KeyLimeTie Blog
Nate Pautsch, son of KeyLimeTie Co-Founder & CEO Chris Pautsch, has participated in the St. Baldrick's Foundation Shave-a-thon for the last four years in honor of his friend Mikayla Sweeney. Nate met Mikayla, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of 5, at school, and the pair became fast friends. Since then, Nate continues to shave his head to raise money for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which raises funds for life-saving childhood cancer research.
Mikayla says that “because of organizations like St. Baldrick’s, I have been in remission for four years.”
Nate is once again raising money for all the children suffering from cancer. Nate will shave his head on March 8 in recognition of Mikayla and in culmination of raising funds for St. Baldrick’s.
Today, February 26, is Nate’s birthday. And all Nate wants for his birthday is to raise funds for childhood cancer research on behalf of Mikayla and for St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
Will you make a $10 donation on behalf of Nate’s 10th Birthday for Mikayla and St. Baldrick’s Foundation? Your $10 donation could help a child suffering with cancer enter remission from life-saving research and celebrate their 10th birthday: View Nate's Donation Page
Nate is not asking you to shave your head. He will take one for the team. All he wants is for you to donate the cost of two grande vanilla lattes to help fund life-saving childhood cancer research.
Nate’s parents, Chris and Tricia, could not be more proud of their son, Nate, and what he has done for his friend Mikayla and St. Baldrick’s Foundation. On May 10, 2013, Nate will receive the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals (Chicago Chapter). This is a huge honor! Nate will receive his award alongside Kerry and Sarah Wood, BMO Harris Bank, and other leading Chicago philanthropists.
The staff of KeyLimeTie would like to congratulate Nate on his award and we hope you can support this fabulous cause. Congrats, Nate!
In the spirit of its namesake, the Chicago Innovation Awards has partnered with interactive design agency KeyLimeTie, to introduce a free iPhone app to facilitate mobile voting for this years The People’s Choice Award – an award category designed to allow the public to cast their votes for their favorite innovation of the year.
“We’re excited to be able to open up the voting to more people with this state-of-the-art mobile app developed by KeyLimeTie,” said Luke Tanen, Executive Director of the Chicago Innovation Awards, “It’s wonderful to have something so innovative be used to vote on things that are also so innovative.”
For the 11th consecutive year, the Chicago Innovation Awards will celebrate the creative spirit of the Chicago region by honoring its most innovative new products and services. Past winning organizations ranged in size from small to large, were both for-profit and not-for-profit, and came from high tech, low tech or no tech. All previous winners shared a common commitment to innovation.
“The Chicago Innovation Awards app was designed with the intent to provide the nominees with access and exposure to a much larger voting audience than others have had in the past,” said Chris Pautsch, Co-Founder and CEO of KeyLimeTie, “We were delighted and honored to share in the announcement of its availability during last weeks Nominee Reception at the House of Blues, and excited for those who will use it to submit their vote for this year’s Peoples Choice Award.”
Voting for the 2012 People’s Choice Awards is open through October 5, 2012. The 2012 Chicago Innovation Awards presentation will take place on October 22, 2012 at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Tickets are on sale now for the event.
To view this years list of nominees and cast a vote for your favorite innovation, download the 2012 Chicago Innovation Award iPhone app from iTunes App Store.
Inc.
Magazine recently named KeyLimeTie to its 2012 Inc. 5000 List, an exclusive ranking
of the nation's fastest-growing private companies in the US. Ranked at No. 2171,
KeyLimeTie joins 240 other Chicago area-based companies, including customers Authentify,
PLS Financial Services, Parts Town and Meatheads, among other
prominent brands featured on this year’s list.
“Being recognized by Inc. Magazine is a significant accomplishment and designation
that we aspired to achieve when we started KeyLimeTie 5 years ago” said Chris Pautsch,
Co-Founder and CEO of KeyLimeTie. “We are proud to be included with the other companies
on the list who have achieved similar, accelerated growth over the past few years.”
For the 3-year period, KeyLimeTie achieved a 119 percent revenue growth rate putting
it ahead of the median growth rate of 2012 Inc. 5000 companies of 97 percent.
