Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, announces the appointment of Steve Lambert as its Chief Operating Officer. This strategic move underlines the company's unwavering commitment to expanding its global reach and further enhancing the gaming ecosystem.

Steve Lambert brings to Xsolla a robust background in developing and optimizing strategic operations. His impressive track record at Salesforce propelled him from an Intern to Vice President of Strategy & Operations in 10 years. There, he led a 70-person team to define the global go-to-market strategy for Salesforce's vast ecosystem and championed transformative initiatives such as the company's Industry Blueprint Solution Strategy.

Steve's contributions at Salesforce extended beyond strategy. He provided leadership for the ISV Sales organization, steering them through multiple leadership transitions and playing an instrumental role in Salesforce's partnership with Vlocity. This partnership became a hallmark of success, culminating in an acquisition in 2020. Furthermore, Steve's development of a Competitive Partner Policy unlocked an additional $40M in company revenue for Salesforce. Before Salesforce, Steve honed his commercial strategy and operations expertise at General Electric, serving as a Commercial Leadership Program Associate.

Steve's industry standing is further augmented by his academic portfolio. His commitment to continuous learning is evident with an MBA from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, and an accolade from Stanford University's LEAD Corporate Innovation Program.

"In the ever-evolving landscape of the gaming ecosystem, it's imperative to have leaders who not only comprehend the intricacies of the market but can also steer the organization with an innovative vision combined with profound operational insight. With his unparalleled blend of strategic operations experience and forward-thinking approach, Steve exemplifies this," said Chris Hewish, CEO of Xsolla. "At Xsolla, we're not just looking to adapt; we aim to lead and redefine standards. We are confident that under Steve's adept leadership and guidance, Xsolla is primed to harness its potential fully, scaling to unprecedented heights and setting new pinnacles of operational excellence."

For those attending Gamescom 2023 and the adjacent Devcom Developer Conference, Xsolla has a packed schedule. The company is hosting three informative speaking sessions at Devcom on August 21st and 22nd, with a notable session from CEO Chris Hewish. Attendees are invited to visit Xsolla's booths at both events: Gamescom Hall 2.2, Booth #A-030-B-037, and Devcom Booth #C.1. This provides an unparalleled opportunity to connect with Steve Lambert, preview the latest products, and engage with Xsolla experts on innovations set to shape video game commerce in 2023.

The CoMarketing Cloud is now more accessible to AWS customers to help multi-location enterprises increase local visibility across digital channels

SOCi Inc., a leading CoMarketing Cloud for multi-location enterprises, today announced the availability of its platform in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This relationship marks a significant milestone for SOCi, as it allows customers to access and store data from a powerful CoMarketing Cloud on AWS. 

SOCi offers a holistic approach to managing multi-location marketing efforts for enterprises, encompassing local search, social, and reputation management for hundreds or thousands of locations. By empowering businesses with the automation tools and data management they need, like SOCi Genius, the company allows marketers to drive customer engagement, boost local visibility, and achieve business growth in today's competitive digital landscape.

"SOCi's availability in AWS Marketplace offers customers streamlined billing and simplified software procurement," said Richard Lumsden, SVP of Business Development, SOCi. "By expanding our relationship with AWS, we are ensuring SOCi's platform is readily scalable, highly secure, and reliable in leveraging the power of AWS, making our platform more accessible for marketers looking to increase their local visibility." 

AWS customers can now purchase SOCi through AWS Marketplace which offers several benefits, including: 

• Consolidated cloud spend with one bill for vendor management, increase negotiating power, and flexible invoicing terms
• Leveraging discounting mechanics
• Accelerated purchasing with pre-negotiated contracts

Gideon Oppenheimer to draw upon deep Silicon Valley roots and financial expertise to round out Fetch's leadership team

Fetch, America's No. 1 rewards app and leading consumer-engagement platform, today announced the further expansion of its executive team with Gideon Oppenheimer joining as Chief Financial Officer. A tech-industry veteran, in his new role Oppenheimer will focus on financial discipline and maximizing profitability as Fetch continues to scale revenue and expand brand partnerships.

"Gideon is a true doer; he's adept at helping industry disruptors discern critical metrics and translating those insights into actionable strategies. He empowers business leaders, arming them with the right context to make informed decisions to bring their companies to the next level," said Fetch CEO & Founder Wes Schroll. "Gideon will play a pivotal role in propelling Fetch's continued momentum as we optimize our platform and navigate financial milestones ahead."

