Pinterest has announced that it will host its second annual global advertiser summit, Pinterest Presents, on March 10th, 2022. Under the theme ‘It’s different here’, attendees will hear exclusive updates about what Pinterest, the inspiration to realization platform, is ambitiously working on across shopping, creators, trends and more. Hosted for advertisers in key markets including the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada and Australia, the award-winning virtual summit is designed to inspire and spark creativity among its audience and provide marketers with an exclusive preview of the company’s upcoming product updates which offer even more opportunities for advertisers, Creators and Pinners. Pinterest Presents will bring together a range of compelling industry voices and inspiring executives to create an exciting and engaging virtual experience.
Playable Factory, a creator of playable ads for mobile games and brands, has announced Gearbox Video, a new tool that enables mobile gaming companies to easily create video variations of mobile gameplay with zero coding experience. Gearbox Video generates gameplay videos for mobile games developed with the Unity engine. Crucially, the new tool empowers mobile games marketers to easily record numerous variations of gameplay, drastically reducing the time and resource needed for effective A/B testing. Gearbox Video outputs will be used for marketing and advertising campaigns. Historically, making video assets for mobile games marketing has been a laborious process. Creating videos with different outcomes, such as beating a level versus failing it, meant marketing teams had to play and record gameplay levels over and over again, and required heavy developer involvement. With the advent of Gearbox Video, mobile games marketers can now create multiple variations of gameplay videos with minimal developer input.
Validity, the provider of data quality and email marketing success solutions, has announced the release of GridBuddy Connect, a data productivity platform that enables sales teams to focus on growing their businesses rather than updating data. The platform aims to increase sales team productivity by making data easy to find, update and view – no matter its source. The updated and reinvented GridBuddy Connect, formerly known as GridBuddy Cloud, gives users a spreadsheet-simple interface that ensures data can be accessed and edited in different views based on individual roles. By consolidating data from multiple sources in one view, GridBuddy Connect facilitates connections across disparate teams so users can pinpoint missing or incorrect information before it impacts their business. Additionally, with this announcement GridBuddy Connect expands its support for Salesforce data, adding new support for Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, OData and Zendesk.
Iceland and The Food Warehouse have joined forces with global product discovery platform, RangeMe, to supercharge the way they uncover and source new product. RangeMe offers a single place for buyers to efficiently discover opportunity from suppliers around the world. By tapping into the platform, Iceland and The Food Warehouse – the UK’s leaders in frozen food – have unlocked access to more than 800,000 products from over 200,000 suppliers, which will enable their team of buyers across frozen, chilled and grocery, to source the most innovative emerging products. In a competitive retail space, Iceland aims to maximise the potential of RangeMe to source trend-led and innovative products at scale, and speed. The supermarket’s team of buyers will maximise RangeMe’s software to discover brands and products faster, connect with suppliers, request samples, and discuss next steps.
Cavai, the conversational advertising cloud, has launched conversational video, a groundbreaking format designed to maximise engagement within digital advertising. The format harnesses the established power of moving images and combines it with conversation, to drive maximum engagement. The video suite includes video with a conversational layer as well as in-conversation video, which makes interactivity the main element while serving a video as part of a conversation. These innovative formats are ideal for a number of use cases – from providing context for products, to showcasing services, enhancing storytelling, creating positive brand experiences and for lead generation through conversation. Interaction can, for instance, open up a conversation or provide an option to watch a longer video; always giving a sense of personal choice.
