Kellogg is taking its augmented reality initiatives up a notch by focusing on entertainment content that brings static packaging to life. The CPG giant is teaming up with Live Nation to roll out an app that lets consumers scan boxes to unlock branded and entertainment content. The app serves up content from four different musicians: Chris Daughtry, Jesse & Joy, Conor Maynard and Kellie Pickler. "We know Kellogg's consumers frequently use their phones for music and entertainment," said Jacqueline Peterson, spokeswoman for Live Nation, New York.

Bonial International Group today has launched a mobile application called Retale to help United States retailers deliver the traditional circular in a new format. A number of other organizations such as the Associated Press have already tried to put out a centralized mobile circular app for retailers, but Retale is confident that it has created the winning solution. Bonial International Group has already launched similar apps in Germany, France, Russia, Spain and Brazil, and it has accumulated more than 500 European retailers already.

Mobile payments are becoming more common throughout the world and have garnered the support of technology and financial firms in recent years. The growing popularity of mobile payments is largely due to the proliferation of mobile technology. Higher smartphone and tablet ownership is encouraging consumers to seek out new forms of commerce that are more aligned to their interests. As mobile payments continue to attract more attention, businesses are working to provide more comprehensive services to consumers. American Express has plans to revolutionize mobile payments to some degree. The company has been showing strong interest in mobile commerce in recent …

Mobile commerce at Argos more than doubled in the first half of its financial year to account for 16% of sales, one year into the general retailer's digital transformation plan. Some 43% of its total sales were made online, including through its Check & Reserve service, with commerce over both tablets and smartphones growing by 124%, and powered by new smartphone and tablet apps. In all, multichannel sales now represent 52% of Argos total sales - some GBP899m during the period. Meanwhile, sister company Homebase [IRDX RHMB] saw multichannel sales grow by 28% in the half-year.

Mobile commerce is beginning to show signs of healthy growth throughout Europe. Many consumers in Europe have become heavily reliant on their smartphones and tablets, and these devices play a significant role in their daily lives. A new report from leading research firm comScore shows that the European mobile retail audience is showing signs of exponential growth as consumers begin to look for more efficient alternatives to traditional payment platforms. According to comScore, the European mobile retail audience has grown by 43% from May to August of this year, reaching 31 million. The firm reports that 20% of all smartphone …

Strategy Analytics reduced its outlook for near field communications-based mobile retail payments, blaming tepid retailer adoption, slow operator rollouts and limited availability of NFC-capable handsets. Strategy Analytics forecasts that by 2017, 115 million NFC-equipped mobile device owners will spend just over $48 billion using their phones to complete in-store transactions. This past May, the firm projected worldwide mobile payments would reach $1 trillion by 2017, crediting rapid growth of NFC technologies driven by handset and point-of-sale terminal upgrades.

Mobetize, a mobile money enabler offering partners technologies for digital and mobile commerce payment services, has signed a partnership agreement with RentMoola to bring mobile rent payments to Canadian tenants and landlords. Under the terms of the deal, Mobetize will provide the technology and RentMoola will offer its PCI-compliant platform which enable property managers to receive mobile rent payments from their tenants. RentMoola allows tenants to use credit cards to make auto-recur and one-time payments from 100 countries. Through the partnership with Mobetize, operators will now be able to promote services such as money remittance and transfer, bill management and …

Leading market research firm eMarketer has released a new report concerning the state of the mobile commerce sector. The report highlights various aspects of the mobile commerce space, shedding some light on the factors influencing its growth and the challenges it faces around the world. Mobile commerce has been seeing strong growth over the past two years as consumers become more integrated with mobile technology. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets has exposed consumers to a variety of mobile services that they are showing a great deal of enthusiasm for. According to the report from eMarketer, mobile commerce now accounts …

Denis O'Brien's Digicel has joined the ITLG's investment arm SVG Ventures in making a US$6m Series B investment in Californian mobile commerce player Flint Mobile. Flint launched its popular iOS payment app under a year ago and just released its Android app on Google Play last week. The US$6m round was led by Digicel and SVG Ventures. Previous investors include Storm Ventures and True Ventures who also contributed to the round.

According to some of the latest information that has been released by ABI Research, a number of industry giants - including Google, Apple, and eBay - are placing their focus on making considerable moves into the realm of geolocation and its many possibilities. To start, the estimates by ABI Research have suggested that the geolocation indoor market will be worth more than $4 billion by 2018. This was revealed in the quarterly Location Technologies Market Data which is issued by that agency. It provides a measure of the adoption of indoor geolocation technologies, mapping, as well as businesses that are …