Global data science consultancy Ekimetrics has announced its participation in TikTok’s Media Mix Modeling Program amongst a select group of companies. Since 2006, Ekimetrics’ team of data scientists and consultants has helped some of the world’s top brands maximise their business performance and build a competitive advantage in the market. Thanks to its expertise in Mix Modelling Marketing (MMM), Ekimetrics has enabled companies to develop faster and more insightful marketing effectiveness models, isolate the ROI of each of the Marketing Mix levers, and better measure their impact. As a result, TikTok is partnering with Ekimetrics – an expert in MMM – among five key companies to participate in the Media Mix Modeling Program to bring reporting consistency and quality as well as a more streamlined media mix modelling process for advertisers globally.
Cyance, the B2B intent data platform for growth in Europe, has launched a reimagined platform which will give B2B sales and marketing teams the deepest level of insight into the needs and drivers of their clients and prospects. The platform offers a whole host of new features including a ‘FIT Score’ for each company, which gives users the ability to quickly select accounts to target based on a composite score including firmographics, technology matchs, levels of intent & previous engagement. The FIT score, improved user interface (UI), enhanced audience selection features, audience market trend analysis and list building tools have all been carefully designed to provide marketers with a platform for efficiently analysing the behaviour of new business prospects and stakeholders within existing customer organisations.
At a time when stressors are at an all-time high, Headspace is collaborating with one of the most iconic cinematic franchises, Star Wars™, to deliver mindfulness content to the galaxy. Through the Headspace app, young padawans will master their sleep, overcome stress and improve their focus. Launching on May the 4th, new content includes four short, animated breathing exercises featuring Yoda, BB-8, Chewbacca, and R2-D2, and will inspire members to turn inwards and focus on their breath. The collaboration also includes three sleepcasts – audio stories designed specifically to create the right conditions for healthy sleep – set in memorable locations in the Star Wars galaxy.
Pax8, the cloud commerce marketplace, has announced its expansion into Australia and New Zealand. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the regions now have access to Pax8’s award-winning cloud marketplace, support, education programs, and more. The leadership team includes Chris Sharp, SVP, Pax8 Asia. In his role, Sharp will lead the Pax8 Australia and New Zealand team and manage the overall operations and corporate decision-making for the Pax8 Asia business. Tracy Lacewell, Vice President of Sales, Pax8 Asia, joins as VP of Sales. Lacewell will be responsible for leading sales in Australia and New Zealand, as well as strategic expansion into the regions. James Bergl, Vice President of Business Development, Pax8 Asia joins as VP of Business Development, and will lead the company’s pre-sales teams, consulting teams, and education programs.
MediaKind has announced that it’s become an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner and completed the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR). Completion of the AWS FTR lets MediaKind unlock funding benefits and become eligible for various programs within the AWS Partner Network (APN). The AWS FTR enables AWS Partners to identify and reduce risks in their productions and solutions. The AWS FTR reviews products and solutions against a specific set of requirements to address security, reliability, and operational excellence issues, as defined by the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Adhering to AWS FTR guidelines, MediaKind can review projects against AWS FTR requirements adhering to best practices and ensuring the best possible client experience. MediaKind offers a complete, mature, and award-winning cloud-native portfolio that serves all media segments, spanning solutions for contribution, distribution, and cloud ingest; media processing and consumer delivery; and consumer experience enablement and monetization.
The Marketing Practice (TMP) has acquired ABX specialists Campaign Stars, making it the B2B marketing agency’s second US acquisition of the year so
far. As the leader in tech-enabled ABM and ABX, Campaign Stars will be a powerful addition to TMP’s capabilities, offering a highly productised, scalable solution for clients that need account-based programmes up-and-running within weeks and very cost-effectively. Campaign Stars’ on-demand ABX solution has tapped into an unmet need in the market, fuelling rapid growth from clients that include fast-growth tech businesses to market leaders like Salesforce and SAP.
Tech Mahindra, a provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions, has announced that it has been selected as the technology and digital transformation partner for Freemans Grattan Holdings (FGH). Through the partnership, Tech Mahindra will support FGH in executing their 4D strategy to provide distinct retail offers, dynamic financial services, and a digital-first approach, driven by operational efficiency. This five-year engagement will help FGH reduce their technical debt and migrate their entire infrastructure and application portfolio to modern cloud-based platforms. Tech Mahindra will work with FGH to optimise, simplify, and standardise business processes to streamline front and back-office platforms for automated operations and improved customer experience.
The Creative Engagement Group (TCEG) are delighted to announce they have become a partner of TRANSFORM – a unique global initiative which supports social entrepreneurs in Africa and South Asia to deliver products and services that help improve the lives of low-income households. TRANSFORM is an award-winning UK public-private sector collaboration between the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Unilever and EY. It works to support early-stage social entrepreneurs, blending funding and bespoke business support to businesses who help low-income households meet their everyday needs. The initiative has supported 61 projects in 13 countries and positively impacted the lives of over six million people. TRANSFORM entrepreneurs are creating new solutions to provide safe drinking water through water ATMs in Bangladesh, delivering feminine hygiene products discreetly in Kenya and are recycling plastics in India. The relationship between TCEG and TRANSFORM started 6 months ago with its Behavioural Science Unit providing advisory services for several innovative and award-winning social enterprise solutions across Kenya. A key part of TCEG’s ESG commitment is providing its employees with opportunities to give back in lots of different ways. This new partnership enables TCEG employees to contribute a diverse range of consulting, creative and production skills and positively impact the lives of communities around the world.
Kantar, the data-driven analytics and brand consulting company has announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Blackwood Seven, the Copenhagen, Denmark-based marketing measurement and optimisation company. The transaction is anticipated to complete by the end of April. Operationally, the Blackwood Seven team will join Kantar’s Analytics Practice, led by Chris Petranto. Today’s announcement represents Kantar’s sixth acquisition since Bain Capital took a majority shareholding in December 2019.
