The Year of Shopping on the Couch and under the Conference Room Table

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

We all knew it was coming. Every expert in the market predicted that holiday shopping this year would be the biggest cyber shopping experience ever, starting as early as Thanksgiving Day (in between the football games, on the couch) and picking up steam on Cyber Monday, when employees took advantage of greater bandwidth at work to shop on their lunch hours or secretly on their mobile phones, under the conference room table. Who pays attention in those marathon meetings, anyway?

Early statistics on holiday shopping – from before Black Friday to yesterday’s Cyber Monday – show that the experts were right.  A perusal of the various articles about holiday shopping 2011 shows some compelling statistics.

Pay Pal’s blog reported that Black Friday, traditionally the day when shoppers flock to the stores, saw “saw more shoppers than ever skipping the lines and using smartphones and tablets to conveniently shop anytime, anywhere, and any way they wanted.” They reported the following Black Friday data:

  • A six-fold (516%) increase in global mobile payment volume on Black Friday 2011 compared to Black Friday 2010.
  • Between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. PST was the busiest mobile shopping hour on Black Friday 2011.
  • Black Friday global mobile payment volume more than doubled (148%) compared to an average Friday.
  • PayPal saw a four-fold (371%) increase in the number of customers shopping through mobile on Black Friday 2011 compared to last year.

The New York Times cited comScore, a market research firm, as saying that people spent $816 million online on Black Friday, a 26% increase over last year.

Cyber Monday, which Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times calls “a made-up occasion to give underdog e-commerce sites jealous of Black Friday a day of their own,” made tremendous strides this year. According to comScore, online spending passed $1 billion yesterday, approximately a 17% increase over last year. IBM Benchmark, which also tracks e-commerce sales, predicted that they would be up 15%.

The increase in online sales can be directly attributed to an increased familiarity with smartphones and tablets. Bloomberg cited IBM with saying that 12% of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retail site, with 6.7% using one to make a purchase, while The Washington Post reported that “7.37 percent of sales were made on a mobile device as compared to 2.25 percent in the same period last year. Data from PayPal found that mobile shopping had increased even more — 514 percent — from Cyber Monday 2010.”

Om Malik of Gigaom sites that the holiday season “is proving to be a big boost for m-commerce as shoppers are using their smartphones, mobile apps and other devices.” They highlighted an interesting statistic from Channel Advisor, which tracks eCommerce:

Through the year, we saw traffic from mobile devices in the 6-7% range and on Thanksgiving it spiked up to 10%.  What’s really interesting is that Tablets (mostly the iPad) were the majority of that at 7.8% (with Smartphones at 1.2%).  It will be interesting to see if that trend inverts on Black Friday as shoppers move from ‘Tablet couch commerce’ to shopping with their phones while they are out fighting the crowds.

Bloomberg also said that:

Many consumers wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving to make online purchases, some of them taking advantage of faster, more robust Internet connections available from offices. Half of U.S. workers plan to spend time shopping via the Web this holiday season, on par with 52 percent last year, according to a survey by Careerbuilder.com.

Social media is also playing a strong role in holiday shopping this year, particularly in this down economy. David Mielach of Business News said:

Consumers are also taking to social media in an attempt to take advantage of holiday deals; 37 percent of respondents now follow brands on Facebook, Google + or Twitter. Of that number, 56 percent of respondents follow brands to get exclusive deals and offers.

It’s clear that the age of mobile shopping is upon us – and that the trend will only grow stronger in the years to come. After all, what are you hoping Santa will bring you this holiday season? I understand that the elves have a lot of tablets, Nooks, and smartphones on the workbench this year.

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Saying Thanks…

Posted on November 22, 2011 by

Thanksgiving is a time to sit back, reflect, and – as we anticipate the turkey and stuffing as well as the pumpkin pie and the football games – we here at iMedia would like to give thanks.

For these things we are truly grateful…

  • Our loyal clients who return to us with new projects and recommend us to their network of business associates and friends
  • Working in an industry that continues to grow exponentially in all directions – eliminating any possibility of boredom ever
  • Projects that challenge us, helping us acquire new skills and industry insight
  • Members of the client team who facilitate our efforts and help us gain the consensus we need
  • Members of our iMedia team who bring their considerable skills, humor, and innovative spirits to work every day
  • Our technical partners, whose products make us shine
  • Readers of our blog, our Facebook fans and Twitter followers

Our cornucopia of thanks overflows. We at iMedia wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to the holiday season.

