New CELEBRITY PARADE offers iPhone users a fresh and fun way to get the mobile scoop on entertainment, celebrity news, and daily pop culture quizzes

SEATTLE, WA – February 13, 2012 – Zumobi, a leading mobile media company, today announced the launch of the CELEBRITY PARADE app for iPhone. Published in partnership with PARADE magazine, the most widely read magazine in America, the app was designed with the busy connected consumer in mind. It organizes all the latest celebrity news in an elegant and easy-to-read format that enables users to connect with the content that they find the most relevant and entertaining, from photos and interviews to breaking news. Additionally, through new and innovative social media integration, app users can challenge their Facebook and Twitter friends to daily pop culture quizzes. “Every Sunday, our 65 million readers turn to PARADE for news-making celebrity interviews, “ says Maggie Murphy, PARADE’s editorial director. “This is a way for those dedicated followers of popular culture to keep up with the news on the go, and even better---to test their celebrity knowledge with an irresistible daily quiz, wherever they are.”

The CELEBRITY PARADE app offers daily updated news content ranging from entertainment gossip, addictive pop culture quizzes, photo galleries of top celebrities, interviews, and the popular “Personality Parade” weekly column. In addition to extending the publication’s massive reach, it offers advertisers a compelling reason to include mobile in their existing print and online advertising spend.

“We are excited to partner with Parade to help them extend their incredible brand reach and reader relationships to mobile apps.” said Ken Willner, CEO at Zumobi. “Our experience publishing leading media apps and enabling immersive and integrated brand experiences for advertisers is a great fit with the outstanding editorial quality and brand power of Parade."

The CELEBRITY PARADE app on iOS offers compelling sponsorship opportunities through Zumobi’s rich media advertising platform. This platform offering creates the ideal environment for premium advertisers who are seeking exclusivity, metrics transparency and brand safety.

CELEBRITY PARADE is free to consumers and is currently in the Apple App Store. To download the app for iPhone, please visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/celebrity-parade/id492739663?mt=8

About Zumobi Zumobi is a leading mobile media company that partners with top media properties to publish applications and provide unique mobile advertising experiences for next-generation smartphones and tablets. Zumobi's portfolio of mobile applications comprises The Zumobi Network. This premium mobile app network offers brands rich media advertising experiences and sponsorships with primary access in top media apps like MSNBC, Today Show, Sporting News Pro Football, PopSci.com, MOTOR TREND News and many more. For more information, go to www.zumobi.com. Follow Zumobi on Twitter @Zumobi.

About PARADE Magazine PARADE, the most widely read magazine in America, has a circulation of 33 million through its distribution in more than 600 of the nation’s finest newspapers, and a readership of 65 million each week. Its content is carried on 500 newspaper websites---the single most-trusted and most-visited source of local news and information---and reaches an online audience of 50 million. For more information, go to www.parade.com. Follow PARADE on Twitter @ParadeMagazine.

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Dove Chocolate is running a great Valentine's Day-themed feature in Zumobi's TODAY SHOW app, including several delectable recipes featuring Dove Chocolate.

In this feature Lauren Johnson @ Mobile Marketer breaks down the campaign: the strategy, the creative, and the execution.

"Dove’s branding inside the app is a good example of how a company can marry its brand and products to content...For a consumer packaged goods company, mobile is a natural place to take a brand to a new level with a piece of extra content."

Read the rest of this article here.

Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times includes Zumobi's slick, elegant 'Dwell' app in his list of Home Improvement apps in the Jan. 19 edition:

> ...Dwell (free on Apple and Android) is another good app that offers > modern design ideas, but with videos and text in addition to photos. > It is designed for smaller devices only, but even stretched onto the > iPad’s bigger screen, the app was useful...

Read the rest of the article here.

Posted by Marla Schimke on January 17th, 2012 at 3:43 pm

Remember the time when cell phones didn’t exist? Or when car phones were the size of fax machines or laser printers? How about when the only purpose a mobile phone served was to make and receive calls or play snake? The industry has come a long way from the first adoption of mobile. Mobile hasn’t just revolutionized a communication industry; it’s revolutionizing the advertising industry as well. In fact, Gartner predicts that mobile advertising will be a $20.6 billion market by 2015.

As the majority of our customers are spending time glued to their handheld devices, we continually have to find new and exciting ways to engage with them. Long gone are the times when effective marketing simply included billboards, print ads, banners and TV spots. In the new era of mobility, brands have to find alternate ways to communicate, connect with and engage customers.

We all know that brand loyalty is emotional. Consumers who stick with one brand over another have a connection with that brand. There are distinct rivalries between Coke and Pepsi, McDonalds and Burger King, Nike and Adidas and of course Apple and everyone else. In an increasingly connected world, how do brands sufficiently and emotionally engage with consumers?

Read the rest at iMedia Connection.

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Zumobi co-founder John SanGiovanni was asked to say a few words about working in technology in the Northwest in anticipation of Tech Northwest 2011, sponsored by the WTIA and taking place Oct. 11-12 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center.

