The Independent and E.ON Next has announced a landmark new partnership designed to encourage families to feel good about reducing their energy consumption and their carbon footprints. The multi-platform campaign, overseen by Independent Ignite, the publication’s commercial content arm, will feature ex-Gogglebox stars Marcus and Mica offering practical tips for households to cut energy use and help tackle climate change. The campaign will be rolled out across all The Independent’s channels, including editorial content, Independent TV, and social media. Independent TV will feature an exclusive series with Marcus and Mica shown making simple switches in their home, educating viewers on simple ways they can conserve energy. The campaign highlights the expertise of Independent Ignite in creating multi-platform campaigns and its ability to tell compelling stories that have a social impact. It was co-ordinated through E.ON’s media agency Starcom and Simon Best at Independent Ignite. Production work was led by Independent Ignite in partnership with Zinc Media Group on the series, which was Executive Produced by Tom Edwards and Dominic de Terville.
Braze, the comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and the brands they love, has announced the launch of a new suite of productivity features designed to enable marketers to quickly unlock greater efficiency at scale with fewer resources. New features and product enhancements will allow brands to sync audiences across additional social and online advertising platforms, easily customize messages across channels, streamline review and approval processes, and engage with consumers in more personalized ways that can drive stronger campaign performance in less time and at lower cost.
Hawk, the European player in omnichannel digital communication, has announced multiple partnerships with the main players in the field of advertising attention measurement. The move meets the growing demand from media agencies and advertisers to optimise their digital campaigns using this new metric. From the 10th of May, all Hawk clients can optimise and measure the effectiveness of their digital campaigns using the tools offered by Adelaide, Contxtful, DoubleVerify, Lumen, Playground XYZ and xpln.ai. The different partnerships allow Hawk to offer its clients a range of measurement solutions based on the specific configuration of their advertising campaigns, which can be activated on mobile, desktop and tablet (in-app and web environments, display and online video formats).
Burnout remains a critical topic in tech. Marked, according to Psychology Today, by the three key dimensions of chronic exhaustion, chronic cynicism, and inefficacy, burnout is a physical, psychological, and emotional experience that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years – as well as better understood. Following up on an investigation into burnout amongst Salesforce professionals published last year, Mason Frank International, a Tenth Revolution Group company, has gathered new data on burnout specifically amongst women in cloud tech roles across the spectrum of ecosystems. The results show that burnout amongst women tech professionals is not uncommon, and with tech news and culture sites alike referring to the current widespread experience of burnout as a full-blown crisis, it is clear that this is a problem waiting to be solved.
Inspired Thinking Group (ITG) has acquired creative workflow and online proofing platform ReviewStudio as part of its major acquisitions drive in the North American market. Montreal-based ReviewStudio has become a leader in the online proofing space, supporting thousands of teams’ creative collaboration needs, and will further bolster the efficiencies that the Creative Automation platform, Storyteq, provides for its clients all around the world. This acquisition forms part of the broader M&A strategy to further build on Inspired Thinking Group’s global production business through the acquisition of like-minded businesses in the creative production space throughout the US and Europe.
Zebra Technologies Corporation, a digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, has announced the rapid growth of its Mobile Robotics Specialisation for channel partners. Nearly 40 specialist robotics partners have joined the programme since its April 2022 launch to help solve customer challenges. As part of Zebra’s award-winning PartnerConnect programme, the Mobile Robotics Specialisation programme includes a comprehensive portfolio of sales and technical training courses and certifications that educate and support partners about Zebra’s robotics automation solutions, featuring Zebra’s Fetch autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and FetchCore software. Qualifying partners in North America and EMEA gain exclusive access to business-building benefits such as pre-qualified leads, market development funds, go-to-market support and financial incentives to enable partners to market, sell and implement Zebra’s robotics automation solutions. Renovotec is a Zebra Mobile Robotics Specialist with offices across England and the Netherlands and joined the Mobile Robotics Specialisation programme in May 2022.
HubSpot Academy is celebrating a significant milestone during its fourth-annual World Certification Week, expecting to reach over half a million users in May. Running from May 15 – May 19 , the company is donating $5 USD to an education-focused non-profit for every certification awarded during the event, up to $50,000 USD. The company has been providing free online training for the digital age for over a decade, and this event is aimed at encouraging professionals around the world to complete free HubSpot Academy certifications. With over 40 industry-recognised certification courses available in six languages, the Academy offers a wide range of training options for individuals looking to build their careers and businesses looking to stay up-to-date with today’s rapidly changing market demands. World Certification Week started as a one-day celebration of knowledge in 2020 and has since transformed into a beloved annual event where HubSpot customers and partners come together to learn, get certified, and help local communities. With upcoming courses on AI, expanded group learning options, and updated training for sales leaders, HubSpot Academy continues to invest in the global learning community.
Digital mortgage broker Tembo’s mortgage decisioning platform was selected as the Innovation of the Year at the British Bank Awards. The Tembo platform is aimed at helping underserved buyers and homeowners discover their ‘true’ buying budget from a growing range of specialist mortgage schemes. Tembo’s platform is built on proprietary decisioning technology, developed by Chief Product Officer Eddie Ross, (ex Mojo Mortgages, Quint Group) and Chief Technology Officer Geoff Wright (ex-Babylon, SilkFred). The eligibility criteria for each of the 17 buying schemes has been written into Tembo’s code base, meaning an applicant can be assessed for all schemes simultaneously. After a customer completes a Tembo fact find: telling them about themselves, anyone they are buying with, and anyone that can support their purchase, the technology calculates their eligibility for each scheme, and then their affordability. Live interest rates are pulled in in order to calculate indicative monthly repayments. The fact-find itself takes an average of under 7-minutes for a user to complete, but the decisioning itself runs in under five seconds.