Oppenheimer comes to Fetch with deep experience overseeing all aspects of financial operations, strategic planning and fiscal health for growth companies in private and public market environments. Most recently, Oppenheimer served as EVP, Head of Finance at Uber Freight, overseeing over $5 billion in revenue from the ride-share company's Uber Freight business. At Uber Freight, Oppenheimer led a 400-person finance organization spanning accounting, financial operations, financial planning and analysis and treasury. Additionally, he facilitated the company's $2.25 billion acquisition of logistics solution provider Transplace. Earlier in his career, Oppenheimer worked at Coatue Management focused on private market investments and as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group.

"Fetch has carved out a supremely valuable spot in the advertising and digital loyalty landscape with its vast user base and unparalleled ability to shift consumer purchasing," said Oppenheimer. "The platform's remarkable growth underscores brands' hunger for new ways to engage with consumers. Fetch has a tremendously promising trajectory, and I look forward to steering the company's continued financial growth and maturity."

This new hire marks Fetch's latest move to stack its executive team with top tech talent from companies including Google, Twitter (now X), Pinterest, Apple and now Uber. In 2023 alone, Fetch has appointed leaders in key positions including COO, CRO, and other top sales roles as the company continues to scale its brand partnerships, grow its user base and build out its groundbreaking technology. 

Fetch is a new kind of performance marketing and consumer engagement platform, built to help brands navigate the changing digital advertising landscape. Fetch works with companies across CPG, restaurant and retail industries, with partners including General Mills, Unilever, PepsiCo, Albertsons, MolsonCoors and many more.

With 11 million receipts submitted from users each day, Fetch has a real-time pulse on consumer behavior and the ability to activate consumers across a host of key business objectives. The platform captures digital and physical transactions amounting to more than $152 billion in retail spend annually. Brands that partner with Fetch can leverage this unparalleled source of zero-party data to inform next-gen audience targeting based on individuals' verified purchase history.

Valued at more than $2.5 billion and backed by investors including SoftBank Vision Fund II, Greycroft, ICONIQ, Hamilton Lane, NielsenIQ and Univision, Fetch is solving problems for some of the biggest brands in the world while providing real value for millions of consumers. Consistently among the top-downloaded apps in the Shopping category, Fetch also boasts category-leading levels of engagement and retention according to metrics from data.ai, surpassing juggernauts like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Starbucks.

Trust Stamp, providing AI-powered trust and identity services used globally across multiple sectors, announces that on August 15, 2023, Patent # 11,729,158 entitled “Systems and Methods for Identity Authentication via Third Party Accounts” was issued to the Company by the US Patent and Trademark Offices. This patent is the eighteenth issued to the company in addition to which the company has an additional thirteen patent applications pending.

Andrew Gowasack, President of the Company, commented, “Fraud comes in many flavors, and social media and similar peer to peer platforms can both serve as a breeding ground for fraudulent transactions and as a protection against them. This technology, while leveraging our core privacy-first technologies, provides an optional interlock between different types of user accounts benefiting from the strengths that each can offer in terms of user authentication to produce a more resilient user-centric ecosystem.”

Trust Stamp released its business update and financial results for the second quarter and YTD 2023 on August 14^th 2024 reporting positive progress across all of its commercial objectives including raising new capital, substantially growing its customer base and reducing operating losses through substantial reductions in operating costs.

Today's expansion marks the first international launch of CLEAR Verified

LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, and CLEAR, the secure identity company, announced today they are expanding digital safety and trust by empowering LinkedIn members in Canada to verify their identity with CLEAR for free. From the LinkedIn app, a member can affirm their identity with the CLEAR Verified (formerly known as Powered by CLEAR) platform, and add a visible indicator to their LinkedIn profile showing the member's identity has been verified by CLEAR. Beginning this month, LinkedIn's 22 million Canada-based members will have the option to verify their identity with CLEAR in English or French, using their government-issued ID and a selfie. Existing CLEAR users will simply be prompted to snap a selfie to verify their identity for use on their LinkedIn profile. To verify your identity with CLEAR, click here.

