Guy Krief, Senior Vice-President of Innovation describes how The Upstream Challenge attracts candidates who might have all the right skills but who aren’t attracted by traditional recruitment postings. “Our hope is that this type of engagement will attract a wide range of talent. It’s been said that you can learn more about a person in an hour of play, than in a year of conversation, so it’s going to be fascinating to see the results”.

Upstream has extended its expertise in gamification of mobile marketing campaigns to its HR department with the launch of The Upstream Challenge. The Challenge is an online ‘game’ that pits Marketing Campaign Manager candidates against seven intriguing challenges designed to identify the right people for the five open positions in London, Silicon Valley, Athens and Rio.

Upstream’s President Marco Veremis makes a case for the ‘Perfect Pitch’ over mobile – one that respects the consumer and yet is so expertly crafted that it invites a willing response. His mantra, that mobile marketers must ‘communicate less, with more impact’ will be tested in the coming years with analyst house Forrester predicting that mobile marketing spend will rise to $1.25bn by 2014.

The latest Upstream research amongst UK marketers shows that an overwhelming 87% are planning on increasing investment in marketing technologies over the next twelve months, prompting journalist Claire Weekes to ask: “Who will follow in Steve Jobs’ footsteps and emerge as the next icon in our digital marketing world?”

Upstream research shows that the concept of gamification is increasingly on marketers’ radar, but that they are not yet confident about using it in their campaigns. Upstream can unlock the many millions of individual responses to marketing campaigns that are currently being lost.

Two-thirds of UK marketers may not yet understand what gamification means, but Guy Krief from Upstream believes that it’s time they started to incorporate these proven techniques into their campaigns to fully engage consumers.

Global mobile marketing technology and solutions provider, Upstream has opened a new regional headquarters in Brazil’s to meet the demands of Latin American carriers and brands for mobile marketing campaigns.

Upstream’s innovative Marketing Technology Platform (MINT) is shortlisted at the Database Marketing Awards, as one of the top three in the ‘Excellence in Database Marketing-related Software / Solutions’ category.

Upstream and Luth research shows that smartphone users are strongly interested in viewing ads for content for their mobile device, followed by movies/entertainment, including tickets; offers from their mobile service provider; and consumer goods. Location is not an important factor in getting people to respond to mobile marketing.

Upstream’s latest research into North American consumer attitudes to mobile marketing sheds new light on the irrelevance of location-based services in mobile advertising and the important role that consumers assign to personalization of any mobile marketing and their ready acceptance of text messaging

Upstream sets-up its U.S. headquarters in the global technology hub of Silicon Valley as part of its strategic drive for growth, making its proven mobile marketing technology and solutions available to U.S. brands and carriers.

CEO Alex Vratskides argues that carriers need to embrace a variety of mobile marketing approaches to make a convincing (and personalized) pitch to keep their subscribers loyal and engaged with new products and services.

Upstream brings its research on consumers’ attitudes to mobile marketing to life with a fascinating infographic about what subscribers think works best on mobile and how to avoid annoying them.

According this Upstream research infographic, despite the variety of mobile marketing techniques available, it seems that SMS is still effective, with 75% of respondents preferring to receive offers through this channel, compared with mobile internet (15%) and in-app ads (10%).

Guy Krief, VP of Innovation talks through the latest real-time gamification techniques for mobile and how mobile operators, such as Telecom Italia are working with Upstream to reward and engage their subscribers.

Upstream joins the ranks of the fastest-growing digital media companies in Europe with recognition by the GP Bullhound Media Momentum Awards 2011.

CEO of Upstream, Alex Vratskides, talks about the potential risks and rewards of reaching consumers via mobile and how experience and really understanding mobile consumers is at the heart of successful campaigns.

The YouGov survey for Upstream finds that consumers are interested in deals sent by their operators to their mobile phones via text – as long as those messages are limited in number and do not push third-party advertising.

New Upstream/YouGov research suggests operators have significant opportunities to boost revenues through the offering of SMS deals, but warns about the dangers of introducing third party advertising.

Marco Veremis, Upstream’s President, talks to the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones about where mobile marketing is heading and how to make it effective.

Mobile advertising is gaining momentum, but which companies are generating real incremental revenues and the best response rates? Marco Veremis outlines how Upstream is delivering both revenue and response to its customers.

Upstream’s Alex Vratskides presents YouGov survey and outlines how brands and operators need to focus on the inherent strengths of the mobile device to ensure that mobile marketing is effective.

Upstream CEO, Alex Vratskides explains the company’s approach to working with mobile operators on a payment-by-results basis.