Moss, the software solution for holistic expense management, is announcing a new partnership with Deutsche Bank. The development comes after Moss was granted a European E-Money Institute (EMI) license last year by one of the EU’s most rigorous financial regulators, BaFin. The partnership with Deutsche Bank is the first step for Moss to be able to offer payment services under its own license in the future. As a result of the partnership, more than 2,000 SMEs in eight countries will have access to Europe’s strongest card product. Moss focused on three criteria when selecting a partner; it was important to the team that the potential partner had significant and meaningful references in the industry and represented the same standards of quality and care. In addition, priority was placed on the bank’s technical infrastructure as a means to map the future growth of Moss internationally as well.
A new report from Deltek, a global provider of software and solution for project-based businesses, has found that more than half (53%) UK professional services firms don’t have a clear strategy for stable growth in 2023. According to Deltek’s latest research, 4th Annual EMEA and APAC Clarity Industry Study: Trends and Insights for Architecture, Engineering and Consulting Firms, Consultancy and Architecture & Engineering (A&E) firms are battling through many considerations relating to growth and where to prioritise their focus in 2023. While macro issues, such as the global economy is of concern during 2023, UK organisations are also highly concerned about issues directly impacting their business. Cyber-security risks/breaches were ranked equal to a global/country-based recession as the number one concern for the Senior Decision Makers questioned, with both being selected by 66% of those surveyed.
Deliverect, a global scale-up that integrates and accelerates online orders for restaurants, has announced that it has acquired ChatFood, a leader in social media ordering, order and pay at table, and loyalty solutions. This acquisition provides the restaurant industry with a unified solution to enable profitable growth and exceptional experiences, including social, dine-in QR, and direct channel ordering, as well as online food delivery. With the addition of ChatFood, Deliverect will offer customers a one-stop, best-in-class digital platform that eliminates complexity and drives value for both in-restaurant dining and online delivery experiences. When restaurants invest in social media ordering technology specifically, they can better understand, connect with, and engage their customers directly to grow repeat business and stand out from competition.
A team of web developers, who specialise in using the Umbraco open-source content management system, are hosting a Global Accessibility Awareness Day event on 18th May to help make websites easier to use for people who have limited vision, hearing, mobility, or learning differences. Global Accessibility Awareness Day is celebrated each May to promote digital access and inclusion for more than two billion people worldwide. The UMBRAAD conference, organised by the Umbraco Accessibility Team, will take place online from 9am UK on May 18th. The event provides an opportunity for web practitioners to learn how to make websites and digital experiences accessible for all users. The online event is free of charge and designed for professionals who commission, design, or build websites and is open to anyone who has an interest in improving online accessibility.
The UK is fourth in the world and second out of the G7 economies, in a new ranking of the impact of entrepreneurs on their overall economy from Shopify. UK entrepreneurs in Shopify’s ecosystem generated £28.8 billion worth of business activity in 2022 and contributed £14.3 billion in GDP impact. The beta launch of the Shopify Entrepreneurship Index, which provides data and rankings on 40 countries around the world, is a new study conducted in partnership with Deloitte using data on the millions of entrepreneurs in the Shopify ecosystem and supplemented with IMF, OECD, and World Bank data for the purposes of economic modelling. The ranking will be released on a quarterly basis, making it one of the most timely and frequently updated ways to understand the state of entrepreneurship around the world.
EasyDMARC, a provider of user-friendly and cost-effective DMARC solutions, has announced its partnership with Topsec Cloud Solutions, a provider of cloud-based managed email and web security solutions. This collaboration will help businesses tackle the growing threat of email cybersecurity attacks by offering prepackaged essential DMARC services. DMARC, or Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance, is an email validation system that helps protect businesses against email spoofing, phishing attacks, and spam. With the rapid increase in cyber threats, DMARC has become an integral part of email security, ensuring that only legitimate emails are delivered to recipients’ inboxes.
Sowvital, a creator of premium horticultural products, is using Oracle NetSuite to support its ambition to reconnect people and their plants with science-led botanical care. With NetSuite, Sowvital has been able to take advantage of an integrated business system to gain insights across its operations, automate critical processes, and enhance decision making as it expands into more countries. Launched by graduate lawyer Jack Lewis in 2022, Sowvital was inspired by a love for nurturing houseplants and provides a growing community of houseplant lovers with scientifically, ethically, and aesthetically focused plant care products. Since it was launched, Sowvital has rapidly grown through its online business and retail collaborations with Goop and Le Bon Marché. To efficiently manage this demand, establish a scalable foundation for future growth, and optimise the omnichannel experience for its customers, Sowvital selected NetSuite as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Cloudinary, the image and video platform that powers many of the world’s top brands, announced that charity: water, a nonprofit organisation working to make clean, safe water accessible worldwide, has deployed Cloudinary’s award-winning Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, Assets. Cloudinary Assets will enable charity: water to streamline the management of its image and video assets, bring high-quality visual communications to market more efficiently, and improve the ROI of its other technology investments.
