Craft CMS Announces The Release Of Craft 3 And The Craft Plugin Store
Craft CMS Releases the Faster and More Feature Rich Craft 3 and the Craft Plugin Store
Pixel & Tonic, the team behind Craft CMS, announced the long-awaited release of Craft 3 and the Craft Plugin Store. Craft 3 has been highly anticipated in the Craft Community as the platform has been completely rewritten, redesigned, and refactored for better performance and more out of the box functionality.
Craft 3 is more than three times faster than its predecessor and includes hundreds of new features and improvements notably:
Multi-Site – Run multiple sister sites from a single Craft install at no extra cost. It’s Craft’s localization features, only better.
Image Editor – The ability to crop, rotate, flip, and set focal points on all your images directly in the Control Panel.
In-line Asset Preview – Quickly view your photos and assets everywhere in Craft CMS by pressing Shift + Spacebar.
Debug Toolbar – Allows developers to learn everything there is to know about how requests are being processed.
PostgreSQL – Similar to MySQL, but better in every way.
The Craft Plugin Store – Quite possibly the most anticipated feature in Craft 3. The Craft Plugin Store is an online marketplace that allows web developers to purchase Craft plugins directly through the Craft Control Panel. No more having to visit third-party sites to discover, purchase, and download Craft plugins. The Craft Plugin Store also utilizes Craft ID, an online portal for Craft customers, where they can securely store payment and license information enabling every Craft-related purchase to be made through one secure transaction.
The addition of these features and upgrades demonstrates Pixel and Tonic’s continued commitment to creating a modern content management framework that is enjoyable to use for development professionals and content creators alike. Craft 3 allows developers, designers, and content teams to create bespoke websites that look and function to their specific needs without having to wrestle with the CMS.
Craft CMS has been named the Best WordPress Alternative by CMS Critic and a High Performer in G2 Crowd’s Best Web Content Management Software report. It is the trusted web content management system for eight of the top ten global agencies including, IDEO, TBWA, Ogilvy, Deloitte, and Leo Burnett.
Tell us about your role and how you got here. What inspired you to be part of Engagio?
I am the CMO of Engagio. I was inspired to join the company because I believe in the vision. As a marketer, I have done ABM for years but struggled to scale the programs and measure them without me spending hours in excel or bribing someone in IT to help me pull data. I also worked with Jon Miller at Marketo so it was getting the band back together. I knew that Jon understands attribution models better than most marketers out there, so I would not have to explain how they work!
In 2018, how would better marketing orchestration influence multiple attribution models?
Marketing orchestration is the process where revenue teams jointly engage accounts and drive the right business outcomes with personalized, relevant interactions. It is not about marketing simply passing a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) over to sales. As your readers know, for the majority of B2B deals, it is never just one sales touch, or a singular marketing touch. Rather it is a series of coordinated sales and marketing activities that drive an outcome. So, when teams go to measure how effective an initiative was, it is pretty important to be able to look at the collective group of marketing and sales touches at different time points, etc. to get a more accurate picture of what is working or not. Because marketing orchestration and ABM are becoming more widely adopted we are all learning more about better ways to measure B2B deals.
How has the maturity of data science and analytics improved the creation and mapping of real-time customer profile?
There have been impressive advances in data science and analytics, specifically regarding the volume and diversity of inputs we have from prospects and customers. It is now possible to identify customer data, map to the right identifiers (ex: channel type – mobile, Facebook), and then start to develop profiles where the data is automated. This is a bit more of a reality in the consumer space because purchases are transactional and usually involve one person. For B2B, I am not sure many companies have real-time customer mapping perfected. However, analytics in B2B marketing have come a long way in the last few years. Companies can now track the entire account rather just individuals. We can begin to map activities to buying centers, then deliver a more relevant message to the people that matter most.
What are the major challenges in the way marketers leverage account analytics to measure the full-stack marketing impact?
Account-based analytics are a shift for some marketers. It is not about volume or number of MQLs, and more about focus and business outcomes that are best for the organization. Account-based analytics are cool because they capture more activity and you can see the impact from all teams. The hard part for most marketers is educating other folks in the organization on how to evaluate account-based initiatives. When done right, account-based metrics actually paint a more complete picture and help you justify marketing and sales impact. When you have long, complex sales deals, it’s important to be able to connect your activities to revenue. It’s a major challenge for B2B organization, and it’s something we’re passionate about helping people solve.
Which startups in the martech/ad tech industry are you watching/keen on right now?
This is a tough question because there are many great companies – too many to list. I am very interested in the customer marketing space and tools for marketers to better understand what customers do. Pendo and Gainsight are ones to watch.
What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2018?
Would you tell us about your standout digital campaign or a unique customer success story at Engagio? (Who was your target audience and how did you measure success?)
We have a defined ICP (ideal customer profile) and have done a lot of work to focus there (we look at firmographics, demographics, predictive and a lot of historical data). We measure success at different time points. I look at total engagement, how we are moving accounts to the next stage, and ultimately pipeline and revenue.
A standout customer we have is JDA. JDA had a new organization-wide initiative to focus on driving value and serving the customer, which they called their customer-first initiative. They were challenged with rolling out this initiative across sales, sales development, operations, and marketing while at the same time making sure they hit their increasing revenue goal. They turned to an Account Based Marketing strategy to align their team and hit their every-increasing numbers.
They never had a way to measure account engagement, which created misalignment among their entire revenue team and limited marketing’s ability to provide value to sales.
They used Engagio to scale their ABM efforts. Their entire organization was aligned around the same set of high-value accounts, and they had more visibility into engagement from the decisions makers at those accounts. Their marketing and sales teams are more closely aligned than ever before, and the results are there to prove it. Immediately, they were able to get 11 executive meetings and 5 opportunities created with over $2M in pipeline.
How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?
AI is exciting. I am not sure I need to prepare much for it other than start paying money to use it – ha ha! Anyway technology can help us be more efficient – as long as the results are trusted – I am all for it.
How do you bring people and technology together at Engagio?
We are lucky because we focus on ABM – a revenue team culture has been established from the beginning. That being said, there are a few key things that have helped:
Having clear goals and a focus on an ICP. Focus is important.
Defining a revenue model with touch points defined. We orchestrate our steps and avoid ambiguous handoffs.
Using technology to support the coordination of marketing, sales, and customer success. We use Engagio and for us we have the same view of accounts and their status.
Lastly, aligning marketing and sales financial incentives is great if you can do it. There has to be a shared view of winning.
What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?
