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In US, Oracle Buys Vitrue

Adds Leading Social Marketing and Engagement Platform to the Oracle Cloud

Redwood Shores, CA – May 23, 2012 - Oracle announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Vitrue, a leading cloud-based social marketing and engagement platform that enables marketers to centrally create, publish, moderate, manage, measure and report on their social marketing campaigns and activities on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.

“The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform,” said Thomas Kurian [pictured, left], executive vice president, Oracle Development. “Vitrue’s leading social marketing and engagement platform coupled with Oracle’s leading sales, service, and commerce products offers a complete social experience solution to our customers.”

“The world’s greatest brands have been built by creating meaningful relationships between organizations and their customers," said Reggie Bradford [pictured, right], founder and chief executive officer, Vitrue. “As a part of Oracle, we can help our customers ensure that consistent high-touch social engagement is delivered across marketing, sales and service interactions.” More...

Mark Walsh at Media Post adds: Indeed, the deal signals continuing consolidation in the social-media marketing space as bigger players like Oracle scoop up specialty firms to offer Fortune 500 clients instant expertise in social media strategy and operations. Vitrue competitor Context Optional was acquired late last year by Adobe, while social media monitoring firm Radian6 was snapped up last March by Salesforce.com for $326 million.  More...

In UK, Experian Acquires Conversen, a Revolutionary Technology Platform that Powers More Robust Campaign Management

Acquisition accelerates Experian Marketing Services’ momentum in offering UK clients best-in-class cross-channel marketing products and services

London 21 May 2012 — Experian, a leading provider of data, analytics and marketing technologies, today announced it has acquired Conversen. Conversen is a pioneer in developing interaction management technologies that enable marketers to create fully integrated, cross-channel conversations through mobile, Web, social, email and traditional channels.

Mark Zablan [pictured, left], Managing Director, Experian Marketing Services, UK&I, commented: “The acquisition of Conversen aligns with our commitment to invest aggressively in cross-channel marketing and complements our powerful suite of customer-centric marketing services that better connects our clients with their customers. “Conversen’s technology has a global application and we expect this acquisition to have a positive impact on our clients’ programmes in the UK. Building on our existing data assets and analytics capabilities, we can enhance our cross-channel offering and bring clients closer to their customers with even more relevant, timely and personal interactions.”

Philip Chischportich [pictured, right] of Conversen added, “Our mutual high regard for — and focus on — our clients, along with Experian Marketing Services’ global scale, deep roots in direct-to-consumer marketing and diverse industry experience, made this a win-win for both organizations and our clients. Experian Marketing Services has a proven track record of developing and acquiring innovative technologies, leveraging emerging channel preferences and maximizing return on investment for its high-performing marketing clients. This strategic business approach matches our growth plans, and we’re thrilled about becoming part of their team.”  More...

How The Era Of ‘Big-Data’ Is Changing The Practice Of Online Marketing

Nathan Safran [pictured], Director of Research at Conductor, Inc. writes at Search Engine Land: As the ways for online users to interact online grew, methods of marketing to online users grew with it. Marketers could soon choose from a broad spectrum of ways to spend their marketing dollar ranging from SEO, to PPC, to display, to social and email marketing.

Along with it came a torrent of digital data – multiple data sets from disparate sources and ushered in an era of ‘big data’ — large sets of data that, when mined, could reveal insight about online marketing efforts. More…

In US, IBM Survey Reveals Digital Behavioral Trends for Consumers

ARMONK, N.Y. - 16 Apr 2012: A new IBM study of the media and entertainment market (NYSE: IBM), reveals that as consumers adopt an increasing number of digital devices, four distinct new "digital personalities" are emerging. This shift is compelling companies to adopt more innovative business models that deliver personalized experiences. The "Beyond Digital" study released at the 2012 NAB Conference, paints a portrait of a rapidly changing audience that is adopting a wide range of digital devices at a dizzying pace.

"Media companies need to engage with consumers based on their digital personalities, if they are going to maintain a sustainable and connected relationship, said Saul Berman [pictured], Global Strategy Consulting Leader, IBM Global Business Services, and co-author of the study. "With the mass infiltration of digital devices, organizations can now enhance, extend or redefine the customer experience within minutes due to a steady stream of real-time data via social media. Future success is dependent upon successfully executing on insights based on this data, to reach the right consumer, at the right time and place, using the right tools." More...

How Big Data From Connected Machines Gets Used

Marshall Kirkpatrick [pictured, left], CEO at Plexus Engine writes at ReadWriteWeb: "Big Data" is a hot topic these days, but there hasn't been a lot of discussion about the specifics of what will most likely be one of the biggest sources of data: newly web-connected devices in the home and workplace.

