Global sets up outdoor division
On the back of its acquisitions of Exterion Media, Primesight, and Outdoor Plus, radio company Global has created an outdoor division and made appointments in key executive positions within the division.

Leon Taviansky, formerly CEO Exterion Media, has been appointed CEO of outdoor. Whilst Jonathan Lewis, previously Outdoor Plus CEO has been named as executive director of outdoor. Both Taviansky and Lewis will report to Stephen Miron, Global’s Group CEO and will be tasked with bringing together Exterion Media, Primesight, and Outdoor Plus.

Jason Cotterrell, formerly chief strategy officer & managing director at Exterion Media UK, has been appointed COO of outdoor, and will report to Taviansky. 

“I am hugely excited to be leading the outdoor division of Global,” said Taviansky. “I have always had the highest regard for Global and their success in creating a world class radio business, and look forward to this unique opportunity to create a world class outdoor business as well.”

Global has also brought the outdoor commercial team under the umbrella of the existing commercial team, overseen by CCO Mike Gordon. The outdoor commercial team will be led by Nigel Clarkson, formerly Exterion Media’s CRO, in the role of commercial director for outdoor.

Naren Patel will step down as CEO of Primesight but will continue to consult for Global’s outdoor division. Meanwhile, Primesight’s managing director, Matt Teeman, will leave the company.

The outdoor division is expected to launch in autumn.

Assalino joins Zappar
Zappar, a developer of augmented reality (AR) experiences and creative tools, has hired Andre Assalino as its executive creative director. Joining the London team, he will be responsible for leading Zappar’s creative consultancy and the AR campaigns they deliver across the world.

Assalino joins from Moving Picture Company (MPC, where he was responsible for concepting and delivering solutions across digital, mobile, VR/AR, experiential and social landscapes. Prior to working at MPC, Andre was creative technology director at VCCP and held senior creative technology roles at Karmarama, Publicis Chemistry and Isobar.

“Augmented reality is a hugely exciting space and Zappar’s creative work to date has been outstanding and is definitely a draw in my joining the company,” said Assalino. “I look forward to working with the team to create more successful campaigns for our partners and growing the company exponentially in the coming years.”

Xaxis recruits Vizzotto to head EMEA sales
Filippo Vizzotto has joined Xaxis, GroupM’s programmatic media and technology platform, as EMEA sales director. Reporting to EMEA president John Witeesaele, priorities for Vizzotto include building relationships with clients and agencies on a regional and global scale to address the challenges brands face when planning digital media investments.

Vizzotto, who will also act as an EMEA ambassador for new products and innovation, joins the Xaxis EMEA management team from Shazam, where he oversaw advertising across 11 European countries through a mix of local resellers, direct reports, and personal sales activity.

“I’m looking forward to working for an established powerhouse within the advertising technology community,” said Vizzotto. “The combination of cutting-edge AI-led technology and global talent places Xaxis at the heart of innovation within a constantly evolving industry such as digital advertising.”

Dynamic Yield brings in sales and solutions execs
AI-powered personalisation platform Dynamic Yield, which will soon become a subsidiary of McDonald’s, has appointed Mark van den Haak as VP of sales for Asia Pacific. He will be responsible for leading Dynamic Yield’s business in APAC and overseeing sales, operations, and partnership development in the region.

Prior to joining Dynamic Yield, Van den Haak was ASEAN sales director for Oracle Marketing Cloud, where he worked with marketers across APAC to unlock the value of their first, second, and third-party data in order to orchestrate a better customer experience across email, mobile, web, and paid media.

“It is a very exciting time to join Dynamic Yield – we are the leading personalisation engine in the space and drive millions of dollars of revenue for more than 300 brands globally, including many top players in eCommerce,” said Van den Haak. “Personalisation and CX is often the best way to gain a competitive advantage and marketers know it.”

The company has also hired Charlie Loo as senior solutions engineer in APAC. He will work very closely with Van den Haak and his sales team to scale the company’s local and regional footprints in APAC.

Loo joins from Oracle Marketing Cloud, where he was most recently a master principal sales consultant supporting the APAC marketing cloud business. He brings with him 16 years of experience in the marketing technology space, having served brands in Asia such as Visa, Cisco, Singtel, Changi Airport Group, Carousell, and Zalora.

“I am thrilled to be part of Dynamic Yield and to be given the opportunity to work with a team of highly-driven professionals who are incredibly passionate about personalisation and experienced in driving results through customer-centricity,” said Loo. “I look forward to making a contribution to the success of the business in APAC.”

