In 2004, only 45% of all teens 18 and under owned a mobile phone (1). Today, nearly 60% of U.S. parents of “tweens” (kids 8 to 12) have provided their children with mobile phones (2). By comparison, in the UK, 75% of 10-year-olds own a mobile phone. In Poland, the figure is 83%. Needless to say, the average mobile phone age in the U.S. has been dropping steadily. As of July 2011, the average age stood at 11.6 years (3).

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YouTube users upload 72 hours of content every minute. That’s 4,320 years of content uploaded per year, a 70% increase over 2011. If recent trends of views and unique visitors is any indication (which it is), then YouTube will continue its torrid pace of new user-generated content for 2013.

A small but significant change in 2012 was the ‘blip’ in new content from phones. Only 180 years of video were uploaded from smartphones.

Why was this so small? What can we do about this travesty? Don’t you worry. The times, they are a-changin’. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, a small tax firm approached us about doing some AdWords marketing in the months prior to this year’s tax deadline. The campaign, as originally intended, was to focus on low-cost tax services and would run from Jan through the April 15 filing deadline. The value proposition was that this firm could offer standard tax filing services at approximately 50% the cost of H&R Block or some of the other “Block-head” tax services. (Of course, due to AdWords policies, we didn’t mention these fine tax service firms by name.)

We knew instinctively that trying to compete with these global brands and public companies in the tax services sector without spending a fortune was going to be, well, excruciatingly difficult, if not downright impossible. We therefore devised a scheme whereby we would target the specific niches that this client has traditionally has had success serving, and then try to own those slivers. Read the rest of this entry »

Jon Louis, Director New Markets

AVANTian Jon Louis, Director of New Markets, will be among the nearly 200 exhibitors on the Expo Floor for AdTech SF this year! He will be engaging attendees interested in our premium Hyperlaunch services. Jon handles all marketing efforts for clients, partners and products including but not limited to Email and direct marketing, SEM, SEO, product strategy, copy writing, and more. Learn more about Jon and the rest of our team here.

Be sure to ask Jon about recent market entry product tests for Financial, Education, Health & Wellness, Children & Family, Gaming, and Medical markets.

Communication is Qué?

March 26th, 2013 posted by Mike.Shamburger

Effective communication, one of the most important aspects of all successful interactions, is often elusive and difficult to achieve in our personal relationships. I think most people would say that ‘communication is key’ in any relationship, but it has to be mutual to be effective. Like our personal relationships, websites and software applications are interactive and often “engage in a type of communication with their users” (“Designing for the Digital Age”, Goodwin p. 425).

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The Digital Health Summit at CES Focuses on the latest products and consumers’ growing demand for high-tech health services. Among the solutions featured at CES this year was our collection of games designed to reinforce healthy behaviors in children diagnosed with ADHD. The games featured are the result of intense collaboration with an elite group of internationally renowned neuroscientist to produce scientifically designed exercises. The games train and enhance a child’s key cognitive and emotional abilities to improve attention, concentration self-control and emotional resilience. Among our collaborators, Dr. Evian Gordon, MD, PhD and Dr. Gregory Bayer were featured speakers at the keynote: “This is Your Brian on Tech”

AVANT has partnered with Brain Resource, Inc., a developer of innovative tools to improve brain health, on the Health 2.0 launch of MyBrainSolutions for Parents and its companion site for children, PoweringUp –an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) management tool for the home.

MyBrainSolutions for Parents empowers families to work together to improve skills needed for the classroom, the playground, at home and in life. A key feature of the site is a scientifically validated assessment and report that provides a better understanding of their child’s unique pattern of strengths and relative limitations.  The system uses insights gathered from the assessment combined with parent settings to customize the games and activities on the PoweringUp site for children.

“Collaborating with our partners to invent new technology products that improve health and wellness has become a primary objective for AVANT. Contributing to Identifying and managing ADHD in children is an exciting opportunity to impact millions of families in a positive way. We are thrilled about the potential this product will have in the marketplace!” – Michael Kemper, Founder & Principal, AVANT, LLC.

“As both a clinician and a parent, I know firsthand the challenges that come with ADHD and understand how many feel powerless in the face of this condition. Like many parents, I often wished there was more I could do to help my child,” said Gregory A. Bayer, Ph.D., CEO of Brain Resource, Inc. “Our approach is unlike any other as we recognize that the one who knows the child best is already in the home. By helping parents better understand their child’s specific needs, we can provide a clear pathway to tackle the areas that require attention from the comfort of their own home. This site empowers both parent and child to work together in a goal-oriented, fun and rewarding way.”

Watch a video of the Health 2.0 launch here. Read more here.

The AVANT, Leo Burnett NY and Village Voice partnership won big at  last week’s 59th Cannes Lions Festival! New York Writes Itself took home a Gold Lion for Branded Entertainment (for Best use or integration of user-generated content) in the award’s inaugural year. Additionally, we picked up 2 Bronze Lions — a Direct Lion (for Use of Direct Marketing) and a PR Lion (for Best Use of Social Media).

New York Writes Itself owes these successes to the real people of New York, who have been adding to the Script and helping us to turn the everyday but extraordinary sights and sounds from the streets of NY into exciting creative productions!

Giant interactive ads!

August 1st, 2011 posted by News Release

We are branching out from the internets and mobile apps and plastering our creations on bigger “canvases” all over Times Square. If you happen to be one of the 33 million people walking through times Square in The Big Apple between now and the end of the month – look up, you cant miss us. You can also check out the interactive ads from a web cam here. For more information about the campaign click here.

For those of you that spend your time in cold dark places coding and designing, you should check out SF Beta – San Francisco’s largest monthly startup mixer (the “king of Web 2.0 mixers”). Since launching in September, 2006, SF Beta has brought together thousands of people from hundreds of startups, creating innumerable connections along the way. Some people go to be social, some to make business connections, and many attend to do both.

For those of you who go regularly, you will notice the brand-spanking new logo – crafted lovingly by AVANTians for your event attending pleasure. But wait! That wasnt enough – we dig SF Beta SO MUCH we went ahead and created a whole family of logos for Beta events popping up all over the country! They’re like bed bugs… but… more fun. Check ‘em all out here.