“Our company’s growth is directly attributable to our talented staff and our outstanding
clients who continue to trust in our insight and expertise to elevate their brands
and reputations through technology and innovation,” said Brian Pautsch, Co-Founder
and President of KeyLimeTie. “Being ranked amongst the Inc. 5000 is an incredible
honor for us and a great acknowledgement of our hard work.”
Complete results of the Inc. 5000 List, including company profiles and an interactive
database that can be sorted by industry, region and other criteria, can be found
at www.inc.com/5000.
Read the press release here:
www.prweb.com/releases/2012/8/prweb9850221.htm.
For the third consecutive year KeyLimeTie has been named one of Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ by the National Association for Business Resources (NABR). The award recognizes Chicago-area businesses that display a commitment to excellence in their human resources practices and employee enrichment.
“We are delighted and honored to be included in this list of Chicago’s premier workplaces,” said Chris Pautsch, Co-Founder and CEO of KeyLimeTie. “Being recognized as a best place to work is significant because it’s decided by our employees, and they are the people who make the difference in our business every single day.”
The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition is a program of the National Association for Business Resources and is presented annually throughout the United States. Organizations are assessed based on categories such as communication, work-life balance, employee education, diversity, recognition, retention and more.
"The selection, recognition and awarding of Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ allows businesses to showcase their best practices and demonstrate why each of them would be an ideal place for employees to work. This year's winning companies represent high standards and are an example for other companies to emulate," said Jennifer Kluge, NABR President. "We are proud to honor this year's 101 winners."
“As a growing company, we continually seek to attract and hire the best candidates in our industry,” said Christen Blaze, Director of Human Resources at KeyLimeTie. “This recognition from NABR provides a sense of validation and reassurance to both our current employees and those looking to join KeyLimeTie, that this is a place they want to work.”
Read the Press Release here:http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/8/prweb9801892.htm
Today, on our 5th anniversary at KeyLimeTie, we’re excited to announce another excellent product. MojoBistro, built especially for restaurants, lets individuals and
organizations create and maintain their own customer-centric mobile apps and websites.
Have you considered an iPhone, Android, or Windows app or mobile website for your restaurant? Today, in May 2012, there’s more reason than ever to join the mobile revolution.
Specifically designed with restaurants in mind, our unique set of features showcases the menu, increases reservations, offers an ordering solutions, connects users with your location wherever they are, and interacts with your and their already existing social networks such as Yelp, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.
Launching on May 5-8, 2012 at the National Restaurant Association, KeyLimeTie is proud to announce this industry-changing product that’s already garnering national attention even before its launch.
Attending the NRA Show 2012? Visit us at Booth #7173 in the North Hall.
Throughout the coming months, we’ll highlight upgrades to MojoBistro and other happy news that you will definitely want to pay attention to. Of course, you can expect that at KeyLimeTie, we’re making waves in designing, developing and delivering high-quality interactive solutions.
MojoBistro isn’t successful until you are, so we’ve produced a series marketing tools to make restaurants’ app a success--online and off. Also follow our social media channels to get constant recommendations for marketing your apps. ‘Like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @MojoBistro for our latest tools, features and new developments.
Is your company considering creating a web or mobile application? Whether you’re in the beginning or end stage of the mobile development process, with the proper outreach, you’re poised to connect with mobile and smartphone users across the US and internationally. More and more, customers are looking for solutions to daily challenges that your business may be able to fulfill.
In this article, we’re going to untangle the debate on native v. web applications and consider how mobile advertising could affect your business. Also, we provide insight into why these two mobile options are essential in connecting with your mobile consumers using recent analyses.
What’s the difference?
There are several major differences between native and web applications. The most significant difference is that web applications are like mobile websites, whereas native applications have to be downloaded on the phone. Downloadable native applications often have a more rich user experience, may be slightly quicker, doesn’t always require cellular coverage, and may offer more multimedia content.
Who’s mobile?
Smartphone penetration now represents between 30-50% of mobile users depending on country (currently around 35% in the USA). There are
100MM smartphone users in the United States alone, with around 1.1 billion of the 5 billion mobile phones being smartphones. Of those users, 9 of 10 use their phone on a daily basis.