Joynson-Hewlett chosen to lead Pocketmath
Joanne Joynson-Hewlett has been promoted to CEO of mobile advertising company Pocketmath. She previously had the role of CFO, where she managed capital investment, internal finance, and other duties.

Joynson-Hewlett, who joined Pocketmath as CFO in 2014, has 15 years’ experience in managing and optimising companies’ abilities to balance profits and growth within the advertising and technology sectors. Prior to joining Pocketmath, she was CFO for Sequoia-backed voice blog start-up Bubbly.

“I am honoured and excited to move into the role of CEO at Pocketmath,” said Joynson-Hewlett. It is a time of unprecedented growth and opportunity for Pocketmath, especially considering Southeast Asia’s crucial role in the future of mobile advertising, and I look forward to leading the company and our dedicated team members to new heights into 2019 and beyond.”

Nuno Jonet has also been promoted to CPO from his role as head of product, while Andrew Alcock has become the company’s CTO.

NCS names Dupree as CEO
Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS), which aims to improve advertising effectiveness for the CPG ecosystem, has appointed Linda Dupree as its CEO. She will report to the NCS board of directors.

Most recently, Dupree was SVP of client solutions for Nielsen, where she managed relationships across the largest US media companies. She was instrumental in developing early predictive modelling and CRM applications to build an advanced audience platform.

“NCS has made major advancements towards unlocking the potential of single source data for CPG advertisers. The pace of innovation has been incredible, leading up to this pivotal point in the trajectory of the company,” Dupree said. “In constant pursuit of more effective advertising for all media, NCS will continue to raise the bar higher, supported by several new solutions that will be introduced to the market this year.”

Nevill-Spencer joins Live & Breathe to direct on strategy
Shopper marketing specialist Live & Breathe has partnered with the Virtual Influencer Agency (VIA) and brought onboard Dudley Nevill-Spencer, founder of the VIA, as strategy & innovation director.

At Live & Breathe, Nevill-Spencer will be tasked with looking at how ‘traditional’ retail categories and brands can take advantage of the latest machine learning data tools, innovation tech, social media, and influencer techniques. He will report to Live & Breathe’s managing director, Nick Gray.

He has conducted strategy and innovation campaigns for some of the world’s largest alcohol, automotive, FMCG, hospitality, lifestyle, luxury, technology and utilities companies including Amazon, British Gas, Diageo, The European Union, Estee Lauder, Grey Goose, Honda, Nike, Porsche and Swatch.

“I’m thrilled about the partnership with Live & Breathe. It has the vision to understand the role that virtual influencers will play in the future of marketing, as well as the detailed processes and skills to ensure consistent and creative delivery of content and campaigns,” said Nevill-Spencer.

“My focus has always been on understanding how technology and culture change the behaviour of consumers. It’s why I got into influencer marketing way back in 2006, as it was clear that influential individuals were going to grow through social and become legitimate media channels. Virtual influencers are the next – and I believe more powerful – step in this evolution.

“Live & Breathe has a great roster of FMCG and retail clients and it’s exciting to be working with these forward-thinking brands on future-proofing strategies.”

Colt hires Halsey for human resources
Melanie Halsey has joined telecoms firm Colt Technology Services as EVP of human resources. Reporting to Colt CEO Carl Grivner, she will be responsible for driving Colt’s people strategy across its global organisation, overseeing the attraction, retention and development of talent.

Halsey has 20 years of experience in HR and joins Colt from Eight Roads, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited. She was head of HR for Eight Roads for six years and was responsible for building a highly regarded global HR function supporting both the core business and its growing portfolio of investments.

Prior to working at Eight Roads, she was head of HR for UK financial services at Fidelity International.

“I am very excited to be joining Colt, particularly because it’s a business with collaboration at its core,” said Halsey. “The organisation already has a strong people agenda, but I am looking forward to working with Carl and team to ensure Colt continues to attract and retain the best the industry has to offer.”

DiGuido becomes president of N6A
North 6^th Agency (N6A), a brand communications agency, has appointed Al DiGuido as president and CRO. He will oversee sales and revenue functions, as well as M&A and capital initiatives to support N6As vision and growth strategy.

DiGuido will also work alongside CEO Matt Rizzetta and the N6A leadership team to introduce a new model that will transform the public relations category by aligning with specific business outcomes of CMOs, CEOs and brand marketers.