Slack, Evernote, Trello, Expensify, SFDC, InsightSquared, and Engagio!
What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?
Your email and calendar are not your task list.
Get out of the building and learn from others.
I keep stickie’s everywhere because good ideas come to me in Target or driving.
What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)
I am currently reading When by Daniel Pink. I love the New Yorker but I have guilt because some of them I only scan and read the cartoons (Roz Chast is my favorite). Twitter, LinkedIn, NPR, MarketPlace with Kai Ryssdal are other places I consume information. I am busy so most of this only occurs on a good day.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
My father told me effort does not always equate to outcomes. He encouraged me to not work hard blindly but be smart about how to use time and get results. He didn’t smile when he said this.
Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
I guess Oprah is not an option so I will tag the next best person – Craig Rosenberg.
Thank you Heidi! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.
Heidi’s expertise lies in marketing software products including market identification, pricing, positioning, product line profitability and customer acquisition and lifecycle marketing (retention, up-sell, cross-sell).
Heidi specializes in demand generation throughout the customer lifecycle, digital marketing, brand development, email marketing, content marketing, social media, marketing metrics/ analytics and partner marketing. She has also worked at Marketo in the past.
Engagio helps B2B marketers drive new business and expand relationships with high-value accounts. Our proven Account Based Marketing solutions enable marketers to create and measure customer engagement, scaling the benefits of automation with the personalized benefits of the human touch. With Engagio’s marketing orchestration platform, marketers can create and measure account engagement, drive ongoing success, and measure ABM impact. Our software complements Salesforce and existing marketing automation solutions, so getting started is easy!
The MTS Martech Interview Series is a fun Q&A style chat which we really enjoy doing with martech leaders. With inspiration from Lifehacker’s How I work interviews, the MarTech Series Interviews follows a two part format On Marketing Technology, and This Is How I Work. The format was chosen because when we decided to start an interview series with the biggest and brightest minds in martech – we wanted to get insight into two areas … one – their ideas on marketing tech and two – insights into the philosophy and methods that make these leaders tick.
Qualtrics Named Winner of 2018 CRM Service Awards for Second Year in a Row
Wins Category for Best Enterprise Feedback Management Solution
Qualtrics, the leader in experience management, announced that it has been awarded the winner of the 2018 CRM Service Leaders in the Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) category by CRM Magazine for the second year in a row. The 15th annual CRM Service Awards honor the leading vendors across nine customer service technology segments that have left an enduring mark on the industry in the past year.
The Qualtrics Experience Management (XM) Platform is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data, helping organizations manage the four core experiences of business: customer, employee, brand and product experience. The XM Platform scored well in key areas, including depth of functionality, company direction and customer satisfaction. It was also recognized for its powerful, embedded analytics tools.
“We are honored to be selected again this year as the winner of the Enterprise Feedback Management category,” said Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics. “This award is further recognition of the fact that in today’s experience economy, the success or failure of an organization will be largely based on how well they do providing an incredible experience for their customers and employees, and whether they can create experiences with their products and brand.”
Qualtrics wins 2018 CRM Service Award for Best Enterprise Feedback Management Solution for the second year in a row.
Recipients of the CRM Service Leader Awards are determined through an extensive process and proprietary rating formula. The editors of CRM Magazine survey leading industry analysts and consultants for their impressions of the vendors’ offerings, company direction, customer satisfaction and overall cost.
CRM Magazine is the leading publication of the customer relationship management industry, covering sales, marketing, and customer service strategies. The magazine also produces the annual CRM Evolution conference.
Qualtrics is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data, allowing organizations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee and brand experiences—on one platform.
Kochava Introduces Intelligent Consent Management Technology To Streamline GDPR Compliance For Marketers
The Intelligent Consent Management Tool Automatically Requests Consent to Data Use Triggered by In-App Changes; Company Also Announces New EMEA Sales Team
Kochava, the industry leader providing holistic measurement solutions for connected devices, launches Intelligent Consent Management, a new tool to help marketers comply with data privacy changes, in particular, the European Union’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that will take effect in May 2018. Kochava also announces the expansion of their Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) sales team in response to recent international growth.
Kochava developed Intelligent Consent Management to assist marketers in requesting consumer (user) consent and complying with the updated consent regulations. The new tool will regularly request user consent with in-app changes or at specified times. The tool works as an in-app triggering mechanism to prompt for consent when there has been a change in how the data collected will be shared, such as with a media partner change. User consent is delivered to the marketer and approved partners via a consent signal/postback. To begin using the tool, current Kochava customers should update to the newest version of the Kochava SDK.
“The Intelligent Consent Management tool will help allay many of the concerns marketers might have about how to comply with the new regulations,” said Charles Manning, CEO at Kochava. “Kochava takes data collection and privacy seriously. As evidenced with GDPR, the marketing world is moving toward a user-consent-driven paradigm that we, as a company, respect and adhere to. Our customers depend on us to develop tools that provide actionable insights and achieve targeted marketing success. We value our customers and will continue to support their international marketing goals while handling any compliance critical to industry development.”
Like so many companies worldwide, Kochava has been preparing for the GDPR regulations aimed at protecting the data rights of consumers in the EU. Although created to protect the rights of individuals in the EU, the regulations will impact every company doing business with the region. To comply with the new standards and inform customers as to how Kochava processes their data, the company has published a comprehensive privacy and compliance documentation on their website.
Kochava adheres to industry privacy standards across all of its platforms. Free App Analytics, the company’s free measurement platform, will continue processing EU data on behalf of its customers in accordance with the GDPR. This EU data, however, will no longer be made available to advertisers to create and target audiences in the Kochava Collective. The Kochava Collective, the company’s independent data marketplace, will no longer include any data from the EU.
To support the company’s growth in the EMEA region and answer customer questions about GDPR, Kochava welcomes the following experienced sales team: Stéphane Panyasiri, head of EMEA sales; Olivier Missir, business development for EMEA sales and Nicolas Reggiani, business development for EMEA sales. They are available to handle any concerns regarding how Kochava uses data and complies with GDPR.
“The new sales team has decades of experience in digital advertising and are intimately familiar with regulatory developments within the region and are ready to assist new and existing customers in gaining the greatest value out of our platform,” Manning said. “We also look forward to assisting our customers as they transition to GDPR compliance using our Intelligent Consent Management. We will always work to give marketers the latest tools to simplify their work while continuing to provide valuable data and insight to maximize reach.”