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iMedia Welcomes Jena Rondinelli… Back

Posted on November 17, 2011 by

Certain people just make you smile. The news that Jena was returning to iMedia as a Business Analyst was heralded with flat-out grins. And while it’s taken us awhile to welcome her back, we hope she knows how welcome she is!

Jena worked at iMedia both as a business analyst and as an on-site project manager at Novartis. From there (following the birth of her son), she worked at Digitas Health as a Business Analyst and Interaction Designer. Previous to her first stint at iMedia, Jena was a member of the Zeta Interative/Digital Grit team and worked at Lockheed Martin Corporation  as a systems integration analyst.  She is a member of the Interaction Usability Design Association (IxDA), the Usability Professional’s Association (NY UPA & UsabilityNJ), the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and the North NJ UX Meetup.

Jena has recently moved with her young son and husband to a new home in Marlboro, NJ. She is an avid horsewoman and a member of the United States Dressage Federation. These days, however, she’s doing more running than riding, with the NJ Road Runners.

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And the winner is…

Posted on November 8, 2011 by

Kevin Conley flanked by iMedia execs Joel Macaluso and Chuck Titone

iMedia congratulates Kevin Conley of the National Recreation and Park Association, for winning our Ektron Synergy drawing. Kevin Conley is the lucky winner of $200 of Bellagio casino chips – all for “liking” iMedia on Facebook and filling out the form on our iMedia at Synergy tab.

In addition to the drawing, this new Facebook tab showcased iMedia’s Etron content management  capabilities. As Premiere Ektron partners, iMedia’s expertise includes:

  • Ektron Pagebuilder technology
  • eSync and load balancing
  • Multi-lingual websites
  • Ektron eCommerce
  • Ektron customized widgets
  • Rich media
  • Social media integration
  • Mobile-aware websites
  • Search engine optimization
  • Ektron integrations with:
    • Tessitura Box Office
    • Able eCommerce
    • ElasticPath eCommerce
    • DART Advertising Banners
    • Brightcove Video
    • Mirror Image Video
    • Title management and fulfillment

If you’re interested in learning more about iMedia’s Ektron capabilities, we invite you to download the brochure we prepared for the conference.

Of course, even though the drawing is complete, we encourage you to “like” iMedia to see our special Facebook tab, which also includes this video about the content management “buy” vs. “build” choice that many companies face:

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iMedia to Sponsor Ektron Synergy 2011

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

As a long-time Premiere Ektron Partner, iMedia will be a Gold Sponsor of the 2011 Ektron Synergy conference, taking place November 6 – 9 at the Bellagio Las Vegas.

The conference encompasses more than 30 educational workshops, user group forums, roadmap discussions, product discussions and more, on such topics as social media, landing pages, eSync, PageBuilder, Mobile sites, and of course, Ektron’s newest release, Ektron 8.5.

As a Gold Sponsor, iMedia will be exhibiting in the exhibitor pavilion, available to answer questions of how we’ve extended the Ektron CMS for such notable clients as Carnegie Hall, Continuum Health Partners, C.R. Bard, Ticket Philadelphia, IATSE Local One, Abrams Books, and many others. We’ll be talking about our developer, maintenance, and hosting capabilities for Ektron-based client websites and mobile sites, with a particular emphasis on our integrations with such back-end and third-party applications such as the Tessitura Box Office, AbleCommerce, Brightcove Video, and more.

“Like” iMedia on Facebook for a Chance to Win $200 in Bellagio Casino Chips

In addition, iMedia has created a special Facebook tab to showcase our Ektron capabilities and begin the conversation with fellow Ektron Synergy participants in the two weeks before the show.

By “liking” the iMedia Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/iMediainc)  and filling out a brief form, Ektron Synergy participants will be eligible for a drawing for $200 in Bellagio Casino Chips. (If you’ve already liked the iMedia Facebook page, click the iMedia at Ektron tab.) The winner will be announced on Monday, November 7th, at Ektron Synergy. This is also a great opportunity to let us know why you’re coming to Synergy, so that we can help you find the solutions you’re looking for.

