Happy Mother’s Day: Pun...

When party-planning service Punchbowl expanded into digital greeting cards last fall, it emphasized creating a beautiful experience, just as it did with its party invitations. But CEO Matt Douglas says that for some users, a key piece was still missing — you often don’t just want to send a card, but a gift too. That’s where the company’s new integration with Amazon.com comes in. Punchbowl is now an authorized reseller of Amazon Gift Cards, so you can include a digital gift card of between $25 and $500 (without an expiration date) along with your digital greeting. The news is coming out just barely before Mother’s Day (that’s this Sunday, for the delinquent among you), so if you need a last-minute save, this could be the right option. And it continues Punchbowl’s attention to detail and presentation. As Douglas showed me yesterday, when you receive a Punchbowl/Amazon combo, the greeting opens up to reveal the gift card within, almost as if you’d slipped a physical gift card inside a physical greeting. Plus, the gift and greeting card designs match. This is a smart way for Punchbowl to monetize its free greeting card business. The company also has paid memberships for additional features, and it’s offering 25 free, yearlong Platinum memberships (a $99 value) to TechCrunch readers. Just go here and enter the code TCMOM25. You can browse Punchbowl’s collection of Mother’s Day greeting/gift cards here .

Give Your Silver Tongue...

Conference calls aren’t always the most interesting things to take part in, but they can be just as much a hassle to set up as they are to sit though. That’s where a new app called GroupCall comes in — developed by the folks over at Parlor , GroupCall aims to make coordinating secure conference calls accessible for folks who just want something that works. What really makes GroupCall shine is how little work it takes to get your conference calls up and running — there’s no signup or registration required. Once you pop into the app proper, you’re given the option to select users to invite to your conference call by picking them out of your contact list or punching in either their phone number or their email address. Once all those contacts are in place, GroupCall sends each person an invitation to the call via email or text message with a number to dial at time of the initiator’s choosing. From there, everyone calls in (or skips the call, as is sometimes the case), and that’s that. Though Parlor is pushing their Android app (their forthcoming iOS version will probably get the same treatment) you don’t even need a smartphone to make use of your gift of gab — conference calls can be set up from the GroupCall website as well. Parlor founder and CEO Joel Schwartz tells me that he and his team are taking things easy with GroupCall at first, locking down the functionality before adding new features to the mix. I’ve been playing with the Android app for a few days now, while GroupCall’s core works very well, he really wasn’t kidding about the dearth of frills. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a tough approach to take when other competitors already have a head start. GroupCall isn’t alone in the simple mobile conference call space — CrowdCall launched earlier this year with the same concept in mind, and has already made quite an impression on at least one prominent unpaid blogger . CrowdCall also packs a few thoughtful additions like the ability to create groups of contacts who frequently engage in conference calls with each other, though GroupCall lets users repeat conference call setups as needed. What could help GroupCall stand above the others are a pair of related applications working off the same robust backend, which Schwartz tells can handle up to 100,000 concurrent phone calls. Take Parlor’s MobiCast for instance — instead of users all being able to communicate with each other at the same time, they’re all essentially muted except for the person who initiated the call. As the name implies, the call’s initiator becomes the center of attention and effectively broadcasts to all the other participants from their mobile pulpit. Rounding out the pack is TopicTalk , which is arguably the kookiest of the bunch. Think of it as ChatRoulette without the possibility of seeing something traumatizing — users can jump into the application and select a topic they want to start talk about. Don’t like what your conversation partner has to say? Just hit pound to skip them and move onto someone potentially more interesting. There’s room for quite a bit of play between these apps — anonymous TopicTalk users can continue their conversations over GroupCall if they aren’t yet comfortable with sharing their actual phone numbers, and popular TopicTalk chatters could host their own show of sorts in MobiCast — but whether or not they’ll stay separate down the line isn’t set in stone. Having the three apps devoted to three separate features of the Parlor platform was done as something of an experiment to see how things play out, but Schwartz tells me that if their users are better suited by one app that encompasses bits of the others, so be it.