Who Wants to Get Paid For Using the Social Internet? meggalife.com Bets Everyone Does
Meggalife Boldly Challenges the Current Models With a User-Centric Option
Megga Inc., a unit of HUTN Inc, announced the launch of meggalifeTM, a digital platform of social media applications and online tools that transfers 100% of net advertising revenue to its users. Meggalife pays users for activities they already do online while helping to solve America’s long-term savings problem.
The US savings rate is ranked just 136th in the world and without improvement, Americans face a dire future. Realistically, it is hard for most working people to build up long-term savings and retirement funds but by using meggalife’s online applications, which aim to provide comparable functionality to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Search, users accrue points called “meggapoints.”
Just by online activity, meggapoints accumulate over time and are convertible into a cash distribution through an investment savings account. This new model is a private-sector solution to America’s savings and retirement crisis that all parties can embrace, as it enables people to save and accumulate a long-term asset.
Christopher Daniels, President of Megga, Inc., and CEO of HUTN, Inc. explained, “Our launch coincides with the growing sentiment of consumers frustrated by big internet companies monetizing personal data on top of the billions in advertising revenue they generate from users’ online activity. Now, meggalife.com enables users to benefit from their online activity, accumulating meggapoints, which will help provide a more secure financial future.”
Net advertising revenue generated from meggalife digital platform is invested in an independent trust which is ultimately shared with all participating meggalife users. The cash amount a user receives is based upon the number of meggapoints a user accumulates relative to the aggregate points of all other users.
Users also have a say in how funds are invested. The trust invests funds based on the preferences of the investment club members – essentially crowdsourcing the portfolio allocation. Based on anticipated user growth, HUTN expects the Trust to grow into the billions and EF Hutton, HUTN’s investment firm subsidiary, is the advisor to the trust.
To participate and have input on the allocation of funds, users need to join Beanstalk Club, a free investment club. Then all you need is an account to start collecting points. Every user is treated as the owner of their own business and generating value from their online activity.
“One way to think of it is this – imagine getting paid to mow your own lawn – it would be like free money because you’re going to mow it anyway,” Daniels continued. “In this case, you’re going to go online to use social networks and online services anyway – you may as well get paid for it.” It is, essentially, a form of crowdfunding where everyone gets paid. There is a catch, however.
Meggalife needs to have a large number of registered users to attract major advertisers. Given the value it provides users, company officials expect millions of registered users during the first year based on partnerships and affiliate programs underway.
“It’s a compelling value proposition,” said Daniels, adding, “Registration is free and crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe have already proven that everyone wants free money. We are also confident that advertisers will prefer this platform due to its patriotic mission to enhance the financial security of all Americans and that users will favor our advertisers.”
Daniels continues, “Meggalife is a user revolution. Users increasingly recognize that their data, time and online activity have significant value, and yet they’re not receiving a dime for their efforts. Social media applications and online tools generate hundreds of billions annually in advertising revenue and users should expect to receive their fair share.”
Users do not want to give up social networking, they just want a network that benefits them and cares about their needs and online security. Meggalife boldly challenges the current models with a user-centric option, leading an online rebellion and the next iteration of online activity – Web 3.0. Meggalife’s value is compelling because users can immediately begin accumulating assets with just a few hours per week of online activity.
Meggalife’s initial offering includes social networking, email, search, news and entertainment services. More than a dozen additional applications are already in development and scheduled for release in the near future, including mobile phone services, music and file sharing, communications, dating and employment tools.
As a user-focused platform, meggalife.com takes user interests and concerns to heart and does not allow any third-party direct access to its user data and user accounts. Meggalife, therefore, avoids data access issues that have surfaced with other big internet company and led users to start the #deletefacebook campaign. Furthermore, meggalife.com is also combatting the problem of “fake news” by avoiding news filters that other social networks impose on users. In contrast, meggalife.com allows users to customize their news feed. See the website for full details on the point system and funds distribution.
In addition to individual savings opportunities, schools, bloggers and other groups have opportunities to earn money just by helping to grow the meggalife user base. A series of challenges have been set up that offer monetary and point rewards based on the number of users added as a result of the organization’s efforts. Currently, there are challenges for colleges, high schools, bloggers, and organizations of faith, non-profits and even families. The desktop version of meggalife is launching in Beta now with mobile apps soon to follow.
OpenText to Report Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2018 Financial Results on Wednesday, May 9, 2018
OpenText announced that Madhu Ranganathan is joining the company as EVP, CFO as previously reported on January 31, 2018. John Doolittle will remain with the company until September to help complete the transition.
“I am very pleased to welcome Madhu to OpenText, a Silicon Valley veteran, and a highly experienced global finance executive. Madhu brings over 25 years of strategic and financial leadership experience with a deep operational focus in software, hardware & tech-enabled services businesses,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, Vice Chair, CEO, CTO, OpenText.
Madhu Ranganathan has amassed 20 years of experience in the Financial, Operational & Bussiness strength. Prior to joining OpenText as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Madhu served as Global Chief Financial Officer for [24]7.ai. She also served as a CFO for Rackable Systems (now SGI). Serving as a CFO in these firms, she was responsible for Worldwide Finance, Accounting, Treasury, Planning, Tax, and Investor Relations among others. In her time with Rackable, she oversaw a successful (secondary) equity offering, which raised $300 million.
Madhu is a certified public accountant, and also holds an MBA in finance from the University of Massachusetts and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Recently, OpenText announced that it has acquired Hightail, Inc., formerly known as YouSendIt, a leading cloud service for file sharing and creative collaboration with approximately 5.5 million customers globally spanning enterprise accounts, paid subscribers, and individual consumers.
OpenText, an information company, is a market leader in Enterprise Information Management software and solutions, enabling companies to manage, leverage, secure and gain insight into their enterprise information, on-premises or in the cloud.
Jornaya, the fast-growing consumer journey insights platform, announced the appointment of David Yaffe to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Yaffe, the Chief Operating Officer at LiveRamp, an Acxiom Corporation, joined the firm through the acquisition of Arbor where Yaffe was the co-founder and CEO. Yaffe built the Arbor technology platform to help publishers and app developers better understand and monetize their data assets. Prior to Arbor, Yaffe ran the product division for Invite Media, which was acquired by Google and became DoubleClick Bid manager, Google’s demand-side platform (DSP). Dave holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York.
Ross Shanken
“Dave Yaffe has a wealth of experience with identity resolution data and technology. This experience has been applied to enable publishers to connect their data assets with brands to help CMOs expand from just lead-based marketing to people-based marketing,” said Ross Shanken, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jornaya. “We are excited and confident that he will add great value to our Board of Directors and that Jornaya, our publisher and brand customers will benefit from his insights and counsel.”
