Maestro Unveils Impact Scores: A New Metric for Interactive Live Streams

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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Maestro Unveils Impact Scores: A New Metric for Interactive Live Streams

Engagement, Monetization, and Viewer Hours Join Viewership in the Rating System for the Cord Cutting Generation

Maestro unveiled Impact Scores, a brand and agency-focused rating system designed for interactive live streams.

“Live streams have evolved beyond simple TV broadcasts delivered over the internet. As a consequence, reach has become an insufficient metric on its own for measuring value. As cord-cutting continues and live streaming grows increasingly interactive, so too does the need for new metrics that help our industry measure success. This is why Impact Scores track, analyze and rank engagement, monetization, and viewer hours side-by-side with viewership,” said Ari Evans, founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Also Read: Over One-Third Of Households Live-Stream TV Shows Or Sports: Parks Associates

An Impact Score is a measure of a live stream’s performance within Maestro’s ecosystem. The final score out of a possible 100 is a sum of 4 sub-scores. Each sub-score contributes up to 25 points, based on this event’s metrics compared to those seen in the ecosystem in the twelve months prior to the event. Increasing any sub-score raises the final Impact Score. Engagement and monetization are measured as the percentage of the audience who directly engage or transact, respectively, during the stream using one of Maestro’s related features.

The data powering Impact Scores is collected at a granular user-level, enabling both brands and broadcasters to identify viewers and build direct relationships. Customers can focus on growing an audience list instead of an anonymous view count and can further leverage Maestro’s client relationship management (CRM) system to retarget segments of their audience, tailor the experience, and maximize campaign objectives.

Also Read: Metric Centric Sets New Performance Standard with Audience Impact Score

Impact Scores are a significant milestone in crafting the future of live streaming by empowering brands and agencies with consistent metrics to better align their campaigns with modern success criteria. Maestro customers will begin to see Impact Scores appear on their upcoming event reports.

Maestro provides a white-label platform for enterprise live streamers to own, engage, and monetize their audiences. The company customers create engaging experiences with a data feedback loop to identify viewers, tailor strategies, and maximize business metrics.

Recommended Read: Fast Forward Your Video Content Strategy in 2018

Smartly.io Reaches Record Growth Rate of 100% Year-Over-Year Globally

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MTS Staff Writer

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March 8, 2018

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Smartly.io Reaches Record Growth Rate of 100% Year-Over-Year Globally

Advertising Automation Company Fuels Momentum with Uber Partnership; Launch of LATAM, ANZ Offices; Appointment of EMEA General Manager

Smartly.io, a leading Facebook advertising automation platform, announced that the company has grown more than 100% year-over-year globally, driven by rapid expansion of its customer base, including a global contract with Uber. The ride-sharing app, along with game publisher Ubisoft and online food service Delivery Hero, join a roster of over 600 brands and agencies that rely on Smartly.io to run their Facebook and Instagram advertising at scale.

Customers select Smartly.io not only for its powerful technology, but also its global presence: Following the launch of its first Latin American office in Buenos Aires, and the first Australian-New Zealand office in Sydney, Smartly.io teams are now based across five continents, nine cities and seven countries to offer local support.

“As an on-demand business, there are no days off. Finding a company that operates in a variety of locations and time zones was critical in choosing the right marketing partner. That’s why we partnered with Smartly.io. Not only do they bring new Facebook ad functionality to the market faster, but they also offer real-time support at both a local level and through a 24/5 online customer service chat,” said Katie Heimerich, Marketing Manager, Paid Social at Uber.

Also Read: Smartly.io Introduces Agency Partner Program to Meet Evolving Customer Needs

To bolster a growing footprint, the company has welcomed more than 85 team members—a 94% increase from 2016 to 2017. Among the new hires, Andrew French has been appointed General Manager of Smartly.io EMEA, bringing ten years’ industry expertise from previous roles at Somo, Ad.IQ and, most recently, AdColony, where he was the company’s first hire outside of the U.S. After being acquired by Opera Mediaworks in 2014, French ran AdColony’s unified EMEA business, which contributed significantly to overall company revenue.

In his role at Smartly.io, French will drive customer acquisition and lead go-to-market strategies for this region. “It’s an exciting time to be part of Smartly.io. The company made tremendous progress in 2017, reaching $1 billion in annual ad spend on its platform. I’m eager to work with this talented group of people and help solve our customers’ marketing challenges, so they, too, can grow their businesses,” said French.

Also Read: Facebook Marketing Partner Smartly.io Closes $20 Million Investment in Secondary Funding Round

Other company milestones include receiving top honors from Digiday’s WorkLife awards for a tech platform in the Most Innovative Culture category, as well as individual recognition for co-founder and CTO, Tuomo Riekki, who was named to Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 list, which selects the top young leaders of their industry.

Kristo Ovaska, founder and CEO, Smartly.io, added, “When Smartly.io began in 2013, Facebook’s advertising ecosystem was nowhere near the size it is today. Now in 2018, we see new Facebook ad formats, like Dynamic Ads and Canvas, bringing incremental revenue growth to our customers and other sophisticated marketers. Since the beginning, Smartly.io’s mission has been to make Facebook marketing easy, efficient and enjoyable by automating manual tasks, optimizing with third-party data and providing best-in-class technical support. Our recent global achievements underscore this commitment, as the most important metric will always be the success and happiness of our customers.”

Core Organizational Ingredients of the Ever-Expanding Marketing Operations Function

By

Debbie Qaqish

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March 8, 2018

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While I am not an organizational change expert, I do have a front row view into how companies organize various functions including marketing operations (MO).

This group has literally exploded onto the marketing scene in the last two years, and rightly so. Before then, marketing struggled to transform into a revenue machine because of applying right-brained thinking to a left-brained problem. In response, marketing operations have become a reality. I’ve watched the rise and metamorphosis of this burgeoning function and clearly, it is maturing into a robust and critical function for the CMO. This article examines the key elements of a revenue-focused marketing operations organization and how it is structured.

The Basics

The charter of any MO group is to drive efficiency and effectiveness through technology and process optimization that results in marketing attaining specific revenue goals –The basic functions include management of marketing technology and data as well analytics and reporting.

The organizational structure includes a Director of MO who reports to a VP of marketing or operations. Direct reports include a marketing automation admin, an analytics, and reporting person and a data czar. This organizational structure represents the early days when technology and its effect on marketing were just emerging.

Also Read: How Marketing Ops Runs Marketing Like a Business

Add Processes

If the charter for a MO group includes efficiency and effectiveness, it must be achieved not only through technology optimization, but process optimization as well. Seeing the MO group begin to re-engineer key marketing processes such as the lead and campaign management has been an awe-inspiring event.

I was talking with a VP of Marketing Ops about why he thought the MO group was so much better at process work, especially the oft-debated lead management process with sales. His response was “We don’t have a negative lead history with sales and we have data to back up what we say and do.”

When the MO groups lead the charge on recrafting the lead management process it also results in an improved campaign process. Now that the lead process is bought into by all stakeholders and the technology is in place to ensure compliance and results, understanding when, where and how campaigns can be optimized becomes a piece of cake.

PLUS, what marketing department doesn’t want an MO group that is constantly advising on how to improve performance?

The other area of process optimization has to do with managing a distributed MO capability. For organizations with global and field marketing operations, defining who owns what and how things will be executed is a key business process.

Adding processes to the mix for the MO group is best organizationally represented by a dedicated process role (think lean manufacturing). So many processes in marketing and between sales and marketing are broken and thus, sub-optimized, that this role makes sense. In addition, calling out the importance of process re-engineering through a dedicated role demonstrates the importance of process optimization.

Also Read: The Right Time for the Millennial Marketer

Add Business Management

As the MO group and marketing continue to mature, the MO group helps to run marketing like a business and so adopts business management capabilities. These include vendor management (now that most MO groups manage at least 20 different technologies), budget management, and professional project management.

Vendor management is an art within itself, and it closely ties to some elements of budget management. Efficient sourcing and contracting with software vendors can save money and improve effectiveness. Budget management includes crafting the budget across all elements of marketing and proactively managing the budget spend including ROI. Finally, professional project management is key to a successful MO team. Quite often MO is so good at this that this capability is borrowed by other parts of the company.

Roles to add to the org chart in this scenario include an Office of Project Management, a Vendor Manager and a Budget Manager (usually the head of the MO group).

Also Read: How Marketing Operations Affects Marketing Accountability

Add Training and Education

Often the MO function includes a dedicated headcount for training and education. This includes training on the systems (from advanced to novice), the new processes, and basic marketing skills. I love seeing this position on the org chart because it tells me this is a group on a mission for growth.

Add Demand Generation?

Yes, I said demand generation. In about half the MO groups I work with, the demand gen function is held in the MO group. This seems to be mostly related to a lack of talent on the demand gen side of the house.

Having demand gen in the MO group has pros and cons. The pros include a seamless process and the cons include lack of more general marketing and creative skills. This is a HUGE hot button in organizations.

In conclusion, as MO continues to mature as a competitive-generating capability, MO brings in more and more roles to help attain goals and drive change. Key drivers for the evolution of MO include the growth of technology choices, the strategic need for digital transformation, the growth in customer control of choices and events, and the ever-increasing need for marketing accountability. The MO function will continue to mature and in many ways, help marketing teams to deliver the promised accountability, transformation, customer focus and business growth.

