L’Oreal and Tripadvisor have partnered to launch L’Oreal’s first-of-its-kind Travel Essentials: Reserve + Collect – a new seamless purchase to pick up travel shopping experience for today’s time-poor consumers. The new campaign will give consumers the option to pre-buy toiletries, skincare, body and beauty products online and collect them directly from the airport they are travelling through. The partnership breaks new ground for L’Oreal and Tripadvisor, as it will enable L’Oreal to tap into Tripadvisor’s data and insights as the largest global travel website. This 360-degree understanding of traveller behaviours will power the L’Oreal campaign.
Global content production and technology powerhouse &FRIENDS has announced the roll-out of its end-to-end Talent Management Platform, allowing agencies and businesses to tap into an international community of world-class makers and experts – and create on-the-ground specialist production teams in any market, while also blending their existing talent pools and in-house resources – all in one place. Heralding a new era in creative talent management and content production, the first-of-its-kind platform is designed to ensure businesses, agencies and marketing teams are equipped with the talent they need to answer the increasing resource and content creation demands. Dubbed TEAM+ (an acronym for Talent Expansion And Management+), the platform provides clients with a true 360 view of their whole talent pool and their respective capabilities, underpinned by a central management system for communicating and collaborating.
Nelson Bostock UNLIMITED, part of UNLIMITED group, has won the PR and social brief for leading computer hardware manufacturer and gaming laptop specialist, MSI. The integrated brief will develop MSI’s reputation in the UK – strengthening its leadership in gaming, and broadening its reach into creative, business and performance segments. The appointment will utilise Nelson Bostock’s over 30 years of experience working with category-leading consumer tech brands, and its use of human understanding to better connect with key audiences. The team will deliver a mix of media relations, content marketing, community management, influencer relations and event support.
As London prepares for the historic launch of the brand-new Elizabeth line on 24 May, Transport for London (TfL) and Global, the Media & Entertainment group, has revealed 329 new state-of-the-art advertising sites along the line – the largest launch of digital advertising assets at one time on the TfL network. Google, MoneySuperMarket, Reed.co.uk, Sage and Schweppes are the first brands to advertise on the new Elizabeth line. With a focus on creating extensive digital opportunities for advertisers, the new stations feature seven pairs of unmissable, full-motion enabled Digital Ribbons and 16 new-format Digital Runways – made up of 234 platform edge screens – which are exclusive to the Elizabeth line. There are also four brand-new, high impact, ultra-HD Digital Gateway screens, including one that measures 28m² over the escalators at Tottenham Court Road, and 32 new digital billboards (D6s) which have been installed in high-visibility locations such as ticket halls and corridors.
BT Enterprise has unveiled a new brand platform, “BT Means Business”, supported by our biggest multichannel campaign to date. The push, which is the biggest B2B campaign the brand has ever launched, was developed in partnership with creative agency NOW. The new campaign, developed by NOW, sees BT debut a new “business-first” brand positioning, “BT Means Business”, as it seeks to promote itself as the tech partner that makes UK businesses better. The push aims to engage with an audience of business owners who are working to drive change and make their mark on the world. Campaign activity is running across TV, BVOD, radio, out-of-home and social channels. Media planning and buying is by Essence.
Cohesity has announced it has joined forces with Palo Alto Networks to integrate its Cohesity Helios next-gen data management platform with Palo Alto Networks’ CortexTM XSOAR security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platform for improved ransomware detection and recovery. A key factor in defeating cyber attacks such as ransomware is how quickly the attack can be recognised and remediation steps initiated. This integration provides detailed automatic alerts when the AI-powered Helios platform detects anomalies in the backup data that could indicate an emerging attack. Once alerted by Cohesity, Cortex XSOAR initiates an automated playbook to triage and mitigate the impact of a potential cyber attack. Integrating a next-gen data management platform with a SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) capability can help greatly accelerate threat detection and response and decrease an organisation’s risk exposure.
The new 100% electric Renault Megane E-Tech was presented on the 6th of September 2021 at the IAA MOBILITY in Munich. Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault Group, has announced that the car will be the forerunner of the brand’s new mobilities as it shifts its business model towards technology, energy, and mobility by 2025. For its launch, Renault and Publicis Conseil are making a statement with a film on the change from thermal to electric mobility. As a tribute to the old world of horsepower, which is giving way to kilowatts, this is an electrifying new era in which Renault is opening a new historical chapter.