“I have always admired Jornaya for its innovative products and dynamic organization, and I’m honored to be joining their board,” said Yaffe, adding, “I have tremendous respect for Ross and the Jornaya team, and I look forward to working with Jornaya to help marketers unlock the full power of consumer journey insights.”
Jornaya is the consumer journey insight platform that provides publishers, marketers, analytics, and compliance professionals with the highest-resolution view of the consumer buying journey. It is the only technology platform that witnesses both first- and third-party consumer interactions in real time and across devices. Meeting consumers at these moments of intent enables businesses to shorten the distance between data, decision, and action. Jornaya’s Data as a Service (DaaS) solutions seamlessly integrate with any buyer journey decision process or toolkit.
RushHive is proud to open its doors and offer a new mobile application experience for use by businesses everywhere. Developed as a one-stop communication hub, RushHive is appropriate for any business that wants to go mobile with their customer communications.
A customer can review, in one place, any outstanding requests they have with businesses or organizations as well as those that have been recently completed.
RushHive is an app platform-for-lease that was developed as an answer to one of the more complicated problems encountered by many new businesses, or current businesses that now seek to go mobile: worrying over the additional cost of digitizing customer communications. In this age of technology, nearly all communications are digital; and for customers, that means apps for their phones. RushHive is intended to be a quick and fast communication hub where multiple businesses and customers can connect.
Developing a mobile app for a company is an expensive undertaking; a typical app can cost tens of thousands of dollars to create. In addition to the developmental research required, coders and developers themselves are also extremely costly. Many businesses, especially new ones, are already struggling with initial start-up expenses and employee payrolls versus incoming revenue.
“Businesses need to focus on the day-to-day needs of the business itself, not the creation of mobile applications. Yet at the same time, businesses have a hard time competing without a mobile communications presence; and customers want that too. RushHive is the economical answer to this dilemma,” RushHive Founder Eric Stadter said.
RushHive developed its universal app template to be of use to any business. Companies lease space on the platform, then personalize their space and offer the services of that app to their customers. RushHive’s business-to-customer interface is customized to fit the style and needs of any company using it, without the hassle of having to decide on basic functionality. Businesses apply their company name, logo and address as well as personalized communications that match their customers’ needs. Businesses can also decide whether their services are publicly visible to everyone or whether they wish to keep their app users limited to a specific list of invites.
To use RushHive, businesses have two options: simply direct their individual customers to visit the App Store or Google Play to download it for free; or businesses may choose to send a direct invite to their customer’s email address. After installing, users can search for a specific company in the universal directory — a step which may be skipped if businesses use the more direct invite option.
Customers can then communicate with that specific business as often as they wish through RushHive. Once multiple businesses become members of RushHive, customers can link to and communicate with each of those businesses through the same application, simply by searching through the RushHive directory. RushHive intends to be a one-stop app for all customer/business related communications.
The world of business is increasingly digital; and for customers, that means the world of business needs to be increasingly mobile. Businesses can no longer afford to be analog-only in their customer communications. RushHive is poised to become the solution to this problem, as well as the answer to that common customer question: “Do you have an app?”
Provides Local Marketers and Agencies The Ability To Execute Programmatic Campaigns of Any Size Within Existing Workflow
FreeWheel Advertisers, a leading advertising software technology firm formerly known as Strata, announced that it has integrated Simpli.fi’s demand-side platform into its software. Simpli.fi is a programmatic platform purpose-built for localized campaigns and allows buyers to optimize audiences to local needs in real-time.
Through FreeWheel Advertisers, campaigns of any size can now use Simpli.fi’s platform to optimize their local target audiences. By leveraging unstructured data, the platform offers buyers a clearer look at the data driving their campaigns to better inform their choices and empower their mobile, video, display and native campaigns at the localized level. This integration provides the 1,200+ advertising agencies using FreeWheel Advertisers’ systems with even more options to reach their key audiences.
“FreeWheel Advertisers leads the industry in advertising technology solutions for local buyers and sellers, so we are always on the lookout for collaborations that bring efficiencies to this market segment. With Simpli.fi, we are able to make localized programmatic access to our digital buyers regardless of their expertise level in executing programmatic campaigns. We are also excited to partner with our clients on extending their TV audience reach online through Simpli.fi’s programmatic video options,” said Joanne Miguel, Vice President, FreeWheel Advertisers.
“Simpli.fi is excited to partner with FreeWheel Advertisers and make programmatic advertising easily accessible to all of their users. This partnership provides FreeWheel Advertisers clients with seamless access to the localized programmatic solutions delivered by Simpli.fi, including geo-fencing and customized audience targeting across mobile, desktop, and video inventory. We look forward to a great partnership,” said Frost Prioleau, CEO, Simpli.fi.
MageMail Releases a Revamped Email Marketing Product Along with a Refurbished Website
MageMail officially launched its next-generation email marketing product. Redesigned from the ground up, the new SaaS platform was made available to a select set of customers in December and is now available to the entire market of Magento based e-commerce businesses and agencies.
“We’re ecstatic to announce our new product, formerly known as v3. It’s a fundamental redesign of the user experience and underlying architecture that brings with it more speed and scalability, an intuitive UI, enhanced analytics, improved campaign segmentation, and deep integration with Magento. Rather than becoming a general email marketing platform, we continue focusing on solving the very specific problem of keeping customers returning to online stores and buying more. It’s what customers are asking for, and they have been highly successful with MageMail according to their feedback and the data we receive,” said Erik Bullen, CEO, MageMail.
Highlights include:
Fast Install: Once the free MageMail API Connector (included in all subscriptions) is installed in your Magento store, you’re ready to configure campaigns.
Deep Integration With Magento: Full compatibility with Magento 1 and Magento 2 allows powerful and custom filtering as well as access to store performance.
Beautiful Emails – No Coding Required: An elegant, drag-and-drop email editor to quickly design beautiful and responsive triggered, transactional, and marketing emails that render on any device.
Email and Popup Templates: Up to 26 email and popup templates including abandoned carts, wishlist reminders, win-backs, exit intent, and newsletters. Get even more pop-ups with MageMail’s sister product, GrooveJar.
Intelligent Segmentation: Create and run automated campaigns – either triggers or marketing blasts – targeted at specific buyers based on past behavior, demographics, location, and other criteria.
Powerful Performance Insights: The new dashboard is loaded with visualized, real-time analytics about the store, campaigns, products, email deliverability, and industry stats.
