Contentsquare has announced that it has partnered with E.ON, one of Europe’s biggest energy network operators, to help the company deliver on its mission of creating experiences with customer needs at their heart. With its holistic view of the digital customer experience, Contentsquare will enable E.ON with unparalleled insight into how and why customers are interacting with online content, allowing the team to visualize and transform customer journeys at scale.
LiveRamp, the data connectivity platform, has announced that Adobe Advertising Cloud now supports RampID™ across channels, including desktop display, desktop video, mobile web, mobile in-app, connected TV (CTV), native, and audio. As a result, advertisers can unlock people-based audience targeting, frequency capping, activation of first- and third-party data, delivery reporting, access to supply-side integrations and exposure logs, and measurement support through Adobe’s Advertising Solutions Group (ASG). The integration is currently live in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia and Singapore.
Outbrain, a recommendation platform for the open web, has announced a multi-year renewal deal with Euronews, Europe’s leading international news mediachannel which provides independent and fact-based journalism to 145 million monthly users. Since 2019, Euronews has implemented Outbrain’s Smartfeed, a personalised recommendation feed that enhances the user experience leading to deeper discovery, longer sessions, and better engagement. Most recently, the integration of another of Outbrain’s technologies, Smartlogic, which dynamically adjusts the position, ratio and design of content within the feed based on the customer’s preferences, has improved performance in revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) by 34% and editorial click-through rate (CTR) by 18%, while also boosting organic traffic across Euronews’ properties.
Magnite, the independent sell-side advertising platform, is announcing the launch of their Live Stream Acceleration technology designed to help CTV publishers optimize their live inventory programmatically. Live Stream Acceleration (LSA) can benefit the entire advertising ecosystem, by helping publishers more effectively monetize their supply and making it easier for advertisers to access premium and scalable inventory to reach the audiences they want, without technical limitations. Television network Sling TV used LSA over a five week period and saw a 47% lift in ad conversions compared to the previous five weeks.
Magnite has also been chosen to power the GroupM Premium Marketplace in the US and Canada as well as a global preferred technology partner. GroupM will consolidate its programmatic media buying across omnichannel environments including CTV, digital video, and display within Magnite in the US and Canada. GroupM will leverage Magnite on a preferred basis globally across EMEA, APAC and LATAM. With technology at the heart of this preferred relationship, Magnite and GroupM will collaborate closely to simplify and optimize various aspects of advertising. As brands shift towards audience-based buying strategies, data enablement solutions will be an area of focus, as will measurement and forecasting. Magnite’s CTV platform, which features a real-time data and analytics dashboard, gives buyers like GroupM live campaign performance updates.
RealWear, a provider of assisted reality solutions for frontline industrial workers, has announced that Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv, based in Turkey, has selected and deployed RealWear’s rugged wearable devices across all of its 56 authorised service centres. Prior to its countrywide enterprise wearable deployment, the process included hundreds of in-person trips, emails, shared photos and videos and over-the-phone collaboration with subject matter experts. With more than 240,000 customer vehicles on the road and the company’s commitment to high-quality service, the RealWear deployment will result in a wide-ranging positive impact from cost savings, carbon footprint reduction to efficiency and worker empowerment. Since initially deploying the technology, Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv anticipates a 25% jump in ROI for on-part training scenarios and up to an expected 80% performance increase in customer service centre technical problem resolution where expertise from HQ is required. Certain other processes, such as problematic warranty cases and insurance claims have also become far more efficient using RealWear’s devices.
Social listening and media monitoring platform Mention has collected public data from over 110 million Instagram posts and 1 million users on the platform. The 2022 Instagram Engagement Report has been produced in collaboration with Hubspot, a leading growth platform, evaluates trends on engagement, influencers, location, caption length, and other critical insights for businesses and users alike to know. This year’s report has localized data to hone in on regions around the world, to better understand Instagram’s impact on and offline. Among the 1.3 billion active users on Instagram, the UK came in third place as the country with the most posts published in 2021. This proves that British creators, businesses, and daily users’ impact on the platform are rather significant on a global scale.