WPP has launched ‘Everymile’ – expanding its offer with a new fully managed service that will provide brands with an outsourced direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce solution. Everymile builds on WPP’s existing global omnichannel commerce capabilities in strategy, customer experience and technology development, adding demand generation, online trading and merchandising, supply chain and logistics. It will enable companies and brands to deliver brand-led DTC commerce – from the customer’s screen to their doorstep – simply and cost-effectively. The launch of Everymile makes WPP the only company in its sector to offer an end-to-end ecommerce solution.
Luxury digital jeweller Astley Clarke has signed up to Brightpearl. With access to Brightpearl’s dedicated Retail Operating System, including a Plug & Play integration to its Magento 2 website, a powerful Automation Engine, accurate demand forecasting and advanced inventory management, Astley Clarke now has the freedom to grow fearlessly. With Brightpearl in place, the company replaced a custom back office system, adding speed, flexibility and POS functionality into its operation to allow scale and flexibility of the operation across all its channels. Upgrading to Brightpearl took a total of just 150 days and has given the business all the functionality it had been missing – replacing manual tasks including the ability to automatically fulfill orders, wholesale billing and integrated finance reporting.
Virtual Private Network PureVPN is introducing a quantum-resistant feature on its OpenVPN protocol, providing its 3 million users more security and privacy than ever before as we head toward a post-quantum world. PureVPN has partnered with Quantinuum, the integrated quantum computing company, to deploy Quantum-Resistant Encryption Keys – the first part of its quantum-resistant capability. Using Quantinuum’s cyber platform, Quantum Origin, PureVPN has been able to create and deploy encryption keys that are generated using a verifiable quantum process, which are more secure than keys from unverified, classical processes. The revolutionary technology will future-proof PureVPN users against threats to their data and privacy as quantum computers gain more and more momentum. With the deployment of quantum-resistant encryption keys, PureVPN users will be able to enjoy the added advantage of strengthened privacy and anonymity on all devices, enhanced remote work security, safer online banking and crypto transactions and an added layer of protection from illegal surveillance. This layer of protection will carry on through when quantum computers become more accessible and commercial.
Contentsquare has announced that WPP agency GroupM has joined the Contentsquare Experience Partner Ecosystem. With this partnership, Contentsquare becomes one of the first technology partners to join GroupM’s Nordic CX Hub initiative, a community and collaboration hub to support businesses along their digital transformation journey. Tailored to both enterprise and mid-market brands in the region, this partnership will be an extension of GroupM’s media capabilities, and will provide enhanced support for brands looking to future-proof their digital Customer Experience (CX). Driven by an understanding of what customers are experiencing online and how and why they respond to these elements, the partnership will also enable businesses to make smarter, faster decisions, and to build greater trust with their customers.
Accenture has announced that Accenture Interactive will now go to market as Accenture Song. The move reflects the company’s post-pandemic world-class services that reinvent customer connections, sales, commerce and marketing and business innovation to meet clients’ accelerated demand for business growth through sustained customer relevance at the ever-changing speed of life. Building on Accenture’s longstanding culture of change, the name Accenture Song conveys an enduring and universal form of human craft, connection, inspiration, technical prowess and experience—unleashing the imagination and ideas of its people to deliver tangible results.
Luno, the cryptocurrency exchange with over 10m users worldwide, is to be the presenting partner of this year’s All Points East festival. The partnership, which has been facilitated by AEG Global Partnerships, will enable Luno to educate festival goers about safely harnessing the power and possibilities of cryptocurrency. All Points East is East London’s essential music festival and takes place in Victoria Park from 19th – 28th August. This year’s events are expected to attract over 350,000 festival goers who will come to see headline acts including Gorillaz, The Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Tame Impala, The National, Disclosure and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Luno’s partnership with All Points East will include the creation of the ‘Luno Lounge’ on the festival site, a space which will reflect the themes of both accessibility and opportunity which are a fundamental part of the crypto industry. Alongside this, the partnership promises to offer exclusive access to All Points East for Luno customers, including: Luno x All Points East promotions, Luno fast track, Luno spaces and Luno x All Points East content.
EventsX, a new challenger platform, has launched, offering businesses an AI-enabled all-in-one virtual events service, to shakeup the online events industry. Founded by entrepreneur Shoaib Aslam, EventsX has been designed to set a new standard of hybrid services, providing an all-inclusive, seamless events experience for physical, online and hybrid events to users around the world. The feature rich events platform offers event managers, exhibitors and sponsors a one-stop spot to oversee all aspects of an event with all features in one place. Key features include allowing users to complete profiles, make payments, schedule events, manage events, network, and cultivate referrals for influencers alongside further monetisation and data analytics options. The EventsX platform is centred around Artificial Intelligence (AI), offering unique capabilities to help organisers gain a better understanding of how to improve their events and deliver the best experience possible. Using artificial intelligence, the EventsX platform provides unique features such as conversational AI and speech to text, allowing for conversations to be recorded and summarised to provide an overview of a specific talk or conversation, as well as the overall event.
Movable Ink, the content personalization provider, has announced $55 million in Series D funding, following a year of record growth. Silver Lake Waterman led the round with participation from existing investors, including Contour Venture Partners, Intel Capital, and others. The latest infusion of capital brings Movable Ink to $97 million raised since its launch in 2010. In the last six months alone, the company also expanded its client roster in delivering personalization communications, including investing platform Public.com, MGM Resorts, The Los Angeles Times, Cirque du Soleil, Epic, American Golf, Wise, Sky Deutschland, Thalia, and more.