In addition to the contest, we also feature a short animated video on our Facebook application that discusses the “build” vs. “buy” content management dilemma  which so many companies face today. Learn why an out-of-the-box CMS, implemented by an expert CMS developer like iMedia is decidedly the cost-effective answer.

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Getting Scrummy

Posted on October 20, 2011 by

One of the innovations iMedia’s new owners brought to the company was the Agile software development method. As a result, the entire company convenes for a short morning meeting, called a scrum. No one sits down at this meeting, which encourages us all to be concise and clear as we provide our status, discuss whether our current short-term deadlines (known as sprints) will be met, and collaborate, cross-teams, on how best to deal with the various issues that arise.

So what does this mean to our clients? By rejecting a development philosophy where requirements are defined and then set in stone, there are no “black out” periods — months where the development team is locked away producing a final product that the client is expected to then accept, sight unseen.  We know that this approach often leads to pitfalls in scope management , adversely affecting overall delivery satisfaction.

Instead, we iteratively develop requirements, code, prototypes and ultimately the final product together with stakeholders at our clients’ organizations.  This approach effectively uncovers deeply buried business requirements, manages scope, and provides deliverables that more closely match the needs of our clients and their users.

iMedia’s Agile methodology is a cyclical conversation that provides a window of transparency to the ongoing development process. We endeavor to provide clients with an interactive relationship with our entire team and an insider’s look at our ongoing efforts.

As the components of the project are built, clients are given an early opportunity to review and provide feedback, which ultimately results in overall time and cost savings.  Starting from a strong and thorough discovery and definition phase, our Agile methods help the entire team, including the client, continually reevaluate and adapt  the plan, ensuring the product reflects the client’s needs.  This encourages stakeholders to prioritize their expectations as the development process is iterated, so that each step moves the product closer to a valued end result.

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NJ Ad Club Hall of Fame Induction of iMedia Founder Len Muscarella

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

Len Muscarella

The following is the acceptance speech made by Sally Muscarella, who accepted Len’s award at the NJ Ad Club Hall of Fame Induction ceremony that took place on Wednesday, September 21, at Mayfair Farms, West Orange, NJ:

Len would be honored and humbled with this important award, and particularly with the company with whom he shares this honor.   It is my privilege to accept this award on behalf of Len and the iMedia team.  My special thanks to Wendy Flanagan who suggested that Len be considered for this award.   I am impressed with and appreciative for Grace DePaula and the Board of the NJ Ad Club for sponsoring the Hall of Fame and taking the time to recognize accomplishments among our peers.

Sally Muscarella accepting the award from NJ Ad Club's Herb Barry

Len was an avid sports fan and player.  One of Len’s friends – David Bushnell – a former fellow sports writer from the early career years and now a lobbyist in Washington DC — was particularly impressed that Len is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.  He knows that Len’s favorite teams are the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Green Bay Packers.  So Dave wrote to me yesterday with a little bit of inappropriate writer humor.  He asked whether Len would be wearing Dodger Blue or Packer Green.  I can only imagine – probably both.  And I will tell you that Len never missed a party!  He was always the life of the party. And he is surely missed tonight.

I’d like to start by briefly discussing Len’s most important professional accomplishments.  Among Len’s many distinctions, he was an internet pioneer.  I think it’s safe to say that he started one of the first digital agencies in the country, Interactive Media Associates, now known as iMedia inc., which he founded in 1985.  In the earliest years, Len consulted to industry giants such as Citibank, HBO, Newsday and Time Warner helping to define their online strategies.  In the 90s, he built some of the first websites and digital storefronts ever created.   He coauthored a book in 1999, called Net Success that contains twenty-four case studies about achieving business success using the internet.  This book is still relevant today.  Len went on to lead iMedia to build dozens of award winning websites, living the company motto, “making your business click”.  iMedia is known for know how, creativity and service.

