NetNames, M&C Saatchi, ‘Books Are My Bag’ , UK Gift Card & Voucher Association, Visa Europe

M&C Saatchi Launches ‘Books are My Bag’ Campaign to Reignite the Nation’s Love of Bookshops

Monday 9 September 2013. London. In a collaborative campaign between publishers, bookshops, authors and agents – devised by M&C Saatchi – booklovers across the UK & Ireland are being encouraged to join a national movement – ‘Books Are My Bag’ – to celebrate the cultural importance of books and bookshops.

The centrepiece of the campaign – which breaks on 14 September – is an iconic canvas bag sporting the simple but powerful statement: Books Are My Bag. More than 1,800 chain and independent bookshops will distribute a quarter of a million bags from 14 September until Christmas Day 2013. The bags allow readers to display their love and support for local bookshops, while encouraging others to do the same.

Visa Europe joins the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association

The UK Gift Card and Voucher Association (UKGCVA), the trade body representing the UK’s £4.7 billion voucher, gift card and stored value solutions industry, has today announced Visa Europe as the latest addition to its extensive members list.Visa Europe is the latest in a long list of companies to benefit from the membership in the UKGCVA. It joins other members which include a range of leading high street retailers, department stores, supermarkets, online retailers, B2B agencies and industry service providers.

Visa Europe is a payments business, constantly working at the forefront of technology to introduce new, easier and more secure payment options for its members and their customers. Visa cards are accepted at millions of places worldwide. It is the European payment system, wholly owned, controlled, and operated by its members which include banks and other payment service providers from 36 countries across Europe.

Andrew Johnson, director general of the UKGCVA, said:

“We are thrilled to welcome Visa Europe to the Association – a global brand that will bring invaluable expertise and experience to the wider membership. This is a great addition for the Association, and we hope that Visa Europe will enjoy all the benefits that come with being a member.”

NetNames launches market leading mobile apps monitoring and enforcement solution

Latest technology extends online brand protection to mobile platforms

London, U.K. – 9^th September 2013 – NetNames, the leading online brand protection provider, has today announced the launch of its mobile app monitoring and enforcement solution. The new tool provides brands with a monitoring solution for mobile marketplace stores that is designed to identify pirated, counterfeit, copycat or IP-infringing apps. The service also manages the removal of fraudulent or infringing apps and integrates with social media sites promoting links to fake, rogue or infringing programmes on mobile devices.

The scale of mobile marketplace sites is rapidly expanding with IT analyst house, Canalys, predicting that close to fifteen billion apps are now downloaded each quarter.[i] However, the threat that mobile poses is also continuing to grow with some industries reporting mobile piracy rates of up to 95 per cent.[ii] NetNames’ mobile app solution provides continuous, proactive monitoring of mobile marketplace sites to detect unauthorised or infringing apps by brand, developer, download volume, rating, price or image. Once infringements are identified, NetNames uses its expert analysts, relationships with marketplace providers and multi-lingual enforcement specialists to remove the availability of illegitimate apps.

NetNames’ mobile app monitoring solution will allow brands to:

• Gain improved visibility of the increasing range of mobile threats targeting brands
• Understand the scale, scope and origin of threats to identify those key developers creating fake or rogue apps
• Maintain the integrity of a brand and its value by using image recognition technology to identify any infringements using identical or similar images to an organisation’s brand or logo
• Protect customers by reducing the supply and availability of rogue apps that claim a false affiliation with brands
• Safeguard revenues by ensuring online customers use approved apps to access legitimate content