Treemo Blog

We recently launched (and announced) our innovative promotion with Alicia Keys and Keep a Child Alive. See below for widgets and banners - contest end February 28, 2008.

Here is the release:

KEYS LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE “AS I AM” MOBILE CONTEST TO SUPPORT A GOOD CAUSE AND CELEBRATE SUPERWOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

Seattle – JANUARY 29, 2008 – Multi-Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress and philanthropist Alicia Keys recently partnered with Seattle-based Treemo (http://www.treemo.com) to launch the innovative “As I Am” contest, a mobile and web contest to support the Keep A Child Alive (KCA) charity. The contest directly benefits KCA as Treemo will donate $1 to the cause for every unique user who enters the “As I Am” contest, up to $10,000.
Keys is the Global Ambassador for Keep a Child Alive, a charity providing an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. KCA provides comprehensive AIDS care to over 20,000 people living with AIDS; including provision of life-saving AIDS medications, nutritional support and treatment for AIDS-related illnesses. They also provide care and support to thousands of children who have lost their parents from this devastating disease. KCA uses 100% of public donations for the cause, a fact very few charities can honestly claim.

“This contest and Treemo’s support will not only increase our ability to spread the word about the realities of this pandemic, but also recruit more potential donors who can easily see they can indeed save the life of someone who needs their help. It’s only $1 a day to sustain a life; it’s time we all start giving a buck,” said Leigh Blake, Founder and President of KCA. For more information about Keep A Child Alive, visit http://www.keepachildalive.org/

The “As I Am” contest celebrates the third track on the album titled “Superwoman” by allowing fans to create a Treemo.com account at http://alicia.treemo.com and upload via their mobile phone or web, a photo, video, or text, telling a story about someone they know who is a “Superwoman.” Since launching, the contest has generated over a thousand entries from throughout the US, each full of rich personal stories of courage, admiration, and heart-felt nominations.
“Keep A Child Alive’s mission is to empower and inspire people to act and save lives. Now my fans can share with me in real-time, from anywhere anytime, their own personal stories of empowerment and help support KCA’s efforts,” said Alicia Keys.
At http://alicia.treemo.com, users may browse all the contest entries, receive updates on Alicia’s favorites, and download ring tones of her hit tracks “No One” and “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” from her number one multi-platinum selling album As I Am.
The contest will be promoted via a nationwide Top 40 radio campaign in major urban markets, from KKDA in Dallas to KUBE in Seattle to WJMN in Boston and more. Each of these radio stations will review the contest entries and select three winners to receive an iPod Touch and an As I Am CD signed by Keys. Each station will then choose three semi-finalists to compete for the grand prize concert trip giveaway to see Alicia Keys on tour in the United States. Fans may text ALICIA to 873366 to receive contest news and view the latest entries via their mobile phones. Entries for the “As I Am” contest must be received at http://alicia.treemo.com by February 28, 2008. For complete Contest Rules, visit http://alicia.treemo.com/static/contest_rules
As I Am Contest Radio Shortcode: Text ALICIA to 873366

“We are thrilled to partner with Alicia to power the “As I Am” contest and contribute to Keep a Child Alive,” said Brent Brookler, Treemo’s CEO. “Within the entertainment industry, we are witnessing the arrival of forward thinking artists like Alicia who are paving the way in the industry with integration of web and mobile community features to better connect with fans. Treemo’s platform allows these artists to promote their brand and social causes with powerful social media tools and creative campaigns that reward fans for participating in the artist’s community.
Banner and Widgets

<a href=”http://alicia.treemo.com/”><img src=”http://alicia.treemo.com/images/asiam/asiam_ad_250.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Do you know a Superwoman? Let Alicia Know! - Alicia Keys ‘AS I AM Contest’ - Your Chance to Win: VIP concert trip, iPod Touch, Autographed CD - Tell Your Story Today - Treemo - Keep A Child Alive” height=”250″ width=”250″ /></a>

<a href=”http://alicia.treemo.com/”><img src=”http://alicia.treemo.com/images/asiam/asiam_ad_468_60.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Alicia Keys ‘AS I AM Contest’ - Do you know a Superwoman? Let Alicia Know! - Treemo - Enter Now” height=”60″ width=”468″ /></a>

Treemo has teamed up with the Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.) to offer web and mobile media and community services. Treemo is hosting all the new videos on the DEF web site http://www.diamondempowerment.org and also developed def.treemo.com which is the beginning of a web and mobile community for D.E.F.

Founded in 2007, The Diamond Empowerment Fund™ (D.E.F.) is a non-profit international organization established by individuals and businesses in the diamond and jewelry industry and others who are committed to the empowerment of Africa. We believe education is one of the most critical elements that powers society and empowers individuals to realize their full human potential.

Here is our quote from the press release announcing D.E.F.’s new web site:

“Treemo is committed to providing D.E.F. with the latest tools in new media and mobile community, so that D.E.F. supporters, worldwide, can learn about D.E.F. stories and see, first hand, how their support for education in Africa is making a difference in the lives of Africans,” emphasized Brent Brookler, CEO of Treemo. “With the D.E.F. community available via mobile phones, a technology with far greater reach than internet technology in Africa, D.E.F. will be able to capture and share the stories of African Youth, who are D.E.F. educational recipients, and publish digital media instantly to D.E.F.’s Community across Web and Mobile Community sites.”