TravelClick and Google Expand Partnership to Help Hoteliers Maximize Revenue In An Increasingly Competitive Market

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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TravelClick and Google Expand Partnership to Help Hoteliers Maximize Revenue In An Increasingly Competitive Market

The TravelClick and Google Partnership Gives Hotels an Edge with Early Access to New Beta Products and Unique Data

TravelClick, a leading global provider of data and revenue-generating solutions for hoteliers, announced the Company’s expanded relationship with longtime partner Google to enable hoteliers to drive more direct bookings and revenue. This partnership helps independent and small to mid-sized hotel chains to better identify, attract and convert guests when using the combined Google and TravelClick solutions.

“In a world where hundreds of thousands of hotels compete daily to win reservations, Google’s metasearch and advertising platforms make it easier for independent and small to mid-sized hotel chains to be discovered by consumers. When hoteliers engage with these same consumers using TravelClick’s CRM guest profiles, forward-looking demand data and best-in-class booking engine, hoteliers are able to convert more consumers into paying guests and optimize their pricing,” said Curtis Brewer, Senior Vice President of Reservations and Website Solutions at TravelClick.

Also Read: Salesforce and Google Form New Strategic Partnership

With Google Premier Partner Status, TravelClick can now offer its hotel customers priority access to Google beta products, elite account support and performance review with a dedicated, global account team and unique pieces of data for campaign optimization.

“TravelClick is a global leader in the hospitality industry, and we are excited to work with them to help hoteliers drive more revenue. Our combined efforts provide a platform for hoteliers to be able to reach the 60 percent of travelers who use Google when they begin to search for travel accommodations and then leverage TravelClick to convert those searches into bookings,” added Ruairidh Roberts, Senior Industry Head of Travel at Google.

Also Read: Why The World Needs 5G And How It Will Impact The Programmatic Advertising & Publisher Industries

Adarsh Rangaswamy, Corporate Director, Digital Marketing at Millennium Hotels and Resorts, added, “Working with both TravelClick and Google we have been able to identify opportunities to reach new consumer groups in a very targeted manner using a very in-depth audience segmentation strategy. This has yielded strong results in a channel that previously had not been a strong performance marketing channel for us. Additionally, the unique insights of both Google’s and TravelClick’s data have enabled us to identify new opportunities that we otherwise would not have been aware of.”

Artesian Continues to Refine Sales Intelligence Platform with New AI-Powered Capabilities

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 8, 2018

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Artesian Continues to Refine Sales Intelligence Platform with New AI-Powered Capabilities

Artesian Solidifies Position as a Market Leader in Sales Intelligence Thanks to Ground Breaking New Capabilities

Artesian Solutions, a leading AI-powered sales intelligence tools maker has launched a range of new capabilities for the dynamic sales tech industry. The AI-driven services from Artesian would now equip client-facing teams with the resources they need to succeed in a modern commercial environment.

Speaking about the performance improvements, Steve Borthwick, Chief Technology Officer at Artesian said, “We constantly feed back into our engineering team the learnings, preferences, and needs of our customers, and in return they always deliver robust, superior performance enhancements that not only accelerate our R&D programme but solidify our position as the market leader in sales intelligence software.”

Steve added, “We’ve boosted the performance and accuracy of the Artesian platform across the board, improving raw speed and our ability to handle a significant number of simultaneous users, as well as optimizing their ability to uncover those all-important golden nuggets of sales insight.”

Taking advantage of recent advances in technology and distributed processing techniques, Artesian’s customers are achieving —

25x increase in the amount of historical content for advanced analysis and research
5x increase in raw speed of news query engines, ensuring they get complex results faster than ever

The new capabilities and resulting performance improvements have come to fruition following a complete overhaul of the core of Artesian’s product, including —

Search Performance Improvements

Artesian has migrated its core news and social-media storage technology to ‘Elasticsearch’. This has enabled it to dramatically scale up server capacity, boost the performance of its advanced architecture, and provided the ability to analyze, filter and deliver results from raw unstructured data. Search results that previously took 10 seconds now take just 10 milliseconds

More Accurate Sales Triggers

New scoring and ranking algorithms enable customers to fine-tune their sales-trigger results even further. This improves the accuracy and relevance of results and ensures customers never miss an opportunity.

Improved Capacity

Alongside the core platform changes, Artesian has also implemented some improved caching and load-balancing technology. This has resulted in the technology is capable of handling 10x the number of concurrent users, whilst ensuring performance remains snappy – a vital step as Artesian continues to grow its business.

Currently, Artesian is a powerful AI driven service that drives action based on the data, real-time insight and context needed to find customers, create meaningful engagements, sell more and create long-lasting business relationships.

TechBytes with Claire Sporton, SVP, Customer Experience Innovation, Confirmit

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 8, 2018

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Claire Sporton
SVP, Customer Experience Innovation, Confirmit

Technology can be used to measure the quality of both – Customer Experience and Customer Engagement. To dive deeper into the world of marketing technologies created to deliver better customer experiences along the buyer’s journey, we spoke to Claire Sporton, SVP, Customer Experience Innovation at Confirmit.

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Tell us about your role at Confirmit and the team/ technology you handle.

I am the Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Innovation at Confirmit. I’ve actually just moved into this role after seven years of working closely with Confirmit’s clients to help them define and build their Customer Experience (CX) programs. I have a real passion for building truly customer-centric cultures that inspire change and deliver measurable business improvement. The exciting thing about this new position is that I can focus on driving forward the discipline of CX management and ensuring that Confirmit provides the technology and expertise that organizations need to empower and inspire everyone across the organization to do the right thing.

What are the major differentiators for marketing to deliver ‘customer engagement’ and ‘customer experiences’? How do you manage both using marketing technologies?

There is a key difference between customer engagement and customer experiences. Customer Engagement is the outcome that we are all looking for – customers (or clients) who “buy again”, recommend us to others and truly partner with us. Customer Experiences are what will drive the level of engagement we achieve. Technology can be used to measure the quality of both – how engaged your customers are with your brand and the quality of their experience with you. We would look to measure the customer experience through;

Direct feedback from the customer themselves through surveys using many different channels
Indirect feedback through social media or other communications such as inbound email
The perspective of the internal team
The actions and behaviors of the customer such as the number of calls to the contact center or if they renewed their contract.

For the most part, a positive customer experience can drive customer engagement, whereas a poor customer experience can cause customer engagement to plummet. With technologies like Confirmit Horizons, businesses can manage all aspects of their CX programs from ideation, to execution, to follow through and more.

What are the core tenets of Confirmit Horizons? How could businesses benefit from this platform at a B2B level?

Confirmit Horizons is an end-to-end solution that allows businesses to seamlessly manage their CX programs – including Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Employee and insights from other key groups, such as partners. We are able to capture feedback through any channel (web, telephone, mobile devices etc.) and can provide advanced analytics, including text and social analysis, to help uncover business-critical insights. Most importantly, we can help clients identify the right action to take – whether that’s at a strategic, tactical or individual level.

For B2B organizations, the challenge of understanding the customer experience is magnified because they have fewer customers each of whom is worth a significant amount to the company. It’s also much harder to get a true picture of the health of an account because of the complex nature of the relationships which include multiple people on both the vendor and customer side. The great thing with Confirmit Horizons is that businesses can capture the view from all perspectives – gaining feedback from users, decision-makers, and influencers at the client side, and allowing employees such as Account Managers and Customer Success teams to provide their view on the health of an account. Confirmit Horizons can bring all those views together to give an Account Manager a clear view of the level of risk within an account, and provide the guidance on the steps they need to take to secure future business.

Do you see a gradual convergence of marketing technologies towards delivering better customer experiences along the buyer’s journey?

Absolutely! As more and more companies focus on understanding the customer experience at key points in their journey, businesses are getting better at finding the right technology to support their customers. One of the key issues with CX is that people are now overwhelmed by the sheer number of surveys they receive, and response rates are taking a hit. Smart companies are learning to use a wider range of sources to help them understand the customer journey without asking endless questions. For example, using financial and operational data to provide context to feedback, or harnessing text and social analytics to reduce the number of questions they ask. The challenge then is how to bring together the silos of information that are probably available across your organization and provide your internal teams with the insights that they need in a way that will inspire them to do something differently.

Additionally, with advancements in video technology, companies are able to capture more insights, many of which are more candid and telling, than traditional surveys.

What are major pain points for marketers in leveraging employees to drive Digital Transformation at an organization level?

Digital transformation and the push to digital is a key focus for many organizations, and often getting employees on board with the process is the greatest challenge. It can be seen by employees as a threatening cost saving, rather than a positive customer experience initiative, but as more and more consumers prefer digital channels, this mindset has to change. Both in-store and contact center teams can view channels like apps and the website as something that competes with their role – either putting their position in danger or for sales teams, potentially reducing their store’s success or their own commissions.

One retailer took a two-level approach to getting that employee support. Firstly, training their in-store teams to be comfortable using the website, and giving them access to it on the shop floor so they can share the view with customers. They also built a process so that web orders within their store’s geographic region were counted within sales for that store, removing concerns about web cannibalizing local results.

Another useful approach is to understand why customers are resisting digital transformation and continue to use a contact center. Here, frontline can be used to ask customers why they called the contact center, understand the reasons and report back to the business to help remove the roadblocks that undermine digital transformation initiatives.

What are your predictions on the state of ‘Voice of Customer’ technologies in 2018? How much of that state would be influenced by AI/ML adoption?

Looking into the far horizon, the survey appears to be phasing out, but long live the conversation – as we will always need reflective feedback! Of course, companies will continue to send out surveys, but they will slowly change as we move forward. However, we need to embrace the changes we have available via technology to create a more engaging survey to be more creative and more visual. Customer expectations are changing rapidly and we all need to keep up.

