SpectrumDNA Tapped by Vann's, Inc. as Digital Developer and Social Marketer for The ON Store

PARK CITY, Utah, Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- SpectrumDNA, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SPXA), a social media agency and digital development studio that creates high-engagement web and mobile applications, has been selected as the provider of strategic planning, app development and social media marketing services for an innovative new themed retail experience created by esteemed retail and e-tail pioneer Vann's, Inc.

SpectrumDNA is an innovator in gCommerce, or "gamified" and "appified" commerce and ecommerce.  gCommerce has evolved to help transaction-oriented companies leverage the rapidly changing landscape of web, social media and mobile.  Specifically, SpectrumDNA employs APIs (application programming interfaces) to build transmedia application or "apps" (independent of platform) for its clients to engage customers.  Using APIs, SpectrumDNA's clients can "sync" their offerings and rewards across media channels, to better match observed customer behavior—across iPhone and Android, Facebook and web apps, and the physical world.  These APIs are frequently a combination of third-party social utility APIs (like Facebook and Twitter), Spectrum-proprietary APIs, and client-owned APIs.  

Building apps—or "appification"— with an API-based framework enables companies to treat the social graph, across web and mobile, as concerted, perpetual lead generation instead of disparate and often unconnected marketing campaigns.  Gamification takes it a step further by creating next-generation "loyalty programs" that speak directly to a target affinity group in the context of the mobile-social age.  The gCommerce strategy is always focused on driving loyalty and transactions.

For the ON Store, SpectrumDNA has worked a multifaceted and coordinated strategy for customer engagement including multiple web-apps to engage potential customers prior to store launch.  It also created a themed social iPhone app and companion web-app based on SpectrumDNA's PlanetTagger social nicheworking API.  Utilizing the ON Store proprietary retail API it designed and is building the in-store POS (Point of Sale) iPod Touch app.  The POS app was designed such that it can evolve into a multi-purpose consumer-app that enables customers to create and manage their own point-of-sale experience, while earning and reaping the rewards of ON Store loyalty programs and offers.  

SpectrumDNA was also engaged to build up the ON Store's social graph.  As a new brand, the focus was necessarily on the target affinity groups—lovers of gadgets, fans of innovation, and residents local to the first store, which opens in Missoula, Montana, in early December 2010.  SpectrumDNA has grown the ON Store social graph substantially— to date, it increased Twitter followers nearly 25-fold and the Facebook friends network by nearly 1,000%.

Planned next steps include a v2 mobile app focused on "cool hunting," knowledge sharing, and themed online/offline "missions" and mini-games where customers can explore and discover new products, engage in knowledge sharing about those products; and earn free or discounted gear through that community-involvement.  Overlaying and underlying all these modes of engagement, SpectrumDNA leverages its HuckleMonkey virtual economy API that "gamifies" the marketing and retail experiences by creating a cross-platform loyalty program where users collect rewards that can be used toward the purchase of gear in-store or online.  

"Vann's is a pioneer in innovative e-tail experiences," said Jim Banister, CEO of SpectrumDNA.  "They pretty much define success in Web1.0 commerce.  We're excited to work with them on replicating and exceeding that success in the emerging age of social shopping and gCommerce, and to contribute to the perpetuation of their reputation by integrating and coordinating multiple customer-touchpoints—a virtuous circle of eCommerce and eCommunity.  It promises to be appified and gamified social commerce at its best."

"We're very pleased with Spectrum and the contribution they're making towards ON," said George Manlove, President and CEO of Vann's. "Jim and his team have helped bring to life the shopping and community experience we want to create around ON. We're excited to have them helping to bring the apps and gamified social commerce to our customers."

About SpectrumDNA, Inc.

SpectrumDNA, Inc. is an innovation agency and digital studio focused on creating high-engagement web and mobile applications that enable marketers to drive transactional behavior and empower their community members to take an active, measurable, and monetizable role in the extension of their brand.

SpectrumDNA's process is based on the gCommerce cycle: API--->Appify--->Gamify. It employs its proprietary APIs ("application programming interfaces") in combination with third party social APIs and client-proprietary APIs to create engaging applications ("apps") on a single platform, or multiple apps coordinated across many mobile, social and web customer touchpoints.  It can also "gamify" the marketer's online and offline presence by designing and integrating "game mechanics" to increase loyalty and transactional behavior.   The successful execution of the gCommerce cycle turns the marketer's social graph into a lead generation engine and a loyalty engine, instead of disparate marketing programs.

More at http://spectrumdna.com

About ON Store and Vann's.

Vann's, an audio, video, and appliance specialist based in Missoula, has been serving Montana since 1961. Vann's, Inc. consists of six retail stores (located in Billings, Bozeman, Flathead Valley, Hamilton, Helena and Missoula), an outlet store in Missoula, and an e-commerce site at http://www.vanns.com. Vann's strives to provide a best-in-class customer experience and became a 100-percent employee-owned company in 2005.

Vann's has partnered with Apple, Sony and other vendors to launch a new retail brand and format: ON, a mall-based store focused on convergence and content-driven products. Think of it as a multi-branded Apple Store. The store will practice what it preaches by using the latest business processes and ecommerce tools, such as cloud-based computing, custom POS solutions and proprietary networking applications, which will allow customers to share their thoughts about the store and its products with others.

To learn more about The ON Store or Vann's, Inc., go to http://www.vanns.com

SOURCE SpectrumDNA, Inc.