According to
TechCrunch, “as mobile phone useage increases and smartphone adoption grows, more and more consumers are using their mobile for functions other than phone calls.” This shows, as application downloads continues to increase, now at around 49% of subscribers downloading applications, and 48.5 using browsers. That’s a lot of opportunity to connect with your target audience where they’re interested in learning more about your product or service!
Are other companies investing in mobile?
Increasingly, companies across the spectrum are starting to consider mobile as part of their marketing strategy. Mobile ad spending has increased significantly since 2007, and is projected to continue to nearly double year on year. In 2012, mobile-ad spend (including banner, rich media and video) is projected to grow 80% to $2.61 billion. This is because as
eMarketer notes, “as mobile devices become a remote control for our lives… the more they’re being used for search, to browse the web and use applications and the more that drives up impressions and overall activity.”
For CIOs, mobile technology and consumerization are an important focus. In a 2012 study by Atenna, 43% of companies are currently working on a mobile app for their customers, 42% for their employees and 32% are currently working on hybrid web-apps for their customers (28% for their employees). However, in
that same study, research showed only 45% of businesses have mobile compatible websites for their customers.
What’s the debate about?
In
another 2012 report on Native v. Web Applications by Global Intelligence, which found that each had their own advantages. Overall, however, as the Nielsen report also shows, publishers see higher user adoption and usage volume on native applications versus web applications. Web apps are more likely to be developed in-house, and take longer to create.
On the other hand,
Forrester in 2011 notes that mobile applications—native or web—are not going anywhere. “As mobile useage increases worldwide, both side of the equation will grow with it and become valuable aspects of product roadmaps,” according to ReadWriteWeb.
Conclusion
Whether your company is considering a mobile or native application, you’re taking the first step in the important transition to creating mobile opportunities.
Contact us!
As a leader in mobile and web application development, we’d be simply tickled to answer any of your questions on developing your own custom application. We want to get to know your needs! To get in touch with us directly, contact our CEO & co-Founder Chris Pautsch at
sales@keylimetie.com.
Author: Erica Grigg is Director of Marketing at KeyLimeTie. With nearly a decade experience using traditional and digital tools for marketing, Erica is constantly exploring the mobile and social landscape for KeyLimeTie. Prior, Erica came from an agency background where she was Partner and Director of Marketing & Digital for clients like the UN and WWF. Erica has presented extensively on digital marketing, and co-authored a book on Facebook marketing.
Can’t get enough extreme sports? Always looking to go faster?
Well now you can have the rush in the palm of your hand. Keylime Tie is proud to announce, in partnership with
Lucas Oil, the release of On the Edge for the iPhone platform.
On the Edge is an edgy, exciting show that exposes SPEED viewers to a plethora of motorsports that do not usually have a chance to air on national television. The show features stock car racing, figure 8 racing, rock crawling, snowmobile racing on grass, wheel stand competitions, stock car train racing, Speed Truck's "Driven to Rock" and street drag racers reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour.
This new app allows users the ability to catch up on previous episodes from past seasons or have quick access of the upcoming show schedule. They can also learn more about the cast through the bios section or purchase official On the Edge merchandise.
While
SOPA (StopOnline Piracy Act) and
PIPA (Protect IP Act) are not new topics,
much of the general public was newly introduced to these terms Wednesday,
January 18th 2012, as thousands of websites took a stand against the
proposed legislation.
SOPA / PIPA Overview
At a high level SOPA
and PIPA are proposed legislation, in the U.S. House of Representatives and
Senate respectively, that would require search engines, advertisers, ISPs and
other internet entities to regulate content and be responsible to remove
allegedly infringing content. In theory,
the ideas behind both bills are important and are recognized by many to be
necessary in the fight against piracy, but the current versions are very broad.
Online Protest
Wednesday, many major
sites went dark to protest the anti-piracy bills and get the attention of the
public, showing what could happen to some of the web’s favorite sites, if these
bills are passed. Google blacked out their logo and linked to an information
page that encouraged users to sign a
petition.
Other sites like
Wikipedia, Craigslist, Wordpress, Flickr, and Reddit.com took similar stands
and provided information on how to contact your local congressman or
woman. Social media sites like Facebook
and Twitter were flooded with the SOPA/PIPA related posts and were likely large
contributing factors to the widespread movement that took place Wednesday.
