An in-depth study by independent consultants at Modern Media Solutions provides a deep dive into in-housing practices, trends, challenges, and future ambitions of top advertisers in the U.S.

Hudson MX, an innovative provider of enterprise media activation software for agencies and brands, today announced the release of an illuminating report titled "Study of In-housing: Strategic Direction, Trends, and Perceptions of Major Brands." The study was commissioned by Hudson MX and conducted by Ben Jankowski and Tobias Wolf of independent consultancy Modern Media Solutions. While quantitative surveys have shed light on in-housing statistics, this report, based on extensive interviews and analysis, gives the industry an in-depth look at the evolving in-housing strategies of leading advertisers.

In a concerted effort to better understand the needs and goals of their current and future clients, Hudson MX engaged the expertise of Modern Media Solutions, whose project team comprises decades of experience leading—and consulting with—global media organizations. Completed in June 2023, the study involved extensive interviews with large-scale advertising teams with varying degrees of in-house media activation operations. Advertisers participating in this research study, three-fourths of whom were listed among the top 200 leading US national advertisers for 2023, shared a collective media spend of over $6 billion per year. The findings offer a thoughtful synthesis of the strategies these industry leaders employ today and their forward-looking visions for the future.

Stuart Johnston, CEO of Hudson MX, commented on the report's release, saying, "We're excited to share the results of this new study. In addition to fleshing out the needs of a newer source of demand for our solutions, we also wanted to stay at the forefront of how agencies and brands work together. We increasingly see collaborative business models—hybrid arrangements we often call ‘co-housing’—that require seamless, real-time workflows and visibility across organizations. Via the collaboration with Modern Media Solutions, we've gained actionable insight into the challenges and opportunities advertisers face when navigating the intricacies of buying in-house, managing agency buys, and refining new hybrid workflows. We’re now in a much better place to help partners gain speed, efficiency, spend control, and maximum return on ad spend.”

Author Ben Jankowski from Modern Media Solutions shared, “The study was enlightening, helping us understand the complex in-housing market. We learned so much about brands' various motivations and challenges, and the opportunities for us to all make the industry—brand, agencies, and technology companies—more aligned.”

Recognized for its completeness of vision and ability to execute

commercetools, the global leader in composable commerce, today announced it has again been positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. This is the fourth consecutive year the company has been recognized.

Industry leaders including Audi, Sephora, Danone, NBCUniversal, and Ulta Beauty have adopted commercetools Composable Commerce to not only achieve the higher flexibility and faster speed to market customers require today, but also unlimited scalability and higher efficiency at significantly lower total costs. commercetools enables businesses, including large enterprises, to provide the modern customer experiences needed to be successful in today's market.

"At commercetools, our mission is to power the evolution of commerce innovation. Throughout the years, we've worked to develop and deliver the world's leading composable commerce platform so brands can create competitive advantage, achieve measurable success and build long-term business value," said Dirk Hoerig, Co-founder and CEO of commercetools. "We believe this recognition from Gartner is a testament to the impact our best-in-class platform has in driving revenue growth and opportunities for many of the world's most notable and influential brands."

Transforms Any Recording into Studio-Quality Sound Instantly

insoundz, a pioneering force in generative AI audio technology and recipient of the prestigious Red Dot Design award, is excited to introduce its next-gen generative AI audio enhancement, Revive. This groundbreaking collection of audio enhancement solutions is poised to transform the content creation industry. Revive presents three cutting-edge features that elevate the quality of production, streamline workflows, and ignite artistic inspiration across various mediums such as podcasts, video content, and beyond.

3 Ways to Revive™ Audio with insoundz:

1. Revive™ WebApp:
   Revive on the Web is a game-changing audio enhancement platform for content creation businesses and independent creators, eliminating the need for complex gear and editing expertise. Leveraging advanced AI algorithms, it effortlessly removes unwanted noise, echoes, and distortions, enhancing production value. Experience restored clarity, richness, and balance, and easily download enhanced files for sharing, publishing, or enjoyment.
   
