Far too many brands are still failing to implement a personalized loyalty program when it comes to promotions and loyalty, according to new research carried out by Harvard Business Review and sponsored by Talon.One, incentives platform. The study of 420 respondents at organizations with promotions strategies found that only 56% of those surveyed say their organization currently runs personalized promotions or discounts, as opposed to mass discounting for example. There remains a stubborn cohort of almost one in four (22%) at businesses who have no plans to personalize promotions or discounts, while 17% say they don’t personalize offers but plan to start doing this soon. Yet, among those at organizations that do personalize discounts, 94% say they are reaping rewards: 62% say they’ve seen increased sales as a result, while nearly half (47%) say it’s increased customer loyalty, and 44% say it has delivered a better customer experience.
Innovid, an independent software platform for the creation, delivery, measurement, and optimization of advertising, has announced that is one of the first ad tech partners to build on Meta’s newly released Threads API. The integration brings Threads ad support into Innovid’s Social Ads Manager, enabling marketers to activate the fast-growing channel alongside other Meta properties.The integration allows marketers to run Threads ads using their existing workflows and campaign structures, while taking advantage of Meta’s opportunities for reach, traffic, and website conversions.
AI-powered ad campaign platform Creatopy has launched Live Data, a new feature that connects creative assets to real-time data streams. The solution has already demonstrated significant results for the iGaming industry with an increase of up to 20% in first-time depositors observed over a 3-month period. Live Data enables brands to deliver dynamic online ads that automatically update based on live variables such as odds, pricing, availability or performance metrics, without the need for manual intervention. Once a design template has been created, the published ad can be updated automatically based on the parameters set. For iGaming companies, this can be a specific game or an entire competition; the tool can also dynamically display stocks and casino games based on current trends and performance. While the initial release focuses on the iGaming and gambling industry, Live Data offers a wide range of applications across various sectors, including Travel with live pricing for flights and hotels; finance with real-time stock movements or FX rates; and entertainment with live streaming stats and event availability.
Digital video and CTV solutions company ShowHeroes has announced a summer special offering: effective immediately, its proprietary Attention Index will be included as a standard feature, free of charge, with every direct IO campaign. This offer applies exclusively to direct bookings and does not apply to programmatic deals. Attention Index delivers real-time insight into how long users are actively paying attention to an ad, unlocking a deeper, more accurate read on campaign performance across platforms. By making this metric a standard feature for direct deals, ShowHeroes aims to position itself as a transparency-first player in a market increasingly defined by signal loss and rising media costs. The release is timely to head off the seasonal summer slowdown that traditionally faces advertisers.Â
BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), an open SaaS ecommerce platform for B2C and B2B businesses, and Feedonomics, a data feed management solution, have announced their customers now have access to cutting-edge AI-powered search engine Perplexity to optimize visibility and relevance for brands in AI search results. In the shift from traditional SEO to AI search, it is critical that merchants ensure their products can be syndicated to the right marketplaces and advertising channels or owned channels so they can be found in order to drive traffic and sales. Historical data scraping is inefficient and often inaccurate for large language models. Feedonomics now provides Perplexity with pre-optimized, structured product data, ensuring that the LLM understands and recognizes merchants’ products, leading to superior search results that favor the brand.
Topsort, an artificial intelligence (AI) and auction-based retail media infrastructure company that aims to democratize Silicon Valley’s monetization secrets to retailers and marketplaces, today announced that it has been selected by OBI First Media Group, the retail media subsidiary of the OBI Group and leading retail media providers in the Home & Garden sector in Germany, to power the company’s next-generation ad server and retail media capabilities. The new platform replaces OBI’s previous solution and ushers in a new era of intelligent, scalable, and performance-optimized advertising. After a competitive review of more than 15 providers, OBI selected Topsort for its intuitive interface, flexible self-serve capabilities, and AI-driven bidding technology. The partnership is launching with sponsored listings and banners, with future expansion planned across offsite and in-store channels.
Kevel, the industry leader in API-based ad serving technology, today announced that Kleinanzeigen, Germany’s largest online classifieds platform, has chosen Kevel’s Retail Media Cloud® to power its next-generation retail media network. This partnership marks a significant milestone in Kleinanzeigen’s digital advertising strategy and underscores Kevel’s expanding presence in the European market. By leveraging Kevel’s cutting-edge technology, Kleinanzeigen aims to create a sophisticated, custom-built advertising platform that aligns with its commitment to connecting local buyers, marketplace sellers & brands. The new retail media network will enable Kleinanzeigen to offer its advertising partners more targeted and effective ways to enhance the user-experience and reach high-intent consumers with more than 700M monthly visits. This collaboration will focus on enhancing the user experience across both owned and off-site channels through personalization and innovative ad formats, leveraging Kleinanzeigen’s unique first-party data.
Marketing activation and customer engagement company Paragon has announced an official partnership with NESMA DIGITEC (NDIGITEC) to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions for the region’s sports ecosystem. The partnership, formalised by a Memorandum of Understanding, combines the expertise of both organisations to create smart, tailored solutions that meet the evolving demands of high-profile sporting events. Paragon’s global experience as a trusted partner in prestigious sporting events includes consultancy, ticketing, fan engagement, stadium branding, and full event delivery, crafting unforgettable, technology-enabled experiences for millions of fans worldwide.
