double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Before you get your knickers in a bunch I have to tell you that I don’t hate Google. I love Google. Sure, DoublePositive runs its systems on a Microsoft platform. Sure, we process millions of leads per month and capture hundreds of gigs of data on a weekly basis – all on a Microsoft foundation that is rock solid. But that doesn’t mean I am a Microsoft activist. Nor am I an Apple fanboi (yes, it is spelled with an ‘i’). Yes, I own an iPhone, and an iPod, and an AppleTV, and a Macbook, but not that craptastic Airport Express. In fact, as a technologist I love all these companies. But I love Google a little bit more. ;) I love the story, I love the logo, I love their clothing line, and I love the breadth of the work they do. However, Google is having their lunch eaten…by Amazon.

Amazon? I never saw any book sales on Google’s balance sheet? Oh, so you must be talking about Amazon’s announcement of its public release of the all-new and improved A9 platform for consumer use. I kid, I kid. Ok seriously, what I am talking about is that Amazon is kicking Google’s butt in one particular market. And that is the mindshare and market of software developers.

Sometime in the mid-2000’s someone at Amazon realized that the tools and processes they use internally could be valuable to the developer and business community. Starting with the release of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in 2007 Amazon AWS was born. Ever since, Amazon has been on a tear, releasing valuable developer service after valuable developer service. At the same time (circa 1980) Google mashups were all the rage. Everyone wanted to have a Google maps mashup (ok, fine, it only feels like 30 years ago). Since then, however, Google for the developer community has been stagnant. Between that stupid ‘by invite only’ setup, and a series of Google mishaps (Google Wave, Google Voice Search, Google Phone, no cloud computing, etc.) Google is losing the battle for the mind of the business software developer. There is no way I can possibly present a full analysis on the two companies with respect to their developer mindshare strategy without writing a book. Instead, here is my non-comprehensive and biased comparison chart:

Amazon Services vs. Google Services

A lot of what you see above may not be important to you or your business. But that’s not the issue. The issue here is that Amazon has first mover advantages in almost all of the areas listed above. At first I thought most of the Amazon advantages only applied to small or nimble companies like DoublePositive. However, the more CIOs I talk to, the more are using Amazon. Cloud Computing and large-scale storage are not fun to implement nor are they easy to manage. Lots and lots of companies, big and small are willing to pay a premium just to offload the headache. Additionally, Amazon is churning out high quality services at a rate that Google cant match. Google is stuck in perpetual beta mode and can’t get out of its own way. So what does all this mean for Google and Amazon? I don’t know. I do know that everyone I talk to is jumping on the Amazon bandwagon as fast as they possibly can. From the largest of companies to the newest of startups, Amazon is taking more and more developer mindshare. What I do know is that Amazon is transforming itself into the go to business partner for growing and nimble business while Google is continuing down the path of B2C dominance. Can the two coexist peacefully? Will their paths converge and turn into a battle for the ages? How does Microsoft fit into this picture? It’s going to be a great story to watch. I need some popcorn.

P.S. Here are some projects that we implemented using Amazon:

1. Large scale file management (hundreds of millions of files)
2. DNS
3. Geographical load balancing
4. Data Cubing
5. Quality Control on repetitive tasks
6. B2B database building
7. System backups
8. Image tagging
9. Transcription Services

Agreement Represents another Top-tier Client Addition to the Managed Services offering from DoublePositive

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Education-Management-bw-55070469.html?x=0&.v=1

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/education-management-corporation-online-higher-education-edmc-ohe-selects-doublepositive-marketing-group-as-its-online-marketing-agency-of-record-2010-06-01?reflink=MW_news_stmp

BALTIMORE, Jun 01, 2010  — DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. announced today that it has been chosen by Education Management Corporation — Online Higher Education (EDMC OHE) as their Online Marketing Agency of Record for all Online Marketing across all EDMC OHE brands (including South University Online, Argosy University Online, and The Art Institutes Online). EDMC OHE is among the largest providers of private post-secondary online education in North America. This agreement builds upon the existing LIVE Hot Transfers(TM) relationship between DoublePositive and EDMC OHE.