Was the Protest a Success?
SOPA and PIPA related searches trended very high on Google all day. Below is the list of the top 20 trending searches from Wednesday, January 18th, and 6 of the top 20 relate to online piracy. If users did not immediately sign the petitions, at the very least, it sparked some interest to educate them about the proposed legislation.
Google says more than 7 million people signed the
anti-SOPA petition, while Twitter reported 2.4+ million SOPA-related Tweets in a 4 hour span. More than 162 million people saw the
Wikipedia blackout page. It’s evident that the protest had a positive influence on the online and social media communities, but did the ‘decision makers’ get the message?
According to an email from fightforthefuture.org to its supporters, Wednesday's actions made an impact.
"Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.”
For a summary on where various representatives stand on the two bills, ProPublica has put together a
page to easily keep track. The next Senate vote for PIPA is scheduled for January 24
th
and while many things can change in the next couple of days, it seems that Wednesday’s message had some initial effects in Washington.
If you haven’t noticed already, Facebook has quietly introduced a new set of insight analytics for Facebook Page admins, which provides better detail on how well their stories engage their audience.
The update makes it easier for users to interpret the data and includes great visuals to display user interactions and total reach of the content. One of the new data points ‘People Talking About This’, informs page admins the number of people who created a story about your page.
Upon initial login, page admins will be alerted to take a 5 step tour of the new layout and get themselves familiar with the new data. If you have already “skipped” the tour or want to take it again it is always available to you from the settings dropdown in the top right corner.
Below is a quick snapshot of some of the new data and graphs that Facebook provides.
When a page admin initially logs into Facebook Insights the ‘Important Metrics’ are displayed with a graphical representation below.
Like the old Insights, the basic metrics will continue to be displayed, but modified with cleaner and easy to comprehend graphs. New data and graphs include how many people are talking about your page and the viral reach that the content is creating.
Like in the previous version, users are still able to export their data, but only as far back as July 19th and users can only filter data for a span of 89 days. It’s still uncertain if the date range will expand going forward, but either way the updated reports are a nice feature to allow admins a way to verify their social media efforts are targeting the right audience.
If you have any stories or tips on using the new Insights, please share them in the comments section below.
We recently facilitated an on-site hackathon at a client's office, where the KeyLimeTie team came in and produced the event for them and served as facilitators while their employees developed their ideas. We decided to have a bit of fun with it, knowing that everyone needs a break after long hours of intensive coding and brainstorming.
What if Angry Birds were real?
Angry Birds has been called "the new Super Mario Bros." I'm hard pressed to find someone with a smartphone who hasn't played it. Since Rovio sells the plush Angry Bird characters, we decided to make the game a reality.
The setup is surprisingly simple, though it took me a little searching to get it right. Instead of building a slingshot, we opted for a three person water balloon launcher. To make the bricks, we first bought 1/2"-thick foamcore from a craft store, but it proved to be too flimsy when we put the relatively heavy plush pig on top of it. Since we wanted the game to be a bit of a challenge, we had to find something else.
While walking at the Yorktown Mall near our office, I found Brilliant Sky Toys & Books. They happened to carry exactly what I was looking for; Melissa & Doug Jumbo Cardboard Blocks. These blocks are similar to ones I remember in play areas when I was little.
These blocks are heavy enough to pose a challenge when struck by a plush bird launched from a distance. In addition to the difficulty of hitting a narrow target (you're essentially playing a 2D game in a 3D world), this means that our Angry Birds game isn't a walk in the park. It's more fun because of the challenge.
We set up the large Angry Birds course at the client, and for about an hour took turns hurling plush birds at plush pigs. A lot of shots missed, and the participants experimented with different techniques of holding the birds, different strengths on the slingshot, and other techniques. We even tried to spread out the target to make it wider, but that actually made the game more difficult. In the end it appears that it's easier to focus on one target than it is to have several in front of you.
Here's What You Need
Want to build your own Angry Birds game? Here are links to the products we used to assemble it.
Did you build your own? Tell us!
If you try this or another version of a physical Angry Birds game, we'd love to know! Tweet us at @KeyLimeTie or email us at info@keylimetie.com.