Facebook to Marketers, ...

Editor’s note:  Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. You can follow him on Twitter @briansolis. You Like me…you really Like me. Wait. Maybe you don’t really Like me after all. According to our Facebook engagement metrics, only 1% of you actually react when we post. So, to keep the numbers up, our team posts more often, asks questions, runs polls, curates content, introduces more and more contests, and asks for your help to submit your pics and videos as part of our “user-generated” content campaigns. We measure success by the Likes, comments, shares, the number of conversations, and reach. While the Likes are rising, we’re starting to recognize the pattern…I guess we never really defined why you should “Like” us beyond the initial click. We just took for granted that a Like equated to an opt-in. This general scenario is more common than you may think. That’s all about to change however. Marketers must now rethink their Facebook strategy to define click paths and results. As Josh Constine recently reported , Facebook is now giving advertisers access to its API to improve post-click actions. In his post , Constine walks through a series of various scenarios for brands, developers and also local businesses to take advantage of the new Ads API. Here, we’ll talk more about how to start with strategy. With the updated Ads API, advertisers must now think beyond the “Like.” Facebook’s Ads API will allow advertisers to present ads most likely to take specific post-click action such as content sharing, in-app purchases, Facebook Offers, among a list of other actions (see below). In the great pursuit of ROI, Facebook is also taking a lot of the guesswork out of ad campaign development and deployment to enhance desired performance. The new improvements give Facebook advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to connect with specific market segments based on intelligence to introduce more informed campaigns that trigger relevant clicks, conversions, and return. What does “more informed” actually mean? Facebook is studying the behavior of its consumer population and as it does, it will provide deeper insights to brands seeking specific actions, such as those who are more likely to be a virtual good buyer, someone who actively shares content, who attends events, individuals who appreciate deals and offers. Over time, ads can be optimized for audiences based on this behavior as well. As such, brands must not only compete for attention and clicks, but also context and relevance based on behavior and preferences. For brands and agencies, advertising based on keywords is no longer good enough. Now that you have a better shot at reaching the right people based on behavior, advertisers must now also become architects of experiences and outcomes. Now advertisers can specifically optimize for… 1. People talking about this page 2. Page likes 3. Page post likes 4. Page post comments 5. Page post shares 6. @ mentions 7. Check-ins 8. Photo tags 9. Offers shared 10. Offers claimed 11. App installs 12. App used 13. Credit spend events (number of times someone uses credits in the app) 14. Credit spend amount (value of credits that were spent in the app) 15. Number of RSVPs This is a click to action… Designing campaigns now require brands and advertisers to think about the “click to action” they want to encourage. I refer to this as the A.R.T. of Engagement, where brands intentionally design campaigns to provoke relevant actions, reactions, and transactions. To take advantage of Facebook’s API, brands must now employ sophisticated advertising approaches that combine segment and contextual research, segment-specific strategies, app and channel development for each approach, UX, creative design, and real-time conversion metrics, review and optimization. It’s more than Likes or forcing people through Like-gated apps or campaigns. Now it’s about performance and conversion science where… 1) Contextually relevant content appears in front of qualified and desirable audiences that… 2) Triggers a defined, useful action that… 3) Leads to optimized click paths that result in material content or activity, which then… 4) Motivates conversions to preferred outcomes and… 5) Delivers a more integrated, consistent, and efficient experience. To engage more effectively through Facebook’s social advertising platform requires that all strategies and campaigns commence with a stated purpose. I believe that the best way to outline these scenarios is to begin with the end in mind and work backwards from there. By starting with the end in mind, the ability to research desired behavior and who to reach as a result becomes incredibly clear…and also inspiring. The dimensions of engagement you’ll need to define are 1) what are you trying to accomplish, 2) what the experience looks/feels like, 3) what benefits you’ll offer and what they mean to the people you’re trying to reach, 4) the desirable outcomes you wish to measure, 5) How people feel as a result of the A.R.T. experiences you evoke, and 6) What the experience will look like in the most prominent channels of your connected customers. This is why you’re now an architect of experiences and outcomes. It takes vision. It takes design. It takes measurement and optimization. The A.R.T. of Engagement is realized through a Social Experience Framework that starts with intentions and ends with resulting sentiment…not just the outcome. There’s an old saying, “it’s not the gift that counts, it’s the thought behind it.” The same is true for social advertising, marketing and well, business overall. Intentions count for everything. Therefore your intentions must be realized as experiences where technology serves as the enabler to creatively and contextually engage to create experiences that meet or exceed expectations and ultimately inspire desirable outcomes.