Audience measurement, data, and analytics company Nielsen has announced the addition of Connected TV (CTV) coverage into its Ad Intel product. Adding CTV coverage to Ad Intel, Nielsen’s comprehensive source of advertising intelligence, allows marketers and advertisers to understand the media landscape so they can effectively plan campaigns. This enhancement enables ad spend to be tracked across all major streaming platforms, alongside linear TV, digital, and other media types already available. This helps clients to understand a complete cross-platform view of their competitors’ media strategies, giving greater visibility into where they are investing, and how ad spend is shifting between linear TV, CTV, and other digital channels. Clients can then make more informed decisions regarding how CTV fits into the broader media mix.
GoKwik, an ecommerce enabler tech company, has closed a $13 million growth round. With the freshly raised funds, GoKwik will accelerate its international expansion, primarily in the UK and the European continent, making its WhatsApp Business solution accessible to DTC brands to unlock the full potential of conversational commerce. GoKwik will also focus on hiring in these markets while continuing to expand the scope of its existing solutions. The investment was led by existing investor RTP Global as well as participation from Z47, PeakXV Partners and Think Investments. GoKwik’s suite of connected products have already achieved strong market penetration in India, transforming how Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands convert, engage and retain shoppers. In the UK and European markets, GoKwik is helping DTC brands improve customer engagement with the Whatsapp Business solution, KwikEngage. It helps brands retarget and convert shoppers who abandon carts, provide seamless post-purchase order updates, both up-sell and cross-sell products and gather feedback. The fresh capital will accelerate GoKwik’s international expansion as it localises Return Prime and KwikEngage for further growth in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. GoKwik CRO Abhishek Chandra is overseeing the European expansion from the UK.
Global ecommerce acceleration company Pattern has launched Content Brief by Pattern PXM to the European market — an AI-powered tool that helps ecommerce brands optimise product descriptions, boost traffic, and accelerate growth. Content Brief by Pattern PXM leverages Pattern’s extensive 44 trillion data points to analyse product listings and deliver actionable insights, based on market share, shopper behaviour, and content performance. Content Brief gives ecommerce brands an automated way to boost conversions and scale content across channels. Optimising product imagery, video and copy for online listings is the most cited focus area for executives over the next six to 12 months, according to Pattern’s 2024 Ecommerce Executive Strategy Snapshot. Yet 40% of brand leaders say they don’t have the tools and resources they need to maximise ecommerce opportunities.
GoWit, the leading Commerce & Retail Media adtech platform GoWit has partnered with Goldbach Group, an advertising sales house in Switzerland. This strategic alliance combines GoWit’s self-serve Retail Media technology with Goldbach’s deep regional expertise and trusted market reach. In Switzerland, the two companies are building the largest Retail Media ecosystem, setting a new benchmark for Commerce & Retail Media in Europe. For retailers and media owners, this partnership opens access to an omnichannel, self-serve ad platform, allowing them to integrate Retail Media solutions faster than ever. With instant onboarding and campaign launch features, retailers can start monetizing their digital inventory immediately. This partnership empowers retailers with Goldbach’s local advertising power and GoWit’s full-service operations, including campaign management and technical support.
Alibaba.com, a leading platform for global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, today announces the launch of CoCreate Pitch – a new competition for UK and European SMEs to realise their ambitious product dreams and compete for a prize pool worth nearly £750,000. Coinciding with World Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Day on June 27th, this initiative highlights Alibaba.com’s commitment to supporting global SMEs. In addition, Alibaba.com is bringing its flagship event CoCreate to London later this year, creating a dual annual event hosted in London and Las Vegas for the first time. CoCreate is a highly successful SME-focused trade event. Since 2023, it has been hosted in Las Vegas, bringing together more than 2,000 North American SMEs under one roof to collaborate, forge sourcing relationships and unlock growth. Building on the momentum of its Las Vegas event, which is expected to welcome more than 3,000 attendees this year, Alibaba.com is expanding its global footprint with the launch of its first CoCreate event in Europe. The event will take place in London on 14th November.
Dotdigital Group plc (AIM: DOTD), a SaaS provider of customer experience and data platforms (CXDP), has acquired Social Snowball Holdings, Inc., a US-based influencer, affiliate, and referral marketing platform for e-commerce brands, for $35 million USD. The investment brings together two fast growing technologies that until now have been distinct categories within the martech landscape. It will see influencer marketing treated as an integral part of Dotdigital’s product stack, enabling marketers to activate the power of word-of-mouth marketing, using their own customer data. By uniting customer experience, data, and creator marketing, Dotdigital can empower brands to reach key audiences with trusted content and incentives. This helps diversify the marketing mix and transform influencer and affiliate partnerships into a scalable, performance-driven growth engine, powered by first-party data. With over 1,500 subscription-based Shopify customers including G Fuel, Brez, and True Classic, Social Snowball’s integration will accelerate Dotdigital’s reach in the fast-growing Shopify merchant ecosystem, aligning with its total addressable market expansion and product-led growth strategy.
Creative data provider DAIVID has unveiled a new tool that instantly measures the effectiveness of AI-powered creative, helping marketers maintain the quality of their ads amid a surge in Gen AI ad output. As Gen AI tools become crucial in meeting skyrocketing demand for new content – with 71% of marketers predicting a 5X growth in just two years (Adobe) – preserving creative effectiveness amid surging ad volumes is a key challenge. To help advertisers minimise waste and optimise ad spend, DAIVID’s Creative Data Feed API can now help brands, agencies and ad tech providers instantly assess which AI-generated ads will drive emotional engagement, attention and business results. Trained by combining facial coding, eye tracking and survey data with computer vision and computer listening APIs, DAIVID’s AI models let users know within seconds the emotional and business impact of their video, social or display ads. The new human-trained, AI-powered tool can be integrated into any ad platform. Metrics include 39 different emotions, attention, brand recall and purchase intent.