Founded in 2004, DoublePositive has expanded its offerings into the Education, Insurance, Mortgage, and Automotive industries. As the leading provider of LIVE Hot Transfers(TM) for sales organizations, DoublePositive broadened its offerings into Online Marketing Managed Services in 2009. The DoublePositive Marketing Agency of Record agreement with EDMC OHE follows a similar agreement with a national auto insurance carrier.

"Having developed a strong partnership with EDMC over the years, we are thrilled that our relationship has grown to encompass Managed Services for EDMC OHE and all of their brands," said Sean Fenlon, CEO of DoublePositive. "We are deeply embedded within EDMC OHE in order to push their online marketing up and beyond best-practices."

Any business that can add genuine value to this relationship between EDMC OHE and DoublePositive are asked to contact Casey Cook immediately using the contact information below:

Casey Cook, 410-991-4510
casey@doublepositive.com

DoublePositive and Leads360 are pleased to announce the industry’s first joint webinar.

Both DoublePositive and Leads360 are value added partners that are a true extension to the sales force. We work together on dozens of mutual accounts and thought it would be a great idea to host a webinar to go over our services separately as well as congruently.

Each company will give a demo of their service and explain in detail how we can help your sales team get more out of the leads you are buying.

About Leads360:
Leads360 is the market and technology leader in Web-based customer acquisition and lead management solutions. We enable buyers and sellers of consumer Internet leads to achieve unparalleled return on investment. Our clients can realize maximum lead value through our purpose-built technology, success-driven training, highly responsive support team, and superior intelligence surrounding lead performance. Leads360 currently manages more than 12,500,000 leads and serves over 500 clients in the most competitive business-to-consumer industries.

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc.

DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. was founded in late 2004 with the specific purpose of bridging the “last mile” of converting traditional (data-only) leads into sales. More primitive versions of marketing provide leads to sales professionals in data form, requiring sales professionals to work through the data themselves in order to find a genuinely interested and genuinely qualified consumer. DoublePositive has evolved the model of lead generation so as to provide sales professionals with a live, qualified, and interested consumer, along with the consumer’s data, all in real time. DoublePositive primarily serves clients and lead providers in the mortgage leads, online education enrollment leads, and insurance leads industries.

Click here to register:
DoublePositive & Leads360 Webinar

In our endless effort to find creative ways to reach prospective customers, we have tested several new advertising channels. So far, we have talked to and are fans of Millennial Media, AdMob, Voodovox, Ingenio, Free411, and a few other mobile or pay per call channels, all of which have some unique approach or claim to fame to hang their hat on.

But, the one vendor who’s approach has intrigued me the most is Mobile Posse, and I think this is due to my undisputed status as a foolish gadget geek who likes to save money but is too lazy to clip coupons….

[Side Bar: To illustrate my credentials as a foolish gadget geek….. I had wireless email in 1992 on an HP Clam shell device and some sort of wireless modem that worked on its own data network of some kind (Air Card maybe???). I had the first Palm, and the first Wireless Palm (the Palm VII), which I used to dispatch service calls to PC techs in the field. I had the very first (and the third, and the fourth, and the eighth) Blackberry device.]

Mobile Posse is providing advertising on cell phones just as I imagined it would be when the buzz began a few years ago. Namely, they provide Ads on the device from a client side application that is pre-loaded on the device. I suppose others are or will e doing this as well, but this is the first I’ve seen of this approach, and I think it is quite compelling.

If I put my “consumer” hat on, the other forms of traditional mobile advertising that I have seen don’t excite me too much. Now, I agree that the future market must be huge with all of the buzz, and the behemoths heading in that direction. But, traditional banner and text ads on web sites accessed by a mobile device just isn’t what I expected when I first thought of mobile advertising. It’s just a normal ad accessed by a mobile device. Ok, ok… the potential for Brand Advertisers will be Huge based on the sheer volume, and the ability to easily click-to-call will be cool for lead generators…. but for some reason Retail Coupon aspect of the client delivered model really caught my attention. Let me explain.

