The parent company of the Orange County Register has taken over delivery of news and other content for mobile devices.
Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., which owns the Register and other newspapers, ended a two-year mobile deal with Encinitas-based Verve Wireless Inc.
Freedom brought on Verve to serve as a mobile website contractor in 2008 as part of a bid to grow beyond newspapers and traditional websites.
“If you go back one and two years Verve Wireless was perfect for us,” said Claus Enevoldsen, director of interactive marketing at Freedom Interactive.
Verve gained a name in the industry early on for helping other newspaper companies, including North Carolina’s McClatchy Co. and New York-based Hearst Corp.
At the moment, Freedom appears to be the only newspaper company ending ties with Verve, according to Enevoldsen.
“We realized that mobile was not a new product but a new channel, equal to print and online and unique in its own sense,” Enevoldsen said. “We knew we had to take control of the channel as we do with our website and print products.”
Freedom teamed up with Kansas City, Mo.-based Handmark Inc. in April to develop and support mobile apps for the company’s newspapers and TV stations.
The apps let users read stories and watch videos posted on Freedom’s websites. The company has dozens of apps for the Register.
The market for mobile content has grown dramatically in the past two years and doesn’t look set to stall anytime soon, according to a report by Williamsburg, Va.-based research firm Borrell Associates Inc.
Mobile app advertising is expected to increase to more than $8 billion in the next five years, according to the Borrell forecast.
“As the smartphone market explodes, mobile traffic is going to continue to increase dramatically, which is why we are being so aggressive with all of these mobile websites and apps,” Enevoldsen said.
New Editor
Carrie Williams, the former editor-in-chief of Freedom’s Coast Kids magazine, has joined Newport Beach-based luxury lifestyle magazine Bask.
Williams takes the reins as the quarterly magazine’s editorial director and editor-in-chief.
Prior to Coast Kids, Williams worked with Freedom’s Coast magazine and Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp.’s Orange Coast magazine.
Bask is the latest lifestyle magazine in Orange County. Publisher Jolie Adams cofounded the publication.
Adams earlier helped start Los Angeles-based Modern Luxury Media LLC’s monthly Riviera magazine for OC and San Diego.
Adams also was enlisted early on to help develop M magazine, the quarterly publication of luxury home brokerage McMonigle Group.
At Bask, Adams teamed with Newport Beach-based luxury home brokerage firm Surterre Properties Inc., which is funding the magazine.
The debut issue is set to be mailed to Southern California homes and retailers—targeting 150,000 readers—starting in November.
The magazine is eyeing boutiques and bigger retailers, as well as hotels and spas. Down the road, the plan is to start selling it in newsstands, through subscriptions and in bookstores. A price per issue and timeline still are being nailed down.
The magazine faces competition from Riviera, Orange Coast and Coast, all of which were hit hard by the downturn and a pullback in the buying of luxury goods.
Disney Push
Walt Disney Co. launched a marketing campaign last month using “guest-generated” content to drive visits to its theme parks in Anaheim and Florida.
The “Let the Memories Begin” campaign uses photos and home videos of theme park visitors as part of national and regional marketing campaigns.
Four 30-second TV spots and a series of print ads have been created.
Disney hopes to create more commercials, print ads, newsletter articles and vacation planning video segments with the submitted videos and photos.
“It’s very authentic and real,” said Leslie Ferraro, executive vice president of global marketing for Disney Destinations.
Disney has featured guests in past ads. But this is the first time they’ve been created and submitted by visitors.
“We have asked them for their permission to use those photos and videos and craft campaigns around them,” Ferraro said.
The company is taking an active role in social media websites to encourage guests to post and send Disney photos and videos of their experiences.
The goal of the campaign is to drive people back to the parks where they originally made their memories.
Disney’s internal marketing agency created the campaign with its lead ad agency, New York-based mcgarrybowen.
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim also has launched its own version of the campaign to be featured at the park in January with a nightly show.
Photos taken by Disney PhotoPass photographers throughout the day will be projected on the Small World façade featuring guests and Disney employees.