There are many people who contributed to this award.  Let me tell you about a few of the people that we owe a debt of gratitude.  One of the first people that comes to mind is Tom Groenfeldt, who now writes from Wisconsin and was a fellow reporter with Len at the Bergen Record. Back in the spring of 1982, just weeks before Len and I were married, Tom showed Len a classified job ad for a new venture involving CBS and AT&T.   At the time, Len was working the “rewrite desk” at the Bergen Record.  In layperson terms, that means he was working the graveyard shift editing the next day’s stories.  Len got the new job and became the news editor for the videotext trial known as CBS Venture One.   Again, the year was 1982 – more than a full decade before the internet was born.

Sally Muscarella (left) with long-time iMedia client and friend, Carol Landers

Venture One recruited the best and brightest from a wide range of disciplines.  They   developed and deployed a trial to a couple hundred households in Ridgewood, NJ, using telephone lines and televisions. There are a couple other pioneers in the room tonight who were on that team.   The first is Carol Landers – who went on to lead Marketing and Development for the NYC Ballet and retained Len to build their online presence.   Carol and Len built the first website for the NYC Ballet.  And iMedia has maintained and enhanced that site since the mid-90’s.  The other internet pioneer in the room is David Blumquist –another member of that CBS Venture One team.  David and Len used to procure content for the Venture One trial.  Remember the days of the OAG – Official Airline Guide book of airline schedules?  Carol reminded me that Len and Dave traveled to Chicago to negotiate the OAG content as part of their consumer information and news service.  Seems antiquated today. But that is how things started.  David Blumquist went on to guide the digital presence for the Star Ledger.

Len and I have two daughters.  Our youngest is a freshman at Penn State and is an extraordinary people person like her Dad.  I am delighted that Annie, our oldest daughter, is here tonight.  Annie is a publicist at Fox Business News.   Like her Dad, Annie is a graduate of Boston College and passionate about her work and about making a difference in the lives of others.   She has been one of my best advisers during the transition.

We are privileged to have a couple of family friends with us tonight.  Dave Brooks is a fellow reporter/writer friend turned PR executive and as big a sports enthusiast as Len.   In addition to being a dear friend, we could always count on Dave for anything – from client leads to game tickets. Jim Foti has been a friend of Len’s since their days together at Boston College.  Thank God for Jimmy because he has been at our side helping us with financial planning and employee benefits.

When Len passed away, his team and his clients jumped in to help.   It’s a testament to the team that Len built that iMedia continued to grow and achieve new milestones, adding new clients and winning awards.  Brian McGovern, who is here tonight and Michelle Cameron, who could not be here, were the senior team that ran the show.   Len used to do the job of four people.  Brian and Michelle divided up most of his duties.   Brian is a brilliant technologist and Michelle an accomplished writer/editor.   They both became project managers, business development and client service VPs and more.  Brian did the hiring and managed product delivery.   Any tasks that Brian or Michelle could not do, they gave to Kathy Walsh, who has been at iMedia for over 10 years, serving a variety of clients and always bringing extraordinary professionalism to the team.

Members of the iMedia Team (left-right): Kathy Walsh, Sally Muscarella, Brian McGovern, John Huffstutler, Chuck Titone, Joel Macaluso

Starting in January of this year, we began a partnership with Joel Macaluso, Chuck Titone and John Huffstutler of Tihuma Technologies.  In June of this year Tihuma acquired iMedia.  Joel, Chuck and John are exceedingly well qualified to bring iMedia to new heights, leveraging their deep web development expertise, including mobile and social.  Len would be very pleased with the leadership at iMedia and the passion they share for client service and value.

On behalf of Len, and his blue and green colors tonight, thank you for allowing me to share a bit about the people that contributed to this distinction tonight.  Congratulations Niki, Shannon, Adam, Richard and my beloved Len.

The team at iMedia joins Sally in saluting the other inductees: Veronica Fielding, President/CEO, Digital Brand Expressions; Adam Schnitzler, Chief Creative Officer, The S3Agency; Shannon Morris, President and Partner, Sigma Group; and Richard Vezza, Publisher, The Star-Ledger.  This was a memorable evening indeed.

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iMedia Welcomes Yuhlan Cho

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

Yuhlan Cho, a native of Taiwan, once considered being a librarian before she found her true calling as a computer programmer and web developer. Another familiar face at iMedia, she worked with the company part-time before becoming a full-time member of the team this month.

Before joining iMedia, Yuhlan worked at Tihuma, Zeta Interactive, and DigitalGrit. She consulted at Rutgers University and Hunter College. Her early career was spent at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies as a software engineer and analyst.

