COMPANY NEWS
Front-Office Wiz Kids Announced
What is it? Beagle Research Group names its 2013 WizKids—emerging stars in the front-office and CRM space. The winners: Apttus, Badgeville, HubSpot, NextPrinciples, Skyword and Totango.
WIIFM? A short list of sources for new ideas in areas including social media, data analytics, inbound marketing, gamification, and CPQ (configure, price, quote) .
Who’s talking? “With all the attention given to social media in the front office, it has been gratifying to see so many companies innovating in other equally important areas,” says Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of Beagle.
Blue Kai Plays Money Ball
What is it? BlueKai announces a new partnership with MLB Advanced Media to serve as the data management platform for MLB.com and the 30 official Club sites.
WIIFM? Direct response advertisers gain access to new baseball audience targeting via centralized first and third party data.
Who’s talking? “We are excited to be teaming up with MLBAM to bring data activation as a competitive advantage to its ad business,” says BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol.
Yangaroo Hops to PMT
What is it? Pacific Media Technologies(PMT), a TV post-production and digital services company serving the direct response and political advertising industries, signs Yangaroo as its new distributor of ads to broadcast and cable outlets.
WIIFM? Marketers can deliver high-quality video and audio files and receive date-stamped confirmations that traffic instructions have been received.
Who’s talking? “By adopting YANGAROO’s technology, we can now improve the effectiveness of direct marketing campaigns through the enhanced tune-in of HD advertising,” says PMT President Bill Hynes.
PRODUCTS
Websites? Get Smart.
What is it? Digital-telepathy claims to have invented a new category of website. Its new Impress service builds “Smart Sites,” page-less, story-based, responsive sites with built-in heat maps, goal tracking, and A/B testing functions.
WIIFM? A doubling of your conversion rates, if you believe company-stated results of a beta test.
Who’s talking? “We believe everyone should have access to great design. That’s why Impress starts at under $5,000 and is delivered in two weeks flat,” says founder Chuck Longanecker.
Collaboration…
What is it? Anametrix introduces Anametrix Collaboration, a native collaboration feature that allows multiple users and teams to interact, share feedback ,and offer insights on reports and dashboards.
WIIFM? Team members can vote on comment relevancy for collaborative insight, keeping all interactions and findings within the analytics platform environment before broader distribution.
Who’s talking? “The problem with most data collection and KPIs isn’t the numbers, it’s that marketers tend to hide and protect them like nuclear launch codes. If you want your company to improve, metrics need to be socialized and spread like a numerical dandelion,” says Jay Baer, social media author and president of Convince & Convert. “Anametrics Collabortion makes this process simple.”
…and More Collaboration
What is it? Aquent On Demand enhances Robohead, a web-based project management and collaboration tool, to include uploading and annotating multiple Web pages within a URL or ZIP file, plus video file annotation.
WIIFM? Relief from proliferating demands posed by expansive digital marketing campaigns.
Who’s talking? “Our goal is to always have RoboHead support the type of work that our customers perform,” says Patrick Campbell, president of Aquent On Demand.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Who is it: Michael Mclaren, promoted to worldwide president of MRM, a digital unit of McCann Worldgroup
What’s his role: He oversees financial, product delivery, talent development, and growth goals.
Where was he prior: A 10-year veteran of McCann, he was most recently president of MRM East. He retains the role of global client solutions director for key clients.
Who is it: Mitchell Kreuch, named SVP of sales at PointRoll, a digital ad technology unit of Gannett.
What’s his role: Kreuch will oversee the entire sales effort.
Where was he prior: He was most recently VP of Disney Online Entertainment. Before that, he served as SVP of sales for About.com
Why was he appointed: “Mitchell’s understanding of the market combined with a proven track record of building industry leading digital sales teams makes him a great addition,” says CEO Mario Diez.