DiGuido was previously CEO of Bigfoot Interactive, which he sold to Alliance Data’s Epsilon business for $120m and became CEO of Epsilon Interactive in 2005. Last month, Epsilon was acquired by Publicis Groupe for $4.4bn. Following his tenure at Epsilon, DiGuido became CEO of Zeta Interactive.

“I have yet to meet an agency that can rival N6As track record of client results, innovation and outcome-oriented culture,” said DiGuido. “There is a tremendous opportunity to transform the legacy public relations category with a laser focus on being accountable for the specific business outcomes that CMOs, CEOs and brand marketers demand today. I believe N6A is perfectly positioned to lead this transformation.”

The post Movers and Shakers: Global, Zappar, Xaxis, Dynamic Yield, and more appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

2018 has been a big year for the world of AR. Here are the key trends we expect to see playing out in 2019.

The advancement of mobile-web AR
We expect to hear a lot about this in the coming year. We’re entering an interesting phase where native apps generally will become the preserve of services and utilities that genuinely add value to a user’s life (your banking app, retailer loyalty app, music subscription service etc.) as well as games. For everyone else, there’s the mobile web.

For Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands who are interested in what AR has to offer, but can’t command an app of their own, they have often been left to make a choice between social media apps that can support AR to reach their audiences through an app users already have on their devices. These social apps offer scale, but don’t necessarily meet the strategic needs of brands or indeed deliver the content and contextual relevance to their end users when it comes to AR. The choice of a social media platform also ties the brand to one specific tribe which may well age much younger than their core target consumer.

Enabling rich mobile AR experiences to be delivered directly on a mobile web page will give businesses much more control over the distribution and marketing of their content, whilst still being instantly available for users to experience without the requirement for an app download. 

FMCG brands needing to tell their stories better and more memorably
Getting creative with connected packaging is just the first step. FMCG brands are now needing to tell their stories and add value. This comes in the face of the “un-branding” of the consumer world through (for example) Amazon Prime customers, and other data-and-voice-integrated retail giants, encouraging consumers to ‘buy the product’, not the brand. This doesn’t provide the same value as creating a memorable experience that leaves an impression on the potential customer, and goes the extra mile to share the brand, which ultimately sets it apart.

The Development of Consumer MR
The hype around consumer Mixed Reality has come up against a hard dose of reality now that Magic Leap has released its first developer-focussed hardware to somewhat mixed reviews. For me, this demonstrates the gap between lofty ambition, which is to be admired, and the current limitations of available technology, which is where the rubber hits the road. Now you have to start somewhere and it’s great to see both Microsoft and Magic Leap helping develop this new market, which is fantastic for everyone (us included).

We believe immersive Mixed Reality experiences offer enormous potential for both education and business alike, but the consumer proposition is just not there yet, given the price-point of dedicated hardware devices. Of course, we think ZapBox is a perfect solution to bridge this gap and manage expectations given its $30 price point (“Magic Leap, Magic Cheap” as we affectionately refer to it internally!). We have some exciting announcements in the year ahead in this space and look forward to the next generation of hardware in the sector.

AR becoming an always-on communication channel
The widespread embrace of AR could very well lead us to a shift from single-instance marketing campaigns, and more toward a consistent communication channel that drives a direct dialogue with end users that are contextually relevant. As AR specialists and enthusiasts in the growing “experience economy,” we have a serious opportunity to create lasting experiences that go beyond one-off AR campaigns. Before we know it, we could be part a world of permanent digital discovery driven by daily information and utility – not just transient moments of surprise and delight. 

All of this being said, I don’t really see myself as a futurologist. I leave that to the guys on the conference circuit and sci-fi writers. I’m also a great exponent of trying to help businesses live in the present and take advantage of technological advancements that are here today and ready to deploy at scale. The reality is that most businesses can only adopt technology at scale that are already 3-5 years old as it propagates through their tanker-like structures.

What does seem inevitable is that the era of spatial computing and story-telling is here to stay. In an increasing age of information and experience, we expect more of the services, products and packaging around us, driven by our growing distrust of government and corporations in general. When I interact with a product, I expect it to give me more information on its inherent makeup, provenance, social and environmental impact, and instructions for use than would ever fit on its physical footprint. So the question is: ‘What is the cost as a brand owner of not enabling your products, packaging and print to connect seamlessly to your users on the devices they care most about in their lives?’

The areas of computer science devoted to AR, ML and AI will help deliver this new age of assistance and it will happen in the next five years. The great news is business can get a head-start on the competition by exploring what is possible in AR right now, and set themselves up to be well-placed for the future. Bring on 2019…

The post Always-on AR appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Initially trialled for Suicide Prevention Day, the posters saw a staggering 443 per cent increase in self-referrals for anxiety and depression, a 27 per cent increase in self-referrals for self-harm and eight per cent for suicidal thoughts.

