Media technology company IDG has selected LiveRamp, the data connectivity platform, as its trusted partner to connect premium authenticated inventory with advertiser demand. As part of its strategy to offset third-party cookie deprecation, IDG has integrated LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS), which enables advertising on authenticated, cookieless inventory in a privacy-first manner. Sarah Lavery, Global Head of Programmatic at IDG, said: “IDG recognises the need to be proactive in this period of transition as third-party cookies are phased out. ATS will enable us to connect our authenticated audience database with advertising demand on an international scale, while crucially protecting our readers’ privacy and giving them control over their data.
Vungle, a mobile performance advertising platform, has announced the acquisition of GameRefinery, an industry-leading SaaS mobile gaming analytics company headquartered in Finland. GameRefinery’s Game Intelligence platform provides developers with retention and monetisation insights through its cloud-based developer tools for world-class studios such as Zynga, King, Rovio, Ubisoft, and more. The company’s deep contextual data sets across more than 160,000 gaming apps bring unique and innovative targeting capabilities to Vungle’s platform, helping advertisers deliver contextually relevant campaigns and increase user acquisition performance in today’s privacy-focused, post-IDFA landscape.
Following a 5-way competitive pitch, the carpet and flooring company, Tapi, have appointed independent advertising agency Creature, to deliver their new brand strategy. Creature will be responsible for delivering an integrated communication strategy and big creative brand-building idea that will cement Tapi’s position as the sector leader for people who want a properly good floor and excellent customer experience.
VOODOO has been awarded the exclusive contract to deliver text alerts on behalf of national pizza delivery chain Papa John’s. VOODOO will be responsible for delivering more than two million text messages per month to pizza lovers across the UK, using its powerful cloud-based messaging platform. The service was rolled out across Papa John’s UK-based outlets from September and provides customers with the chance to keep up-to-date with the latest special offers available within more than 400 local stores, with a number of additional new features introduced to improve customer service. The Voodoo team were invited to take part in the competitive pitch process. After presenting their ideas, the team was short-listed in the tender process, culminating in a three-way pitch process with the Yorkshire-based tech specialist being awarded an initial two-year contract.
News UK’s commercial arm has appointed Bluestripe Group, the integrated B2B marketing services business, on a PR and content brief to promote its multi-platform media offering to advertisers.
The retained brief, starting in March 2021, will see Bluestripe developing an innovative B2B content strategy targeting senior figures in the marketing and advertising sectors and handling relevant media relations with the trade press. News UK’s commercial division manages advertising and sponsorships for the multi-platform media group encompassing The Times and The Sunday Times, The Sun and Sun on Sunday and the Wireless Group radio brands, talkSPORT, talkRADIO, Virgin Radio and Times Radio.
Dominic Carter, Group Chief Commercial Officer, News UK, said: “Bluestripe Group came to us with an offering that promised more than just traditional media relations. Our commercial offer has changed significantly in recent years as our business has evolved and we’re looking to get the story of that change, and the innovation that supports it, out to the wider marketing industry.”
Cloud-based infrastructure monitoring and observability platform LogicMonitor has announced that it has acquired Airbrake, a developer-centric application error and performance monitoring company. The acquisition will extend LogicMonitor’s award-winning ITIM platform into developer environments and will enable customers to gain visibility into continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) workflows while reducing risk to ensure that every code release delivers a flawless customer experience. “We’re very optimistic about what LogicMonitor’s acquisition of Airbrake means for customers. Having infrastructure monitoring, logs, and error and performance monitoring accessible within a single observability platform is the ideal solution for a global organisation like ours,” said Oscar Garcia, senior vice president, managed services & platform automation, NTT.
So Pure Air, a technology start-up providing air sterilizers for commercial properties, has appointed The Lucre Group to handle its PR and digital content. The COVID-19 pandemic has put into sharp focus the importance of good hygiene practices and improving indoor air quality is predicted to be a priority for business owners this year. With health and wellbeing on everyone’s minds, a core part of Lucre’s role will be to launch So Pure Air through a hard-hitting PR campaign and an ongoing thought leadership and education programme. In addition, Lucre’s content division RICH has been tasked with delivering a digital strategy that will improve the performance of the brand’s online content and expand its share of voice through new platforms.