I spoke this week with Bill Zujewski [pictured, right], Executive Vice President of Product Strategy & Marketing at M2M (machine to machine) platform company Axeda. Axeda is one of the most successful companies to date in the early M2M market and whenever I get a chance to speak with Zujewski, I ask him for as many real-world use cases for M2M connectivity as I can. "Typically engineers would find logs through customer tickets and it would take months to find trends based on call center traffic," Zujewski says.

"100 people called about this specific problem, for example. But now we're able to do pattern recognition across alarms and breakage data and see if there was a bad batch of a certain part or a glitch in this manufacturing plant. We're able to catch quality issues with real time data. In most cases this is advanced pattern recognition and we're providing ETL [Extract, transform, and load] tools to get the data into the cloud." More...

In US, TRUSTe Announces TRUSTed Mobile Ads

Partners with Leading Mobile Players to Accelerate Adoption of Mobile Privacy Best Practices and Enable Mobile Advertising Innovation by Addressing Regulator and Consumer Concerns

San Francisco, Calif – April 3, 2012 - Today, at ad:tech San Francisco, TRUSTe, the leading global privacy management solutions provider, introduced TRUSTed Mobile Ads, the first unified mobile advertising privacy management solution. TRUSTed Mobile Ads supports mobile browsing and application privacy preferences across all platforms and devices. The solution addresses the evolving privacy compliance standards, growing consumer privacy concerns, and complicated technology requirements unique to the mobile ecosystem.

"The need for a standardized cross-platform approach to mobile privacy is essential to maximize mobile advertising opportunities, address growing regulatory concerns and build trust for consumers," said Chris Babel [pictured], CEO of TRUSTe. "With TRUSTed Mobile Ads, TRUSTe wants to bring our success as the largest DAA-approved online behavioral advertising compliance provider to the mobile ecosystem. With the support of our partners, we are fully committed to helping the industry take a proactive stance for mobile privacy compliance and consumer confidence." More…

A Scientific Model For Multi-Touch Attribution And Ad Optimization

Robert L. Marsa [pictured], VP of Technology at Adometry, Inc. writes at Mediapost's Metrics Insider: It’s becoming widely known that attribution and optimization both play important roles in helping online advertisers improve the performance of their cross-channel digital campaigns. But today, many attribution and optimization methods still rely on simple models and human intervention, which are fraught with errors and pitfalls when it comes to accurately and effectively improving ad campaign performance over time. More…

In US, Marin Software Raises $30 Million Funding

Rapid adoption of Marin platform leads Temasek and SAP Ventures to invest in Marin; salesforce.com executive Frank van Veenendaal to join Board of Directors as a result of Marin’s success

San Francisco, CA February 13, 2012 – According to eMarketer, by 2015 advertisers will spend $132.1 billion annually for online advertising. Advertisers are increasing their investment in online advertising across multiple channels to drive greater lead generation, customer acquisition, and revenue. This activity is fueling the expanding adoption of Marin Software’s ad management and optimization platform. During the last year, Marin nearly doubled its customer base to 1,500 as well as the amount of annual spend managed on its platform to $3.5 billion. In the wake of Marin’s success, Asia investment company Temasek led a $30 million round of funding along with SAP Ventures. Joining the new investors in this oversubscribed round were existing Marin venture investors Benchmark Capital, Crosslink Capital, DAG Ventures, and Triangle Peak Partners.

“I am pleased to welcome Temasek and SAP Ventures as investors in Marin Software,” said Christopher Lien [pictured], Founder and CEO of Marin Software. “Temasek brings unrivalled experience and capabilities in Asian and emerging markets, which will benefit Marin’s international development. Support from SAP Ventures and relationships with the SAP global ecosystem will further accelerate Marin’s growth around the world.” More…

In US, CIMM, ANA, 4A’s, ARF Joint Event Calls For Collaboration to Improve Cross-Platform Measurement

Presentations and a recording available at the CIMM website

NEW YORK, NY – February 16, 2012 – The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), today announced that nearly 300 executives from leading advertising agencies, media companies, brands, and networks attended the “Cross-Platform Video Measurement Summit” yesterday in New York City.

Jane Clarke [pictured], Managing Director for CIMM, said, “The tone of the afternoon was upbeat, though I think everyone understands what’s at stake and that the current approach to measuring video across multiple platforms is ineffective and unsustainable. The industry is at a crossroads and we need to be committed – as an industry – to addressing the problem. Based on the turnout and the feedback from the Summit I’d say the industry is ready to roll-up its collective sleeves and work to take control of its own destiny.” More…

Connecting and Engaging with Digital Indian Consumers

NielsenWire: With 50+ million active social media users, Indians spend more time on social media than on any other activity on the Internet, according to Nielsen. But is this audience engaged?

At the Nielsen Consumer 360 Conference in New Delhi, India, Farshad Family [pictured], Nielsen Managing Director of Media, discussed how brands can effectively break away from the pack in order to differentiate and improve social media engagement levels. More...