   
2. Revive™ Platform API Integration:
   Revive Platform empowers content creation platform providers by elevating their service offerings to unprecedented heights through its exclusive API option. With a fully-automated audio enhancement API integration, Revive enables businesses to save both time and money. By integrating custom algorithms and offering flexible pricing options, Revive revolutionizes the delivery of a superior user experience while breathing new life into existing content.
   
   
3. Revive™ Container on Cloud:
   Take control of audio enhancement with Revive Container deployed on the enterprise's cloud. This powerful tool runs on any cloud infrastructure, granting unmatched control on quality, latency, money, privacy and security. Say goodbye to external services, enhance large audio volumes using enterprises's cloud resources. Scale as needed, process efficiently, achieve outstanding results.

"We are thrilled to introduce Revive, a comprehensive suite of audio enhancement solutions for content creators and businesses," stated Emil Winebrand, Co-Founder and CEO of insoundz. "Revive revolutionizes the way audio is produced, making it more accessible, efficient, and of unmatched quality."

Revive seamlessly integrates into popular content creation platforms, making it accessible to a wide range of creators and industries. Its user-friendly interface and intuitive controls ensure that users can leverage the power of Revive with ease.

Current customers include iHeart Media, Peech, Tavus, Altice and many more..

insoundz's Revive represents a significant leap forward in audio enhancement technology, empowering content creators, businesses, and educational institutions with unparalleled solutions for their audio needs.

Analytic Partners received Top Ranking across both Current Offering and Strategy categories

Commercial intelligence company Analytic Partners has been named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Measurement and Optimization, Q3 2023 report. Released today, the report positions Analytic Partners among nine top providers, stating "Analytic Partners dominates with data-driven marketing insights".

The Forrester Wave™ report is a comprehensive evaluation of the top vendors in the market, researching, analyzing, and scoring them on 38 evaluation criteria.  Analytic Partners is top ranked in the Current Offering and Strategy categories among all evaluated vendors.  Analytic Partners received the highest possible scores across 26 criteria and the highest ranking versus all other evaluated vendors in the following criteria:

• Business Scenarios and Impact
• Technology Platform
• Client engagement and Services
• Measurement Methods and Management

According to the report, "AP's strength is its ability to commit to and deliver performance insights using its core commercial mix model, marketing expertise, and GPS-E analytics platform."  In addition, the report acknowledges Analytic Partners' "strong vision to create a system that can fuel business decisions, like market expansion, brand equity, operational efficiency, and customer growth."

Commenting on the report, Nancy Smith, CEO said: "At Analytic Partners, we are dedicated to empower brands to leverage data and analytics to make optimal decisions. We are pleased to be recognized in this comprehensive report. We believe this recognition confirms our mission and strategy to make AP the go-to solution for commercial intelligence to empower superior business decisions that drive growth.

We are delighted to be recognized as a leader by this respected, professional, long-term industry analyst firm. We are proud and grateful to be working with so many leading brands worldwide to help them unlock their full potential."

66% of marketers say Threads will ultimately make Instagram and Facebook weaker for marketing purposes, according to Capterra’s research

From the recent arrival of Meta’s Threads and Twitter’s rebranding to TikTok’s introduction of text-only posts, marketers are challenged with navigating today’s increasingly fragmented and rapidly changing social media landscape. Among marketers with an X (formally Twitter) or Instagram account, 80% say they’re likely to try Threads, according to Capterra’s 2023 Social Media Landscape Survey fielded in July 2023, shortly after the app’s launch. At the same time, 66% believe that it will ultimately make Instagram and Facebook weaker for marketing purposes.

Marketers are open to adopting new platforms such as Threads, but they need to have a clear return on investment (ROI) before dedicating budget, especially since new platforms require ramp up time to learn and establish a brand presence. In fact, 70% say they wouldn’t invest in an X alternative unless there are excellent benefits. The top reason marketers would consider investing in a new social media platform or app for marketing or advertising is to engage with new or potential customers (40%).

Marketers follow their customers, but they also look to competitors when considering new social media platforms. In fact, 40% of marketers only like to try a promising new or emerging social media platform when they see competitors use it successfully for marketing. Waiting allows marketers to observe how competitors position themselves on a new platform and craft their own differentiated strategies.

“Experimenting with new social media platforms should be encouraged, but avoid overcommitting,” says Meghan Bazaman, senior marketing analyst at Capterra. “Marketers need to assess whether they are equipped to manage another platform, if the app delivers on safety and security, and if the platform offers must-have capabilities or features.”

Since Elon Musk’s X takeover, a majority of marketers say that their companies have experimented with new platforms. In fact, 69% say their business has used or created an account on an emerging social media platform as either an addition or alternative to X. Nonetheless, 35% of marketers that had paused advertising on X after Musk’s takeover have already returned to previous levels, and 43% say their company never paused or suspended ad campaigns at all—indicating a willingness to see through disruptions and uncertainty.

Decentralized social networks such as Mastodon, Post, and Bluesky have gained traction since they don't rely on a central authority such as Meta’s ownership of Facebook, Instagram, and now Threads. Despite their growing attraction, these decentralized platforms remain challenging for marketers given their lower adoption rates compared to established platforms and complexities in creating and using accounts. In fact, 61% of marketers that adopted Mastodon since Musk’s X takeover have stopped using the platform.

Finding the right balance between established platforms and new contenders is key for marketers in maximizing their brand presence on social media and growing their audience. Read the full report on Capterra.com for more insights on social media budget allocation strategies and advice for navigating new social media platforms like Threads.

Modyfi, an AI-native design platform and image editor, today announced the launch of its full public beta, which grants immediate, free access to the platform for all designers, creatives, art directors, marketing professionals, artists, agency teams and content creators, among others. Modyfi brings next-generation technology to design through a high-performance, web-based AI-powered application that enables greater creativity, teamwork and collaboration.

The last decade has been defined by major advancements across a variety of web applications, and the past year has seen mainstream adoption of generative AI and text-generation tools like ChatGPT. On the contrary, design tools, including widely used desktop-based software, haven't materially changed in decades or implemented generative AI in a way that improves the day-to-day process of design professionals. Modyfi fills the gap by allowing users to directly tap into the power of generative AI while designing and collaborating on their work.

Since June, Modyfi has been issuing new features weekly, listening to users to understand their needs and adapting the platform for their experience. Such features include proprietary versions of in-painting, generative-fill, SDXL and utilizing Meta's SAM for layer splitting. These features add to Modyfi's existing functionality which includes background removal, smart delete and the company's flagship image guided generation. 

"At Modyfi, we inspire today and tomorrow's creatives by simplifying the design process, removing mundane tasks, making teamwork easier and making image creation faster than ever. We want creators to be creative 100% of the time, not just 40% of the time," said Joe Burfitt, Founder and CEO, Modyfi. "Modyfi is making design fun again. We are excited to get Modyfi into the hands of the creative community, combining the conventional tools designers expect with generative AI technology and bringing it directly to designers and their teams to allow for quick exploration and iteration of creative concepts."

Modyfi is currently used by thousands of designers from hundreds of companies – including Nvidia, Stripe, Calm, Red Antler, Route and Spotify – who aim to simplify collaboration across the design process through generative AI.

In addition to today's public launch, Modyfi has raised $7 million in seed funding led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). The new capital will be used to fuel early user adoption and continued product development. Previous investors, including General Catalyst, participated in the round.

"We are proud to be partnering with the Modyfi team as they accelerate innovation across the graphic design industry," said Luke Pappas, Partner, NEA. "Since launching only a few weeks ago, Modyfi is already seeing really encouraging early adoption, but it is the enthusiasm and can't-work-without-it usage that early adopters have been exhibiting, that gets us really excited. Historically, this type of designer and design tool affinity is quite rare, and so we cannot wait to see how creators will continue to push the limits of Modyfi in the months to come."

RECON Labs, an AI based 3D content solution company, has announced its collaboration with Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform. The collaborative agreement was introduced during SIGGRAPH 2023, the 50^th Annual International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

RECON Labs and Shutterstock will endeavor to jointly advance the development of AI models, leveraging Shutterstock's expansive 2D/3D asset database. Both entities will also engage in the creation and provision of 3D assets, intended for publication on Shutterstock's platform, TurboSquid.

3Dpresso, an innovative 3D creation solution developed by RECON Labs, enables 3D creators to generate high-resolution, photorealistic 3D assets from sources like 2D videos, text prompts, and even sketches, all through the utilization of generative AI technology.

The outputs generated through 3Dpresso utilizing Shutterstock's ethically sourced assets can be accessed again through Shutterstock's platform, TurboSquid, providing a quick and easy supply of resources necessary for games, metaverse, and XR.

"We are thrilled to join forces with Shutterstock in this groundbreaking collaboration," said Seonghoon Ban, CEO of RECON Labs. "We believe that the integration of NeRF technology into Shutterstock's platform will usher in a new era of 3D content creation and open up endless possibilities for artists and creators worldwide. This partnership exemplifies our shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of creative technology and empowering the creative community."

In March, Shutterstock also announced its collaboration with NVIDIA to build AI foundation models for generative 3D artist tools. Through this collaboration, generative AI models will be trained with Shutterstock assets using NVIDIA Picasso generative AI cloud services to rapidly convert text prompts into high-fidelity 3D content for industrial digital twins, entertainment and gaming.

"We're incredibly excited about our collaboration with RECON Labs as we expand our research and development efforts further into innovative AI technologies," said Dade Orgeron, Vice President of Innovation at Shutterstock/Turbosquid. "As with generative AI, NeRF technology promises to open the doors for a wider audience of 3D content production, democratizing 3D creation, and empowering creators of all backgrounds to help build the virtual worlds of the future."

With the convergence of expertise from both RECON Labs and Shutterstock, this collaboration not only marks a significant milestone but also reaffirms a shared commitment to shaping the future of creative content and technology.    

Company sees encouraging spike in growth since the recent release of AI-powered pets "HabyPets" in Habytat

DatChat (Nasdaq: DATS), a private messaging, social media, and metaverse company, announced today that it has reached a milestone of over 75,000 active users in its Habytat metaverse. Habytat is growing at a rate of approximately 1,200 to 2,500 new members daily and the Company's recently released AI-powered HabyPets are already receiving accelerated adoption. As of now, HabyPets has four different popular dog breeds. Coming soon is an interactive dog park, new dog breeds, cats, various types of animals, a full immersive VR experience, a Music District, and more.

Habytat is the ultimate metaverse experience that offers a unique feature: giving users free NFT-deeded land and a house that users own and are backed by the Company’s proprietary AI and machine learning engine. Habytat’s mobile app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play store and has been localized for Spanish-speaking countries. The virtual world has realistic art, daily rewards, games, and much more. The official in-world currency of the Habytat Metaverse, earned through participation on the DatChat Social Network+ or through the Habytat, is called Nirad. It can be used to upgrade properties and experiences throughout the Habytat.

“Since we launched Habytat on mobile devices for the general public in May of this year, we have seen significant traction in the growth of users in our metaverse,” said DatChat CEO Darin Myman. “Reaching over 75,000 users is a significant milestone for our Company and we are excited from the feedback and user activity we are seeing play out. We are confident that we can convert this massive user growth into revenue streams. The HabyPets launch has been very successful, and we are pleased with the adoption rate and the dynamic experience it offers our users. We believe that our new AI-powered pets, along with other new product releases in the near future, will help skyrocket user growth at a higher rate than what we have already seen. We will look to update shareholders of our progress as we pass future user milestones.”