BEN Announces Expansion of AI and Influencer Teams and Improved Capabilities

Q1 Marked by Record Number of New Bookings, Continued Expansion of AI Technology

BEN, the entertainment AI company that integrates brands into influencer, streaming, TV, music, and film content, announced new hires across its Influencer and AI teams, continued expansion of its sales and strategy teams, new capabilities for its proprietary AI technology, and a record number of client bookings and integrations across influencer platforms.

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The current global climate has caused major events and productions within the entertainment industry to be placed on pause. Yet people are consuming more content than ever at home through streaming, TV, and social media. As a result, Hollywood productions are extending to new digital mediums and investing in influencer-style content, while brands are allocating funds originally meant for events and customer experience towards digital outreach. This shift has sparked online growth across verticals — fitness studios are live-streaming workouts via social media, late night broadcast hosts are creating vlog-style content to bring normalcy back to audiences, celebrities are engaging more on IGTV and YouTube, and musicians are hosting major concerts on Twitch and other live streaming platforms. There is immense opportunity in the entertainment ecosystem right now, and BEN is committed to helping brands empower creators and ultimately deliver incredible content.

“We aim to be a source of stability for our clients during this turbulent time,“ said Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of BEN. “With more eyes at home searching for fresh content, we’re supporting brands by identifying ways to make genuine connections with engaged audiences. We’re fortunate to be in a place to continue growing our team and client base.”

Even in a time of uncertainty, BEN is moving forward and investing in its team and technology, further solidifying the company as a market leader. By the end of April, BEN plans to hire 17 new sales and strategy executives across its Los Angeles, New York, London, and Shanghai offices to support ongoing client and campaign expansion.

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BEN has already jump-started this growth with the addition of new leaders in the past several weeks. On the Influencer team, BEN is thrilled to have Khudor Annous join as the company’s newest Senior Vice President of Influencer Client Development, and to welcome Megan Savitt as Vice President of Influencer Client Services. Annous brings over 15 years of sales and marketing experience building brands, organizing major events, developing content, and working directly with influencers. At BEN, he will lead the direction of client expansion and development. Savitt, a leading representative and visionary in the digital talent industry, brings a decade of leadership experience and a developed roster of influencer talent across social platforms. She will work directly with BEN’s clients in the female lifestyle category as a creative bridge between the management and conceptualization of campaign strategy.

BEN’s AI team is also continuing to grow. The company recently hired Nicolas Bertagnolli as Principal Data Scientist. Bertagnolli has focused on applying machine learning capabilities to advance various industries, from healthcare to consumer electronics. At BEN, he will help expand the company’s technology to further process unstructured data using deep learning neural networks.

In order to accommodate the growing demand of brands turning to campaigns on Instagram specifically, BEN further refined its predictive ‘Story View’ tool. Now, BEN can predict how many views an influencer’s story will receive with 45 percent more accuracy than previous models, further ensuring an ROI-focused approach to campaigns. In addition, the company also developed a beta model to take influencer profiles and identify similar pages based on core aesthetic (i.e. types of pictures, filters, lay-out) using deep learning technology. By sourcing unstructured data, or the creative itself, BEN is able to understand all the intricate facets of a piece of content and use that insight to make data-driven recommendations for clients.

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