H&M drives in-store traffic, brand awareness via app launch sponsorship - Mobile Commerce Daily

By Staff reports

October 29, 2012

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H&M drives in-store traffic, brand awareness via app launch sponsorship
Retailer H&M has teamed up with DailyCandy to be the launch sponsor of its new DailyCandy Scout mobile application, which promotes street style and brand awareness, as well as entice consumers with a $500 shopping trip.
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32pc of smartphone owners plan to download a shopping app for the holidays: study
With mobile commerce expected to pick up traction this holiday, consumers are gravitating towards applications to shop, according to a new study from Pricegrabber.
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Mobile accounts for 10pc of presidential campaign donations: Pew
Text messaging and mobile apps are quickly gaining steam as a way for political candidates to generate campaign contributions, with 10 percent of 2012 presidential campaign donors having used one of these methods, according to a new report from Pew Research Center.
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CoverGirl revamps SMS program to drive coupon redemption
Procter & Gamble?s CoverGirl is stepping up its SMS initiatives with a new program that combines mobile and social media to help users find deals and offers on products.
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REUTERS SUMMIT-Finnish Grand Cru looks beyond Supernauts launch

(For other news from Reuters Nordic Investment Summit, click here)

* Grand Cru to launch first mobile game, Supernauts

* Already eyeing second and third games

* Angry Birds, Clash of Clans pave way for Finnish start-ups

By Ritsuko Ando

HELSINKI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Grand Cru, widely seen as the next big player in Finland's gaming industry which has spawned the likes of Rovio's Angry Birds and Supercell's Clash of Clans, is already working on a new game although it has yet to launch its first.

Chief Executive Markus Pasula started the company in 2011 with seven other gaming industry veterans. The founders' experience has helped them secure nearly 13 million euros ($18 million) in funding, including 8.5 million euros in July from a group led by French private equity investor Idinvest Partners and including Qualcomm Ventures and Nokia Growth Partners.

The funding has meant there is no hurry to launch its first game, Supernauts, which includes challenges such as saving people from flooding as polar ice caps melt.

"It could be this year but it might not be this year," Pasula said of the launch. Speaking to Reuters as part of the Reuters Nordic Investment Summit, he said it was still in limited beta mode and would soon be tested more widely.

"We're looking to do a bigger beta launch almost this week," he said in an interview at Grand Cru's office in Helsinki's working class Kallio district, with views over the harbour and neighbouring industrial warehouses.

Pasula said he was also starting to look beyond Supernauts.

"We have one new team already starting, it's still looking for a lead programmer for that team, but they have a really good designer," he said, adding that there were also ideas for a third game.

The gaming industry is considered one of the few bright spots in the small Nordic economy, with previous tech flagship Nokia selling off its struggling handset business to Microsoft and traditional industries such as paper shutting mills and cutting jobs amid a decline in global demand.

MOBILE CULTURE

Pasula said Finland's gaming companies may have been successful due in part to an early understanding of the importance of mobile gaming.

While he does not recall hiring any of his 32-member staff from Nokia, he said Nokia's success and the culture it created helped encourage developers to focus on mobile games.

"Nokia definitely supported that. Nokia was spreading the message in the local scene that mobile gaming is going to be a big thing," he said. "Every signal shows that mobile gaming, especially the free-to-play gaming on mobile, is going to grow every year significantly."

Supernauts is being built for Apple's iOS system. Pasula said the primary target was the regular, rather than hardcore, game player using a mobile device like the iPad. Games for Android software may come later, he said.

Pasula previously headed Mr.Goodliving, a Finnish video game company that specialised in games for mobile phones and was acquired by RealNetworks in 2005.

While U.S. gaming companies such as Zynga Inc and Electronic Arts have grown through acquisitions, Pasula said he had no interest in selling Grand Cru.

"We don't have any particular exit plan in mind," he said, adding that big players did not appear to have much advantage over small, unique startups. "We do plan taking Supernauts as far as it's possible, so when the game is successful we'll start looking at how do we take the universe of Supernauts further, and how do we improve the game as a service."

Finnish startups often have trouble securing seed investment due to a lack of venture capital at home, but Pasula said the need to appeal to overseas investors has meant they often aim for a global, rather than just local, business.

"They are more international from the get-go," he said.

He said Rovio and Supercell have helped to boost recognition of Finnish gaming companies overseas.

"It is so fantastic that we have the reputation now," he said. "All of my visits with Grand Cru to San Francisco to go meet all marketing partners we have there - Apple and Google and Facebook - they all just instantly recognise that we are a gaming company from Finland." ($1 = 0.7385 euros) (Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Terhi Kinnunen; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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UPDATE 2-UK's Cameron speeds up launch of controversial housing plan

By William Schomberg and Estelle Shirbon

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Britain's prime minister launched a critical week for his party's run-up to the 2015 elections by unexpectedly bringing forward the launch of a mortgage guarantee programme that critics say risks stoking a housing bubble.

Conservative leader David Cameron said on Saturday that the plan would be up and running next week, three months earlier than previously planned.

The "Help to Buy" plan is aimed at people who have been frozen out of the property market by the soaring size of deposits required to get a mortgage.

"Young people who've got a decent job and have got decent earnings - they cannot buy a house or a flat, because they have to have a 30,000-pound ($48,400), 40,000-pound or 50,000-pound deposit," Cameron said in a statement.

"Now, if you haven't got rich parents, you can't get that sort of money. So we're going to launch the Help To Buy Scheme - it's not coming in next year, it's coming in next week, because I'm passionate about helping people who want to own their own flat or home."

The initiative involves the government providing 12 billion pounds in guarantees to encourage lenders to provide mortgages of up to 95 percent of the value of properties being bought.

It had been due to launch in January and key details such as the fees banks will pay to participate have yet to be announced.

Cameron's announcement comes on the eve of the start of the Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester. Such occasions are used by British political parties to make eye-catching announcements and this year offer the chance for them to set out their programmes before a general election due in 2015.

Earlier this month, opposition leader Ed Miliband said a government run by his centre-left Labour Party would freeze energy bills for 20 months, a move aimed at winning over British voters, many of whom have seen their living standards fall during the slow economic recovery from the financial crisis.

Signs that Britain's economy is on the mend had boosted the Conservatives' standing among voters, but Labour's support has risen in opinion polls since the announcement by Miliband. A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times puts Labour at 42 percent, with the Conservatives at 31 percent. Cameron's coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, languish at 9 percent.

CONCERNS IN THE COALITION

Seeking to give a boost to homeownership carries risks for the government. Since the mortgage guarantee component of Help to Buy was announced in March, house prices have picked up, raising questions about whether it is still needed.

Britain's business minister, Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat, has expressed his concerns about the programme.

House prices rose at their fastest pace in more than three years in September, one set of housing data showed on Friday. In London, prices have jumped by nearly 10 percent over the past 12 months, although other regions have seen barely any increase

In a nod to the concerns about a new boom, Britain's finance minister, George Osborne, last week asked the Bank of England to keep a closer eye on the impact of Help to Buy.

Both Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney have pointed to activity in the housing market that is well below its pre-crisis peak as a sign that there is no new housing boom.

Ed Balls, Labour's would-be finance minister, responded to Cameron's announcement on Saturday by saying the government should bring forward investment to build more affordable homes, denouncing what he said was the lowest rate of house-building since the 1920s.

"Unless David Cameron acts now to build more affordable homes, as Labour has urged, then soaring prices risk making it even harder for first time buyers to get on the housing ladder, Balls said in a statement.

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