Yuhlan holds certifications as a Microsoft Certified Professional and Ektron Developer. She was honored with a Certificate of Excellence from Raritan Valley Community College’s Web Developer Certificate Program for outstanding academic achievement.  Her extensive skill set includes web development, programming and database development. She is a skilled software developer with extensive experience in developing software for wireless systems, data networking systems, and UNIX.

Yuhlan lives in Bridgewater, NJ, with her husband. The couple enjoy traveling, playing golf and watching classic movies on TCM.

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Believe It Or Not, We’re Spending More Time Socializing on Our Phones than Eating

Posted on August 30, 2011 by

When we talk to prospective clients about mobile applications, they’re surprised that we often bring Facebook into the equation. What does Facebook  – or social networks in general – have to do with building a mobile site?

But a quick survey of the statistics about both shows that one of major uses of a mobile device is social networking. For instance, Facebook itself cites:

  • There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
  • People who use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

This trend was already noted last year, when Mashable claimed that: “When it comes to specific social networks, Twitter and Facebook both had increases in mobile browser usage in the triple digits. Twitter usage via mobile browsers was up 347% while Facebook mobile browser usage was up 112%.”

A compelling graphic created by Microsoft Tag, recently posted on the dgitalbuzz Blog (extracts of which we’ve included with this post),  cited the following statistics:

  • On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours a day socializing on their mobile devices
  • 92% of mobile Internet is to socialize (compared to 79% on desktops)
  • People use their mobile phones 49% of the time for social networking
  • Over 1/3 of Facebook’s 600 million+ user base uses Facebook Mobile
  • 50% of Twitter’s 165 million users use Twitter Mobile
  • 200 Million+ YouTube views per day on a mobile device
  • 30% of smartphone users access social networks via mobile browser
  • Women ages 35-54 are the most active group in mobile socialization

All of these statistics indicate that a company’s approach towards social media should be a critical component in any mobile strategy.  imedia has the know-how to help you with both. Contact us at info@imediainc.com to learn more.

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Going Shopping? Take Your Smartphone.

Posted on August 18, 2011 by

It’s abundantly clear that shopping online via smartphone is a growing and important mobile trend that business owners need to pay attention to. According to Google’s Thinkinsights, 29% of U.S. smartphone users have purchased directly from their smartphones, while 74% of mobile shoppers have made a purchase after they have done product research on their phone.

But Forrester Research’s “Mobile Commerce Forecast, 2011 to 2016,” claims that while mobile commerce is definitely on the upswing, expecting to grow 40% each year for the next five years, it still remains a relatively lower percentage when compared to other online shopping methods. This would appear to support the concerns of some 41% of Google respondents, who said that they are not sure about what their ROI will be and who are therefore not yet willing to invest in making their sites mobile-aware.

Yet, as Sucharita Mulpuru, author of the forecast, says in a blog post, “The Mobile Commerce Train: Coming But Not Here Yet,”  we can’t just judge mobile shopping by the volume of transactions.  “When consumers do use their mobile phones in a retail context, it is to look up product information as they are in the midst of researching products in a physical store, or to compare prices, which often leads to a customer demanding a price match, which naturally won’t surface in any mCommerce figures. “

Google’s Thinkinsights, concurs, stating that 82% of U.S. shoppers use a smartphone to help them make a purchase decision while in the store.  Yet, the article continues, “79% of large online advertisers do not have a mobile optimized website. This makes is very hard for mobile users to find what they’re looking for–quickly and easily.”

A recent Pew survey called “Americans and Their Cell Phones”  points out what some of the obstacles consumers encounter can be. Of the 83% of American adults who own some kind of cell phone, 20% are frustrated by downloads that take too long; 16% can’t read what’s on their phone because the screen is too small; 10% have difficulty entering text on their phones.

Shoppers want to use their phones – to do product research and compare prices when they are ready to buy, even if they are not yet transacting over the phone. Making it easier to interact with your mobile website is going to make that process easier for the user – and result in greater sales. imedia can be a great resource if you want to make your business mobile ready, helping you create a strategy that is supported on all leading platforms. Email info@imediainc.com if you want to discuss what we can do for you.

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