Vietnam-focused retail investing app Infina has announced they have closed US$6 million in seed funding from investors such as Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks. Additional investors who have backed Robinhood, Coinbase, and similar models in other markets also participated in the funding. Infina joins the retail investing app revolution with companies like Ajaib in Indonesia, Groww in India, and Tiger in China that have enabled a new wave of avid retail investors around the world to access financial markets like never before. The Infina app is designed to make investing more accessible, easy, and safe for the young, tech-savvy Vietnamese who are looking to start their investing journey. Infina aims to democratise investing by making investing accessible for everyone, regardless of income group, and caters to young and first-time investors whose needs have not yet been well-addressed by existing solutions in the market. Through Infina, users can choose from a wide range of asset classes, from fixed-income products to mutual funds, and more recently stock trading. Expensive investment products are fractionalised, so users can now invest in a diverse portfolio of assets with low minimum amounts. Infina is also making investing widely available to everyone by growing its presence across third party ‘super’ apps. For example, users can now access Infina’s investing products via the popular e-commerce app Tiki.
Live streaming solutions provider BeLive Technology has announced the launch of ‘Trendyol Go-Live App’ in partnership with Trendyol, Turkey’s leading e-commerce company and one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms. The collaboration enables the company’s more than 200 thousand sellers to sell online via live streaming directly through the Trendyol app or website, reaching more than 30 million customers. The collaboration has come to fruition with the help of Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development. The organisation supports the growth of Singapore as a hub for global trading and startups, as well as builds trust in local products and services through quality and standards. With the new partnership between BeLive Technology and Trendyol, Singapore’s visibility on the international stage is reinforced.
DemandScience has announced the opening of its new European headquarters in London, and the acquisition of Finity SA, a Swiss-based provider of AI-driven content creation and aggregation. “Europe is playing a significant role in our global business acceleration,” explained DemandScience Chair and CEO Peter Cannone. “The opening of our new European headquarters and the acquisition of Finity align with our expansion strategy – this is our seventh acquisition in eighteen months, and the fourth European company we’ve integrated into our worldwide business in the past ten months.” DemandScience’s European-based workforce now exceeds 125, and the company is actively recruiting new team members to meet demand.
Wasted Talent, a global network of music and lifestyle media brands which in MIXMAG, KERRANG! and THE FACE includes some of the biggest and most influential music, culture and entertainment platforms, has partnered with Token||Traxx™. Token||Traxx is a new marketplace that redefines and enhances the value of music, by supporting and financially benefiting the entire music community using Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) technology. The alliance is driven by shared audiences, aligned incentives and mutual empowerment which come together to capitalise on the new economies which are emerging through media, music and decentralised finance. The elements of the partnership include Wasted Talent supporting the launch of the Token||Traxx marketplace with creative agency services including brand development and video production, activation across the Wasted Talent portfolio of The Face, MixMag and Kerrang, as well as assisting in talent onboarding. The agency will also oversee the creative development of Token||Traxx™ soon-to-be-released NFTs. In return, Token||Traxx will provide Wasted Talent with access to all the benefits of the platform, including exposure to its growing talent roster and exclusive content as the brand continues to grow. In addition, Wasted Talent will receive preferential terms on the Token||Traxx marketplace for NFTs minted by introduced artists and TRAXX tokens.
Fayre, a global NFT community for brands and fans, has scored an exclusive NFT multi-season partnership with one of Spanish football’s oldest and well-supported clubs, La Liga’s RCD Espanyol. Fayre will create unprecedented NFTs that bridge the digital world and real life experiences for the Espanyol fans. The NFTs will provide fans with exclusive access to certain elements in the stadium, the team and many other perks to be announced in the weeks ahead.
BigCommerce an Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, has announced the acquisition of Quote Ninja, Inc. (dba B2B Ninja), a premier enterprise software solution providing leading business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce capabilities for merchants of all sizes. A longtime BigCommerce partner, B2B Ninja is a best-in-class quoting solution, and the acquisition furthers BigCommerce’s ability to deliver powerful ecommerce functionality to B2B merchants. B2B Ninja is available to any BigCommerce merchant on any plan to enhance the customer experience and easily manage quotes online. It is ideal for merchants who don’t need all the functionality of B2B Edition but are looking for next-level quoting functionality, or for complex use cases that require extended quoting capabilities.