Tappx, an AdTech company delivering digital advertising solutions for mobile, OTT and desktop, is thrilled to reveal 97% year-on-year revenue growth for the year ending 31 December 2021. This growth trajectory reflects the company’s successful pivot to offer only exclusive and direct advertising inventory, without any intermediaries. Alongside the significant revenue spike, Tappx experienced major growth in other key areas. The company’s workforce grew by 25% as it secured new talent across the organisation. In September 2021 Tappx acquired the video generation and monetisation platform, PlayOn Content, to spearhead a drive into the UK, LATAM, and Spanish markets.
Turkish Product & Software House Path has launched a UK operation, giving UK and international brands easier access to the agency’s award-winning and excellent value service. Launched as an ambitious start-up, Path is a fully export-oriented offshore development centre serving a long list of prestigious clients across the globe, including UK brands such as Kiss the Hippo. UK operations are initially focused on designing and developing highly customised Shopify/Shopify Plus eCommerce stores for businesses of all sizes. With a dedicated team of highly skilled developers and proactive approach, Path follows the best coding practices to deliver efficient, reliable, responsive and mobile-first designed eCommerce stores for Shopify/Shopify Plus. Path’s omnichannel retail experience and high expertise in digital transformation ensure higher conversion rates.
London-based law firm Bates Wells has chosen IT services provider Proact to design and implement a significant IT infrastructure refresh, along with enhanced customer support, to help them enable new ways of working. Through 24/7 monitoring and proactive assistance, Proact will enable Bates Wells to keep up with internal demands and pressures on their IT, as well as delivering cybersecurity assurances. As the UK’s first certified B Corp law firm, it’s crucial that the business continues to provide charities and social enterprises with the practical and commercial advice they need to grow, fundraise and reach their goals. Acting as an extension of their IT team, Proact’s services will improve Bates Wells’ support offerings and provide even more opportunities for their IT team to focus on valuable projects, enabling the law firm to meet both their IT and business needs.
IP protection company White Bullet’s collaboration with the Sygnał Association in Poland, designed to prevent ad-funded piracy, is having a significant impact; with its latest Ad Funded Piracy Report showing marked reductions in ad-funded piracy in Poland. The Sygnał Association protects the intellectual property rights of broadcasters, distributors, licensors, and recipients of TV programmes and other multimedia content. Established in 2001, it currently comprises 18 major media and telecommunications companies in Poland, and White Bullet is working alongside these Sygnał members to track advertising in Poland to monitor the effectiveness of the piracy website list maintained and provided by Sygnał to the Polish ad industry.
Chargebee, the subscription management platform, has announced it has acquired collections management platform numberz and launched Chargebee Receivables. Subscription businesses will now be able to smartly automate their entire receivables process from purchase to payment, in addition to managing subscription products and invoices, leading to better data collections and insights for more confident decision-making. Chargebee Receivables helps finance leaders reimagine this critical workflow. Integrating with the existing ERP and accounting solutions, Chargebee Receivables will also provide finance leaders better visibility and control of their receivables and improve their own customer experience.
Two years ago, a global pandemic turned nearly every universal truth about work on its head, with many in-office industries shifting overnight to a work-from-home (WFH) model. In fact, according to Workhuman’s research report, Two Years into COVID: The State of Human Connection at Work, most industries, including those with traditionally on-site jobs, have adjusted work environments to include more remote work, either hybrid or fully WFH. But not everyone feels confident about the adjustment. Compared to on-site workers, fully remote workers were less likely to say they feel confident (20% vs. 27%) and more likely to feel uneasy about change (38% vs. 27%).
