highly viral from of branded entertainment. Get your fans spreading the word about your quiz with integrated sharing.

Multichannel Content: Take novelty up to an 11 with content that comes from a fans physical interaction with your brand. Take for example our recent promotion with Nescafe Dolce Gusto, a beautiful example of social media integrating with guerilla marketing campaign.

Coupons: Give you fans and exclusive, and watch the sharing skyrocket. Finding deals is one of the most important factors in a consumers decision to ‘like’ or share a page.

Digital Ad Agency uses a process built to standardize frequent root processes, and generate custom libraries for specific development environments by editing only a small subset of manipulations. A programming protocol interprets dynamic data structures through common file types to efficiently deploy applications across all mobile platforms. A simple layout developed through Adobe FLEX, interface for each specific application platform including (but not limited to): Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Java ME, Lazarus, Palm OS, Python, and Symbian. An MXML, or equivalent, mark-up language uses application libraries through two-tier architecture. The user interface, functional process logic, and data access act as independent modules for user input and functional libraries as output.

On the user interface tier, the user can to select from any number of standard functions including text creation, image layout, audio input, video display and popular application programming interface integration. Standard application layout and interchangeable markings further this process. Application programming interfaces included: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google and others. File types and data structures necessary to obtain content are expansive. File types include (but are not limited to): MOV, MPEG, MP4, WAV, BMP, PNG, and JPG. Data structures include (but are not limited to): RSS, XML, PLIST, or JSON. The function process logic combines the resources necessary to build libraries for the specific application. Due to file-type restrictions per specific platform, automated conversions will facilitate particular queries.

Using custom Flex modules and server-side processes, standard inputs are converted to platform-specific functions. Data output features custom libraries specific per platform. Foundations include (but not limited to) C++, Java, Objective-C, and Pascal depending on the platform. Rather than attempting to generate code that competes with an integrated development environment, libraries are manually installed inside the environment dependent of the logic process. Thus, a module can be customized to nomenclature and style to each of the seven mobile platforms.

Moreover, modules adapt best practices. For example, an XML input of textual content is converted to the preferred PLIST for the iPhone Objective-C platform, whereas it maintains original form for Android and BlackBerry Java platforms. Unlike other approaches that utilize classes across all platforms, individual modules can be highly tailored the particular platform.

Cross-platform applications will become widely available at a fraction of the cost and time and provide unparalleled abilities to update content across all your mobile APPS regardless of the platform.