aimm News

ClearCourse acquires mobile marketing services provider Cymba

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

ClearCourse Partnership a group of innovative technology companies providing useful, integrated software solutions, announces a deal to acquire Cymba, a provider of mobile marketing solutions to businesses and charities. The acquisition strengthens ClearCourse’s not-for-profit and online payments offering and sees the Company joining the Group’s Business Services division.

Founded in 2004, Cymba provides solutions to help leading charities as well as big-name brands connect with their audiences through mobile marketing. The Company offers its clients a wide range of services such as mobile messaging, competitions and mobile donations for the charity sector. As part of the Group, Cymba will benefit from integration with ClearCourse’s proprietary payments platform, ClearAccept, and synergies with other brands within the Group’s charities offering.

Based in London, Cymba’s focussed team of experts services charities and global brands that are recognisable all over the world. The team offers leading systems and bespoke advice, using their extensive industry knowledge to help clients including UNICEF, the RSPCA, Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, the Royal British Legion as well as Coca-Cola drive their mobile marketing campaigns.

Gerry Gualtieri, CEO of ClearCourse, commented: “We are excited to announce our acquisition of Cymba whose team brings a great deal of industry expertise as well as impressive clients to the ClearCourse Group. The deal represents ClearCourse’s 10th acquisition in the charity and not-for-profit market and provides further opportunity for collaboration and knowledge sharing across our growing [Business Services] division.

Nevil Coleman, Managing Director of Cymba, said: “Joining the ClearCourse Group is a great opportunity for Cymba, and we’re looking forward to working with Gerry and the rest of the team. The expertise and systems that we’ll benefit from, such as ClearCourse’s payments platform ClearAccept, will help power the next phase of Cymba’s growth and development. We’re very pleased to help expand ClearCourse’s footprint in the charities space, and we can’t wait to start collaborating with businesses across the Group.”

 

Direct Carrier Billing Index reveals the most favourable countries for DCB growth in the MEA region

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The first DCB Index developed by Evina and Telecoming is released today

  • Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar are the most attractive markets for DCB, leading the index
  • The innovative tool measures the maturity of this mobile payment method in 18 countries
  • The development of the DCB Index is one of the commitments established in the alliance signed earlier this year by both companies

Analysts from Evina, experts in DCB protection, and Telecoming, experts in DCB implementation, have developed the first Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) Index. This rating aims to provide market players with a comprehensive overview of the current state of the DCB business and its overall potential.

Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar lead the list according to the results of the first DCB Index created to measure the development of this market in MEA. The innovative tool[1] uses 4 KPIs focused on Fraud Protection, Mobile Payments Innovation, DCB Penetration levels, and DCB Growth Potential.

As a result, the DCB Index establishes a ranking based on the score achieved by each country. It is presented on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 as the lowest indicator and 5 being the most advanced pointer.

Download the full DCB Index here: https://www.evina.com/resources/dcb-index-evina-telecoming/

According to the analysis, Bahrain (3,7) stands out for its extensive DCB protection against fraud. The country shows full support for DCB, seeing that all local mobile operators have implemented this payment technology, yet innovation remains a weak point to develop.

Local mobile operators and merchants are working together to promote DCB as an effective payment method in Egypt (3,3). It’s a true breeding ground for the development of DCB, and efforts must continue to strengthen DCB protection to realize its full potential. Forward-thinking MNOs have enabled in-app purchases in Qatar (3,2). Its overall innovative approach to mobile payments, such as paying employees via mobile money, demonstrates the country’s predisposition to implement new uses of DCB.

According to the index, mobile payment partnerships centred around DCB are growing in Kenya, while Morocco shows ample room for growth in DCB Innovation.

South Africa has a high DCB uptake but has had to deal with fraudulent mobile payment attempts. Hence, increased protection is vital for the sustainable development of DCB as an easy and reliable payment method in the region.