Emplifi, the unified customer experience platform, is enabling brands to provide the next level of customer care on social media and messaging apps, with the launch of Emplifi Social Care. Part of the Emplifi Unified CX Platform, Emplifi Social Care empowers teams outside of the service centre to help support the volume of customer requests that come in across social media channels. Now, marketing, brand and product teams can respond to customer cases using a powerful combination of chatbot technology and intuitive case management tools, elevating social customer care while boosting performance. When customers need one-to-one assistance that goes beyond the intelligent chatbot experience, Emplifi Social Care automatically connects them to a live advisor to instantly address their needs. Now teams of retail consultants, product specialists, or brand ambassadors have all they need to queue, route, manage and resolve customer requests at scale from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social platforms.
Reddit has announced the launch of a brand-new multimedia surface that encourages redditors to search, discover, connect, and engage with new communities based on how they’ve used Reddit to date. Discover Tab marks Reddit’s first new surface in nearly two years. From houseplants and pickling at home to Squid Game and Dungeons and Dragons – Reddit’s new Discover Tab will bring a rich variety of content to the forefront in a visually appealing way.
This is a significant step in Reddit’s work to move from a traditionally text-based experience to a rich, multimedia platform with videos, images, audio, and more. It prompts new and old redditors to discover new communities, in turn spending more time on the platform.
In 2019, Stacey Karlsson, the Anglo-Swedish Girl On Her Own (hence the name “Goho”), decided to start her own boutique Marketing and Events agency, with just a laptop, and a shed-load of positive energy. Just three years on, Goho is now a team of 8 professionals, offering a full range of communication services for small businesses, and getting busier every day. Rodelle was founded by Tracy Roden and Lyndsey Shelley, who have over 50 years’ personal assistant experience between them and provide virtual assistant services. They offer a wide range of services for all business or personal needs so whether you need ongoing support with diary and email management, one-off support with planning a house move or a more permanent VA to help with a wide range of tasks, they have you covered. A mix of serendipity and aligned morals has brought the companies together, as both Goho and Rodelle are female-powered and avid supporters of small businesses. The organisations wanted to join forces to offer a full-service package to the market, including VA, Marketing & PR needs. They can help start-ups set up and promote their company from scratch and, for the already established, continue to build and run their business as true extensions of the team. From back-office admin to front-facing PR, small businesses now have the opportunity to grow without having to hire the staff themselves.
Juni, the financial companion for ecommerce entrepreneurs, launched its new VISA credit card in the UK. The first of its kind, Juni’s credit card is designed specifically to help ecommerce companies expand and grow. The launch marks a major step for Juni as the company embarks on its one year milestone, with further updates coming soon. While the roll out of the credit card is in the UK, Juni will expand the offering across Europe later this year. During its beta phase, data showed that Juni customers predominantly used the credit card for paid media with 83% of all credit spend being on digital ads, and the remaining 17% being used on inventory and other expenses. The Juni credit card is tailor-made for media buying, enabling entrepreneurs to work in a way that suits them by removing the limitations set by traditional credit cards. As part of the product offering, customers will benefit from 0% interest and 1% cashback on all spending to help entrepreneurs take their ecommerce and marketing efforts to the next level.
Digital transformation company AND Digital, has launched the London findings of its Fuelling Growth in an Age of Data report – revealing access to the right data skills, and an unsophisticated approach to using data is holding back London businesses’ ability to grow using data. While the Government’s latest plans to help businesses across the country ‘level-up’ identifies London as a shining example of a city driving tech innovation, almost a third (30%) of decision-makers in London identified that a lack of knowledge and understanding among the C-Suite is holding their business back from making more use of data to fuel growth. Almost three quarters (70%) of respondents admit that access to the right experts is stunting their ability to truly capitalise on data for growth. Nearly a quarter (22%) highlight that a lack of in-house data skills, and time to implement the right technology (24%), is also holding businesses’ data aspirations back.
NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech platform, has raised $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia. Bringing together a diverse mix of leading global institutional and angel investors, the round was led by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo and early-stage VC Graph Ventures from Silicon Valley. Singapore-based Saison Capital, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital and Warren Hogarth, CEO Empower Finance, also participated in the round, alongside a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group – a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, telecom, industrials, financial services as well as controlling stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonalds Pakistan.
Absolut Vodka is upgrading and enhancing its flavor portfolio as it embarks on the next phase of its mission to drive innovation in quality vodka. This second chapter of the restage delivers a new harmonized range with a style and taste that’s even more authentic and offers consumers exceptional tasting cocktails, including popular mixers like soda water that demand more from a flavored vodka. The new bottle design matches the significant update to the Absolut Vodka original bottle in 2021. The new packaging tells the story of the flavor sensation inside, clearly signposting the new taste profile to help consumers find their favorite flavor and explore new ones.The launch campaign, BORN TO MIX, heroes both Absolut Vodka’s values, and the spirit itself. Mixing is central to the brand’s heritage and DNA. Absolut Vodka is designed to be mixed and is crafted to elevate the taste of any drink it is made with, with the belief that whether it is drinks, ideas, or people, life is most interesting when we mix things up.
Axerve, Payment Partner to Grow, specialising in creating accessible and frictionless payment solutions for Ecommerce and physical sales, has announced the official UK launch of Payment OrchestraTM. Payment OrchestraTM is the Company’s innovative and secure payment processing platform designed to empower merchants to realise the full potential of their Ecommerce operations, with a suite of best-in-class payment services that foster high conversion rates and cut fees. Already active in Italy, and launching in Spain, Payment OrchestraTM will now be available to all UK merchants, entrepreneurs and SMEs enabling them to manage their Ecommerce shops with seamless payment processes designed to increase ease of doing business for merchants and end-customers alike. Payment OrchestraTM is Axerve’s global payment gateway aggregator, that allows businesses to orchestrate multiple international Ecommerce payments through a single platform in a quick and secure way.
AstroPay, the online payment solution of choice of over five million users in the world, is pleased to announce a high-profile sponsorship deal with Crystal Palace Football Club as the official training wear sponsor. As part of the partnership, AstroPay will have its branding and logo visible on Crystal Palace’s training kit, as well as LED advertising at Selhurst Park on every matchday, and visibility across the club’s social media. Crystal Palace will also feature AstroPay branding on the popular PalaceTV content series, “Copers Cope TV”, which offers fans extensive footage of the club’s training sessions. For AstroPay, the partnership supports its ongoing strategy to strengthen its brand and profile in the UK, following its expansion to European markets last year. AstroPay will also benefit from partnering with the club as it continues through the Premier League season, the most-watched football league in the world, and continue to grow its customer base.
BigCommerce, an Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, has announced a direct integration with Digital River, an experienced global commerce enabler, to provide mid-market to enterprise BigCommerce merchants with an all-in-one global commerce solution that fully manages payments, tax, fraud and compliance to simplify cross-border selling and accelerate global expansion. 512 Audio, a subsidiary of Warm Audio, and creators of professional microphones and audio gear built for content creators, podcasters, broadcasters and musicians, has launched its U.S. online store on BigCommerce using Digital River’s Merchant of Record solution. The company plans to expand their direct-to-consumer store into Canada, the UK and Europe in the coming months.
DemandScience, a global B2B data company that partners with customers to upgrade their sales pipelines, and the PGA TOUR has announced a multi-year partnership naming DemandScience the “Official B2B Sales Pipeline Generation Sponsor of the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions” through 2026. DemandScience branding will be integrated across key broadcast segments during NBC Sports coverage of The Honda Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, Valspar Championship, WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play, Valero Texas Open, BMW Championship and TOUR Championship. DemandScience will activate this new relationship by having a presence in programming throughout PGA TOUR media properties, aligning with PGA TOUR players and hosting customers at PGA TOUR
events.