In 2018, text analytics will continue to make great strides as a way to decipher social media sentiment. Between Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and numerous other review sites, customers are proactively and candidly sharing opinions on a regular basis—and thanks to advancements in text analytics, companies can get closer to those insights.

More companies will be testing video integration as a way to collect feedback in 2018 and we will continue to see different use cases across industries.

As far as AI goes, the truth is, it’s still in its awkward teenager phase with much room for refinement and overall improvement, and it’s frankly not living up to all of the hype just yet but huge potential. When it comes to surveying, AI can help with the answers, but we still need to ask the right questions.

Thanks for chatting with us, Claire.
Stay tuned for more insights on marketing technologies. To participate in our Tech Bytes program, email us at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com

New Qualtrics Partner Network Helps Organizations Close Their Experience Gaps

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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New Qualtrics Partner Network Helps Organizations Close Their Experience Gaps

Global Ecosystem Supporting The Qualtrics Experience Management Platform Announced

Qualtrics, the leader in research and experience management, announced the launch of the Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN), to expand the global ecosystem of partners providing programs and solutions based on the award-winning Qualtrics Experience Management (XM) Platform. The announcement was made recently at the Qualtrics 2018 X4 Experience Management Summit in Salt Lake City.

The Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN) will expand the global ecosystem of partners providing programs and solutions based on the award-winning Qualtrics Experience Management Platform.

QPN members will gain access to the Qualtrics Experience Management Platform technology as well as technical enablement, go-to-market programs, and other partner resources to help them innovate and build value across their experience solutions and offerings.

Also Read: Kantar TNS and Qualtrics Join Forces to Form Global Customer Experience Powerhouse

Experience management is a rapidly growing business imperative for today’s leading brands that need to operate at digital speed and respond to ever-rising customer expectations. This digital transformation has brands increasingly turning to the experiences they provide as a key differentiator. Until now, it’s been difficult for brands to monitor, measure and improve those experiences across their organizations. The Qualtrics Experience Management Platform is revolutionary in its innovation, helping organizations cohesively manage and progress all of their experience programs.

QPN partners expand the range of robust, scalable and tailored experience management solutions in the market. QPN partners are an extension of Qualtrics and bring in-depth industry knowledge, experience and insights. No matter how sophisticated or demanding a customer’s experience management program may be, the combination of the partner’s expertise and the Qualtrics’ platform ensures that customers will have world-class support throughout their journey.

Also Read: Qualtrics Named One of Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Enterprise for 2018

Founding members of the QPN include a diverse set of solution providers ranging from market research firms to customer experience market leaders to top systems integrators and software development houses, namely: Acumen Solutions, Capventis, CX Solutions, J.D. Power, Kantar TNS, Morpace, Red Pepper, SolutionStream, Ugam, and Walker Information. The reach of the Qualtrics Partner Network together with Qualtrics extends to most every market globally.

For service providers, QPN provides a market-leading platform full of innovation and growth possibilities, aiding them to expand into the fast-growing experience management market and establish deeper relationships with clients.

“Acumen Solutions is excited to join the QPN. It enhances our Customer and Employee Experience Management services that drive personalized interactions and engagement, increased loyalty and revenue, and decreased employee attrition,” said David Marko, managing director of On-Demand Analytics at Acumen Solutions.

Also Read: Qualtrics Announces Online Community Connecting Experience Management Platform Users

“As products and services continue to become more commoditized, customer experience will drive brand differentiation in the marketplace. J.D. Power is working with Qualtrics to help companies understand how to continuously improve their interactions with customers. J.D. Power, entering its 50th year of focusing on customer experience, brings industry thought-leadership, globally recognized benchmarks and actionable insights to drive customer experience optimization, by leveraging Qualtrics’ XM platform. The collaboration with Qualtrics will allow J.D. Power to design and deliver best-in-class customer experience management solutions to the market and our customers,” said Bernardo Rodriguez, Chief Digital Office of J.D. Power.

Also Read: Qualtrics Announces Speakers and Agenda for X4 Experience Management Summit 2018

Rosie Hawkins, Chief Offer and Innovation Officer at Kantar’s Insights Division said, “At Kantar TNS, our long-standing philosophy is that customer centricity is critical for a thriving organization. We’re delighted to be partnering with Qualtrics to help our clients put customers at the heart of every business decision, and prioritize investment by providing them with timely and actionable insights, industry-specific learnings, and advanced analytics.”

“As a part of Ugam’s mission to help clients accelerate their digital transformation, we are delighted to partner with Qualtrics and proud to be one of the first companies to be part of QPN. We are confident that Ugam’s data and analytics solutions, coupled with Qualtrics’ Experience Management Platform, will further empower our customers with actionable insights to make impactful business decisions,” said Ugam co-founder & CEO, Sunil Mirani.

Also Read: Qualtrics Scoops $180 Million at $2.5 Billion Evaluation

“The QPN is just what companies need – access to best-in-class technology and exceptional services to drive XM success. Walker is proud to contribute our CX consulting services. With the Qualtrics platform as a foundation, we can offer a flexible, tailored approach to our customers that lead to better, faster results,” said Steve Walker, chairman & CEO, Walker Information.

“We are taking a major step in our journey to transform the Qualtrics Experience Management partner ecosystem into a truly global network of experts. QPN expands experience solutions and services across all industries and geographies, allowing our customers to benefit from the knowledge, expertise, and insights of our partners. We are committed to ensuring the success of our partners in the new world of holistic experience management, helping them to build and expand the reach and impact of their solutions in the experience economy,” said John Torrey, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Qualtrics.

Interview with Melinda McLaughlin, CMO, Extreme Reach

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 8, 2018

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[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/MelOnMktg” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindamclaughlin/”]

[mnky_testimonial_slider slide_speed=”3″][mnky_testimonial name=”” author_dec=”” position=”Designer”]“Outdated, manual, error-prone processes are holding back the promise of programmatic video advertising and negatively impacting brands, agencies, and publishers.”[/mnky_testimonial][/mnky_testimonial_slider]

Tell us about your role and how you got here. What inspired you to be part of a video technology company?

As CMO at Extreme Reach, I spearhead all aspects of the company’s global marketing and communications in addition to driving market research, product development strategy, and sales enablement. I am fortunate to have a career that has spanned the massive evolution of the ad industry over the last 25+ years, spending 15 years on the ad agency side and a decade at A+E Networks. I took a leap into the video technology space when I joined Tremor Video. Five years there as CMO hooked me on the excitement and innovation happening every day in video technology and it prepared me beautifully for my role at Extreme Reach. Our cloud platform supports the world’s biggest brands and their agencies in getting ads to both TV and video destinations while also enabling Talent & Rights management wherever those ads play.

How do you see video asset workflows and buying models evolving with the availability of cross-device measurement technologies?

Video advertising has evolved and innovated in so many ways. Media can be bought and sold in a nanosecond and cross-device measurement provides insights that were unimaginable just a decade ago. But where the industry really falls short right now is in the video ad asset workflow. Outdated, manual, error-prone processes are holding back the promise of programmatic video advertising and negatively impacting brands, agencies, and publishers. This workflow is critical to a healthy ecosystem and a simple solution exists right now. The future of video ad workflow is evolving to an ad cloud model that provides a single, original source for all video advertising assets with permission-based access for all teams involved.

How has the maturity of data science and analytics influenced the creation of real-time video experiences?

Data science and analytics enable marketers to target customers very precisely with the message that is likely to resonate with a specific viewer at a specific time. A brand might choose, for example, to serve one type of video creative to a person’s phone and a very different creative for a situation that finds that person in more of a lean-back viewing mode. New types of video experiences have expanded the palate for creative teams who now have more, highly specific opportunities to connect with their audience.

Tell us about how marketers and agencies could prepare for the converging worlds of TV and Video advertising and how Extreme Reach participates in this transformation as a “technology enabler”?

As TV and video advertising converge, marketers and agencies need to be able to rely on a single source for storing and accessing their creative assets. Too often, we see clients struggling to find the correct video assets when preparing for the launch of a new campaign. The confusion is exacerbated when TV and video teams work in silos. Talent & Rights Management in advertising is a tremendously important piece of the equation. Managing the contracts for performers in commercials relies on knowing exactly where and when ads play in order to adhere to complex and strict contractual guidelines. It’s easy to understand that the internet completely disrupted the perfect closed system that worked for decades when ads were contained in the TV set. The by-product of fragmentation across many screens and devices has been very costly for brands. But it’s not an issue for Extreme Reach customers whose Talent & Rights details are fully integrated into our cloud platform enabling automatic tracking of ads for contract compliance.

Which startups in the martech/ad tech industry are you watching/keen on right now?

Instant Magazine is a very cool publishing platform that we’ve just started using for our content marketing. We love the ease of telling a story exactly as we’d like, with beautiful imagery and surprising layouts.

NewsCart is an exciting collaboration tool that helps us discover the most important news impacting our business and inspires our content marketing efforts. We’ve been a beta user for several months and can’t say enough about the team behind it. Newscart was 1st in the PitchTX competition at SXSW last year — a great indication that they’re a startup to watch.

What tools does your marketing stack consist of in 2018?

Hubspot, email
Zoho, CMS
Zapier, to connect Zoho and Hubspot
Winmo, sales intelligence
Instant Magazine, content marketing
WordPress, corporate blog publishing
Google Analytics
Doubleclick, for our ad campaigns
FB Ad Manager, campaigns on FB

Could you tell us about your standout digital campaign?

