Apptera, a pioneer in mobile communications and advertising, today announced that Don Albert was elected to its board of Directors. Albert is a mobile and consumer marketing veteran and until recently served as the Vice President and General Manager of the Americas and Advertising for Skype. Prior to joining Skype in 2006, he held numerous executive positions at eBay, FusionOne, PointCast, and AOL’s Digital City. He will play a key role in the growth of Poptuit (http://www.poptuit.com), a new smart phonebook and free Android service, which was recently launched into beta.

“Don is widely recognized as an accomplished leader in consumer communications and mobile marketing,” said Henry Vogel, President and CEO of Apptera. “He brings incredible experience, relationships and industry knowledge that will be invaluable to us as we develop and grow Poptuit.”
At Skype, Albert was responsible for driving growth in the Americas region and managing the launches of multiple new advertising revenue streams globally. In 2004, Don was recognized as Marketer of the Year by Promo magazine for his innovative marketing partnerships at eBay and was also a charter member of the Internet Advertising Bureau and a founder and Vice Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association.

“I have been impressed by the vision of Poptuit to make mobile connections easier, richer and more personal,” said Don Albert. “I’ve seen how innovative mobile communication services like Poptuit can grow exponentially and quickly become market leaders. I’m looking forward to leveraging my expertise and helping Henry and his team capture the enormous global opportunity in front of them.”
In addition to Albert joining the board of directors, Apptera also added four industry executives to their advisory board:

Tom Vadnais, former CEO of ValueClick, brings a wealth of operations and digital advertising experience to the Apptera advisory board. Vadnais began his career with IBM where he held several positions including VP of Operations for the PC division and assistant to the IBM CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Michael Bayle was recently named Senior Vice President and General Manager of ESPN Mobile where he is in charge of developing and managing all aspects of ESPN’s mobile strategy and execution. Prior to ESPN, Bayle served as VP of Monetization and Marketing at Amobee and Senior Director of Global Mobile Advertising at Yahoo! He also served as the Treasurer for the Mobile Marketing Association.

Larry Berkin is Vice President and General Manager of Asia-Pacific for Tapjoy, a leading independent mobile advertising network. Before joining Tapjoy, Berkin was the SVP of Global Alliances for the Symbian Foundation and before that was the VP of Corporate Development for Access Technologies.

Michael Cerda is Senior Vice President of Product at VEVO. Previously, Mike was the VP of Technology at MySpace and has also been a serial entrepreneur, founder and senior executive at numerous successful communications start-ups including Threadbox, Jajah, Jangl and Ooma.

“I am humbled and excited to benefit from the expertise that Tom, Michael, Larry and Mike will bring as advisors,” said Henry Vogel. “In addition to Don, their guidance, support and wisdom will be incredibly valuable to us as we scale Poptuit and pursue our vision to help people truly connect, easily share and communicate with their favorite people and places.”

About Apptera
Apptera is a pioneering mobile communications and advertising company. Through its advanced communication technology, infrastructure, and mobile advertising network, Apptera enhances mobile connections with multimedia content, personalization and interactivity.
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Apptera, a pioneer in mobile communications and advertising, today announced that it has been chosen as one of the AlwaysOn Global 250 for 2011. Inclusion in the AlwaysOn Global 250 signifies leadership and innovative approaches and technologies that are likely to transform existing markets in the global Silicon Valley.

Apptera was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team, and industry experts spanning the globe, based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

Apptera and the other AlwaysOn Global 250 companies will be honored at AlwaysOn’s ninth annual Innovation Summit on July 28th, 2011, at the Louis B. Mayer Theatre at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA.

This two-day executive gathering highlights the significant economic, political, and commercial trends affecting the global technology industries. The Innovation Summit’s goal is to identify the most promising entrepreneurial opportunities and investments in the global tech industry.

“This year’s AlwaysOn Global 250 are companies driven by the biggest mega-trends, including the accelerating growth of mobile users, cloud computing, and SaaS offerings, globalization, and the socialization of commerce and basically everything online,” says Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “This year’s winners clearly represent some of the highest-growth opportunities we’ve seen in the private company marketplace in the history of the global Silicon Valley.”

The AlwaysOn Global 250 winners were selected from among thousands of domestic and international technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists, and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2011 list.

Apptera was chosen for its innovative Voice & Visual MobileAd Network that provides advertisers, agencies, app developers and publishers a variety of powerful solutions to build engagement and drive revenue. Utilizing Apptera’s CallTextual targeting technology and Voice and Visual ad units, advertisers achieve excellent results on their campaigns while allowing publishers to monetize the traffic they generate.

“We’re honored to be chosen as a 2011 AlwaysOn Global 250 winner,” said Henry Vogel, President and CEO of Apptera. “Our integrated mobile engagement technologies, including an innovative new app we’re about to launch, give people the power to more truly connect, easily share and interact with their personal networks in more meaningful ways. It’s an exciting time to be in mobile and we look forward to being on the forefront of technology and innovation in Silicon Valley for years to come.”

A full list of all the AlwaysOn Global 250 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at:

http://www.aonetwork.com/AOStory/Announcing-2011-AlwaysOn-Global-250

About Apptera

Apptera is a pioneering mobile communications and advertising company. Through its advanced communication technology, infrastructure, and publisher network, Apptera enhances mobile connections with multimedia content, personalization and interactivity. To learn more, please visit http://www.apptera.com.

About AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn is the leading business media brand networking the Global Silicon Valley. AlwaysOn helped ignite the social media revolution in early 2003 when it launched the AlwaysOn network. In 2004, it became the first media brand to socially network its online readers and event attendees. AlwaysOnís preeminent executive event series includes the Innovation Summit, OnMedia, OnHollywood, Venture Summit Mid-Atlantic / IMPACT 2011, OnDemand, Venture Summit Silicon Valley, Venture Summit East, GoingGreen Silicon Valley, and GoingGreen East. The AlwaysOn network and live event series continue to lead the industry by empowering its readers, event participants, sponsors, and advertisers like no other media brand.

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Of course we do. With over 6.1 trillion text messages sent and over 50 million tweets sent daily in 2010 we can literally stay in touch around the clock. But do we really interact with each other as meaningfully as we used to? We’ve created an explosion of words, ideas and information. Over the past 50 years we’ve evolved from a simple world with three broadcast networks to a world with billions of networked broadcasts.

Today, one person can broadcast to a network of friends and followers as often as they’d like through a myriad of channels. These networked broadcasts have made our lives better. They’ve increased our individual efficiency and boosted our global connectedness. While the ‘shot heard round the world’ during the American Revolution actually took several months to communicate, the freedom cry from Tahrir Square took literally nanoseconds to dispatch. This communication explosion is a positive force for freedom and good for humanity.

But like many explosions, there’s also been collateral damage. It’s obvious to most culture watchers that the in-person conversations we used to have in our churches, town halls, and barbershops with family, friends and local merchants have waned with the growth of online texts, tweets, chats, status updates, blog posts and emails. Too many of the communications we make are broadcast in nature as opposed to direct, interactive and personal. But because broadcasts are so efficient and accessible, we rely on them and they’ve unfortunately replaced real interaction between people.

read the full article at Business Insider

One worth shouting about was Movie-ticketing King Kong-sized Fandango which announced a new working relationship with mobile ad network Apptera, to develop and operate 1-800-Fandango. It’s an interactive voice recognition app which will allow users to order movie show time and mobile ticketing service through voice technology.

Agency copywriters stuck on radio commercial-based accounts may dance and shout like Michael Jackson as audio-only voice become vogue as an integral part of the mobile experience.

According to Henry Vogel, president/CEO of Apptera, “Providing services that meet the needs of mobile users is a key part of being the No. 1 destination for movie information, showtimes and ticketing,” Mr. Vogel said. “Apptera’s technology and ad network fit within the company’s goals by delivering an interactive voice platform that’s easy for customers to access–100 percent of phones can ‘do’ voice calls, only 30 percent or so can ‘do’ mobile Web and/or apps.

read the full article at The Madison Avenue Journal