Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Tom Abshire, Senior VP of Products, Marketing and Member Engagement, Virgin HealthMiles (Part 1)

Staying in shape can be tough, and getting into shape is even tougher. That’s why you see companies like Walgreens, with its Walk With Walgreens program, offering people incentives to get up and be more active. Virgin HealthMiles, a part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, does something similar by offering employee health programs that actually pay people to get moving. On average, about 50% of employees participate in the Virgin HealthMiles Pay-for-Prevention program that, according to the company’s website, helps reduce medical costs and improves employee productivity and satisfaction. >>>

Featured Videos

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Alex Dayon, Executive VP of Applications, Salesforce.com (Part 1)

We’ve talked a lot about Salesforce.com on this blog. Those of you who follow it know that I talked to CTA Marc Ferrentino in July 2011 for my Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing series. Once a company that focused primarily on facilitating customer relationship management for its clients, Salseforce has started branching out into platform as a service and other areas. My conversation with vice-president of applications Alex Dayon will focus on his perceptions of the mobile and social worlds as well as Salesforce’s evolution. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Rob Jewell, Founder and CEO of Spruce Media (Part 1)

Most marketers today know that a social medium like Facebook is a powerful advertising tool. But in 2008, when Rob Jewell founded SocialCash, Spruce Media’s predecessor, using social media to market businesses, products, and services had yet to become common practice. Although social advertising is gaining traction, there is still far much too unmonetized advertising inventory out there on the Internet, on mobile, on social, and on the Web in general. There are all sorts of communities out there – not just on Facebook – that have unmonetized ad inventory.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Rob. Let’s start with some context on Spruce Media. Tell us a bit about yourself, about Spruce Media, what you do, what kind of business you’re in, and then we’ll take it from there. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Bill Seibel, Founder and CEO of Mobiquity (Part 1)

The convenience of mobile devices cannot be denied. People shop, work, and interact with friends through iPhones, BlackBerrys, or Androids, anywhere, at any time – hence the name of the company I’ll be discussing in this interview. Mobiquity has taken that idea of using mobile for business and run with it. The company, which has offices in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, helps Fortune 1000 companies devise and implement mobile strategies to help them increase business and do business more effectively.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Bill. Why don’t you give us some context on Mobiquity, and we’ll dive into the conversation accordingly. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Jim Ackerman, Founder of Ackermania Creative (Part 1)

A good marketing campaign is essential to the success of any business. Whether you’re selling a product or a service, if you don’t market it properly, it could go completely unnoticed. Veteran marketer, Jim Ackerman, founder of Ackermania Creative, sat down to talk with me about how he used his skills and experience and the popularity of YouTube to generate buzz about one of the sexiest products on the market today: a tongue cleaner.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Jim. Let’s start with a little bit of background about what you do in your marketing agency. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: David Stone, CEO of CashStar (Part 1)

Whether you love them or hate them, gift cards have found a place for themselves in our society. Employers use them as rewards and consumers give them to friends and family members for birthdays, graduations, even weddings, especially when they don’t know exactly what to buy. CashStar, based in Portland, Maine, has come up with a simpler, more secure way for people to send gift cards:  the e-gift card. Given the popularity of shopping online, the introduction of an e-gift card seems like the next logical step.

>>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Doyon Kim, CEO of Pangalore (Part 1)

Video games are popular with people of all ages. The popularity of  games like “Farmville” and “Angry Birds” is proof of that. Pangalore, a San Jose, California–based universal social games developing company  launched its Universal Play HTML5 technology in December 2011, further satisfying the public’s desire for more games to play online and making it easier for them to play those games. With Pangalore’s new technology, users can play games on any platform at any time and provides continual saving and updating of their progress.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Doyon. Please give us some context about you and the kinds of things you’ve been involved with, what you’ve been around, and then we will start exploring trends. >>>

Thought Leaders in Mobile and Social: Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO of Safely (Part 1)

No matter how old they get, parents never stop worrying about their children. They always want to know where their children are, what they’re doing and who they’re with. Safely seeks to alleviate some those concerns through modern technology. For example, with Safely Drive, parents can disable texting and talking while driving, with Safely Locate, they can create alerts that let them know when their children leave specified areas, or they can use Sparkle to get on-demand location information. Safely is a division of Location Labs, a location-based services company that, according to Inc.com, boasted $17 million in revenue in 2010.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Tasso. Let’s talk a little bit about your background. Would you give us some context so the audience knows who you are? >>>