We launched a campaign in January 2017 that I’m really proud of. Our aim was to disrupt the status quo and move the ad industry to take action in converting the archaic workflow process, described above, to a seamless technology-driven solution for the activation of video campaigns. The solution is Video Ad Streaming. In a series of three spots (shot in a real stream in the woods of Georgia!), we portray three common scenarios that create havoc for people on the front lines of launching video campaigns. The ads are engaging in a way not typically seen in B2B campaigns — a combination of clever storytelling and high-quality video production usually reserved for B2C spots.

We measured success by the video views (250,000 and still growing) and the adoption of Video Ad Streaming by Extreme Reach customers. In 2017 nearly 150 million video ad impressions had been streamed from our Ad Cloud.

How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a marketing leader?

AI has given marketers the ability to know more about their target audience — how they behave, how and when they respond to brand messaging, and on and on. And as innovation continues, it’s likely that a host of tools we haven’t even imagined will be added to a marketer’s toolkit. But regardless of where AI and technical innovation takes us, I always come back to the importance of great storytelling and the power of video to do just that. For decades, the combination of sight, sound and motion has reigned supreme in advertising and I think it always will.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

As somewhat of a latecomer to podcasts, it wasn’t until a few months ago that I realized what I’d been missing. The podcast app on my iPhone is now my favorite. As a marketer I’ve always been interested in the art of great storytelling and podcasts have opened a whole new world of learning and discovery for me in my professional and personal passions — from knitting, politics and scientific discovery to ad tech and B2B marketing.

What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?

This may be the oldest productivity hack in the book and it certainly works for me: Start the day early. Mornings are my most productive and creative time of day so I’ve developed a routine that allows me to fully utilize the early hours. Being the one to turn the lights on means I’ve got time for deep thinking projects before the office gets humming.

What are you currently reading?

In my work life, I read a lot about business, marketing, and ad tech on a daily basis both in print and online. I subscribe to email newsletters and news feeds which provide a great cross-section of curated news and insights. And while I consume information on every screen, I still think and process best with paper and pen. I read books on my kindle and iPhone and find that I also like having the actual book itself, so I tend to flip back and forth as I progress through a novel. I’m currently reading Beneath a Scarlet Sky, a beautifully written story based on the life of a forgotten WWII hero who chose to do the right thing.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Three words of immeasurable wisdom from my mother: Be the glue. Her sage advice has meaning across every area of my life. In business, it is fundamental to how I view my role, and that of my team, in every role I’ve had. It means: Bring people together, find common interests, relate to how your customers feel. These are pillars that support a culture internally and also drive a customer-centric marketing strategy. Thank you, Mom.

Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:

Ariane Gut, Head of Insights and Analytics at Tremor Video DSP. I was lucky to have Ariane on my team in a previous role. She’s one of the brightest minds in our business with a passion for listening closely to the consumer and spotting trends early.

Thank you Melinda! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Melinda” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e51b0-80edaf37-bd3d357a-6c466d53-37ee”]

I am the CMO of Extreme Reach — the enterprise software company powering the ad asset supply chain for TV and video, serving the world’s biggest brands and their agencies. I am passionate about leadership and enabling individuals and teams to be their best.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About Extreme Reach” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e51b0-80edaf37-bd3d357a-6c466d53-37ee”]

Extreme Reach offers the only enterprise technology designed distinctly to bring together the TV and Video ad workflow and all aspects of Talent & Rights management in a single, easy-to-use cloud platform. One platform and one process make brand advertising easier, and analytics more insightful, with the assurance of rights compliance wherever ads play. Founded in 2008, Extreme Reach proudly serves the world’s biggest brands, agencies, post-production houses, all media destinations, and the talent community, altogether simplifying the process for every team that touches an ad campaign from start to finish. Headquartered in Needham, MA, Extreme Reach has offices in 19 cities worldwide.

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[mnky_heading title=”MarTech Interview Series” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmartechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com%2Fcategory%2Fmts-insights%2Finterviews%2F|||”]

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.

Munvo and Evergage Partner on Advanced Personalization Capabilities

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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Munvo Launches New Personalization Practice, Combining its Management Consulting Services with Evergage Technology to Accelerate Digital Marketing Transformation for Enterprise Customers

Munvo, a consulting firm helping Fortune 1000 clients improve their marketing capabilities, and Evergage, the real-time personalization platform company, announced a strategic alliance to bring personalization capabilities to enterprise clients in the retail, financial services, travel and other industries. Under the agreement, Munvo and Evergage will partner to help companies drive major improvements in marketing performance by enabling marketing organizations to deliver optimized and relevant experiences and individualized journeys for end-customers across multiple channels.

Whether working for a B2C or B2B company, marketers recognize that success today depends on customers having great experiences interacting and engaging with a business over time and across touchpoints. Customers want to be remembered, understood, supported, and even surprised and delighted based on their unique interests and preferences – not treated like everybody else, in a cookie-cutter way. Gartner predicts that “by 2020, smart personalization engines used to recognize customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase their profits by up to 15%.”

Also Read: Evergage Expands Operations to Europe with Launch of Evergage GmbH

To bring this vision of 1:1 marketing to its clients, Munvo has formalized its relationship with Evergage as a premier Services Partner and created a dedicated personalization practice to help clients navigate and deploy personalization programs. The new practice will leverage Munvo’s extensive experience deploying “next best action” solutions to help clients plan and enable new personalized marketing solutions at scale. As clients struggle in today’s complex MarTech ecosystem juggling multiple tools and siloed customer data, Evergage represents the next generation of personalization featuring a comprehensive platform approach with unified customer data.

“Our clients are designing new customer journeys and experiences, yet we feel they are challenged to deploy and scale personalization because of MarTech stack complexities and marketing operations constraints. We believe Evergage’s technology platform clearly stands out from the pack, and we look forward to using their innovative capabilities to help our clients achieve their marketing goals,” said Rob Davis, Munvo managing partner for business development and alliances.

Also Read: Evergage, Sophelle and One Step Retail Solutions Form Alliance – Enabling Retailers to Deliver Personalized Customer Experiences

“Recognizing personalization has become a strategic imperative for all businesses, Munvo is showing true vision with the formation of its personalization practice to focus on unlocking new value for clients,” said Karl Wirth, CEO of Evergage.

Combining deep behavioral analytics, a full customer data platform and advanced machine learning, Evergage powers 1:1 personalization across channels, including websites, web and mobile apps, onsite search, email campaigns and in person via call center, in-branch and in-store applications. Marketers can automatically recognize and act on visitors’ interests and intent within milliseconds – all from a single platform that’s easy to operate.

Josh Baumrind, Evergage SVP of partnerships and corporate development, said: “We’re truly excited to be partnering with Munvo. The combination of Munvo’s consulting services with Evergage’s market-leading personalization platform will drive transformative marketing results for clients.”

Anodot Expands Globally, Adds Andy Fenselau As New CMO

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

0

Following Massive Customer and Sales Momentum, Anodot Brings on Andy Fenselau and Amit Levi to Help Accelerate Its Global Ramp

Anodot, the AI-powered analytics company, announced that it has appointed Andy Fenselau as Chief Marketing Officer, based in the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters and Amit Levi as the VP Head of Product, based in the Israel offices. This is the next step in Anodot’s hyper-growth trajectory following a recent $23 million round of funding. Fenselau previously led strategy, marketing and the lead machine at Elastifile and EMC XtremIO, while Levi led the development of data products at Cooladata and Yokee Music before joining Anodot.

In December 2017, Anodot announced a successful $23 million Series B round of funding with investors Redline Capital Management, Aleph Venture Capital and Disruptive Technologies Venture Capital. Anodot is already leveraging this investment to open offices in London and Sydney, to accelerate its sales, marketing and customer success teams, and to further develop its patented machine learning and AI analytics platform. The appointment of Fenselau as the company’s first CMO, based in Silicon Valley, and Levi as the VP Head of Product, based in Israel, is a key part of this next global growth phase.

Also Read: Anodot Raises $23 Million to Accelerate AI-powered Analytics and Anomalies Detection for Major Customers

Fenselau brings with him 22 years of success in driving transformational enterprise solutions to leading market positions across SaaS, storage, databases and management software, driving hyper-growth from disruptor to market leadership. At Elastifile, Fenselau successfully launched and scaled the company globally, resulting in over 100% year-to-year growth. Before that, he led marketing for EMC XtremIO, building it into the fastest-growing product in Enterprise IT history, ramping $1 billion in sales in just over 18 months.

“Anodot is truly something special, combining powerful AI analytics technology with a simple SaaS platform that delivers real-time to value… and an amazing team behind it all. Integrating real-time detection across all business data, Anodot helps its customers see blind spots, find anomalies and predict supply/demand requirements for tremendous value across a range of use cases and industries like e-commerce, ad-tech, gaming and fintech,” said Fenselau.

Also Read: Anodot’s AI-Powered Analytics Ensure Customer Satisfaction and Superior Uptime for LivePerson

Amit Levi joins Anodot with a vast experience in planning, developing and shipping large scale big data and analytics products to the top mobile and web companies. Levi’s product leadership has led to major revenue growth at both Yokee Music and Cooladata.

“Anodot is a leading solution in AI analytics, empowering teams to become proactive instead of reactive. Its business incident detection platform predicts issues immediately as they appear, and alerts relevant business owners in real time like no other system. I’m ecstatic about joining the Anodot team,” said Levi.

