Facebook Announces ‘Global Pages’ For Brands

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Facebook has announced Global Pages enabling brands to set up a single page and localize it for foreign markets.

“[It is] a new structure that provides the best, localized experiences for a brand’s customers, available to all brands working with Facebook,” said Kelly Winters, Facebook Project Marketing Manager.

With the new page format, Facebook users will be directed to the brand page based on the country where they are based. There they interact with localized versions of everything the brand is featuring, from cover photos, copy and news feed to apps and milestones, while remaining connected to the brand’s global Facebook audience.

On the paid side, ads bought in the U.S. now have the potential to have a global impression. Of course it’s a more costly buy. As one effect, users who click on ads being run in foreign markets will be more likely to understand what’s being sold and what’s the call to action, as clicking on the ad takes them to their localized version of the brand page.

TechCrunch writes, “The new global functionality could be even more powerful for businesses based in countries with more niche languages. Indonesian brands might now pay for ads targeting Americans. This all must have Facebook’s international ads offices in cities like Singapore and Dubai salivating.”

Source: TechCrunch

Assassin’s Creed III TV Spots — Studies In Contrast

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Assassin’s Creed III is coming to stores very soon, but Ubisoft is clearly emphasizing different elements of the game in different parts of the world. In the European TV spot, it emphasizes Connor’s Mohawk heritage and uses the song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, while the American ad has a children’s choir singing America the Beautiful while George Washington pontificates about freedom for the U.S.

 

NASA’s X1 Exoskeleton

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NASA and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition developed the X1 using Robonaut technology designed as a human assist device to allow persons with paraplegia to walk again. Potential applications could be as an exoskeleton to amplify strength or as exercise devices to provide resistance.

 

FarmVille 2 Pushes Over 50 Million MAUs

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Reports are that FarmVille 2 has 52,200,000 monthly active users, including 8,700,000 daily active users. This isn’t as high as the peak of the original FarmVille at around 83 million players, but that was back during a less competitive social gaming era.

FarmVille 2 has added 11.4 million new MAUs in the last week, showing that there’s some demand for the game. FarmVille 2 has brushed past Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker for the top Facebook game; the Zynga card game has roughly 38 million MAUs.

Source: AppData.com

Debate Taken Over By Binders Full Of Women

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Every Presidential debate has its consequences, both intended and unintended, and there was certainly some of that in the second showdown between President Obama and Mitt Romney. While in the first debate Big Bird became an instant flashpoint on social media, this time it was “binders full of women”; both memes came from statements by Romney.

“I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men,” Romney said during the debate. “And I went to my staff, and I said, ‘How come all the people for these jobs are all men ‘ They said, ‘Well, these are the people that have the qualifications.’ I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

The reaction was instant and viral. Facebook group Binders Full of Women had 220,000 “likes” overnight, Google search traffic for “binders full of women” skyrocketed by 425 percent during the first hour of the debate when Romney made the comment and was the No. 3 Google trending query for the night.

Tumblr images immediately started appearing on bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com.

The hashtag #bindersfullofwomen trended on Twitter and multiple twitter accounts popped up related to Romney and binders. The Obama campaign apparently capitalized on the Twitter trend, buying ads that surfaced when users searched for #bindersfullofwomen on Twitter.

Source: CBS News

Lima Sky Plans Euro, Oz Licensing Barrage

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Lima Sky announced a plan to bring Doodle Jump to a global audience. The company hopes that they “can meet global market demand as it unveils a complete Doodle Jump product line over the coming months.”

“Doodle Jump’s appeal extends far beyond one country or continent,” said Eric Karp, Lima Sky’s Chief Licensing Officer. “The addition of this matrix of best-in-class partnerships gives us unparalleled access to Doodle Jump fans around the world.”

Beanstalk, the industry leader in corporate brand management, is joining with Lima Sky to roll out an extensive Doodle Jump program in the U.K. Biplano, a name respected in southern Europe for over twenty years, will represent Lima Sky across Spain, Portugal and France.

Western Europe will be handled by Copyright Promotions Licensing Group, a respected licensing agency. CPLG will bring Doodle Jump goods to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Additionally, Lima Sky has signed an agreement to extend Doodle Jump’s network to Australia and New Zealand. Handling this will be Haven Licensing, a regional leader for the entertainment industry, who will work with Lima Sky to target consumers in both nations.

“Doodle Jump is now in the hands of the best licensing agents worldwide. Haven, CPLG, Biplano, and Beanstalk,” added Karp. “Now, that’s a Dream Team.”

IGN Reportedly Up For Auction

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Reports are that IGN will be going up for auction. News Corp., IGN’s parent company, has been unable to sell the entertainment website as a whole and are working with investment bank Allen & Co. to auction off the group of websites.

IGN includes UGO and the 1UP.com properties and has seen the sell off of businesses that includes Rotten Tomatoes, Direct2Drive, and GameSpy Technologies. While News Corp. purchased IGN for $650 million in 2005, it is now valued for about $100 million.

Break Media and SAY Media reportedly have some interest in picking up IGN. News Corp. is not commenting on the record for the sale.

Source: Wall Street Journal {link no longer active}

MechWarrior Online Hits $5 Million In Pre-Orders

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Infinite Game Publishing and Piranha Games announced that the MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program has reached more than $5 million in sales. The pre-order program has been running since July and will help push the project into beta soon.

“Working together with IGP, we maximized the value for fans participating in the MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program by offering three tiers to suit different player’s needs,” said Piranha Games president Russ Bullock. “Ultimately the program was a categorical success and we couldn’t be happier with the sales and important player feedback we’ve received.”

“The Founders are helping us fund, develop and support the game in order to deliver the best online gaming experience,” said Kelly Zmak, President of IGP. “The tremendous success of the MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program demonstrates how passionate the fans are for the MechWarrior franchise and reflect our management team understanding the rapidly changing online game industry, the fastest-growing sector of digital entertainment.”

Source: MWOmercs.com

Big Fish Launches Free-To-Play Platform For PC/Mac

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Big Fish announced that it is offering free-to-play games on its PC and Mac app store, starting with its high grossing iOS game Big Fish Casino. Over 3000 casual games from Big Fish will be offered in-browser or as a download on PC or Mac.

“F2P games are increasingly popular with gamers who have been introduced to digital games over the past few years via the rapid growth of social and mobile platforms,” said Big Fish CEO Paul Thelen. “It is a natural extension to both our PC/Mac app store and to our mobile publishing business.”