With the most challenging phase of the Covid-19 pandemic now over, customer satisfaction in the Swedish IT market is rising, according to industry analysts Radar. In Radar’s newly released 2022 Supplier Quality survey, Proact retains its top ranking in two of the market segments where customer satisfaction was evaluated. The independent analyst firm Radar Ecosystem Specialists has just released its 2022 Supplier Quality report, which measures quality and value creation in customer-supplier relationships in the Swedish IT market. Decision makers from more than 800 organisations have contributed to this year’s survey by assessing their IT providers. Proact has retained its top-five ranking in two of the four market segments covered by the Supplier Quality survey: Infrastructure and Consulting services.
Playrcart, the company that makes any digital creative asset instantly transactional, has announced its partnership with Driftrock to bring the power of transactional advertising to its clients, which include automotive, education, financial services, consumer packaged goods and other data-driven industries. Through the integration partnership, Driftrock and Playrcart customers can experience the pioneering solution to increase lead conversion rates with in-advert customer consented data capture. By joining forces of advanced lead generation and optimised checkout journeys Driftrock and Playrcart are now poised to deliver an innovative solution that significantly reduces friction in the online user journey to capture leads within the ad unit, social or live stream format, enabling the process to be complete in seconds with cached data.
Voltarol has announced the launch of its new campaign ‘More than Movement’ to promote the brand in partnership with Channel 4 and GAY TIMES. Brokered by Publicis Media’s platform GSK and Publicis Media Content, the partnership will feature a bespoke film, commissioned by Channel 4 and produced by GAY TIMES. Voltarol and Publicis Media are now in the third year of their partnership with GAY TIMES. The addition of Channel 4 signals a continued determination to increase the positive diversity and representation of the LGBTQ+ community, and other diverse audiences, in their advertising. The full-length film is available on YouTube, with a 30-second variation due to run on air for eight weeks across Channel 4 and its video on-demand service, All 4, with clips also being promoted via GAY TIMES’ and Channel 4’s digital and social channels; Facebook and Instagram.
Profusion, a data science company, has partnered with Dr Elsa Jungman, a natural skincare company at the forefront of microbiome testing, to enhance the customer experience for Dr Elsa Jungman’s personalised skincare recommendations. The partnership enables customers to understand the science behind their skin. Customers can get detailed information about the bacteria and fungi on their skin and be recommended healthy ingredients that match their skin profile – all personalised to each user using data science. A customer completes a survey, the results are analysed and displayed alongside their microbiome home test kit results via a report page. In the backend, an administrator portal was built so that customer reports can be reviewed and approved seamlessly. Numerous customer portal pages were also designed by Profusion, including: login, registration, survey pages, forgot password page, home page, and account page.
in3, a Dutch ‘Buy-Now-Pay-Later’ (BNPL) fintech has announced a $85.3m Series B funding round from the British VC Force over Mass, U.S. institutional asset manager Waterfall Asset Management LLC and Dutch investor Finch Capital. Launched in 2018, in3 gives consumers the option to pay in 3 instalments without interest or other hidden costs. Current customers include Kwik Fit, EP, La Souris, Matt sleeps, Dekbed-Discounter among others. Today’s news follows their $11.1m series A round just two months ago in March 2022 and takes the total funding raised to $96.4m.
Qualtrics has announced it will go live on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Infrastructure in London in the second half of 2022. Qualtrics customers will be able to access the Qualtrics XM/OS platform locally via the AWS London Region. The company will also open a new office and customer experience centre in London. These investments come as organisations are increasingly turning to Qualtrics to help them deliver customer, employee, brand and product experiences that create meaningful connections.
Babble, a UK technology company transforming how ambitious businesses use next-generation business tools, has announced the acquisition of Stockport and Ellesmere Port-based IT and telecoms solution provider, Active. Active has expertise across Unified Comms, Mobile and Cyber with over 500 customers in various sectors across the North of England. Active’s CEO, Mark Boyle, will initially remain as part of the new combined organisation and will be a fantastic asset in supporting the integration process and beyond. The acquisition reinforces Babble’s commitment to the North West adding additional scale, presence, capability and expertise following the 2021 acquisition of Concert and 2020 acquisition of Lake. Babble now has staff and offices in Winsford, Ellesmere Port and Stockport.