Also Read: Anodot to Showcase Raw Streaming Data to AI-Based Analytics and Exhibit at O’Reilly’s Strata Data Conference

Anodot’s CEO and co-founder David Drai, added, “Over the past year, Anodot has seen incredible success, more than tripling our revenues, with over 70 customers like Foursquare, Lyft, Microsoft and Upwork, all benefiting from breakthrough real-time anomaly detection and AI analytics. As we drive further expansion in 2018, we are excited to bring Andy and Amit onto the team and expand our GTM leadership in Silicon Valley.”

Cloudwords Launches the Cloudwords Marketplace

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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Cloudwords Launches the Cloudwords Marketplace

Industry’s First Localization Software Exchange Platform Readies the Market for Big Changes

Cloudwords Inc., the leading Marketing Globalization Platform, announced the Cloudwords Marketplace, the industry’s first localization software exchange designed specifically for marketing organizations to have one single exchange platform for their integrated solutions. The platform allows marketers and their organizations to make faster, more informed decisions that will ultimately increase their bottom line.

“The Cloudwords for Marketo integrated experience enables our global customers to develop multilingual content at scale. Our largest customers rely on our joint solution to reach their respective global customers, faster,” said Matt Zilli, Chief Customer Officer at Marketo.

Also Read: Marketo Announces “The Fearless Marketer” as the Theme of Marketing Nation Summit 2018

“The Vidyard for Cloudwords integrated experience is a game-changer for the global marketer, who wants to create multilingual video content at scale. We are excited to partner with the Cloudwords team on this ground-breaking launch of the Cloudwords Marketplace,” said Tyler Lessard, VP of Marketing at Vidyard.

Also Read: Vidyard Brings the Power of Video to Any Business App with Vidyard GoVideo Partner Ecosystem

“Given the speed at which software changes, global marketing teams crave the ability to find new technologies that provide business value. This challenge, and more importantly, this solution, is at the epicenter of our newly launched platform. Today’s announcement marks a first for marketers everywhere. With the Cloudwords Marketplace, we are delivering on the Cloudwords promise to help customers go global, faster,” said Michael Meinhardt, Founder and CEO at Cloudwords.

Also Read: Cloudwords Grows Enterprise Investment in Global Marketing Content by 112%; Surpasses 2 Billion Global Marketing Translated Segments

As martech’s technology marketing landscape has grown from 150 companies in 2011 to over 5,000 in 2017, so has the choice by global marketing organizations to leverage different marketing solutions. Whether these solutions are for web, campaigns, video, content, and/or social channels, maximizing each opportunity to reap both competitive differentiation as well as a maximum value has often been a challenge. The Cloudwords Marketplace allows global marketers and localization teams to pick and choose the marketing and localization platform they standardize upon to create a best-of-breed global marketing technology stack.

“A customer can instantly integrate a marketing platform such as Marketo or Adobe Experience Manager with a choice of machine translation such as Lilt’s adaptive neural translation or to any language service provider like Moravia, SDL or Lionbridge. This allows them to fully automate the end-to-end process resulting in faster go-to-market and reduce costs. You would be hard-pressed to find a marketing organization that won’t benefit from the Cloudwords Marketplace and that is exciting for our business and for the industry as a whole,” said Ashish Agrawal, SVP, Products at Cloudwords.

MediaMath and Cision Bridge Paid and Earned Media

By

MTS Staff Writer

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March 8, 2018

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MediaMath and Cision Bridge Paid and Earned Media

Industry Leaders Partner to Expand Omnichannel Opportunities Across Marketing Channels Fueled by Robust Audience Data and Technology

cision + Mediamath MediaMath and Cision announced a joint partnership that enables brands to integrate data from earned media with paid media, giving brands a holistic view of their customers. The partnership addresses the need for marketing and advertising professionals to integrate their efforts, resulting in targeting and measurement across earned, owned and paid channels.

“For decades, communications pros have not been able to measure and attribute business results for their earned media efforts. As a result, despite widespread acknowledgment of the importance of earned media at building trust and credibility with customers, their budgets as a percentage of the marketing mix, are at an all-time low. Our innovative development with MediaMath empowers brands to directly attribute behavior, revenue, and any other business results from their earned media, and leverage that data to create a first-of-its-kind holistic profile of customers. They can then activate that profile in an integrated, omnichannel program across paid, owned, and earned media,” said Kevin Akeroyd, Cision CEO.

Data-Driven Identification and Measurement

The MediaMath and Cision partnership allows marketers to:

Deliver Omnichannel Audience Analytics: By bringing together earned and paid media audience data, marketers now have the ability to connect different media channels with attribution systems and effectively measure the overall impact of earned media within broader marketing campaigns.
Amplify Earned Media with Paid Media Tactics: Communications professionals can extend their earned media efforts with paid media tactics such as amplification of a press release or earned media pick up through paid channels, earned media retargeting, or guaranteed news views.
Optimize Digital Advertising with Earned Media Data: This new integration gives marketers access to earned media audience data which can be used to optimize paid media channels, inform buying decisions, and augment digital marketing data.

Greg Williams, MediaMath co-founder and SVP, business development, added, “Never before has our industry had the ability to understand the earned media audience in the same manner as the paid media audience. This partnership unlocks the power of omnichannel marketing by uniting efforts across all paid, owned, and earned channels, bringing a more coherent experience to consumers.”

60% of Enterprise Marketers Set To Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Content Marketing Strategy This Year

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PRNewswire

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March 8, 2018

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60% of Enterprise Marketers Set To Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Content Marketing Strategy This Year

Over 500 Surveyed Marketers Provide Insight on AI-Adoption Tipping Point, with Key Benefits Aligned Around Personalization and Customer Experience

A new survey released by BrightEdge, the leader in enterprise SEO and content performance marketing, reveals marketers have become more receptive to the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, such as machine learning, and their capabilities to deliver better customer experience and marketing performance. In its second annual “Future of Marketing” survey, BrightEdge surveyed over 500 digital marketers at Fortune 500 brands split evenly across both B2B and B2C companies over a one-month period in February 2018. The “Future of Marketing” survey offers a bevy of insights on the current state of how brands are using AI to deliver a more personalized customer experience through smart content.

In the 2017 “Future of Marketing” survey, marketers believed in a future ruled by the likes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voice search. Yet, most in-house marketers and agency practitioners had done little to introduce these powerful components into their digital marketing strategy to deliver compelling customer experiences that perform.

In 2018, marketer responses on the “Future of Marketing” reveal quite different patterns of technology adoption and benefits. Most notably, this year’s findings revealed 60 percent of marketers intend to use artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a content marketing strategy in 2018.

Also Read: Are You Ready for The Revenue Summit ’18?

In this year’s survey, nearly 75 percent of all marketers responded that three trends are dominating the thinking of marketers. Additionally, each of the top three themes requires and use Artificial Intelligence today. According to marketers, the next big technology in 2018 is as follows:

Personalization – 29 percent of respondents
Artificial Intelligence – 26 percent of respondents
Voice Search – 22 percent of respondents

“Despite some of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, this survey shows that AI is very real and marketers are adopting AI-first technology in search and content marketing sectors faster than most. The insights that AI brings allows marketers to make smarter and faster decisions to deliver compelling customer experiences that perform,” said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge.

Finding #1: Marketers Set to use AI to Develop their Content Marketing Strategies

Nearly 60 percent of all marketers responded they plan to use artificial intelligence in their content marketing strategy in 2018. In comparison, in 2017, only 43 percent of respondents said they were likely to use artificial intelligence or deep learning to develop their content marketing strategy, while 50 percent of respondents said they were “very unlikely.” This represents a major finding–and an important leap forward for the modern data-driven marketer. Marketers are adopting cutting-edge technologies to deliver more personalized customer experiences:

42 percent of marketers responded they are somewhat likely to use Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning to develop their content marketing strategy in 2018
17 percent of marketers are very likely to implement AI and Deep Learning in 2018
4 percent already implemented AI and Deep Learning in 2018

“Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is an interesting area we’ve been exploring to weave into our SEO strategy at IBM and our partnership with BrightEdge is critical to staying ahead of the digital marketing curve.” Ellen Mamedov, Head of SEO at IBM.

Finding #2: AI is Enabling Marketers to Understand the Customer, Drive Productivity and Create Better Performing Content

Marketers already using AI indicated it is delivering the benefits, particularly in terms of understanding the customer and driving productivity.

31 percent have a better understanding of the customer, helping to drive more personalized customer experiences
27.1 percent of respondents said it is driving more productivity and time-savings
14.5 percent indicated better-performing content
8.5 percent of respondents said it is driving an increase in ROI

“Digital marketing has become very complex from opportunity identification through content creation to optimization. BrightEdge brings the AI firepower to my job and makes it easier for me to succeed.” Eugene Feygin, Sears

Finding #3: Obstacles to AI Adoption and a Wake-Up Call for MarTech

Marketers have gone through plenty of hype cycles. From the social craze to the big data movement, the next big thing comes and goes. But AI is real, and its potential can’t be understated. Companies like Google and Amazon are transforming into AI-first companies and accelerating the pace of change. From Google’s RankBrain algorithm to voice search to Amazon’s product recommendations, AI is driving change in the market faster than ever before.

With that said, AI is still met with confusion and, in some cases, skepticism. The early signs of a possible AI divide are emerging in the digital marketing space. Some marketers and companies are making the push towards AI-First. Others are not, and the typical challenges facing marketers are still prevalent:

37 percent of marketers have no plans to use AI and Deep Learning in 2018, especially around the development of their content marketing strategy
10 percent of respondents said they believe AI is all hype or lack an understanding of what AI is and what AI really does for a marketer
In terms of obstacles, marketers indicated confusion on what is/is not AI (30 percent) and a limited budget (28 percent) as the greatest deterrents to adoption

Also Read: Adoption of AI, Voice Search, and Hyper-Local in Content Keys to Marketing Success, says BrightEdge Report

Finding #4: 58 percent of organizations do not have a data scientist in their organization

One of the key challenges that marketers highlighted is the absence of a data scientist in the organization. 58 percent of marketers surveyed said they did not have a data scientist with and additional 10 percent ‘not sure.’ In the absence of a data scientist, brands often turn to AI to help them uncover insights.