Designed as part of an awareness campaign in partnership with Rethink Mental Illness, the posters were created using ZapWorks, Zappars AR content creation platform, and aim to provide support through their interactive elements while also removing the stigma associated with mental health.

“The use of technology and augmented reality opens up so many doors to talk to our younger generation,” said Steve Wileman, co-founder of Enlighten. “It allows us to highlight the vitally important issues surrounding mental health and we really hope that the use of AR will encourage people to discuss their problems and seek help through our charity partner Rethink.”

The series of posters tackle issues including panic attacks, stress and depression, with a specially-designed poster for the military addressing the topic of PTSD. Once zapped, the posters show a video that gives mental health support and guidance, and provide those interacting with access to a direct dial national helpline, as well as the ability to self-refer via email.

“The benefits of AR allows and enables maximum accessibility and portability of support materials, negating the need for computer log-on or paper-based information leaflets, textbooks and computers or laptops,” said Suzanne Edwards, co-founder of Enlighten. “Using augmented reality provides modern self-support and situated learning communication methods in a way that is comfortable and easily accessible to all, developing a nationwide inclusive culture and removing the stigma that is still attached to mental health issues.”

“Mental health is a hugely important topic and with so many young people suffering in silence, the use of AR technology can make a real difference,” said Max Dawes, partnerships and marketing director at Zappar. “The interactive posters created by Enlighten using ZapWorks literally bring to life the issues in a virtual world and will provide instant access to Rethink where youngsters can get the help and advice they need.”

The post Enlighten and Zappar deploy AR posters for World Mental Health Day appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The app will initially focus on the digital Angry Birds universe, using AR to seamlessly connect the digital world with Rovio licensed products. Users will be able to engage in highly immersive branded content experiences that bridge the gap between digital and physical, transporting them to Bird Island where they can explore and interact with various locations and environments. Rovio is partnering with AR specialists Zappar for the project, having previously collaborated on an AR promotion for The Angry Birds Movie back in 2016.

Project Magic is aiming for an official release in 2019, and Rovio is planning for the ecosystem to form the latest tentpole in its ever-expanding brand licensing offering that has already seen it working with some of the worlds largest brands and IPs.

“Project Magic represents a major licensing milestone for Rovios Brand Licensing Unit as our vision of being able to add digital overlay to licensed products is now reality,” said Simo Hämäläinen, senior vice president of brand licensing at Rovio Entertainment. “Weve been working diligently alongside our long-time AR partner Zappar to create a cool, always-on digital brand licensing ecosystem that not only adds value to consumers, but also helps to bridge the physical and digital worlds of Angry Birds.

“Licensing partners will have an incredible opportunity to create exceptional branded content  experiences across our physical and digital touch points, and our consumers will be able to immerse themselves even further in the wonderful world of the Angry Birds.”

“Over the past seven years working in the augmented reality space weve learnt a lot about how companies can create value with AR,” said Max Dawes, partnerships and marketing director at Zappar. “Were beyond excited to be able to leverage those learnings on such a huge scale with the fantastic team at Rovio. A brands largest owned media channels are their products, their packaging and their stores: through the interactive Angry Birds content these channels can surprise, delight and entertain consumers like never before. In addition, Rovios partners will see hard data on when and how consumers are interacting. We cant wait to unleash the magic!”

The post Rovio announces AR app aimed at delivering unique brand experiences appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The t-shirts, which went on sale this week, have a zapcode embedded in their design – enabling users of the Zappar app to scan their t-shirts and choose whether they want to ‘Marry Harry’ or ‘Marry Meghan’. Based on their decision, the user will be able to pose for a selfie and see their face placed within the artwork next to the royal of their choosing. This can then be shared on social media.

 “We’ve really enjoyed bringing together our creativity and passion for AR with Philip and Jock who are two incredibly creative minds,” said Max Dawes, partnerships and marketing director at Zappar. “We think that these limited-edition t-shirts are a great example of how illustrative design and AR can work hand-in-hand to bring to life physical objects using our AR content creation tool, ZapWorks.”  

The t-shirts are on sale now for £22.95 at www.philipnormal.co.uk. There is also an option for people to donate to The Albert Kennedy Trust – a LGBTQ youth homeless charity chosen by Normal – through the Zappar app.