The way I believe the Mobile Posse platform works is a consumer buys a phone from a carrier that has a deal with Mobile Posse. The device is pre-loaded with an application that connects to Mobile Posse. When the device is Idle for a certain period of time, an Ad or a news item is delivered to the device and the screen lights up and displays the highly creative image. The user can choose the “View More” button to view the one or two page ad, news item, weather report, coupon, etc. If the user hits ANY other button on the phone, the Ad or news item goes away. Ads are then stored in an easily accessible folder on the device for future use.

The samples that I saw were things like “Show this Coupon at Dunkin Doughnuts and receive a free small coffee…”. I don’t believe they have geo-specific ad delivery at this time, but they do know the address you used to buy the phone, so have an idea of where you are likely to be, how old you are, etc…. assuming they get this data from the carrier.. not sure though.

Now, for a guy like me, this is pretty cool. I’m pretty lazy. I will not seek out coupons or ads. And if I see one that is interesting, I will not put forth much effort to bookmark it or save it. However, I Love Dunkin Doughnuts coffee, I like to save money, and I ALWAYS have my cell phone with me. If I know I have seen an ad on my phone before, and I can easily retrieve it from a folder on my cell phone, and show it at the cash register to get free stuff, I’m all over it!

If I put my Retail Advertiser’s Hat on for a second, it feels like this would give me the ability to reach out and put a coupon in the pocket of tens of thousands of my prospective customers who will most likely have it on them the next time they stop in my store. Afterall, when’s the last time you left the house without your cell phone? nice……..

Workflow is an integral part of what we do at DoublePositive.  In its basic form the DoublePositive workflow consists of taking leads in, processing those leads in a data format, then converting those leads to live hot transfers.  Of course, anyone who has worked in the online marketing space will tell you thats its not simple.  There are tons of regulatory issues that have to be addressed, business rules that have to be adhered to, lead optimization techniques that need to be applied, privacy concerns that need to be taken care of, quality control mechanisms that need to fire, and other various rules, concerns, issues, and processes that need to be applied to each and every single piece of data that comes through our virtual doorstep.  With our philosophy of real time all the time,  a sophisticated, flexible, and scalable workflow architecture is an absolute necessity. 

This week DoublePositive released what ultimately is going to be the pièce de résistance of the DoublePositive technology platform.  Windows Workflow Foundation is an engine that allows organizations with simple or complex workflow based business rules to easily integrate, manage, and modify those workflows and business rules inside of applications.  In this first release of the DoublePositive Workflow Architecture (DWA) the system automates a number of integrations that the business does – to suppliers, clients, and other systems internally.  The DWA has a flexible architecture that allows us to perform any number of industry standard or proprietary data integrations in real time including SMTP integrations, SOAP integrations, and straight HTTP Get or Post integrations among others.  Check back often for more updates to the DWA. 

Here at DoublePositive we look to develop a wide range of sophisticated applications that address the business needs of our customer base.  As a result, we have developed a foundation of software applications that have propelled DoublePositive to one of the fastest growing companies in the country.  In the 2+ years that DoublePositive has been around, we have developed applications utilizing Microsoft Sharepoint, Windows Workflow Foundation,  SQL Server 2005, and the .NET Framework.  These applications have a rich user interface that includes the liberal use of Ajax and mashups.  As we continue our explosive growth, I was confronted with how to disseminate information to all the parties that need / like to know about the great things we are doing with our technology.  In that vain, I plan on blogging our Technology updates and learnings.  We are on the cutting edge of using Web 2.0 for daily business and transactional usage.  Understanding how Web 2.0 intersects with business needs is a fascinating concept - one I hope to shed light on by showing how DoublePositive addresses that issue.  Check this blog often to see what we are up.  If you have any questions or would like to know more about what we doing email me at: s y e d @ d o u b l e p o s i t i v e . c o m