Finding #5: AI has Become “Mission Critical” to Marketers

The survey also asked whether AI is mission-critical in current marketing technologies. A majority of respondents (54 percent) said AI is a must-have, mission-critical, or important to have in 2018. This is a tipping point. For the first time, the majority of marketers see AI and a key feature in the marketing technology they purchase. Additionally, 32 percent of respondents agreed marketing technologies must integrate AI into their current role and workflow.

However, more than a quarter of marketers remain skeptical of the benefits of artificial intelligence, with 29 percent of respondents saying they see AI as a requirement, not an added feature.

Marketers looking to integrate AI into their strategies can start by researching current technology partners that are part of their current workflow, looking at current platforms applying AI and learning about the power of AI. The most innovative companies are natively integrating AI into their platform, making it possible for any marketer to be an AI-first marketer today.

Velocify LeadManager SMS Texting Arrives in a New Avatar for Agile Sales Teams

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 8, 2018

0

Ellie Mae Sets a New Standard for Powerful Mobile Communications Integrated into a Centralized Lead Management Solution

Ellie Mae, a leading cloud-based platform provider, has unveiled a completely redesigned Velocify LeadManager SMS texting functionality that provides a seamless and simple way to send automated and individual texts to mobile phones from within the solution. Velocify LeadManager SMS texting empowers sales professionals with the combined strength of integrated individual and bulk messaging and the administrative controls needed to engage prospects and customers on their mobile phones quickly, easily, and in a legally compliant way.

Velocify LeadManager 18.2 with SMS texting is expected to be released in April 2018.

Velocify® by Ellie Mae is a sales acceleration software platform that helps high-velocity sales teams turn more prospects into customers. More than 1,500 companies streamline, automate and optimize their sales processes using Velocify.

“With the enriched texting functionality in Velocify LeadManager, sales organizations can boost engagement, drive quicker decisions, and improve conversions by intelligently and respectfully weaving text messaging into the sales process,” said Nick Hedges, Senior Vice President, Consumer Engagement Strategy at Ellie Mae.

Nick added, “No other technology delivers such powerful mobile communications integrated into a centralized lead management solution.”

Improving The Multi-Channel Experience

Velocify LeadManager helps to ensure the texts sales professionals send are highly relevant and reach the right person, at the right time, and in the right way. Velocify LeadManager SMS texting is the only solution that integrates bulk and individual texting into unified, multi-channel sales engagement.

Among the key new features in Velocify LeadManager SMS texting are —

Automated SMS Texting

Bulk Texts — Administrators can send bulk short code messages, as promotional campaigns to interested prospects or to re-engage leads.

Triggered Texts — Administrators can set up automated texts triggered by specific actions or statuses (e.g., rate changes or deadlines) to send notifications of timely news to interested prospects and customers.

Administrative Controls — Utilizing easy-to-use templates and wizards, administrators can allow their users to engage freely with prospects, while at the same time setting limits within the system to promote positive engagement and ensure company standards and industry guidelines are followed.

SMS Texting Messenger Window

Two-Way Text Messaging: Sales reps can text prospects’ mobile numbers directly from the LeadManager text messenger window, and instantly receive responses in the same messenger window.

Conversation History: Sales reps can easily access their lead conversations from the messenger window as well, which is always available from their main Priority View screen.

Automated Prioritization: Texting is integrated with the action and lead status workflow in LeadManager to ensure leads remain up to date and prioritized with other communication types (email and phone) as they move through the funnel.

Automated Mobile Number Lookup

Automatically checks and validates that numbers within LeadManager lead records are active mobile numbers prior to sending a text. This feature significantly reduces the number of undelivered text messages and can help prevent the sender from inadvertently sending spam.

With over 200 million smartphone users in the US alone, reaching prospects on their mobile phones has become imperative to the sales organization’s success. And though the acceptance and preference for receiving business-related texts are growing, prospects want it done at the right time and in the right way.

Velocify LeadManager SMS texting unlocks a better prospect experience by integrating and synchronizing text with other communication channels while giving organizations a better way to ensure compliance and standards are followed.

Currently, Ellie Mae’s technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, lower origination costs and reduce the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality, and efficiency.

Conga to Acquire Octiv to Accelerate Intelligent Document Automation Capabilities

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 8, 2018

0

Conga to Acquire Octiv to Accelerate Intelligent Document Automation Capabilities

The Acquisition Will Complement Conga’s Product Portfolio with Expertise in Web-Based Document Creation, Delivery, and Collaboration

Just days ahead of the annual Conga Connect event, Conga, the global leader in Intelligent Document Automation, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Octiv, an industry-leading provider of web-based document solutions. As a Salesforce Platinum ISV Partner, Conga is committed to providing its customers with enterprise-grade infrastructure, security, and solutions.

Recommended Read: Interview with David Kerr, CEO, Octiv

Octiv’s users and partners can attend Conga’s annual user conference, Conga Connect, April 3-4 in Chicago, to meet the team and learn more about the combined capabilities of Conga and Octiv’s suite of solutions.

The acquisition of Octiv will enhance the breadth and depth of the Conga Suite, widely considered the industry’s most comprehensive Intelligent Document Automation Suite. Octiv will extend the Conga Suite by providing the ability to create, collaborate and manage web-based documents while measuring engagement throughout the lifecycle of a document. This enhanced offering will drive even greater results and value to Conga customers globally.

Matthew J. Schiltz, Conga CEO — *Matthew Schiltz, CEO-Conga*

At the time of this announcement, Conga CEO Matthew Schiltz, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Octiv’s employees and customers into the Conga family. We will bring our 5 Star approach to global customer success to the more than 300 organizations using the Octiv platform.”

Matthew added, “Octiv’s solution strategically complements the Conga Suite. It will power Conga customers who generate web-based documents to even greater success while expanding our document and contract management user base.”

“Joining forces with Conga offers an exciting opportunity for our customers and employees,” said Octiv CEO David Kerr.

David added, “Conga’s reputation for customer success, innovation, global support and complementary expertise in the document and contract management space gives us the ability to exceed our customers’ expectations and accelerate the development of the platform.”

Conga has continued its record-setting growth and commitment to providing end-to-end document and contract solutions. With the acquisition of Octiv and the recent addition of Conga Sign to its data management, document generation, and contract lifecycle management solutions, Conga offers flexible, single-vendor provider, true end-to-end intelligent document automation.

Currently, Octiv enables companies to use the information they have in CRM, CPQ, ERP, and other back-office systems to create, collaborate on and deliver documents online.

OneTrust Simplifies GDPR Compliance for Marketers with Launch of Universal Consent and Preference Management Platform

By

PRNewswire

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March 7, 2018

0

New Research Shows Persistent Technical Privacy Skills Gaps Are Impacting Privacy Programs

Enterprise-Grade Platform Integrates with Existing Marketing Technologies to Implement Compliance with Global Privacy Regulations

OneTrust, a global leader in enterprise privacy management software that supports compliance with data privacy regulations – including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive – recently announced the availability of a Universal Consent and Preference Management solution.

Under the GDPR, consent is one of six legal grounds that marketers can rely on to process personal data. Given the stringent criteria required for valid consent under GDPR, collecting proper consent in practice will be challenging. However, driven by the proposed text of a new ePrivacy Regulation, which would make consent the sole legal basis for processing in most marketing scenarios, paired with public statements made by various European regulators encouraging consent, many organizations are moving towards implementing a consent-based GDPR compliance strategy for marketing activities.

Also Read: GDPR Will Drive A Coach And Horses Through The Online Advertising Ecosystem

Consent has very specific requirements in GDPR that organizations must be mindful of if they are selecting it as the legal basis for processing. For consent to be valid, it must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and given with a clear affirmative action. As organizations collect personal data on web forms, mobile apps, paper forms, phone calls, emails, and more, the task of managing the validity of all consent interactions becomes increasingly complex. Additionally, in GDPR, the burden falls on the controller organization to prove the consent is valid, which requires consent records to be maintained to show who consented, when they consented, how they consented, and what they were told at the time. Maintaining an accurate audit trail of valid consent is becoming increasingly important and difficult, specifically within marketing departments.

OneTrust’s Universal Consent and Preference Management tool simplifies these challenges and helps organizations collect valid consent. OneTrust serves as the central consent database, adaptable to different consent models, jurisdictions, frameworks, and sectors.

Also Read: How to Beat Procrastination with a GDPR Marketing Compliance Plan?

OneTrust integrates into an organization’s existing marketing and IT technologies to manage the entire consent lifecycle, from collection to withdrawal.

Integrate OneTrust into existing consent collection points, including web forms, mobile apps, emails, support calls, and paper forms, to collect and generate a record of valid consent
Enable data subjects with greater visibility and control over marketing communication settings with a tailorable preference center
Centralise consent records to demonstrate compliance, and enable high-level executive dashboards, or granular reporting for internal or regulatory audits
Use the OneTrust REST API, SDK, and data feeds to sync consent and preference settings with your existing marketing technologies, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing Automation Platforms (MAP), Content Management Systems (CMS), Data Warehouses, and Identity Management applications

Also Read: SAP Unveils GDPR-Centric Solutions to Help Companies Protect Customer Data

The Universal Consent and Preference Management solution is a critical component of the OneTrust Marketing and Web Compliance product suite, which also includes solutions for Cookie Compliance and Website Scanning, Data Subject Rights, and Policy and Notice Management. The solutions are fully integrated into the OneTrust Privacy Management Software platform, one of the world’s most prevalent technologies to support and implement a comprehensive privacy programme.