According to Roberto Monge, COO of Telecoming, “DCB has been gaining presence in the region’s digital economy. This innovative indicator shows that many countries are on the right track. Technology is already in place, but there are still some challenges to face. All the payments tech industry players need to work together to develop a new, reliable, secure and stable mobile economy that benefits the whole market “, says Monge.

David Lotfi, Founder & CEO of Evina, states, “the DCB Index indicates that fraud on DCB remains as a top barrier to countries maximizing the potential of direct carrier billing.” Lotfi adds, “these findings strongly suggest that anti-fraud measures need to be more extensively and consistently implemented so that DCB becomes not only a widely used effortless payment method but a source of greater revenue for mobile players.”

 

[1] The figures provided are algorithmic-based estimations calculated from Evina sensors and Telecoming intelligence data. The DCB Index is intended for information purposes only.

 

THE LEADING MARKETING EVENT FOR PROACTIVE PROFESSIONALS 

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

AIMM are pleased to announce our partnership with B2B Marketing Expo. On the 16-17th November 2021, London’s ExCeL will play host to the leading marketing event, connecting the most proactive marketing professionals with the tools, techniques, and innovations they need to be at the forefront of the ever-evolving world of marketing.

This year, the exhibition promises to be the most forward-thinking to date – housing 200 industry leading suppliers and 200 educational seminars from some of the world’s top experts and innovative thinkers.

The B2B Marketing Expo recently revealed its fantastic speaker line up featuring some of the biggest names in the industry:

Alastair Campbell, Journalist, Broadcaster, Author & Strategist

Leaders narrate a strategy, not simply execute it

16-Nov – 12:45 – B2B Marketing Keynote Theatre 1
From front line Politics as Tony Blair’s right-hand man creating the New Labour, Alastair has made a name for himself as an influential voice and commentator. With humour and insight Alastair takes an insider’s look at politics at home and abroad, as well as what it takes to be a successful leader!

Hannah Fry, Broadcaster & Mathematician

Gather now, exploit later

17-Nov – 10:00 – B2B Marketing Keynote Theatre 2

A regular presenter of science and maths programmes on BBC TV, Hannah examines the incredible insights data can provide, but also where its limitations are, including how AI is revealing incredible new insights. Hannah highlights the biases within data and how the tools used to collect and interpret it can often betray very human prejudices.

Mark Wright, Climb Online

How To Elevate & Scale your Business Growth Through Digital Marketing

16-Nov – 15:05 – B2B Marketing Keynote Theatre 2

The most successful winner from BBC’s The Apprentice, Mark Wright, went on to be an award-winning entrepreneur with the UK’s fastest growing digital agency. Learn how to scale your business through digital marketing, master lead generation and understand the leading trends to enable you to stay ahead of competition in 2021 and beyond.

Leading the industry as the most accomplished event for forward-thinking, ambitious and successful businesses looking to stay on top of trends and gain a competitive edge.

Thousands of professionals will come together at the ExCeL to research the market, learn about new innovations and discover the latest strategies and trends to progress and develop their marketing in our unique educational programme, consisting of expert-led seminars and panel debates, live demos of the latest technology, as well as industry leading companies equipped with the industry’s finest solution led products and services.

We have been working closely with all event industry stakeholders developing an industry wide ‘All Secure Standard’ alongside the UK government that will allow organised industry gatherings to take place again. Through the four key cornerstones, we will ensure our visitors, exhibitors, and colleagues, are protected whilst making events high-quality and productive experiences.

Here is what some of our regulars think of the show…

“If there’s one time in your calendar that you’re going to set aside to learn about Marketing, this event is it!”.

Raja Saggi, Head of Marketing, Google

“This is the place you want to come to be able to find out about all these new technologies that you can take advantage of, to give your business the edge”.

Scott Brinker, Editor, chiefmartec.com

For full details and to register for free please visit www.b2bmarketingexpo.co.uk.   

 

Dutch digital innovator Sam Media used extended reality to develop a better learning experience

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

As a leader in innovation, Sam Media makes the next generation of digital content accessible to everyone, on any device. On October the 14th, Sam Media will officially launch it’s latest e-learning and entertainment product, XR Academy. The product will be presented during a launch party at World Telemedia in Marbella.