“My brand is known for my subversive, reactionary creative work, but working alongside artist Jock Mooney and Zappar for this 2018 limited edition t-shirt, we’ve managed to add an extra level, by adding a playful AR technology element to the design by Zappar,” said Normal. “We want to redefine what the t-shirt means, what it can do, and how we respond to them.”

The post Zappar and Philip Normal deliver an AR-powered t-shirt to celebrate the royal wedding appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The interactive posters give users access to games and information about the iconic character, while also providing information about International Women’s Day and the work that goes on surrounding the day around the world.

“The AR-enabled posters created by Enlighten with ZapWorks are a fantastic way to remember and reimagine such an important cultural icon for International Women’s Day,” said Max Dawes, marketing and partnerships director at Zappar. “Increasing awareness and engagement is a key metric for campaigns of this nature and AR is the perfect way to achieve this.”

The posters are backed by International Women’s Day and have been distributed across the world, as well as being free to print and download.

To be able to experience what the posters have to offer, people have to download the Zappar app and then point their device at the ‘Zapcode’ on the poster to begin exploring the content.

“As AR specialists with an educational background and members of CompTIA’s Emerging Tech community, Enlighten felt that augmented reality was the best way to communicate the cultural significance of Rosie the Riveter for International Womens Day,” said Suzanne Edwards, CEO at Enlighten. “Our aim was to provide historical information in an innovative 21st century way, bringing content to life for the young people of today.”

The AR experience is part of Enlighten’s ‘Reimagine Rosie’ campaign, where it has worked closely with CompTIA to give users the chance to redesign and develop the Rosie the River poster from World War II. The campaign has been created to celebrate Naomi Parker Fraley – the woman considered the inspiration for the historic Rosie character – who passed away in January of this year.

“Rosie served as an icon of female empowerment in the 1940s. Today, her iconic spirit can galvanize us to create a more inclusive IT industry,” said Leanne Johnson, senior manager of vendor relations at CompTIA. “CompTIA is committed to educating females that the IT industry is a well-paid and exciting industry to work in, and we work hard to open their minds to the opportunities available.”

The post Zappar brings Rosie the Riveter to life this International Womens Day appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Zappar has been working with Kindred Futures, the innovation arm of the gambling operator, to develop a MR experience that changes the way betting customers consume and interact with sporting data.

The pair have built prototypes based on high-profile sporting matches like the 2017 Champions League final and a T20 cricket match between South Africa and England from earlier this year.

“Kindred Futures has always been committed to seeking out the most interesting and innovative companies to explore the future of gambling,” said Will Mace, head of Kindred Futures. “Our largest brand, Unibet, has the tagline Luck is no Coincidence’ and this exploration with Zappar allows punters to discover and interact with data like never before – leveraging Opta data to provide insights that can help them make more informed decisions.

“We’re very passionate about ensuring that audiences are given enough data to make sensible gaming decisions and think that our experiment with Zappar is an exciting step in the right direction.”

The post Unibet parent works with Zappar on mixed reality in gambling appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Shazam, which launched visual recognition technology in 2015, says the new platform ‘can bring any marketing materials to life’ – including products, packaging, advertising, and more – through scanning unique ‘Shazam Codes’.

“We knew we were on to something big when we released visual image recognition in 2015,” said Shazam CEO Rich Riley. “With the rapid rise of augmented reality, it is a natural evolution for Shazam.”

One of Shazam’s launch partners is premium spirit company Beam Suntory. The pair have created an experience involving the use of Shazam on Sauza or Hornitos Tequila. Furthermore, starting in April, users will be able to Shazam in-store creative to play an interactive AR memory game across the US.

Shazam Codes is available on all iOS (Shazam v10.5) and Android (Shazam v7.5) devices.

“One of the things missing from augmented reality for advertisers has been a frictionless way to deliver these experiences at scale,” said Shazam CRO Greg Glenday. “The possibilities for a brand to bring their products to life or make their advertising more engaging are quite literally only limited by the imagination.”

The post Shazam launches AR platform to bring marketing materials to life appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Investment Round is our weekly update on which firms have secured new funding, which areas are seeing the most financing, and who is putting up the cash that enables these firms to pushing the capabilities of mobile marketing further.

Monzo raises £19.5m in Series B funding
App-only bank Monzo has raised £19.5m as part of a £22m funding round to be completed through crowdfunding. The investment came from Thrive Capital, Passion Capital, and Orange Digital Ventures – Orange’s early-stage corporate investment arm.