OneTrust Simplifies GDPR Compliance for Marketers with Launch of Universal Consent and Preference Management Platform — Kabir Barday

OneTrust CEO and Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP), Kabir Barday informed, “Establishing and documenting the validity of consent is among the most widely discussed topics for marketers ahead of the impending overhaul of EU privacy laws. OneTrust’s ability to deliver innovative solutions that address specific needs for marketers demonstrates our commitment to simplifying compliance throughout the entirety of an organization. As more guidance becomes available, OneTrust will continue developing features and solutions to operationalize privacy processes.”

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search Unveiled for Simplified Search Advertising

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 7, 2018

2

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search Unveiled for Simplified Search Advertising

Updated UI and AI Features Powered by Adobe Sensei To Boost ROI for Advertisers

Adobe has introduced new Adobe Advertising Cloud Search with easy-to-use workflows, unique data access and AI to address the challenges in Search Advertising. Part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, the offering is designed to save time and increase ROI for advertisers.

Search advertisers face increased complexity in planning and optimizing campaigns. Billions of data points and decisions inform a typical search campaign, from thousands of keywords across multiple properties to targeting parameters like the audience, device, geography, time of day and more. It’s impossible for humans to sift through all that data and make optimal decisions on budget allocation and bid optimization to get the best possible results.

Adobe Advertising Cloud solves all these with the new search advertising capabilities!

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search Simplifies Audience Targeting in Search Marketing

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search is simplifying the process for using audience targeting in search marketing. The advancements are the first in the industry to couple audiences from a leading marketing technology stack, Adobe Experience Cloud, with AI and machine learning to drive higher returns for advertisers.

At the time of this announcement, Justin Merickel, Vice President of Adobe Advertising Cloud, said, “The next generation of search advertising will be powered by better data, sophisticated data science, and greater transparency.”

Justin added, “Adobe Advertising Cloud Search is delivering on that promise and amplifying what humans can do through greater automation.”

Adobe Sensei, the company’s AI and machine learning framework, is at the center of new optimization capabilities. With granular engagement metrics from Adobe Analytics, as well as audiences from Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Campaign readily available, Adobe Advertising Cloud Search leverages Adobe Sensei to inform bid optimization, simulations and forecasting decisions.

New AI-based Features Adorn the Adobe Advertising Cloud Search

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search also features a new user interface (UI), built from the ground up to ensure ease-of-use and make workflows more efficient and effective. Updates include an array of new bulk-edit features, including the ability to copy-and-paste directly from the UI into Microsoft Excel – and vice versa – with changes reflected immediately.

Advertisers can also quickly search, navigate and organize complex campaigns for faster management. Finally, customized reporting filters and columns help to simplify complex data to speed decision-making.

In optimizing campaigns, Adobe Sensei scans for discrepancies between modeled and actual performance, automatically adjusting keyword bids multiple times per day to maximize returns. Adobe Advertising Cloud Search delivers this optimization with the highest level of transparency of any search platform.

Advertisers have complete visibility into forecast models and their accuracy, with reports available at any time for advertisers to drill into click, cost, and revenue models.

“We’re impressed with the level of performance we’ve achieved with Adobe Advertising Cloud Search,” said Adam Allamar, senior director of Digital Marketing – Digital Acquisition at Barclays.

Adam added, “The benefits of AI and machine learning technology for bid optimization, forecasting, and media budget allocation are readily apparent.”

Currently, Adobe Advertising Cloud is the industry’s first end-to-end, independent platform for managing to advertise across traditional TV and digital formats. By focusing on brand safety, improving transparency and leveraging the full power of Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud, our platform enables advertisers to gain greater control of their global advertising spend and achieve their business objectives. The platform already manages roughly $3 billion in annualized ad spend on behalf of more than 1,000 global clients, including Allstate, Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, L’Oréal, MGM, Nickelodeon and Southwest Airlines.

Currently, Adobe Sensei is a framework and set of intelligent services built into the Adobe Cloud Platform which dramatically improve the design and delivery of digital experiences. Adobe Sensei leverages the company’s massive volume of content and data assets, as well as its deep domain expertise in the creative, marketing and document segments, within a unified artificial intelligence/machine learning framework.

CX Leader TTEC Wins Nine Stevie Awards for Customer Experience Excellence

By

PRNewswire

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March 7, 2018

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CX Leader TTEC Wins Nine Stevie Awards for Customer Experience Excellence

Receives Gold for Contact Center or Customer Service Outsourcing Provider of the Year in the Sales and Customer Service Category

TTEC, a global customer experience company that designs, builds and operates captivating omnichannel customer experiences on behalf of the world’s most prestigious and innovative brands was recently recognized for customer service excellence, earning a total of nine Stevie Awards during the 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service program.

The company received awards spanning a breadth of customer experience categories, including:

Gold Stevie

Contact Center or Customer Service Outsourcing Provider of the Year
Customer Service or Call Center Consulting Practice of the Year

Silver Stevie

Customer Service or Call Center Training Practice of the Year
Award for Innovation in Customer Service

Also Read: Adestra Wins Silver in 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

“We are honored by the recognition of the Stevie Awards for the results that we achieve in partnership with our clients. It speaks to the value of the business outcomes we deliver together. We are proud to serve as a strategic partner in customer experience operations, helping clients increase revenue, reduce costs and build customer lifetime value and affinity by combining the compassion and creativity of human talent with the convenience and efficiency of technology,” said Marty DeGhetto, Chief Operations Officer, TTEC.

Robert Jimenez, Executive Vice President, TTEC Digital, added, “In this hyper-connected world, companies need the ability to design a customer experience strategy and bring it to life through ‘best in class’ training and development programs. Enterprises are drowning in the amount of data and content that their employees are having to connect. Our training and development platform is focused on orchestrating knowledge management, content management and CRM systems into centralized, usable repositories. This Gold Stevie award recognizes the importance of combining strategy, technology and operations to empower the brand ambassadors who deliver captivating customer engagement each day.”

Also Read: ZoomInfo Named Finalist in 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Additionally, the company was recognized with Bronze Stevies for:

Sales Outsourcing Provider of the Year
Sales Training Practice of the Year
Incentive, Rewards, or Recognition Provider of the Year
Sales or Customer Service Solutions Technology Partner of the Year
Best Use of Technology in Sales

Also Read: EventMobi Wins Back-To-Back Silver Stevie Award in 2018 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

As noted by the judges during the review process, TTEC has an “Impressive track record for customer service excellence and an amazing list of awards with training programs that are critical for great customer experience. Great company, great solutions.”

This is the seventh year that TTEC has been recognized by the Stevie awards program.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes seven of the world’s leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business Awards.

TechBytes with Josh Baumrind, SVP of Partners and Corporate Development, Evergage

By

Sudipto Ghosh

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March 7, 2018

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Josh Baumrind
SVP of Partners and Corporate Development, Evergage

The ‘Power of 1‘ in omnichannel marketing. Sounds very promising to marketers, but could be the hardest to achieve, especially when there is an ever-growing number of marketing channels to focus on in 2018. Is it merely delivering a more effective, dynamic customer experience; or does it go beyond the contemporary standards of “in-the-moment” engagements with the customers! To better understand the “Power of 1” concept by Evergage, we spoke to Josh Baumrind, SVP of Partners and Corporate Development, who dove deeper into how the company helps to drive content experience technology for in-store marketing platforms.

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Tell us about your role at Evergage?

As Evergage’s SVP of partnerships and corporate development, I lead the company’s strategic alliances with firms across the value chain including agencies, consultancies, system integrators and technology providers.

How do marketers monetize integrated online and store personalization technologies? Tell us about Evergage’s omnichannel CX capabilities?

You’ve hit on the key problem. Often marketers for retail brands are using different technology vendors, integrators and consulting services for their digital operations versus their stores. This leads to a proliferation of tools and silos of customer data that prevent a retailer from having a complete view of a customer’s engagement online and in stores so they cannot fully personalize and monetize it.

Through our recent alliance with Sophelle and One Step Retail Solutions, customer purchase activity and insights from retail store operations will be synchronized with that customer’s behavior across digital channels. Initially, we are focused on point-of-sale equipment but will move quickly to clientele apps, kiosks, and even in-store beacons. The key is that all the online and in-store data is synchronized in a single customer data platform with unique profiles that drive omnichannel personalization at the 1:1 level in real time. Evergage already does this across websites, web and mobile apps, onsite search and email – but through the alliance, we bridge the gap to bring in-store data.

As an example, say you’ve been shopping on a clothing store’s website for a new winter jacket, but you also looked at a pair of gloves and some hats. You then go to that retailer’s store and purchase the winter jacket. Through our work with our partners, when the retailer emails your receipt it can include offers for the gloves and hat you viewed or recommendations on other complementary winter gear you might need based on your preferences and interests. Most importantly, you wouldn’t get recommended to purchase the jacket you already bought!

How does your alliance with Sophelle and One Stop Retail plug the ‘omnichannel gaps’ in modern marketing campaigns?