In the follow-up story in GeekWire author John Cook calls out the interview for special notice, saying: >"I really liked the comments from John SanGiovanni of Zumobi > who noted that Seattle is unique because it has a “large population > of both artists and geeks.” Right on! "

In February of this year, Apple announced its subscription model for content publishers, unveiling a 70/30 revenue sharing plan that has since become a topic of debate both in the media and behind doors at major publishing companies. As a company that works closely with both entities, we at Zumobi were curious to hear how Apple’s subscription plan has since fit into publishers’ current and future plans for content distribution.

Gregg Hano, VP and Group Publisher of the Bonnier Technology Group, who has worked closely with Zumobi to bring Bonnier’s Popular Science Magazine to iPhone and Android platforms, recently sat down with us to discuss his thoughts around this topic. His outlook? Keep in mind the bigger picture of evolving publishing channels and remember a publisher’s ultimate responsibility to its readers. Read on for more of his insights.

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Q: Does your media company currently host content on iPad? Android tablet? If so, is it subscription-based?

A: Last April, immediately as the first iPad went on sale in the US, we were the first company to introduce a digital edition of one of our magazines--Popular Science--designed especially for the device.

Initially, we offered Popular Science as a single-copy purchase in the iTunes store. Our readers--most of whom are early-adopters--responded enthusiastically, with one caveat: they kept telling us they wished they could subscribe online instead of purchasing single copies each month. Earlier this year, Bonnier was the first to offer subscriptions to our magazines--leading with Popular Science and now Popular Photography--in the iTunes store. We sold over 10,000 subscriptions in the first month, and that's a terrific beginning. Beyond the iPad, we're also developing digital versions for Android tablets.

Q: Do you believe that Apple's 30% cut of subscription transactions is justifiable at this point in time given the strength of the iOS platform? Or do you believe Apple's move will prompt media to focus more of their efforts on the Android platform?

A: Apple's subscription model is a great first step--this is a truly transformative time in publishing, and it's clear that we're in the early stages of an evolving process. Our priority is our readers--we know they want our content to be available digitally, and since they're happy to seek it out--and pay for it--on the iTunes store, we're happy to offer it to them and we have a great partner in Apple.

Interest in tablets, whether it's an iPad or an Android-based device, only has one way to go-- up--and I expect that publishers, including Bonnier, will increase their digital offerings to keep pace with our readers. We don't want to dictate which device our readers should use--some are iPad fans, others are using Android tablets, and ultimately, we'll be successful by being available whenever and wherever our readers look for our magazines.

Q: Final thoughts?

A: We are so excited to be pioneers in this space, both for the sake of our readers and our advertisers. We're participating in a monumental area of growth and innovation in publishing, and we can't wait to see what happens next.

We agree with Steve Jobs: 2011 will be the year of the tablet.

In 2010 we saw smartphones become ubiquitous across the country. However, with Apple predicted to sell upwards of 34M iPads this year, not to mention the clamoring competition from Android and WebOS devices, 2011 looks poised to bring tablets into the mainstream.

For publishers this means readers who will expect longer-form content and videos than available on mobile devices. While phone apps can be generalized as being about keeping up with breaking news and filling odd breaks in the day, tablet apps encourage users to sit back and immerse themselves in media.

Publishers looking to capitalize on the swelling tablet user base will have to adjust their offerings accordingly.

The Zumobi Network was featured in the September issue of Fast Company. Along with highlighting some of our top media properties, the article points to the differences between our model and other companies in the mobile app space.

At Zumobi we believe in the future ad-supported apps, particularly through premium sponsorship. Our experience with in-app, rich media advertising campaigns dates back to December 2008 when Pepsi advertised in our Inside Xbox 360 app. Since then, not only have we improved our ad delivery platform, BrandBlast (version 3.0 is coming this fall), but we have also developed a sales strategy that supports our revenue sharing model.

The sales strategy is based on three defining characteristics of premium sponsorship:

1) Guaranteed placement - Unlike third party ad networks, we have a primary relationship to the app content. Because we are a publisher, we guarantee brands placement with the property and content they find most desirable for meeting their brand objectives.

2) Respected third party content - Top brands place a higher value on running campaigns with contextual relevance to the user's content experience. With partners like msnbc.com, Source Interlink Media, Hearst Magazines, Bonnier Corporation and Sporting News, The Zumobi Network offers some of the highest quality content in app stores, driving repeat visits from our users and greater engagement.

3) Exclusivity - Because we sell premium sponsorships, our inventory is very limited. Brands can "own" an app with 100% share of voice as Mercedes-Benz USA did for the launch of our MOTOR TREND app. This advantage makes premium sponsorship a natural choice for advertisers in highly competitive markets.

Welcome to The Zumobi Network blog. We have been in the mobile app space since the launch of Apple's App Store in July of 2008. We did our first in-app, rich media advertising campaign in December 2008 when Pepsi sponsored our Inside Xbox 360 app with a Mountain Dew Voltage campaign.

Two years is an eternity in the fast-moving mobile media sector, and we've built a lot of expertise in that short time. We thought it would be useful to the industry at-large to share some of this accumulated knowledge in design, user experience, development, publishing, marketing, monetization and the mobile space in general.

Thank you for checking us out and stay tuned for more.