Cutover, the first enterprise-wide work orchestration and observability platform has announced a $35 million Series B financing round led by Eldridge, alongside existing investors Index Ventures, Sussex Place Ventures and Contour Ventures. As businesses adapt to a new, faster way of working, the investment will allow Cutover, a company that has almost tripled its workforce in 2020, to build on the momentum and scale of its platform. Now, Cutover customers have a vehicle to accelerate the potential of human and machine collaboration, enabling them to plan and orchestrate critical and complex work across the enterprise in an observable way.
Regulated fintech and trusted payment service enabler Paynetics AD has partnered with promotional campaign expert Benamic to develop its mobile-first, digital corporate card programme. The innovative new app solution, with a rewards engine and Apple Pay and Google Pay enabled, will initially run with a leading brand in the electricals sector, and its business customers, which will benefit from digital-first promotional activity on mobile, in-store and online. The service has just launched as part of an initial trial in which SME customers and sole traders can benefit from cashback on popular power tools for a limited time, enabling them to upgrade or move to the brand’s popular product line. The new digital programme showcases virtual branded cards, embedded in a plug and play mobile application, with mobile payments enabled. It also provides the added convenience of a newly-developed corporate portal which enables Benamic to manage customer card transactions in real-time.
UK-based banking software provider, DPR, has announced its latest technical partnership with Six Degrees as it continues to expand its Microsoft Azure integration. The new partnership adds additional strength to DPR’s existing Azure hosting and managed services. It leverages Six Degrees’ cloud pedigree, security capabilities and track record in working with the financial services sector to provide DPR clients with performance, agility, security and cost benefits across the DPR applications. DPR is committed to improving client experience and ensuring its clients remain at the forefront of the banking sector. The group has invested heavily in developing its technologies and expanding its Azure offering, including becoming a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), to deliver Origination and Servicing of Mortgages, Savings and Loans as a fully managed service.
Adimo, a consumer goods marketing technology company, announced the close of a $3.6 million seed round of funding from Maven Capital Partners, Scottish Enterprise, GWC, ESM Investments, and Galvanise Capital and LSIP, which will help further fuel the company’s go-to market operations in the US whilst scaling activity globally. Adimo is integrated with over 400 retailers globally, working with market leaders such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Arla, Kelloggs, PepsiCo., Danone, The Edrington Group and Bacardi across 60 countries and 40 languages.
Squirrel, a price comparison widget that automatically gathers the prices of products from the most relevant retailers with ease, has today launched a new feature named, Intelligent Squirrel. Intelligent Squirrel recommends the best product match based on the headline of an article on the page, even if there is no inclusion of the make and model data in the publication’s content management system. The intuitive widget is designed to allow publishers to maximise their affiliate revenue while offering a valuable service to their readers. Readers can view the responsive widget on desktop, mobile, and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Automatic updates made every two to four hours provide readers with the latest price whenever they visit the product page. Using geo-targeting technology, the Squirrel widget will seamlessly offer the best prices from the most relevant retailers in the reader’s local currency. The widget works in the UK and US and is rapidly growing in places such as France, Spain, Germany, Canada, and India. Working with all major affiliate networks and retailers, Squirrel provides prices from all mainstream shopping channels such as Amazon, Argos, eBay and John Lewis, as well as affiliate networks like Awin and Impact.
Onfido has announced its partnership with Scrive to support Volkswagen Financial Services UK, part of Volkswagen AG, with the launch of its digital financing solution for UK dealerships. Volkswagen Financial Services is innovating its customer online experience with a frictionless e-signature user flow. Scrive’s electronic signature service and Onfido’s digital identity verification services are seamlessly integrated into the new process, for the quick verification of customer identity and to allow the signing of financing agreements either remotely or in person.