Last year, Monzo made £1m through crowdfunding in 96 seconds – the fastest crowdfunding round in history.

“We’ve been determined to do another crowdfunding round and so, as part of this raise, we’ve reserved a further £2.5 million for our community, who can invest at the same valuation as Thrive, Passion, and Orange and take the total raise to £22 million,” said Tom Blomfield, Monzo CEO.

“There was so much demand last year that many people missed out, so we’ve taken extra steps this time to ensure as many people as possible have a fair chance to invest.”

Layer secures $15m in Series B funding, and confirms acquisition of Cola’s assets
Layer, a customer conversation platform, welcomed a $15m (£12m) funding round led by Greycroft Partners. The round was completed by Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, CME Group and existing investors SV Angel, AME Cloud Ventures, Promus Ventures, CrunchFund, Fuel Capital, and more.

In addition to the funding, Layer also acquired the assets of messaging app service Cola – which launched last year – with the intention of integrating its capabilities into its customer conversation platform. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Bigscreen VR receives $3m in financing led by Andreessen Horowitz
VR social productivity app Bigscreen, which creates ‘an immersive, social computing experience, accepted $3m in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz – who’s general partner Chris Dixon will work closely with the startup.

Bigscreen’s VR telepresence platform aims to balance entertainment and productivity with its platform built for users to experience web content in a shared environment. It can be used as virtual living room to movies, play videogames, and more, as well as being used by teams to collaborate in virtual offices.

“These are early days in VR and AR, and we’re here for the long run. This funding will allow us to accelerate our development plan and pursue our long-term vision,” said Darshan Shankar, Bigscreen CEO, in a blog post.

“We aren’t building a content company or a gaming company. We aren’t building the ‘metaverse’ and our goal is not to build a social network. Instead, we aim to build a platform that enables people to use existing content, apps, and games in VR, and to socialize and hangout in a shared virtual space with their friends and co-workers.”

Other investors in the funding round included True Ventures, Presence Capital, Ludlow Ventures, David Bettner, and SV Angel.

Zappar closes $3.75m Series A round
AR experiences developer Zappar has secured $3.75m in a Series A funding round, led by London investment house Hargreave Hale, and completed by You & Mr Jones and iDreamSky.

Zappar aims to use the financing ‘to accelerate the development of several new products along with its international expansion’.

“This funding round is another great milestone for the business,” said Caspar Thykier, CEO of Zappar. “Zappar’s mission is to democratise augmented reality. AR represents an exciting future for consumer engagement connecting devices to the world around us.”

Zappar boasts having worked with over 200 partners in retail, television, film and packaged goods industries so far.

AirMap brings in $26m to keep the skies safe
AirMap, a provider of unmanned traffic management (UTM) technology for the drone ecosystem, has received $26m in a Series B funding round. Investors in the round included Microsoft Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Rakuten, Sony, and Yuneec.

The funding is intended to help AirMap bring its technology and solution to more markets worldwide – as it opens offices in Berlin and at the NASA Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California.

“Drones are proving their value today, but this is just the beginning,” said AirMap co-founders, Ben Marcus and Gregory S. McNeal, in a blog post. “People will soon benefit from the magic of flight in their everyday lives when drone flight is high-scale, low-cost, and highly reliable. Drones must be able to fly safe, efficient routes, react and adapt to changes in their flight environment in real time, and exchange critical information with others in the airspace.”

The post Investment Round: Monzo, Layer, Bigscreen, Zappar and AirMap appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Between now and Christmas Eve, guests on a Winter Wonderland break in Woburn Forest, Longleat Forest, Sherwood Forest, Elveden Forest and Whinfell Forest, can use the Zappar app to scan secret zap codes to bring the Christmas tale to life.

The codes can be found on information signs, near sculptures in the reindeer enclosure outside Santas Woodland Workshop, enabling guests to interact with Nutmeg on their phone or tablets. Families will also be able to take photos with the reindeer, share it socially, and save it as a digital keepsake.

“This year for the first time in our villages, we’re offering guests an enchanting digital experience,” said Center Parcs head of marketing, Rebecca Allinson. “Through the power of augmented reality technology, we’re looking forward to families meeting the latest member of the Center Parcs family, Nutmeg the baby reindeer. Extra information about the book and official products to buy in the village will be available to access too.”

The latest Center Parcs activity follows on from Zappar’s work with Hasbro, LEGO and Rovio, where customised AR codes have been used by brands to unlock digital content experiences from physical product.

The post Center Parcs Uses AR to Bring the Star of its Storybook to Life appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.