TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Talking Tom Strikes In-App Merchandising Deal, Wearing Soccer Colors

By TechTaffy Desk

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Talking Tom is wearing virtual-branded merchandise. Working with Iconicfuture and Digital Artists, Outfit7, the company behind the popular Talking Friends,  enters the digital marketplace with the integration of virtual-branded merchandise from six of the world’s most popular soccer clubs in Spain, Italy, England, France and Portugal.

Paul Baldwin (CMO, Outfit7): In the same way app networks are becoming the new studio system where beloved characters are born, in-app branding is the new form of strategic product placement.

As of this month, soccer fans will be able to dress Talking Tom in team-branded gear to show support for some of the world’s premier soccer clubs including Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Olympique de Marseille and SL Benfica. The six teams have won a combined total of 130 National Championships and over 30 European Championships.

Outfit7, the company behind the popular talking cat app, said that Talking Tom Cat, one of the 14 Talking Friends characters, has surpassed 100 million downloads since first launching in July 2010.  Talking Friends characters have reached more than 90 million monthly active users worldwide, says the company.

Talking Friends averages over 25 million downloads per month, with more than 500,000 videos being uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and sent by email and MMS.

 

Just in

Series E

Vercel raises $250M

San Francisco-based Vercel, a frontend cloud platform provider, has secured $250 million in Series E funding, bringing the company's valuation to $3.25 billion.
Series A

Worky raises $6M (Mexico)

Mexico City-based Worky, a provider of HR and payroll software solutions for Mexican companies, has closed a $6 million Series A financing round.
Industry

Amazon announces $1.31B investment in France

Amazon has announced a new investment of about $1.31 billion (€1.2 billion) in France, which the company says will lead to the creation of over 3,000 permanent jobs in the country.
Around the web

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky to step down — CNBC

Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon’s cloud computing business, will step down from his role next month. Matt Garman, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Amazon Web Services, will succeed Mr. Selipsky after he exits the company June 3, writes Annie Palmer. 
AI

Palo Alto Networks, Accenture expand alliance to offer generative AI services

Palo Alto Networks and Accenture have announced the expansion of their strategic alliance to provide new offerings that combine Palo Alto Networks' Precision AI technology with Accenture's secure generative AI services.