New Finds At TNW Shows ...

European startup conference The Next Web (and now competing blog, hello guys), which took place in Amsterdam last week, was covered in full by seven TNW bloggers who wrote over 30 posts about all major announcements, speeches and competitions. More posts are coming according to its European editor and ex-TechCruncher Robin Wauters, but in the meantime here is our TechCrunchy take on the conference. I will start off by naming a few startups I thought had interesting concepts or products, even though they did not quite make it to the list of the winners, or did not participate at the competition altogether. So that’s an issue for the organisers to address next year. I will then follow up with a list of the hottest companies in tech according to Robert Scoble , and inevitably list the winners of the TNW Startup Rally. First, the new finds. New Discoveries Dutch New Master Artist is a social network for artists, experts and buyers of art, which eliminates galleries as middlemen. The artists can upload and promote their work, and prospective buyers can browse galleries and contact the artists if they want to buy it. The company makes money only if the buyer would like an expert to rate a particular piece of art by taking commission on the advice sought, or if an organization chooses to run a competition for a custom-made piece of art. The website is currently in beta. Polish Zapstreak is a toolset for app developers that allows streaming media app content to any device, such as a TV set or an entertainment system, thereby bringing Airplay functionality to Android phones and tablets. Without using additional hardware, any mobile app developer can integrate content beaming functionality into their apps, to help in sharing various media such as videos and photos on a TV screen. The business model is based on subscription, plus the Polish startup plans to sell data to the consumer electronics manufacturers. Norwegian Easybring , still in a closed beta, enables hitchhiking for parcels, allowing the sending and bringing of packages by people for people. German Impossible Software allows placing images and other videos dynamically into a video stream creating new opportunities for pre-roll and video banner ads, as well as images, text, animations and sounds. The startup should not technically be included into the list, as it has been already ì discovered î. Belarusian TaxiStartup takes a taxi business to a new level. It combines a cloud-based taxi ERP platform (dispatcher app), with web-based booking, a passenger app to order a service and a driverís app (GPS tracking, order fulfillment). †It offers integration with the taxi ordering apps to bring new orders, and when a taxi company cannot process orders, it can trade them with other taxi companies in exchange for a commission. The business model is commission-based, so it remains free for taxi companies until the first orders begin to roll in. Oleg Nederev of Skript from Ulyanovsk, Russia, showed me a simple shopping list app Buy me a pie , which has been downloaded over one million times. Its Russian version Kupi Baton became one of the top 10 apps on Appleís app list ì Made in Russia î (other entries are the famous Cut The Rope and a number of Yandex apps). Coincidentally Ulyanovsk is also a base for Ecwid , an ecommerce widget based on Ajax technology, which powers over 100,000 online stores worldwide. Dutch Sellanapp.com is a platform to crowdfund and crowdsource a development of mobile apps in an auction format. The idea gets listed, and the crowd can bid funds for the app in exchange for, say, a share in revenue. The mobile developer can then choose an app that has collected a sufficient budget for its development and will create it based on the provided app design within the required timeframe. HackFwd portfolio companies Polish movie recommendation startup Filmaster and Latvian infographics startup Infogr.am were also exhibiting at the conference, and team of the HackFwd Build0.9 audience award winner ScatchApp participated in the hack battle. Ukrainian Hubbub is a social network based on voice communication, which makes you think of a voice-based Twitter. I can see how one can use it when on the go, when reading text or watching videos are not viable options, but I’m not sure it should be a standalone social network. And thatís all the new names I can cram into one post. This next batch of names includes the hottest startups according to Robert Scoble . Hottest Startups according to Robert Scoble Having spent most of my time networking, I did not get a chance to sit through most of the speeches. So