A better learning experience for everyone

XR Academy enables consumers from all age groups to explore a wide range of immersive, high-quality educational content. The product is the result of a diverse team of thinkers, educators, computer scientists, software developers and 3D artists from all over the world, coming together with a shared mission to transform learning experiences with the latest technologies, and to overcome the two main challenges in VR education today: the lack of high-quality content, and the availability of VR headsets.

XR Academy has been designed to be compatible with all types of virtual reality headsets. Even consumers that don’t own a VR headset are able to engage with all the content effectively. All they need is a smartphone with internet access.

What is Extended Reality?

​​Extended reality (XR) is referring to all real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables, where the ‘X’ represents a variable for any current or future spatial computing technologies. E.g. It includes representative forms such as augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual reality and the areas interpolated among them. Its connotation lies in the extension of human experiences, especially relating to the senses of existence (represented by VR) and the acquisition of cognition (represented by AR).

Product features

XR Academy allows consumers to take virtual field trips to a variety of destinations, such as Mount Everest, capital cities around the world, and faraway planets across the universe, all from the comfort and safety of their homes.

  • Immersive VR platform
  • 360° documentaries
  • Captivating VR lessons
  • Engaging Quizzes
  • Supports all languages
  • Constantly growing content library
  • Animation for illustration and engagement purposes
  • Accessible on mobile and the web

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8M2fyCd_s

Corporate website: www.sam-media.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sam-media.

Vodacom and Evina unite to fight mobile fraud

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Vodacom, SA’s leading network has taken a major step forward in mobile user safety by partnering with cybersecurity for mobile payments company, Evina.

Mobile users in Africa’s most advanced economy will now join the ranks of the tens of millions of consumers globally that are protected daily by Evina’s payments technology.

In recent years, the South African mobile industry has attracted a large number of fraudsters leading to a substantial increase in user complaint rates. These frequent fraudulent attacks are due to the fact that a large number of the African population uses a cellular phone, especially as a mobile payment method. Fraudsters are never far from where mobile transactions are. In South Africa alone, the country fraud rate recorded by Evina’s fraud sensors was 23.53% with clickjacking being the most fraudulent technique used to defraud mobile users in the first quarter of 2021. This region is a playground for new and extremely sophisticated fraud techniques that are difficult to spot unless using advanced technology

In this context, Vodacom has partnered with Evina to secure mobile transactions via Evina’s set of anti-fraud solutions that include DCBprotect and Eyewitness. DCBprotect detects bots that attempt to make fraudulent transactions whereas Eyewitness records fraudulent behaviour on payment pages to give proof to Vodacom’s partners of any bot-related activity.

Evina offers the most advanced cybersecurity technology for mobile payments and currently blocks over 16 million transactions in more than 70 countries worldwide. Evina is a recognized player in the mobile ecosystem and has been awarded various prestigious accolades such as the Best Financial Clearing Solution from Juniper Research and Best Carrier Billing Fraud Solution at the Global Carrier Billing Summit 2020.

David Lotfi, CEO & Founder of Evina: “We strive to work with mobile players that share our vision of fraud being a serious issue that needs to be dealt with – and soon. By integrating our anti-fraud solution into its operations, Vodacom with its large African network of mobile users, has confirmed that it too shares our values and wishes to create a fraud-free mobile payment ecosystem. This makes deploying the best technology worldwide, for the protection of South African mobile users, effortless.”

“The protection of our customers against all forms of fraudulent activity is our top priority. We are constantly striving to eradicate any potential mobile fraud on our network by updating and enhancing our controls to give customers peace of mind whilst enjoying seamless connectivity through their mobile phones. Introducing DCBprotect as solution is testament to our efforts to stay ahead of fraudsters and create a fraud free digital environment. We believe that early detection and blocking of any form of criminality on our network is in the interest of our customers and ultimately the Vodacom brand” said Mariam Cassim Chief Officer of Vodacom Financial and Digital Services.