Mediaboss Marketing

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Until now, the digital advertising field has lacked professional benchmarks such as the legal worlds Bar Exam and Wall Streets Series 7. That situation changes with todays announcement by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) establishing the first-ever educational standard for digital media sales forces with the launch of the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification.

To receive the certification, digital sales professionals must complete an examination, which will be administered through Pearson Testing Centers. Registration for the certification exam kicks off today, with applications available at http://www.iab.net/certification. The inaugural exams are scheduled for Monday, June 11, 2012 and will be held at Pearsons Test Centers worldwide.

The certification program will help raise the level of professionalism in the digital field by allowing salespeople to demonstrate their knowledge of the complex interactive environment, said Michael Theodore, Vice President, Member Services, IAB. Much like examinations in other fields, this test will give current job holders and job seekers a score card to prove their understanding of the most important concepts, guidelines, and best practices in digital advertising. Businesses also benefit by ensuring that they have the most competent sales teams possible.

"The IAB's program to create new educational standards for the interactive industry is an exciting step forward for advancing the field of digital advertising sales," said Patrick Dolan, Executive Vice President & COO, IAB. "Once the digital media sales certification program is launched, we will develop similar training and certification programs for other related professions in the industry, which will both teach and recognize the knowledge and skills needed for success."

There is no formal coursework required for the IAB Digital Media Sales Certification examination. Designed for salespeople with 2-5 years of experience in the digital industry, it is recommended that candidates have a strong command of current industry issues, players, and operations, as well as a broad understanding of every major digital platform. The test costs $350 for IAB members and $450 for non-members.

Before creating the certification program, IAB conducted extensive research into the knowledge gaps in the field, including the IAB Interactive Ad IQ Industry Survey with Ernst & Young, and a series of in-depth interviews with sales professionals.

The findings showed that many professionals on both the sell-side and buy-side are struggling to keep up with the rapid evolution of interactive advertising platforms, technologies and capabilities. Yet, they agree that a deep understanding of these areas is critical to their success and the growth of the industry.

As a result, the certification exam will cover general comprehension of the digital advertising ecosystem, selling digital media and analyzing campaign performance. Specific topics will include:

The IAB worked with the fully accredited test development company Professional Testing, Inc. to create the content of the exam, alongside subject matter experts from IAB member companies:

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IAB Launches Digital Media Sales Certification to Set New Professional Benchmark for the Interactive Advertising ...

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How to Make Money On Line, all forms, all courses, all together Digital-Supermarket BookStore - Video

14 May 2012 Last updated at 09:22 ET

For internet entrepreneur Njeri Rionge, Africa represents the next economic frontier. She say strong indigenous, African-owned companies are needed to take advantage of the boom times ahead.

Ms Rionge is as famous in Kenya for her success in starting up several companies at the same time as she is for Wananchi.com, a cable, broadband and internet-based telephone company.

She started her dot com dream and first big venture, Wananchi.com, with the hope of bringing internet connectivity to the masses. Today the firm has grown to become the largest internet service provider in East Africa and is worth $173 million (107 million) a huge sum for a firm with an initial start-up of $500,000 (308,000).

Despite her determination to succeed, she has not always known what she wanted to do.

"I touched many things before I touched the thing that I turned to gold," she told the BBC's African Dream series.

"I did hairdressing, I did buying and selling of clothes in London and then the thing that actually created the opportunity for success."

That opportunity came in the form of Wananchi.com in 1999, at a time when very few people had internet access.

She envisioned the easy access of information via the internet as a way of bridging the gap between East Africa's educated elite and the rest of the population.

Despite the necessity of the internet in modern communication and education, the beginning of Wananchi.com was not without its hurdles and frustrations.

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Africa's new digital frontier

SAN ANTONIO, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Today, MySingleLink launches its new "MSL Digital Wallet" and Smart Phone App "MSL Wallet" - a patent-pending new technology that simplifies payment processing face-to-face, online or on mobile devices while keeping all transactions safe and secure from theft.

"Anything you can put in a physical wallet, you can store into MSL Digital Wallet. You'll never have to carry a physical wallet again," said Gopal Nandakumar, President of MySingleLink. "Other companies have introduced digital wallets, but ours is unique because of its technology, accessibility and security."

The Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. MSL Wallet will provide the needed security and save money.

MSL Wallet App is available to consumers for free download Apple Store or Android Market. Businesses can register to become an MSL Merchant. View a demo video.

"Finally, something that really works. Merchants and consumers will love it for its convenience and security," said Nandakumar. "This new technology will change payment processing for the better -a long overdue upgrade."

Other digital wallets use Near Field Communications (NFC) that requires special hardware and would work only with specific bankcards. MSL Wallet does not require any special hardware and safely works on all smart phones, with all credit/debit cards and Merchants would never receive sensitive information.

To use the app, the consumer scans a QR code displayed by the merchant to get a unique, random number with blanks. Then the consumer replaces the blanks with a unique Personal Identification Number (PIN) to create a Single Use Digital Signature (SUDS) that the merchant will use to complete the transaction. An email and text receipt is instantly shared with the merchant and consumer.

MSL Wallet App can also be used for many other applications such as logging into web sites without using a user id and password or as a guest pager at restaurants.

About MySingleLink MySingleLink is a technology company based in San Antonio, Texas. Gopal Nandakumar, MySingleLink President, is an entrepreneur with more than 25 years experience in business technology. For more information, visit http://www.MySingleLink.com

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MySingleLink launches new, secure revolutionary digital wallet

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), the revenue growth experts in global cloud commerce, today at the Digital River Globalocity commerce conference in Los Angeles, Calif., announced the results of a survey of 250 senior decision makers from companies in the software, games and consumer electronics markets. The survey asked companies about their commerce plans for expanding into new online channels and geographies, their biggest online challenges as well as their expectations for revenue growth in the next two years.

The survey reaffirms what we have been seeing for some time that e-commerce will increasing shift to a multi-channel approach for commerce. Companies are looking for more ways to connect directly with their customers and offer them more choices when it comes to purchasing online whether that be mobile, social, in app, subscriptions or other options, said Joel Ronning, Digital Rivers CEO. The survey also pointed out the need for companies to reassess their global commerce readiness. Local is the new global today. We were surprised to see how many companies are still not vested in a fully localized online strategy. The growing generation of customers shopping online and across borders want to be greeted in their native dialect by a company that understands their local culture and norms. The ability to interact with the customer at this level, anytime and on any device is critically important to success in todays online market.

Similar sentiments were echoed in the remarks Ronning made during his keynote speech at Globalocity. The conference drew approximately 700 commerce professionals from the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Companies are Going Multi-Channel to Establish More Direct Connections with Customers Consistent with the shift to multi-channel online strategies, the survey indicated respondents are increasingly connecting with customers via multiple touch points. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they were currently using transactional websites, followed by social commerce (55%), app stores (50%), in-product commerce (50%), subscription sales (48%) and mobile commerce (48%).

Looking out over the next two years, 46 percent of the respondents said they plan to expand their commerce strategies to include mobile commerce followed by app stores (40%), in-product commerce (38%) for gaming and software sectors only, subscriptions (36%), and social commerce (34%).

In the next two years, respondents expect nearly a third of their online revenue will continue to be generated from their online stores, with nearly 20 percent of revenue coming from the mobile channel, which is the channel they also said they are most likely to adopt in the next two years. Despite social commerces heavy use at the present time, respondents expect their mobile revenue will outpace their social revenue in two years time.

The percentage of online revenue they expect to generate from other channels include: app stores (17%), social commerce (17%), subscriptions (14%) and in-product commerce (13%). To support their multi-channel expansion efforts, companies are prioritizing core commerce initiatives. Fifty percent of organizations report that security tops the list of their highest priority 2012 e-commerce projects, followed by customer relationship management (40%) and business intelligence (36%).

Companies are Falling Short on Global Commerce Readiness The survey also points to some areas where companies selling into global online markets could be doing better and where customers stand to benefit from additional commerce investment or development efforts including the area of global commerce readiness.

Only about half of the companies surveyed reported that their commerce offerings are fully localized for the markets they are serving. That includes 57% not having customer service options fully localized, 50% not having payment options fully localized and 44% not having layout fully localized.

Continued here:
Digital River Announces Results of International Commerce Survey