Class-leading Customer Service: Free onboarding, training, and ongoing campaign performance monitoring and optimization from our e-commerce email marketing experts.
Performance-Based Model: Pay for results. The simple, results-based pricing based on a percentage of sales attributed to MageMail lowers risk, helps to scale, and ensures that everyone is invested in the customers’ success.
In line with the release of the new product, MageMail has also released a redesigned website – that includes one of the industry’s top e-commerce blogs – and has launched an official agency and technology partner program that benefits partners and their clients.
Smartly.io Introduces End-to-End Creative Solutions to Automate Storytelling at Scale
Personalized and Localized Video Automation at Core of the New Offering
Facebook Marketing Partner Smartly.io launched a suite of creative solutions to combine creative automation, ad buying, and creative testing in a single platform.
With the addition of Smartly.io’s new Video Templates feature, Smartly.io customers can now automatically generate video and still creatives to fit a variety of ad formats on Facebook and Instagram, buy the ad space in real time, and test their effectiveness to iterate. With social video advertising spend projected to reach $4 billion this year, this end-to-end solution solves a critical bottleneck for digital advertisers.
Tuomo Riekki
“With the success of our Image Templates, we’ve seen firsthand how creative automation can drive advertising performance on social. Now Video Templates will take our offering a step further, helping advertisers adopt and scale social video advertising,” said Smartly.io CTO and co-founder Tuomo Riekki.
Leveraging similar technology to Smartly.io’s award-winning Image Templates, Video Templates allows brands to build, design and iterate short-form, mobile-friendly video campaigns quickly and easily from a single interface. Advertisers can pull image or video assets from their product catalogs or feeds, as well as modify and customize templates with an in-tool video editor. These compact, lightly animated product videos can be targeted and retargeted based on user behavior and set to reflect inventory changes, making it an ideal fit for e-commerce, retail and travel brands in particular.
Unlike traditional video production, Smartly.io Video Templates enables advertisers to test and edit content on-the-fly for performance-driven social advertising. The built-in video editor lets advertisers easily run A/B tests to find approaches that drive results and tweak videos based on what’s working, rather than starting from scratch with new productions or requesting edits from a creative team.
The creative offering has been developed together with Smartly.io customers including eBay, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, TechStyle, Hopper, and Frávega. The brands share their experiences:
Frávega tested automated video against still creative and saw outstanding results: “Video Templates brought us great results on Facebook – 49% lower CPA than with static images. We believe it’s an excellent format to reach users with better quality ads and take full advantage of the branding impact of video,” said Alejandro Fogarolli, Performance Team Lead, Frávega.
eBay ran an Instagram Stories ad campaign using a video template that combined product images, names and prices into compelling videos that updated automatically with deals and product availability: “Smartly.io Video Templates enhanced our Instagram Stories holiday campaigns with videos featuring our Popular Gifts offers. Keeping so many video ads up-to-date with products and prices wouldn’t be possible without a creative automation solution. We look forward to scaling our video advertising even further in 2018 with Video Templates,” said Sadie Daryan, Global Sr. Manager, Channel Incubation, eBay.
IDM Group continues to expand its advertising and header bidding technology and services, with new integrated real-time reporting and anonymous audience profiling.
Working with many leading publishers, IDM is not only tasked with providing editorial and content delivery solutions but also maximizing revenue. It is this unique insight which drives IDM’s understanding of the challenges publishers face. The result is an ad strategy designed around the strengths of both your content and audience.
Part of IDM’s advertising services and technology includes real-time transparent performance metrics via a dashboard. Additional reporting can be added from other tools to deliver a customized integrated dashboard with vital information of interest to publishers in one central place. IDM also offers a real-time audience profiling engine for packaging of ad inventory and for taking direct marketing actions (coupons, targeted ads, or specific questionnaires, etc.)
“Our experience in content creation and management solutions provides us with a more thorough approach when helping publishers maximize their revenue – something our clients benefit from and appreciate,” said Vincent Lannoy, Chief Operating Officer, IDM Group. “Our approach has always been to find the untapped strength in a publisher’s content and leverage that strength for maximum revenue.”
If you have an existing ad strategy and are looking to maximize revenue or are just starting out, IDM provides solutions tailored to your environment. From header bidding to reporting and audience engagement, our goal is to deliver a better and more rewarding experience for not only the publisher but their audience as well.
Carusele, the leading influencer marketing system, announced today that it received two Audience Honor Awards at the 10th annual Shorty Awards for its work on Red Nose Day and Wyndham Vacation Resorts influencer promotions.
Jim Tobin
“Most influencer marketing today is broken,” said Jim Tobin, president and founder of Carusele. “But by focusing on a genuine experience and then elevating the very best content in every program, we’ve found a unique way to connect consumers to brands through influencer content. Best of all, it’s measurable, and has guaranteed results.”
In its third consecutive year of raising funds to help end child poverty, #RedNose Day was not only recognized with an Audience Honor, but also a finalist for the category of SocialActivism. The campaign itself was charged with driving consumer awareness of the Red Nose Day partnership.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals was also recognized with an Audience Honor Award in the category Mid-Range Media Buying Strategy. The campaign strove to show people how to #BeVacationReady with tips, itineraries and stories highlighting how to reduce vacation stress while getting ready for a busy summer vacation season.
The Shorty Awards, now in its 10th year, was the first awards show to honor social media. They continue to recognize and honor the best of social media by recognizing the influencers, brands and organizations on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and more.
Pegasystems Appoints Shoel Perelman As The Vice President Of Product For Pega Marketing
Shoel Perelman Joins Pega from IBM, Where He Was VP of Engineering for Watson Commerce
Pegasystems, the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, announced it has appointed Shoel Perelman as Vice President of Product for Pega Marketing software. Perelman will help ensure Pega’s continued leadership and rapid growth in the cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solutions space and marketing automation sector.
Previously, Perelman led engineering for IBM’s Marketing Automation and Digital Analytics products. In that role, he united products from multiple acquisitions to support the exchange of key customer behavior information between IBM products and its partner ecosystem’s products. In his tenure with IBM, he has led a 600-person architecture, development, and data science group spanning global labs in the US, Canada, India, Australia, and China. Earlier in his career, he was a pioneer in the field of business service management and holds two patents in application monitoring.
Perelman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from New York University and a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“As digital transformation continues to be a top priority for organizations, consumer demand for personalized experiences is also increasing. Companies using AI and machine learning technology will ensure they evolve with the changing business landscape while delivering relevant interactions. Shoel will help Pega continue to innovate our marketing software to drive the most meaningful results for our clients and their customers,” said Kerim Akgonul, Senior Vice President Products, Pegasystems.