We are honored to be working with D.E.F. and look forward to the beginning of a long relationship with their team on being a positive force in the empowerment of Africa.

We recently launched a contest with our friends at Sony Pictures.  The prize is crazy funny - all things one needs to ‘pimp out their room’ - a SuperBad, customized, supersized LoveSac, KingPong beer pong table, Pimpit gear, and more..  Contest ends December 21, so hurry up and enter to win.

Check the contest here.

We are happy to announce that ‘justplainjen’ has won our most recent contest in conjunction with the movie Brother’s Solomon from Sony Pictures.

Our judges felt that her entry was most original, creative and marketable and therefore took the top prize of $1000!!

Congrats ‘justplainjen!!’

We are happy to announce Gangstaa as the winner of our Velvet Revolver - “What does ‘Libertad’ means to me?” Contest.

Rachel and her guest - her sister - have arrived in NYC for the concert.

Check out her channel right here:

We are honored to be working with Velvet Revolver on a user generated contest in conjunction with the release of their new album, ‘Libertad.’  We are asking users to upload photos, videos, and words on what Libertad means to them.

The winner will get two tickets to see Velvet Revolver at Jones Beach on August 18, 2007 (NY), airfare for two, and accommodations for two nights in New York City.  Farecast is sponsoring the airfare.

The entries are flowing in here but we are still looking for that entry that seals the deal and will be going to NYC on us at Treemo.

Thanks and good luck!

So, we are now less than two weeks away to the coming of the iPhone. It has gotten so much press and momentum, with the cool ads, the previews, the digerati saying that this is going to change everything in the mobile world. It is exciting.

I’ve been developing mobile applications since 1999, early WAP, SMS, MMS, J2ME, BREW, and now back to WAP or XHTML or mobile internet through Treemo. The iPhone is shedding the light and pushing the mobile internet to the mainstream - at least the tech savvy mainstream. All this hysteria is good for ‘mobile data.’ There is a ton of talk about about how this could change the whole ecosystem.

Do I think it’s going to change everything? No. It takes a long time for phones to go ‘mainstream’ - it will take years if the iPhone is a huge hit to become a major phone to ‘build’ to. Is it going to be a force in the mobile world? Yes, but not sure to what effect immediately, but I will not count it out. Will Treemo develop something specifically for the iPhone? Yes. Not because we think this is the biggest opportunity ever, but.. go to next question.. Will it take long for us to develop? No, because our platform is built for this kind of stuff. You should see a iPhone specific ‘view’ within a couple weeks of the iPhone coming out. Am I going to wait in line to get one? No - not into that waiting on line stuff, but if you have one, please send my way.

So, we’re excited about the iPhone as it will draw more attention to mobile internet applications and bring competitors up a notch. It will drive mobile data - AT&T is going to have a great run with this. Everyone who buys this phone will also buy the $20/month ‘all you can eat’ data plan. Treemo will look and run great on the iPhone and we’re psyched to see it on there.

Come back in a few to see Treemo on your iPhone.

Well, it’s time to pick up the pace here. More blog posts, maybe beyond company news and features, we should pontificate about the market.. anyway. We have a lot brewing here and getting ready for a pretty big release with some long awaited new features.

In the meantime, on a personal note, my wife and I had our second daughter, Lilia, on May 20. A photo of her on the scale was on Treemo less than an hour after she was born ;).

Here is a preview of what’s coming… more news and pontification I promise..

We got some press last week, sorry for the late notice on it. Doug Dobbins did a video interview of us for the Spokane Spokesman Review - you can find it right here. Doug did a good job of showing what we do through video - we love video here, in fact we love photos, video, audio and text..

We quietly, or not so quietly released ‘80′ last week as well - while not too many obvious web features, there is a lot ‘under the hood’ including full international support. Does that imply something for the future? Hmm.. not sure.. Anyway, we had a couple issues on the mobile application with this release, but all better now. We also added ‘mobile preferences’ with ‘block user’ and other default preferences for notifications and privacy of content now all accessible from the mobile.

We are gearing up for a big release very soon - date TBD - it will be a summer gift. More news coming soon..

This past weekend was Arts Corps’ 7 Annual Festa del Arte - their annual fund raising event. Arts Corps is a Seattle Non-profit that teaches arts of all types - visual, dance, poetry, and digital photography and much, much more. They set up after school programs all over King County (Seattle and area), Washington.

This was my second time at the event and it is not only a great time with lots of great people, but truly inspirational to see such a healthy non-profit doing such great things. Arts Corps has some great funders from Boeing to Starbucks, to Bill and Melinda Gates, to the Allen Foundation to the Kirlin Foundation and many more and many individuals. Their budget continues to grow and their programs are in constant and growing demand. They are expanding as fast as they can…

Treemo has been a partner of Arts Corps for more than a year- we help start their digital photography classes. We helped get them donated digital cameras and we ended up buying them several digital cameras for their classes moving forward. Students post their photos and videos on Treemo - when their classrooms allow outside browsing.

Here is a video of 18 year old poet Jenna Whittington talking about ‘art’:

Here is a video of some ‘hip hop’ dancing of Arts Corps students and teachers: