Industry veteran joins SOCi to help boost online visibility for enterprises across the globe 

SOCi Inc., the leading CoMarketing Cloud Platform for multi-location enterprises, today announced Ed Calnan as the company's President and Chief Revenue Officer. As a three-time entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Seismic Software, Calnan will help drive SOCi's strategic growth initiatives and oversee its revenue-generating functions, as the six-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company honoree SOCi continues its impressive run as a premier marketing technology partner to some of the world's largest enterprise brands.

Calnan brings a wealth of experience to SOCi, having founded the $3B+ Unicorn Seismic, a leader in sales enablement and marketing orchestration technology, which he grew from $0 to over $300M in revenue with more than 1,500 employees, over 2,000 customers, and six acquisitions along the way. As President and CRO, Mr. Calnan will focus on expanding SOCi's market presence, building strategic partnerships, and driving revenue growth across the organization. His deep understanding of the digital and multi-location landscape, along with his passion for innovation, makes him an excellent fit for SOCi's mission to empower multi-location businesses to succeed in the digital era.

"We are thrilled to welcome Ed Calnan to the SOCi team as President and CRO. His leadership and experience will be instrumental in our continued growth and commitment to providing the most comprehensive and effective solutions for our clients," said Afif Khoury, Co-Founder and CEO of SOCi. "Ed shares our vision for SOCi, as we advance our technology platform to deliver a new category of CoMarketing solutions. We look forward to working closely with Ed as a strategic partner on this exciting journey together." 

No stranger to solving complex workflows and marketing problems for enterprises, Calnan was drawn to SOCi's AI-powered innovation like SOCi Genius that he believes will change the way people interact with software and allow marketers to spend more time doing what they love, versus being bogged down by the minutia of time-consuming tasks.

"The most important thing for multi-location businesses is how your customers find you, review you, and interact with you. SOCi has already done an excellent job of solving marketer pain points through AI-powered tools when it comes to managing this, and some of the most respected household names are already trusting and relying on the SOCi platform to boost customer satisfaction," said Ed Calnan, President and CRO of SOCi. "I was initially drawn to SOCi because of its people and its product, and I'm confident we can take this company to new heights and increase business performance for enterprises across the entire customer experience journey."

Calnan is looking forward to being a part of the JMI family once again, as the growth equity firm was an early investor in Seismic and is a significant investor in SOCi.

"SOCi has been incredibly successful in developing an industry-leading marketing platform for multi-location enterprises, and we recognize the critical role that visionary leadership plays in taking a software company to the next level," said Suken Vakil, General Partner at JMI Equity. "Based on Ed's impressive track record, we believe his strategic vision will be a driving force behind the company's continued success in the fast-changing martech landscape."

New model to provide enhanced accuracy and foresight for global market trends

IndexBox, a leading provider of market intelligence solutions, proudly announces the launch of its cutting-edge Predictive Model for its renowned Market Intelligence Platform. This innovative tool harnesses the power of machine learning and advanced analytics to offer more precise forecasts, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions with unparalleled confidence.

As global markets become more intricate and volatile, the demand for reliable and forward-looking intelligence has grown exponentially. Addressing this need, IndexBox's new Predictive Model not only provides insights into current market trends but also offers foresight into potential future shifts, enabling businesses to stay ahead of the curve.

Key Features of the New Predictive Model:

• Enhanced Forecasting Accuracy: Leveraging machine learning algorithms, the model refines its predictions with each data input, ensuring the most accurate market forecasts available.
• Customizable Parameters: Users can adjust various parameters to suit their specific requirements, obtaining tailor-made insights for their unique business context.
• Real-time Data Integration: By continuously incorporating real-time data, the model adapts to the dynamic nature of global markets, ensuring forecasts remain relevant and actionable.
• User-friendly Interface: Designed with the user in mind, the platform's intuitive dashboard makes it easy for professionals at all tech levels to extract valuable insights without a steep learning curve.

Aleksandr Romanenko, founder and CEO at IndexBox, commented, "In this rapidly changing market landscape, businesses need tools that don't just reflect the present but can also anticipate the future. Our new Predictive Model is a testament to our commitment to equip businesses with top-tier, forward-looking market intelligence."

This rollout reinforces IndexBox's position at the forefront of market intelligence innovation. The platform's subscribers can now access the Predictive Model as part of their existing subscription, providing an immediate boost to their market analysis capabilities.

New Amplifier helps retailers boost competitive differentiation and speed up storefront performance without sacrificing quality, launched to coincide with Peak season preparations

Amplience, the AI Content company, has today announced the launch of Accelerated Media, its new image and video optimization Amplifier feature. Built on top of its enterprise-scale digital asset management (DAM) platform, Accelerated Media delivers a fast route for retailers to increase their competitive edge and elevate the consumer experience.

As retailers put in place preparations for this year's Peak season, they are looking for solutions that can deliver superior digital experiences by significantly reducing page loading times leading to higher SEO rankings and improved conversion rates. Accelerated Media meets those needs. Building upon Amplience's Smart Images service, the new solution supports the latest media codecs, offering the most efficient file formats available to optimise page load times without sacrificing quality.

"We know from research that an eCommerce site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds, and lower file sizes directly correspond to page load," said John Williams, CTO at Amplience. "Retailers can expect a 50% reduction in file size using AVIF files through the new Accelerated Media solution vs JPEG, and a 20% reduction for AVIF vs WebP. These significant reductions are not just restricted to images: video file sizes using VP9 and H265 will also be reduced by 40%, and retailers will be able to deliver the same perceptual quality compared to previously supported formats." 

Accelerated Media features real-time processing with intentionally set guardrails which balance file size and speed. This allows high performing image types to be selected without compromising on perceptual quality or page load times.

"At the most pressurised time of the year during Peak, every millisecond counts to outperform competitors," said Williams. "Accelerated Media is positioned to improve SEO by responding to search engines that prioritize user experience and favour faster-loading sites. Higher rankings increase visibility and organic traffic, and sites that load quickly receive lower bounce rates and more transactions."

Amplience has designed Accelerated Media to offer fast gains with minimal changes. Customers can purchase the Amplifier directly from Amplience and, if they are already using Smart Images, take advantage of the new codecs immediately. Amplience customers not using Smart Images will need a small front-end development change for the solution to take effect. 

Results: 33% Improved CPCs for Advertisers and 26% Improved CPMs for Publishers

1st Party Data Outperforms Both Cookie and Non-Cookie Buys

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, today released the industry's first-ever large-scale test results showing that its recently launched first-party data targeting solution is effective across the web, including in cookie-constrained environments. Results show the offering massively improved outcomes for both advertisers and publishers when a third-party cookie was not available.

The solution, called TripleLift Audiences, is particularly effective in addressing nearly half of the internet that already functions without cookies, and creates a way forward as the industry prepares for further addressability outages in 2024. Currently, 47% of global ad requests are occurring in cookie-free environments. Once Google deprecates third-party cookie usage across its Chrome browser ecosystem, which is set to start in January 2024, estimates suggest that about 90% of the open web will be unaddressable in this manner.

"We have been discussing the coming cookie-pocalypse as an industry, but often forget that almost half the internet is already unaddressable. This is a boiling the frog moment happening right before our eyes," said Ed Dinichert, Chief Revenue Officer at TripleLift. "While many ideas have been proposed, there has never been concrete results showing that any one of them can address deprecation at scale – until now. This solution is effective for advertisers today."

ADVERTISER RESULTS

The results, delivered in partnership with a major global consumer electronics advertiser, showed improved performance for impressions enriched with publisher first-party data. The advertiser achieved 33% lower cost-per-click when compared to impressions without 1st party data, but with a mix of third-party cookies and no cross domain identifiers. The test was conducted at scale, with 230 million impressions delivered and analyzed.

"First-party publisher data is underutilized in the programmatic ecosystem," said Airey Baringer, VP Product Management at TripleLift. "TripleLift Audiences enables easy activation of first-party data to improve targeting on every impression, with or without third-party cookies. The data is superior and outcomes are improved for both publishers and advertisers."

HOW PUBLISHER FIRST-PARTY DATA WORKS

Since launching in June of this year, several brands and agencies have been running paid campaigns using TripleLift Audiences first-party data segments. Instead of dropping a cookie on users and following them around the web, this solution builds curated segments using the publisher's data as a way of identifying and reaching audiences on their own websites. With more than 10,000 sites already opted-in, this approach to quality targeting addresses 30 billion daily ad impressions across 800 contextual and behavioral audience segments – all without the use of third-party cookies.

PUBLISHER RESULTS

Publishers also saw improvement in the test, with CPMs increasing by 26%. Since TripleLift Audiences allows publishers to monetize content that has become untargetable through third-party cookie deprecation, they are now able to re-offer those impressions through first-party data targeting.

"TripleLift Audiences has enabled us to drive greater monetization of our inventory, putting more money into the pockets of the 5,000+ creators and publishers we work with – and first-party data is unlocking that opportunity," said Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive. "This presents a big advantage for us and other publishers in the ecosystem, and we're excited to be at the forefront of testing these new cookie alternatives."

TripleLift has been able to make this offering possible for two reasons. First: it leveraged its 2022 acquisition of Zurich-based DMP 1plusX, to create the framework of sophisticated technology, data protection, and privacy standards necessary to form an actionable approach to first-party data segmentation. Second: it turned to its trusted relationships with publishers, built over a decade, offering integrated native ad products.

"This is a win-win for the programmatic ecosystem," Baringer of TripleLift. "Publishers win because they monetize more of their inventory, leading to higher effective CPMs. Advertisers win because they can target more efficiently without third-party cookies, leading to lower CPCs and improved efficiency against all post-click metrics."

TripleLift Audiences is now available for both advertisers and publishers in the United States and will be rolling out to European markets in 2024.

Bringing Ideas to Life: From Concept to Completion with a Single Platform

Lucihub, the award-winning AI-powered video production platform and mobile app is set to redefine the video production paradigm. Today, the company announced the launch of Lucihub Butterfly, the AI-powered assistant creative director designed to streamline the video creation process from concept to completion.

This innovative product leverages the capabilities of multiple AI platform services, enabling users to swiftly convert their ideas into gripping scripts, precise shot lists, and vivid visual storyboards.

Our goal is to make the video creation process as simple and efficient as possible, and I believe with the addition of Lucihub Butterfly, we've achieved this. With Lucihub Butterfly, users have the power and expertise of an entire production team right at their fingertips. It's not just about creating videos; it's about crafting stories that resonate," said Amer Tadayon, CEO of Lucihub.

Lucihub Butterfly is the latest addition to the Lucihub platform and seamlessly integrates with its video production cloud. When it's time to bring your vision to life, use your smartphone to film your scenes, and then upload and receive a professionally edited video within hours.

• commercetools Connect makes it easier to instantly add new components, allowing businesses to accelerate new features to market and enhance both the customer and merchant experience.

• Now available to customers everywhere, this is the latest innovation in commercetools' product suite following commercetools Checkout and its expansion of commercetools Composable Commerce in mainland China.

commercetools, the global leader in composable commerce, today unveiled commercetools Connect to make it easier than ever for businesses to integrate new components into the commercetools Composable Commerce platform. The new addition to commercetools' product suite enables businesses to launch new integrations of 'best of breed' components in a matter of minutes.

"Connect is a remarkable asset for commercetools merchants and their customers," said Mike Parker, Senior Director of Solution Architecture at Klaviyo. "The new offering removes devops headaches related to infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and maintenance, and makes it possible to go live with an integration in minutes. What's more, it does all that while preserving a merchant's ability to make code-level customizations if needed."

Beyond speed to market, Connect entirely takes care of integrations hosting, maintenance, execution, monitoring, and security for businesses, allowing them to focus on core business innovations. With guaranteed uptime SLAs of 99.9% for all connectors and regular scans for stability and security, businesses significantly reduce technical and operational risk.

"At commercetools, we're all about making every aspect of the merchant and customer experience easier and faster. Our composable commerce enables exceptional flexibility and scale, as well as tight integration with both businesses' existing infrastructure and a wide range of best-of-breed commerce solutions," said Mike Sharp, Chief Product Officer at commercetools. "Connect makes that integration even easier, bringing additional operational efficiencies and enabling composable commerce to be incorporated faster than ever."

Bloomreach, FluentCommerce, Fulfillment Tools, Klaviyo, Marketplacer, NewStore, Talon. One, TrustElevate, and Voucherify are a select few of the partner integrations that are available through commercetools Connect.

Llama 2 now available for global usage on Cloudflare’s serverless platform, providing privacy-first, local inference to all

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, today announced a partnership with Meta to make the Llama 2 open source large language model (LLM) available to developers building AI applications on Cloudflare’s developer platform, Workers.

Until recently, the only way to have access to an LLM was through calls to proprietary models. Training LLMs is a serious investment — in time, computing, and financial resources — and thus not something that’s accessible to most developers. Meta’s release of Llama 2, a publicly available LLM, has presented a major shift, allowing developers to run and deploy their own LLMs. However, this still requires access to, and managing, the infrastructure to run the LLM.

Now, more than a million developers already building on Cloudflare have access to a leading LLM to enrich their applications. Cloudflare’s hyper-distributed edge network will enable developers anywhere to build applications with Llama 2. And with Cloudflare’s Data Localization Suite, they will be able to do this while controlling where their data is handled. Cloudflare’s privacy-first approach to application development can help companies earn trust with their customers by ensuring data used for inference is not used for training or improving the LLM.

“Giving every developer access to Llama 2, one of the most robust LLMs to date, no configuration required, is going to propel generative AI forward in ways we’ve only imagined so far,” said Matthew Prince, CEO and co-founder, Cloudflare. “Meta has been a great contributor to the open source community, and bringing that same approach to AI is going to help ensure that powerful AI is accessible to all developers, and their communities, around the world, with data localization built in.”