The ‘omnichannel gap’ represents a disjointed experience for customers when they engage with a single brand across its various channels. This is a challenge for any company that has multiple customer touchpoints between their website, email or apps, but it is especially pronounced in retail where a consumer often has an entirely different experience between a retailer’s digital channels and their stores. Forrester Research has pointed out the increasing importance of closing this gap, as they found 72% of retailers say personalization is their top priority for improving the customer experience in stores.

This alliance is specifically designed to close the omnichannel gap by combining Evergage’s personalization platform with in-store and online data from One Step Retail Solutions and Sophelle’s agency services – to create compelling customer experiences and integrate the digital and in-store customer journey.

What are the core principles driving the content experience technology for in-store marketing platforms?

By far the biggest challenge is the data integration – that is, the ability to synchronize customer data from in-store sources, combine and process it in milliseconds with data from digital channels, and make real-time personalization decisions based on it. While difficult, this is the strategic goal for retailers – to have a single customer data platform that unifies preferences, insights, and intent for each customer at the individual level across both stores and digital channels.

How do you see contemporary CX management platforms fitting into a modern CMO’s tech stack?

As customer experience and personalization become a strategic imperative for businesses regardless of size or industry, we are seeing these technologies evolve. Whereas organizations previously purchased and integrated “point solutions” with separate customer data sets used by individuals across different channels – such as the website or email, for example – they now need platforms with more comprehensive functionality. Now, CMOs recognize the immense value of having a unified customer data platform that can power personalization consistently across all their customer touchpoints. This has always been our vision and the platform approach that Evergage delivers.

What role does your recent acquisition of MyBuys play in your retail strategy?

Retail has always been one of our key areas of strength and focus, from a vertical industry perspective, the acquisition of MyBuys accelerates our position. The acquisition gives leading e-commerce companies that use MyBuys — a first-generation product recommendations technology — access to more robust personalization and recommendations capabilities by transitioning them to Evergage’s next-gen personalization platform. Hundreds of leading e-commerce companies use MyBuys technology to deliver product recommendations on their websites and via email to millions of shoppers, utilizing online and offline data, which also speaks to bridging the omnichannel gap we’ve been discussing.

Equally important, we’re excited to welcome employees with retail knowledge, skills, and experience, including Jason Shriver, the former head of client success at MyBuys, and Rick Berman, MyBuys’ CTO.

Looking ahead, what mistakes should marketers avoid in 2018?

Gartner predicts that by 2020, smart personalization engines used to recognize customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase their profits by up to 15%, which underscores why personalization is critical for just about every company. That said, the mistake we see repeated is that personalization is not done strategically and holistically and instead is being handled by individuals or teams at the channel level. This is a mistake as it leads to a proliferation of point personalization tools, and, more importantly, it puts customer data into silos and then when each silo is unaware of the broader channel data, they have no ability to deliver omnichannel insights. That is why marketers are increasingly looking to invest in a customer data platform — with unified customer profiles — to deliver 1:1 experiences across all channels, including stores.

Thanks for chatting with us, Josh.
Stay tuned for more insights on marketing technologies. To participate in our Tech Bytes program, email us at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com

Also Read: Interview with Andy Zimmerman, CMO – Evergage

New Adobe Target Mobile Capabilities Enable Always-On Personalization

By

Natalie Lacuesta Byrum

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March 7, 2018

0

Your company stands apart from the crowd or gets lost in it depending on the types of experiences you offer your customers—no matter where and when they connect with your brand. In a blog post, my colleague described some of the more advanced technologies, such as server-side optimization and Node.js, that brands are using in their testing and personalization programs to drive those critical customer experiences.

Also Read: Mobile CDN: What Is It and Why Is It Essential for MobileApps?

Now, let’s take a look at our newest features in Adobe Target that allow your brand to personalize beyond the web.

New Visual Experience Composer for Mobile Apps

Mobile apps play a critical role in the customer experience. For many brands, they’re as important to the experience as the product itself. By downloading your app, customers essentially express their intent to have a relationship with you—to engage with you no matter where they are or what they’re doing. As a result, they also expect you to treat them as though they’re special from the moment they download the app, with mobile experiences customized for them.

Any digital marketer can tell you that personalizing mobile app experiences based on how a customer engages with the app is no easy feat to accomplish at scale.

What makes personalizing mobile app experiences so challenging? Zeroing in on what works by running personalization experiments is time-consuming.

First, you have to have a developer code any change you want to make. Next, you have to submit the change to the app store, and then you run your test. Need to iterate on that experiment?

Start the cycle again. This can take weeks to accomplish and the lengthy development effort can overshadow the benefits of testing.

Adobe Target’s new visual experience composer for mobile apps makes running personalization experiments on your mobile apps a lot easier. With it (and without asking your developers for help), you can easily swap text and images in your native mobile app and quickly run A/B/n tests on those changes.

Essentially, the visual experience composer for mobile apps removes friction and lets you take charge of optimizing your mobile app experiences. Ultimately, this allows you to drive more value to your customers—and your business—faster. Adobe Target’s new visual experience composer for mobile apps will be available in beta this spring.

Also Read: How AI Will Make Marketing More Personalized In 2018

New Batch Experience Prefetch

According to Adobe’s 2017 Mobile Maturity Study, mobile apps now account for almost 60 percent of our total digital time. That’s huge, but not surprising given that mobile devices offer you the convenience to connect with a brand anytime, anywhere. Except wait a minute, maybe that anytime, anywhere bit is not entirely true. Let me explain.

Most weekdays, I commute by train into work to avoid the crazy San Francisco traffic. To pass the time, I read the LinkedIn news, maybe catch up on Top Chef, check out new travel deals, and read my emails—all from my favorite apps on my mobile phone.

When my train goes through one of the many tunnels or walled sections on the route, my network connection cuts out, interrupting my experience. It’s frustrating. What if I was interacting with your brand when that connection dropped?

You’ve just lost the opportunity to deliver me a personalized experience. There’s a good chance I won’t come back to whatever it was I was doing. You need an always-on personalization solution capable of personalizing the experience whether your visitors are online or off.

Adobe Target’s batch experience prefetch for mobile apps solves this interrupted connectivity issue while improving speed and performance. Using the latest Adobe Mobile SDK, you simply set up your app so that each app launch makes a single call to Adobe Target that requests all experience variations from live optimization activities and a snapshot of the visitor profile. Target then caches those variations and the profile snapshot either on the EDGE network, locally, or both.

Anytime a visitor interacts with your app, Target quickly determines and delivers the relevant experiences at the activity locations throughout your app. That means that no matter where your visitors are—and with no effort on their part—they can always enjoy a personalized experience from your brand.

Optimize Your Node.js Websites and Applications Server-Side with the Node.js SDK

More companies are building Node.js websites and mobile apps. That’s because whether they’re developing client- or server-side, they need only one language—JavaScript—to port the website or application code between the two. On top of that, Node.js is an open source environment, so developers can reuse the numerous libraries contributed by other developers to speed up their development cycle.

Our new Node.js SDK opens the door for you to optimize your Node.js website or application server-side. In addition, the unified Visitor ID service is built in, so you can leverage our native integration with Adobe Analytics for a single source of data truth in your server-side deployment.

Visually QA Mobile App Experiences

Let’s say you’re a global brand that wants to test and personalize the experiences for your mobile app visitors based on their regional preferences. The new mobile experience preview lets you easily perform end-to-end quality assurance (QA) on your mobile app activities without having to activate them. You can view the regional variations right on your device.

Using mobile experience preview is super easy. You just generate a preview link and send it to your mobile device. When you’re ready, click or paste that link into the browser to see the experiences. Share it with key stakeholders for review and approval. They’ll be able to preview those experiences—individually or in combinations that they choose—in the applicable apps before you launch the activity live.

Also Read: Adobe Unveils Next-Gen Content Intelligence to Transform Customer Experiences

Adobe Target Never Stops Innovating

In the personalization era, experience matters. Our product team understands that. That’s why we keep adding innovative features to Adobe Target that let you deliver the personalized experiences that keep your customers coming back and help your business reach new levels of success. For example, our one-click personalization capability in Adobe Target powered by Adobe Sensei lets you tap into artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver each visitor the experience that wins for them. That feature, Auto-Target, recently won the DMA innovative award for personalization. It’s that type of industry recognition that gives me confidence that we’re headed down the right path.

Also Read: TechBytes with Chris Wareham, Senior Director, Product Management, Adobe Analytics

The Basics

Add Processes

Add Business Management

Add Training and Education

Add Demand Generation?

Search Performance Improvements

More Accurate Sales Triggers

Improved Capacity

Data-Driven Identification and Measurement

Finding #1: Marketers Set to use AI to Develop their Content Marketing Strategies

Finding #2: AI is Enabling Marketers to Understand the Customer, Drive Productivity and Create Better Performing Content

Finding #3: Obstacles to AI Adoption and a Wake-Up Call for MarTech

Finding #4: 58 percent of organizations do not have a data scientist in their organization

Finding #5: AI has Become “Mission Critical” to Marketers

Improving The Multi-Channel Experience

Automated SMS Texting

SMS Texting Messenger Window

Automated Mobile Number Lookup

Adobe Advertising Cloud Search Simplifies Audience Targeting in Search Marketing

New AI-based Features Adorn the Adobe Advertising Cloud Search

The company received awards spanning a breadth of customer experience categories, including:

Additionally, the company was recognized with Bronze Stevies for:

New Visual Experience Composer for Mobile Apps

New Batch Experience Prefetch

Optimize Your Node.js Websites and Applications Server-Side with the Node.js SDK

Visually QA Mobile App Experiences

Adobe Target Never Stops Innovating

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