Monthly Archives: May 2011

Help Support Children’s Hospitals through SocialVibe

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals provide the finest medical care, life saving research and preventive education to help million of kids overcome diseases and injuries of every kind and they need your help to make it happen. By completing an activity thru SocialVibe (found on right-bottom of blog), you’ll make sure that every children receives the care they need, regardless of their parent’s ability to pay.  Each activity you complete will help provide funding for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

About Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals was founded with two simple goals.

  1. Help as many children as possible by raising funds for children’s hospitals.
  2. Keep funds in the community in which they were raised to help local children.

The organization was founded by Marie Osmond and her family, John Schneider, Mick Shannon and Joe Lake.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals most recognizable symbol and greatest fundraising tool is its red and yellow Miracle Balloon icon.

As of 2011, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4.3 billion—most of which is donated a dollar or two at a time.

Children’s Miracle Network brings together vast network of supporters from corporations and organizations to media partners to people like you who collaborate to raise funds for children’s hospitals near them. Working side by side, this united community rallies around children and the hospitals that help them.

Read more about Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

About SocialVibe

REAL Causes.

REAL Sponsors.

REAL Impact.

SocialVibe is the easiest way to help the causes you care about, without having to spend any money.

SocialVibe reaches over 200 million people every month with premium engagement advertising.

SocialVibe is a social networking website with over 1,750,000 members founded by Joe Marchese, Brandon Mills and David Levy, that aims to reward publishers of social media content through mechanisms such as donations to their charity of choice. After joining SocialVibe, in addition to creating a personal profile, users are asked to select their favorite cause to support and to choose a sponsor. Once they have done so, they can earn points for themselves, which can be redeemed for a variety of different perks and money for their respective charities by posting their “badge” (a kind of advertisement prominently displaying their chosen sponsor) to another social networking site. The more a SocialVibe user’s networking site is visited, the more points they are able to earn.

SocialVibe received $4.2 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures in December 2007.  It was launched in February 2008 in public beta, and, as of October 19, 2009, its members have raised a total of more than $700,000 for their respective charities. On August 25, SocialVibe formed a partnership with Interpublic, one of four major advertising holding companies worldwide, and its largest liaison to date.

In spite of recent economic decline, in January 2009, JAFCO Ventures led an initiative along with Redpoint Ventures to raise the total amount invested in the company to $12 million, as the company shifts to a revenue sharing model with the charities it represents (all of the money raised on SocialVibe formerly went to the charity itself).

SocialVibe Digital Advertising.

In August 2010, SocialVibe launched SocialVibe Ads, a digital advertising solution reaching 200 million consumers every month. The ad network had been operating in beta for months prior to its launch, and by August 2010 it had already powered major ad campaigns for brands such as Microsoft, Visa, Apple, Disney, Coca Cola, Kia, Kraft, Macys, Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Discover.The ad company, which includes owned-and-operated charity site SocialVibe, powers social media engagements that offer incentives for users to interact with brand messaging in a unique value exchange.

Read more about SocialVibe.

CapitaMalls Asia to grow portfolio

CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) is planning to acquire at least seven more malls by the end of the year, to grow its S$24.1-billion global portfolio to 100 properties. This is in line with plans to acquire another S$2 billion worth of new projects this year.

All eyes are on the growth of the Chinese market, which makes up the lion’s share of the portfolio in terms of gross floor area (GFA) at 70 per cent, ahead of Singapore at 20 per cent, Malaysia, India and Japan.

CMA wants to enhance its early mover advantage in China, and has set out a longer term vision to double the number of malls there within three to five years.

That could help the Chinese market catch up with Singapore’s lead in terms of asset value, where Singapore contributes 55 per cent of the portfolio.

“We started to grow a lot of our shopping malls, maybe a bit too early in 2004, 2005, but we are seeing the results coming through… In the next two, three years, China will have a bigger base and from there we can launch to grow even further,” said Mr Lim Beng Chee, CEO of CMA.

To accelerate that growth, CMA will be rolling out its 3rd Generation (3G) malls concept this year, where standardised building designs will be used to cut down costs and reduce construction time from three to two years.

“The concept involves a common tenant mix and layout, which will also make it easier to negotiate the lease of multiple locations at one go,” said Mr Chan Kong Leong, CMA’s general manager for West China.

Another key change is a smaller proportion of space given to anchor tenants. They will now be allocated only about 30 per cent of the net lettable area, down from at least half previously.

This creates a higher upside for yields and helps the mall become more profitable faster. But CMA adds that there will be exceptions to its cookie cutter approach and some malls could still have special designs if they have good locations.

CMA is also banking on a strategy of focusing on the mass market segment because of the flexibility and economies of scale it creates.

Euromonitor market research firm estimates that there are currently about 1,200 malls in China – with up to 150 malls built each year for the past eight years.

In response to this high demand, Chengdu’s CapitaMall Jinniu is being expanded to a gross floor area of more than 2 million sq ft or more than twice the size of VivoCity.

CMA added that it is also now more positive about the prospects of third- and fourth-tier cities than it was a few years ago, and is considering opening more malls in cities it already is in.

Source : Today – 23 May 2011