with all due respect to other speakers, I will only mention one presentation in which Scoble named the hottest companies in tech. Below is the 33-minute long video, but to save you time, here is a list of companies he thought will change the way we live. Placeme app remembers places you visit. iControl is a new generation of home management software. Primesense gives digital devices a 3D view of the world, which turns the userís body into a remote control. Streamboard is a Twitter client which adjusts the Twitter feed according to key words, number of followers and location, amongst others. Zaarly allows you to trade with people nearby. Karma App is a gifting app, which allows gift recipients to customize, swap the gift or choose to donate money to charity instead. Showyou and other video discovery apps help select video content to watch (its competitor Shelby.tv won the TNW Startup Rally competition). Waze is a community-based traffic and navigation app. Though with a very large war chest it’s pulling away from the startup category. HomeSnap allows users to take a picture of any house, and pulls up details about the house, including its sales price. Glympse is an app that helps Scoble tell others that he is running late and share his location to estimate the time of arrival. Firebase makes servers optional for real-time apps. Scoble closed his speech by inviting Matteo Lai, founder and CEO of Empatica , to demonstrate a device which measures levels of excitement and stress based on heart rate data and electrodermal response. Scoble’s list also included Highlight (networking for introverts as he called it). Yet when I opened the app and tried to meet people of interest appearing ‘nearby’, I did not manage to flag any one of them including Scoble himself, of whose presence I was alerted by Highlight. Sharing a bloggersí table with him was more helpful. The Winners of TNW Startup Rally As I have already mentioned, the overall winner at Startup Rally was American social video startup Shelby.tv . German BeamApp (also HackFwdís portfolio company) took an award for the most innovative concept. It deals with continuity of using an app, when one has to leave the laptop and switch to a mobile phone, for example, to continue listening to the music, or beam a phone number from a web page onto the mobile phone. English/Greek Babelverse , the real-time crowd-sourced interpreting service, won the B2B and Public Choice awards. I have met Josef Dunne and Mayel de Borniol†at a number of events including HackFwd Build.0.9 and have been amazed by their relentlessness. Babelverseís team has been paying out of its bootstrapped pocket (padded with a $40K grant from Start-up Chile ) to offer real-time interpreting of TNW into Spanish and Italian, and has announced the launch of the public beta. A Dutch startup Snowciety took the B2C award and launched their app at the conference. Snowciety is a tracking app for skiers and snowboarders with built-in social features that allow friends reconnect, for example at the lunch time. At present the app is free. Between from South Korea took a prize for the best mobile app that allows sharing for couples. If the couple splits up, the app disconnects the account but gives the parties a grace period to get together again. Should this happen, the connection and data are reinstated. The app has been downloaded 700,000 times since November 2011. Nuji , based in London, UK, is a social wishlist which rewards its users with loyalty points which can later be swapped for discounts. According to Crunchbase, it has over 20,000 stores and its users view over seven million products per month. Dutch Frommees was a wildcard participant at the Startup Rally, and won an award for the most remarkable presentation. Frommees, which I would also distinguish for the most beautifully designed marketing materials, offers a game which bridges an online world with offline serendipity, which can be cleverly used by brands. You get a token with a code on it. When you get the token (called a frommee), register it on the website, add photos, videos or music to that Frommee and pass the token along to someone else. You can then see the path your frommee makes, and can meet people who registered your frommee and shared something through it. Coca Cola bottles can spread frommees around and benefit from the exposure, should this game go viral. This post is written by our regular contributor Natasha Starkell , the CEO of GoalEurope , the outsourcing advisory firm and a publication about outsourcing, innovation and startups in Central and Eastern Europe. Twitter @NatashaStarkell . Gplus.