“Pega is at the forefront of helping the world’s leading organizations deliver optimized experiences to their customers. I’m excited by the opportunity to put Pega’s real, operational AI capabilities into practice to help the marketing industry move toward true 1:1 conversations. This benefits both consumers and the enterprises that engage with them,” said Perelman.
announced the enhancement of its localization enablement platform with the inclusion of Amazon Translate, a neural Machine Translation (MT) service developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Amazon Presents Recent Project Success That Highlights Fast, High-Quality Language Translation to Market Through Neural MT Technology
Lionbridge Technologies, one of the world’s leading global digital communications company that helps brands to deliver seamless, cross-cultural experiences, announced the enhancement of its localization enablement platform with the inclusion of Amazon Translate, a neural Machine Translation (MT) service developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon Translate was made publicly available during AWS Summit San Francisco. Lionbridge CTO Ken Watson and VMware provided insight into a recently completed project where Lionbridge used Amazon Translate to augment the production of multilingual content.
Lionbridge was selected by AWS to collaborate on its new service to help their customers localize their core content efficiently and cost-effectively. Amazon Translate delivers fast, high-quality and affordable language translation through a form of automation that uses deep learning and neural networks. The result is more accurate and natural-sounding translation compared to traditional statistical and rule-based translation algorithms.
John Fennelly
“Being selected by AWS to be a part of its Amazon Translate launch is truly an honor. AWS has a strategy of continuous evolution, and the announcement of Amazon Translate is no different. Neural MT is changing the game for multilingual communication. For more than 15 years, the team at Lionbridge has been the leader in arming human translators with new tools to produce better communications. We are always looking to provide our customers with innovative, new ways to produce higher quality content. We’re excited to be a part of this program and look forward to many joint successes,” said John Fennelly, CEO, Lionbridge.
As global businesses continue to find ways to provide immediate, relevant content to meet changing customer demands, neural MT provides a solution that performs faster and more accurately than ever before. Through this work with Amazon Translate, Lionbridge is helping lead the way for new translation technology that can deliver high-quality, relevant and cost-effective content.
Swami Sivasubramanian
“Lionbridge offers its customers a convenient and effective solution for the localization of assets that call for the creativity and experience of highly skilled translators. Creating and disseminating trusted content in a timely fashion is key for global businesses today. Lionbridge is uniquely positioned in the translation and localization market, and we look forward to helping more businesses around the world reach their audiences in their native language together,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President, Machine Learning, Amazon Web Services.
LMS Embraces Hyper-Personalization & Doubles Business
Data-Driven Consulting Firm Expands Revenue and Adds 11 New Employees in Past Year
LMS Inc., a leading data-driven consumer experience consulting firm, has evolved in their approach to courting customers, and they’ve boosted business by 200 percent as a result.
In the past, marketing companies were reactive, using client lists to reach potential customers through electronic and paper mail. However, advances in data collection presented a new opportunity, one LMS has strategically embraced to offer a more personal glimpse of consumers for their client partners.
Steve Cohen
“Take, for example, our partnership with a well-known cruise company,” said Steve Cohen, Chief Executive Officer and founder of LMS. “We helped them utilize data science to identify individual cruiser preferences for a personalized concierge experience, so if a guest enjoys lobster, or has a specific drink they prefer, a cruise restaurant may stock more lobster and offer them their favorite cocktail, all to enhance the guest’s experience.”
The enhanced cruise experience has become a model for other clients, as LMS uses data and marketing insights to partner with clients to get a more intimate understanding of current and potential customers, and then apply it in a practical way to achieve their business goals.
The difference has been profound for LMS. They’ve grown more than by 200 percent, made strategic appointments, and hired 11 new employees in the last year. They doubled their office space as well. LMS moved into their new Orlando headquarters in August and already reconfigured the space to accommodate their continued growth.
“LMS isn’t just hiring more people,” Cohen said. “We’re focused on hiring strategic, high-level professionals who understand the tailored, data-driven landscape.”
LMS Inc., is a data-driven consulting firm that offers sophisticated consumer solutions for their client partners. For more than 20 years, LMS has evolved their methodologies beyond the traditional use of both digital and offline channel marketing. Their data-optimized strategies and consumer insights serve as a base for establishing lasting relationships between partnering clients and their target audience. From customized direct and digital campaigns to comprehensive customer relationship strategies, LMS is positioned to serve as a long-term data solutions partner.
Unless you’ve been traveling in outer space, you have heard of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Stories about cryptocurrency and blockchain, the technology that foments digital currencies (or tokens), dominate the news as newly minted millionaires seem to get younger every story. However, they are two separate entities when it comes to future applications.
Certainly, cryptocurrency is disrupting the financial world in many ways. However, blockchain will massively impact how we do business, communicate and transact. Its capabilities reach beyond the financial sector and will change many industries, including law enforcement, healthcare, intellectual property rights to name a few. And soon marketing in new and profound ways.
In basic terms, blockchain is a kind of ledger. Imagine a huge spreadsheet where massive amounts of data can be seen, stored, amended and shared securely. Years ago Napster created the first peer-to-peer network; today blockchain is the evolutionary result of those early platforms that allows information to be stored and distributed but not copied. “Every section of the peer-to-peer network verifies every incoming transaction,” says Martech’s Barry Levine, “which becomes a new block of data that gets added to the ‘blockchain,’ so the recorded value is available to everyone on the network.”
In a recent Forbes article, Ahmal Williams states, “No one can alter or destroy a blockchain. That kind of inviolability creates a single point of truth, which will be highly valuable to businesses and marketers. It’s possible that a second currency resulting from blockchain initiatives will be trust. The truth about products and claims is easily verified via blockchain technology, and marketers will be able to capitalize on that like never before.”
And it’s the marketer’s job to build trust with a product to pull it through the marketing funnel.
How Will It Impact Digital Marketing?
Brand storytelling, which relies on interaction with consumers and users of a product or service will benefit from blockchain. Brands can share verifiable information to their target audience, on a one-to-one basis who will instantly have access to the product’s journey and the full story of that product. This moves us from a one-to-many model to a one-to-one connection with the consumer that does not appear as marketing, but a unique experience between a brand and consumer.
Ad delivery, where it’s almost impossible to know if stats are accurate, will benefit from this trust currency. On a blockchain platform, there can be no discrepancy in confirming that a targeted person saw the ad and for how long. As a transparent record of each activity or transaction is made on the blockchain, ad performance is verified for the optimal frequency with limits set on overserving.
