Like the Olympic torch, this blog tries to stay bright while travelling the world.

This week's guest contributor:
Andrea Casalini, CEO of Buongiorno and Board member of NewCo Lumata

To all the readers of this blog, I am very pleased to announce that today is a special day for us at Buongiorno. After months of intense work, we unveil Lumata, a newly formed stand alone entity which combines a number of Buongiorno assets under one focused brand with strong private equity backing by Francisco Partners. The joint venture will see Francisco Partners take a majority share holding of 70 per cent and Buongiorno the remaining 30 per cent. Our project has turned into reality, a reality I am proud of and excited about.

After 10 years, during which Buongiorno has emerged as the clear global leader in the market of paid content on mobile, in 2011 it has become progressively clear that it was the right time for us to refocus our business scope, carve out the majority of our mobile marketing, loyalty/CRM and advertising business in a new venture and kick start a new wave of growth. With Lumata focused on its market segments, Buongiorno will now pursue aggressively its growth plan...

Finally, it looks like mobile e-gaming has arrived. Forrester's recent research says optimism is justified for several reasons:
· Increasing penetration of smartphones and tablets
· Faster, more stable networks
· Innovation which follows integration of Web, Mobile and TV

B! agrees, especially with the last point. We entered the regulated eGaming sector back in 2010, confident that we could build a strategy which differentiated us, built on our core competencies (mobile entertainment and interactive TV ) and allowed us to stand above a crowded market dominated by the traditional gambling giants.

After 18 months, we’re happy to see that the market recognizes our efforts. Winga – our eGaming brand – emerges as one of the very few surprises in the Forrester report:

“Buongiorno, the mobile entertainment pioneer, recently launched Winga, a new skill game brand, in Italy, then in France, and will soon launch the brand in Spain. The company aims at becoming a European leader in the skill gaming space. Leveraging its mobile expertise and its ability to manage audience and traffic, Buongiorno is aiming at a multiplatform play &mda...

In my previous life I used to be a journalist, running the newsroom of Italy's oldest newspaper, Gazzetta di Parma. It was a champion of local issues and we were obsessed about covering the news in every single neighborhood.

I have always tried to be a forward thinker, but back then if someone had told me of a glossy colour newspaper with editions issued almost every second, distributed free and featuring news, pictures and video, offers from local shops, restaurant guide with instant booking, and opinions provided by people walking around me, well … I would have asked myself “what the hell this guy smoked?!”

Instead, what I have just described is Proximitips, th...

The Mobile Entertainment Forum has invited me to speak at MEF Global 2011 in London today.

The conference is entitled 'Mobile Content & Commerce', and it reflects the transformation of our industry - a transformation Buongiorno have addressed for some time. With the acquisition of Dada.net, Buongiorno Group became the undisputed global leader in mobile content, but from 2009 onwards we invested in key trends we believe will drive future growth and deliver our vision of enabling the mobile connected life.

As Head of New Business, I have the privilege of overseeing the incubation and launch of many projects in social media, mobile payments and mobile commerce, and during my panel (Mobile Routes to Market – A Critical Analysis) I will share key learnings with an audience representing brands, media, mobile pure plays, finance, carriers and hardware manufacturers.

What will I tell them? Never trust prophecies and common wisdom, but rely on true experts; do be obsessed with the User experience; don't let popular battles - Facebook v. Google, native apps v. web apps - worry you, because your business can only benefit from diversity.

See the full presentation i...

Like the Olympic torch, this blog tries to stay bright while travelling the world.

This week's guest contributor:
Adhish Kulkarni, Head of Telecoms Loyalty and Product Solutions

‘Loyalty’ in its various forms and definitions is firmly back on the Telco agenda, using marketing budgets to drive mobile Loyalty and CRM campaigns.

A new study commissioned by Buongiorno, examines consumer attitudes toward churn and mobile loyalty programmes. The research, conducted by Analysys Mason and Buongiorno on consumers in both developed and emerging markets, highlights five key areas to think about for those considering implementing a mobile loyalty scheme....