Wrapp Brings Social, Mo...

Wrapp , a social gifting service backed by Greylock Partners and Atomico, is crossing the pond with the U.S. launch of its mobile gift card and retail app. Wrapp, which was available previously only in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Japan, Wrapp is actually launching today with a number of U.S. retailers including Fab, Gap, H&M, Sephora, The Wall Street Journal, Wayfair, and others. As we’ve reported in the past, Wrapp was co-founded by Rebtel and SendIt founder Hjalmar Winbladh, Spotify founding CTO Andreas Ehn, and lets friends give, receive and redeem digital gift cards using mobile devices, and allows friends to contribute to gifts given by mutual friends. With Wrapp, which offers iPhone, Android and web apps, you sign in via your Facebook account, and you can then tap the Celebration tab on the app, browse your friends or major events, and select the person you want to send a gift card to. All available gift card offers for that friend are automatically listed. You can then select the retailer and the gift card offer you want, write your celebration greeting, select a delivery date, enter payment details (if you’re contributing extra funds to a free gift card), and send the gift. Your friend will be notified and celebrated through Facebook and the Wrapp application. Merchants can actually specify the amounts they’d like to offer via the service, and target specific demographics of users with gift card options, which is something other online social gifting options don’t allow. To collect a gift card you click on the link sent to you in email, text message (SMS) or on your Facebook wall, which lets the user automatically download the Wrapp app. To use the card, you select the card you want to redeem, and then show the resulting barcode to the cashier, which then gets scanned to complete the transaction. For merchants and in-store retailers, says founder Winbladh, Wrapp is an ideal way to connect with potential customers because it not only allows them to target specific users by demograhics, but also provides a valuable form of advertising. Winbladh says that while he’s always been bullish on mobile, in 2008, he started observing the increased pressure on brick and mortar retailers and was thinking through the ways that retailers can drive people in stores. He and his co-founders sought out to reinvent the gift card market to help drive traffic for retailers. He believes the gift card, which has gone through little innovation to date, can be made social, viral and mobile. “Friend to friend marketing is best way to drive sales in retail market,” he explains. “Not only is Wrapp a innovative, social way for consumers to gift, but it’s also a performance tool for big retailers.” And the service seems to be gaining traction amongst both consumers and retailers. Participating merchants report that each sale averages four to six times the value of the free gift card they let Wrapp users give to their friends. In December alone, Wrapp users used the service to buy 250,000 gift cards. And the app went viral in the country, with 2 percent of all Facebook users in Sweden downloading the app. After three months live in Sweden, one percent of the Swedish population had interacted with Wrapp. During the last four months more than 165,000 people have given their Facebook friends over 1.4 million free gift cards that could be redeemed in stores operated by nearly 60 major retailers in Europe. A launch in the U.S. could be a turning point for the company. As board member and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman tells us, for the vast majority of internet companies, the degree with which they succeed is determined by how well you an do in the U.S. But he believes Wrapp is in a perfect position to potentially reach critical mass, and create a network between retailers and consumers at a high volume. “Retailer know that they need to move towards retail 2.0; and Wrapp provides this valued experience,” Hoffman tells me. And because of the upswing in consumer use of smartphones and social network, Wrapp is in a prime position to gain traction amongst shoppers. There are other players trying to shake up the gift card market with mobile technologies, including recently launched Karma. But what’s compelling about Wrapp is the win for retailers in helping drive traffic in-store and being able to target certain user based upon social and demographic data provided by Facebook. What’s next for Wrapp? We’ll be seeing a number of more big-name U.S. merchants announced in the next few months, says Winbladh. We’re told that more than 15 additional U.S. merchants are now scheduled to start using Wrapp in the coming months. And we’ll see the company expand to other countries as well.