Further, publishers will be able to bypass the media buyers (middlemen). Forrester estimated that removing the middleman could improve CPM from $1-$5. It’s conceivable that blockchain could allow publishers to skip the ad buy all together and pay audiences to view their ads, receive instant feedback, launch loyalty programs and develop a dialogue. In other words, prove they have their targets audience’s attention before any exchange of currency. Currently, the Basic Attention Token (BAT) allows advertisers to pay based on an effort and engagement by the person viewing the ad.
The opportunities for blockchain to transform marketing and business are profound. The day where advertisers will pay consumers for their information is not far off. And we can only imagine the impact blockchain will have on corporate accountability, social responsibility and the enormous efficiencies it will bring for marketers to speak with their target audiences.
The future will be here sooner than we think and it will be for the better.
The Ultimate Guide on Instagram Marketing for B2B CMOs
Instagram continues to add followers, not in thousands, but in millions every year! Yet, you may not find your Chief Marketing Officer on Instagram, or worse, with a minuscule fan-following and posts that reflect limited brand-savvy. While marketers and advertisers look to build their marketing channels with an eye on Instagram audiences in 2018, missing out on a CMO account could count as an impediment, especially when you are targeting millennials.
Here’s a quick guide on how B2B CMOs can grow their brand value on Instagram.
The State of Instagram Marketing
The Top Trending Instagram Tech Accounts
Google: With 6.1 million followers, Google leverages Instagram by running a theme with spotlights on the letter – ‘G’, from its logo. The company shares various pictures that show ‘G’ in many usances ranging from food to slime. Colorful streets and skylines are also a part of Google’s posts.
Adobe: Adobe makes the most of Instagram to showcase its creativity via pictures of clouds or lakes. The posts would never let anyone guess that Adobe makes software but they’re impactful. 652K followers speak volumes about the impact.
IBM: The IBM Instagram account boasts of 211K followers and is all about the company’s history and its data centers. One such example is a post where it shared how the programmers at IBM contributed to the famous Apollo 13 in 1970.
HubSpot: The leading sales and inbound marketing company has a totally different Instagram strategy than others. No skylines, lakes or rainbows. All of its posts are digital marketing themed. From infographics to quotes on the best practices to memes, HubSpot shares content that marketers can relate to. 97.3K is its follower count.
Salesforce: Fairly new to the Instagram space, Salesforce has 47.1K followers. The company puts the slideshow feature of Instagram to great use by uploading multiple images which followers can swipe over. Events and outdoor spaces are the primary focus of a majority of Salesforce posts.
There is no doubt that LinkedIn is a dedicated professional network for business and offers a great platform for B2B marketers. However, when it comes to customer reach and advertising, Instagram marketing offers a more personalized and hands-on approach in terms of customer interactions and engagement.
LinkedIn is great to connect with fellow professionals and share knowledge and information but Instagram helps in establishing a stronger brand image and resonance. The reason is fairly simple – Visual stories have a deeper impact than text updates.
Popularity, and Why CMOs Should Build Their Account
The Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform reached 800 million monthly active users (MAU) last September. This marks an incredible increase of approximately 1500% from 2012 when it had 50 million MAU. And, with the surge of inbound marketing activities, Instagram can’t be overlooked anymore, and, the reasons are simple:
It’s an app exclusively for mobile (a majority of the audience)
It’s visual content (more viral)
No language barriers (effective engagement)
Simply put, Instagram can help brands cut the noise of a crowded marketplace and be heard. Contrary to some of the preconceived notions, this is not just true for B2C but holds equally true for B2B as well. In 2017, 70.7% businesses in the US were leveraging Instagram compared to 48.8% in 2016.
Instagram Marketing Myths
Resistance to change is often based on excuses or myths. Let’s bust some critical ones that have, over the years, stopped B2Bs from ‘Instagramming’.
Our target audience is not on Instagram – With 800 million MAU and counting, this is one myth that B2B marketers need to bust immediately and get on with it.
Instagram is for kids – According to Statista, 40% of Instagram users are of the 30-49 year age demographic and 64% are in the 18-29 age group. The former is the fastest growing segment on Instagram. So, it’s time to move out of the ‘for kids only’ frame of mind.
Our business content won’t sync with Instagram – Perhaps the most negative of them all. If as a B2B marketer, you feel you don’t have resonating visual content, it’s time to overhaul your entire marketing strategy.
Instagram is for CPG, FMCG, and lifestyle brands only – More than 40 million photos get posted on Instagram every day. To think that all of them are selfies, food, and B2C products is a clear error in judgment.
Once these myths have been busted, to succeed with Instagram marketing, like any other type, is all about a clearly defined strategy. And, with predictions that 1 billion MAU are not far flung, Instagram deserves the attention of B2Bs.
Here’re some elements that are pivotal to a successful B2B marketing strategy on Instagram.
Real-Time, Genuine UGC
Your leads and prospects using Instagram seek content that is authentic and provides a sneak peek into your products or offerings and your culture. Therefore, it’s time to get real. Real-time User Generated Content(UGC) like live streaming or videos ensures high brand resonance and recognition. UGC ensures a human element is added to B2B marketing and helps marketers establish a genuine connection with potential customers. Unlocking the true potential of hashtags is what makes your UGC discoverable.
According to Croudtap, “Advertisements with UGC content get 4x higher click-through rates. Plus, user-generated content is 35% more memorable than other media.”
For instance, Buffer leveraged UGCs from global customers featuring how they work, play and live. Calling itself #digitalnomads, the company has used simple, effective hashtags like #bufferstories, #buffercommunity, #bufferlove, and #bufferspaces.
For Metrics, It’s Sanity over Vanity
B2B marketers on Instagram must be wary that they don’t gauge their performances based solely on vanity metrics. Increased likes and clicks are good. However, they won’t reveal the relevance of your reach which is critical to a B2B marketer. Metrics such as comments on posts and new followers are better indicators of how much exposure your business is garnering on Instagram.
Instagram for Business was introduced in 2016, and has an inbuilt analytics tool allowing marketers to view metrics in real-time on the performance of posts and stories. It also helps in getting deeper insights into followers and their respective interactions with marketer’s content. This, in turn, helps in identifying the right leads.
For advanced analytics, platforms like Iconosquare, Hootsuite (which itself is very active on Instagram), Sprout Social, and others can offer you metrics such as churn rates of followers. In essence, your ABM funneling can actually begin here.