Movable Ink, the global software content personalization provider, has announced its partnership with Thalia, the market leader in retail bookselling in the German-speaking region. The aim of the partnership is to create relevant customer experiences that will be remembered. Movable Ink will play an important role in expanding Thalia’s customer engagement strategy. With strong retail and eCommerce expertise, Movable Ink powers revenue-boosting campaigns at some of the largest retailers and the world’s most innovative companies. With Movable Ink’s technology, Thalia is expanding its possibilities of inspiring customers with personalized and activating content in the digital touchpoints.
RELEX Solutions has announced it has acquired Formulate, a Swedish promotion planning and analytics company, building upon its position as a trusted provider of unified retail planning solutions. The acquisition is a major step in RELEX’s commitment to offering a best-in-class unified platform with a robust promotion planning solution for retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies across the globe. With this acquisition, retailers will benefit from improved planning and optimization capabilities for each stage of the promotion process with the help of proprietary AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics in an easily accessible and understandable way.
Reddit will be the official fan partner for Love Island’s highly-anticipated eighth series. Love Island super fans have always gathered on Reddit to discuss the show, and new this year, we’ll offer unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes operations of the show, exclusive content, and a place for fans to have their own firepit moments throughout the show – all on Reddit. Throughout the season, the r/LoveIslandTV community will get direct access to the key people involved with Love Island to ask their burning questions. People on Reddit will become even more familiar with the Islanders through their friends and family in Reddit’s Upvote/Downvote video content series, and to up the antics even more, fans will get to know the new bombshell Islanders before they head to Casa Amor. As part of the partnership, Reddit will co-sponsor Love Island’s daily podcast: The Morning After and the podcast hosts will highlight interesting conversations from the r/LoveIslandTV community during the eight weeks of the season. In addition, redditors can submit questions on r/LoveIslandTV for discussion on Love Island’s weekly show Love Island: Aftersun.
Experienced strategic partnership professionals Simon Gregory and Oliver Paull will take the lead when GO MO DBS, specialising in data-driven “outbound marketing”, establishes a new office in Covent Garden, London. The company will bring its demand & lead generation, content syndication and programmatic services to marketing agencies & publishers in the UK. The London office marks the first step of the GO MO brand expansion into the UK and Europe.
MiQ, the programmatic media partner, has announced the availability of its ground-breaking analytics and measurement capability for cross-channel YouTube and TV campaigns, in the UK. As TV consumption makes its dramatic shift towards digital, traditional peak time has been redefined, and brands are struggling to both determine and reach their audience. MiQ’s innovative solution bridges the gap between the two channels. By connecting these often disparate datasets, brands are empowered to reach 100% of their target viewers and measure reach deterministically across these channels – all in a cost-efficient and privacy compliant way. The solution leverages smart television and automatic content recognition data from Samba TV, and YouTube analytics data from Pixability.
NextPlay Technologies, Inc., a digital business ecosystem for digital advertisers, consumers, video gamers and travelers, has announced that NextPlay Technologies’ management will attend virtually the H.C. Wainwright Global Investment Conference being held May 23-26, 2022. H.C. Wainwright invited NextPlay to present in the Cryptocurrency, Blockchain & Fintech portion of the conference. Nithinan (Jessie) Boonyawattanapisut, NextPlay’s Co-CEO, will provide an on-demand presentation of NextPlay’s NextFinTech business segments, and growth opportunities. Conference on-demand presentations will be available at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time on May 24, 2022 and accessed from H.C. Wainwright’s events platform. NextPlay management will be available and conducting online one-on-one meetings with institutional investors through the conference.
Storyblok, an enterprise headless content management system (CMS) that enables developers and marketers to deliver powerful content experiences on any digital platform, has announced the close of its $47M Series B financing, led by Mubadala Capital and HV Capital and joined by existing investors 3VC and firstminute capital. Storyblok previously raised $11 million. Following the company’s last funding round in February 2021, Storyblok has increased the size of its team by 500% across 38 countries and more than doubled its users, projects, and agency partners. The new funding will further accelerate product innovation, growth into the U.S. and Europe—as well as an expansion into APAC—and growth of the ecosystem of partners and apps.
One of the UK’s oldest luxury retailers, Smythson of Bond Street, has announced its partnership with omnichannel customer engagement specialist Emarsys. The Emarsys platform will allow Smythson to deliver unique personalised experiences across every channel, in all nine of the languages their customers speak. Emarsys will centralise data from the brand’s 150,000+ customers, automating analysis and allowing for automated delivery of personalised digital marketing campaigns through every channel. Freeing up time and resources for its marketing team that will ripple out across the company, this automation will allow Smythson to place an ever-greater focus on its strategies for growth and international expansion.