Consistency in Messaging
Instagram, being a very user-friendly app in terms of posting content, is also very dynamic. It’s a fun space and B2B marketing need not be boring. Keeping your posts dynamic, fun, but relevant, helps you appeal to the audience while showcasing different shades of your business.
For instance, a small video snippet on how your CRM software works can be followed by animated cat video depicting customer retention or a humorous GIF. How’s the latter relevant? It shows that your brand has a work and play culture. And, that’s a great thing for enhancing brand image.
Engagement Is The Foundation To Carve Your Niche
B2B marketers need to understand that brand content posted on Instagram is just half the job done. The idea is to get into conversations and engage. Like any other social space, your Instagram presence needs to be optimized for listening and responding. Your leads and prospects will take the time to engage with you only if you find the time to engage with them. That’s the symbiosis and that’s how B2B brands can carve a niche for themselves on Instagram.
Tell Tales that Grip Audiences
Brands that have succeeded on Instagram have one thing in common. They’ve been great visual storytellers and that is the gateway to develop a large set of followers. For this, Instagram Stories is a fabulous opportunity to build videos, slideshows, montages, collages, and much more. And, it’s far more engaging and you can string a series together based on your individual audience interactions. Now, that is personalization which any lead or prospect would vouch for. Another great example is PayPal – a P2P cash transaction firm, that has 87.1K followers on Instagram. PayPal uses #paypalit, allowing users to tell their own stories by submitting their own content.
Finally, to get the timings of your Instagram post spot-on, below is quick hack by CoSchedule.
A common misconception about B2B content is that it’s mundane. Not quite! Whether you are already on the Instagram bandwagon or just about to hop into it, the focus should be on generating authentic interest and not just grabbing momentary eyeballs. Be it infographics, video, or just plain images, determining a visual voice of your own is important to make it resonate. Even your UGC must be brand-specific and echo that same visual voice as yours.
Sometimes, B2B marketers might think that their service or product can’t be brought to life through visuals. In that case, keep it simple and tell the stories of your customers.
A Proactive Approach Helps
After all, Instagram is a social app. Your customers are not bots. Keep the human touch going by interacting with them as people and not as business entities. Being grateful is a proven way to develop strong customer relations on any social platform, and, Instagram is no exception.
It’s time for B2B marketers to get out of the ‘Instagram is for B2C’ syndrome. While it may seem daunting at the beginning, if you can strike the right visual chord that resonates with your leads, prospects, and customers, Instagram can become the most prominent cog in your B2B social and content marketing wheel.
Workato Partners With Apttus As First to Bring Intelligent Automation To Apttus Middle Office Platform
The New Workato/Apttus Partnership Enables Businesses to Streamline Their Customer and Revenue Operations Using Artificial Intelligence
Workato, a leading intelligent automation and integration platform, and Apttus, the global leader in Quote-to-Cash and Contract Lifecycle Management solutions utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), announced that they are a partnering to bring intelligent automation to quote-to-cash and contract management workflows.
Ben Allen
“Apttus and Workato have a great synergy as both the companies are focused on using Artificial Intelligence to streamline business processes like Quote-to-Cash and Contract lifecycle management,” said Ben Allen, Chief Marketing Officer, Apttus. “We are excited to partner with Workato to bring their Intelligent Automation Platform to all our customers globally. Its business-user-friendly capabilities will provide our customers with speedy revenue outcomes.”
The partnership between Apttus and Workato enables customers to achieve scalable growth by maximizing their efficiencies in their revenue operations processes as follows:
Faster quote-to-cash: Automate and use AI-enhanced workflows across the entire quote-to-cash process by integrating Apttus with CRM (e.g. Salesforce, MS Dynamics), and ERP/Financial applications (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Netsuite, Workday).
Contract cycle time reduction: Automate workflows across the entire contract lifecycle for all types of contracts including sales, service, and procurement by integrating Apttus with Service apps, (e.g. ServiceNow, JIRA ServiceDesk), Procurement apps (e.g. Coupa, Ariba), and ERP/Financial apps (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Workday, Netsuite).
Reduce approval times: Reduce the time required to get approvals and contract signatures by enabling intelligent approval workflows through Workbot, a platform bot that works with messaging apps like Slack, MS Teams, Email, and SMS.
Empowered Ops: Workato’s robust, business-user friendly UI enables sales ops, revenue ops teams and more to build and operate automation while ensuring corporate governance.
“Managing the overall quote-to-cash process and contract lifecycle can be extremely complex and disjointed,” said Markus Zirn, VP Business Development at Workato. “We are excited to be the first partner to integrate with the Apttus Middle Office Platform, enabling their customers to automate their customer and revenue operations end-to-end with our AI-enhanced Intelligent Automation Platform.”
Getty Images And Cortex Partner On Artificial Intelligence Platform For Creatives
Cortex Uses Artificial Intelligence to Analyze Large Sets of Data and Then Recommends the Best Getty Images Content
Getty Images, a worldwide leader in visual communication, announced a partnership with Cortex, an artificial intelligence platform for creatives that recommends the best Getty Images content for social media campaigns.
Cortex’s artificial intelligence analyzes several years’ worth of data from over 33,0000 brands to predict and recommend which color schemes, imagery, and keywords perform best on social media – that can be automated by time, frequency, and subject. Beginning today, April 4th, the recommendations will also include specific images drawn from Getty Images expansive collection of creative content.
Brennan White
“Cortex’s models are now learning from the largest set of professional image performance data ever created,” said CEO of Cortex Brennan White. “Partnering with Getty Images will provide our customers with access to the highest quality visuals available and give them the tools they need to effectively engage any target audience.”
Cortex currently has a lengthy list of customers across several industries including Heineken, Hulu, Jack Daniels and Marriott. According to data compiled by Cortex, marketers using the tool to create content outperform their industry benchmarks by up to 300 percent and save an average of 8.5 hours per user per week.
Andrew Hamilton
“Having an abundance of content is amazing for choice, but without the data to understand it, it can also be overwhelming,” said Getty Images Senior Vice President of Data and Insights Andrew Hamilton. “Getty Images’ highly annotated visual content paired with Cortex’s AI platform will give marketers a tremendous advantage in selecting the best visual content for their brand.”
This announcement follows a series of partnerships as the company drives forward its Getty Images Everywhere strategy – delivering the company’s world-class content to everyone. Under the leadership of Hamilton, Getty Images has developed a growing Data and Insights team that reflects the company’s commitment to innovation and experimentation with the latest technology to drive value for customers and partners.