Today's announcement marks the CLEAR Verified platform's first move into an international market. Earlier this year, CLEAR and LinkedIn launched free identity verification for LinkedIn's 206 million U.S.-based members. The partnership provides consumers and businesses with additional comfort that the people they encounter on LinkedIn are real and represented authentically. For more information, click here.

"As LinkedIn continues to prioritize authenticity and security, these new verification options empower Canadian LinkedIn members to build a trusted professional network, ensuring a safer and more reliable experience for everyone on the platform," said Diana Luu, LinkedIn Canada Country Manager.

"CLEAR and LinkedIn share a vision of trust and safety for our millions of users. We're excited to expand our partnership to Canada to help more people foster genuine connections online," said CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman Becker. "When you verify your identity with CLEAR on LinkedIn, you're more likely to be considered for a job, have your in-mail opened, and build connections - it's that simple."

LinkedIn is part of a growing network of CLEAR Verified business partners across healthcare, hospitality, rental car, sports, entertainment and more that leverage CLEAR's identity technology to provide trusted and seamless experiences – totally for free – to their customers. The CLEAR Verified platform powers safer experiences for our partners' customers and unlocks a better way to live, work, and travel. New users can simply enroll once to verify anywhere in our CLEAR Verified network.

Additions bring in-depth expertise in consumer CX across retail, CPG, financial services and telco for customer intelligence software leader

Stratifyd, a leading provider of customer intelligence software solutions, today announced the addition of two experienced CX experts to its Board of Advisors. Cindy Marshall, Chief Digital Officer of Jane.com and founder and CEO of SHINE-Strategy.com, and Sean Albertson, a customer experience leader in the financial services and telco sectors, will provide expertise and guidance as Stratifyd continues to expand its leadership position in the customer analytics software market.

They join Don McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Canton & Company, on Stratifyd’s Board of Advisors to provide objective expertise to the executive team on market developments, sales enablement, product evolution, corporate strategy, strategic alliances and partnerships. The advisors will also provide qualified business development introductions to accelerate Stratifyd’s growth.

Marshall is an expert in direct-to-consumer marketing and digital commerce with a proven ability to combine brand vision with data-driven customer insights. As Chief Digital Officer at Jane.com, she oversees the marketing and brand development for a marketplace of over 2,000 women-owned boutiques across the United States. She is also the Founder & CEO of SHINE Strategy, a consulting firm focused on driving profitable growth for direct-to-consumer brands including Johnnie-O, Faherty, National Geographic, Orvis, Smithsonian, Talbots, The Paper Store, and Vera Bradley. Previously Marshall held senior level positions at L.L. Bean, Performance Bicycle, The Vermont Country Store, Ross-Simons, J.Jill, and Inc. Magazine.

Albertson has been a customer experience leader for over 20 years, helping leading companies like Charles Schwab, T-Mobile and others in telco and financial services create great experiences for their customers. He specializes in the intersection of survey programs, text and journey analytics with operational metrics and the use of AI to bring out the power of those programs. Albertson has advised CEOs and COOs on strategic CX initiatives and directed the implementation of these programs across customer service, marketing, finance, field operations and engineering departments.

“Cindy and Sean have tremendous track records in the field of consumer CX and most importantly the ability to translate customer intelligence into action and business growth,” said Eric Healy, CEO of Stratifyd. “They understand the challenges consumer brands face trying to connect all of their disparate data points to get a holistic view of their customers’ needs. Together with Don McDaniel, their insights will be invaluable as we continue to refine our ability to help businesses unlock and take advantage of those insights across their organizations.”

Findings from 'State of Product Placement 2023' report show 86% of U.S. marketers who have tried product placement rate it highly, while 75% of U.S. consumers have searched for a product or brand online after seeing it in a TV show or film

BENlabs, the leading entertainment AI company for brands and creators, released a new report today finding that 63% of consumers have positive emotions after seeing products or brands in TV content, while 47% say they enjoy seeing their favorite brands in shows. The report, "State of Product Placement 2023," analyzed product placement's ROI, and consumers' feelings on it compared to traditional marketing and advertisements.

The survey focused on three areas: understanding marketers' perspectives on product placement, understanding consumers' perspectives on product placement and consumers' research and purchase behaviors. The report found that:

• Marketers' are overwhelmingly optimistic about product placement – In fact, 86% of U.S. marketers who've tried product placement rate it highly, while 81% consider it to be an effective marketing channel. Additionally, 91% see it as effective in reaching non-ad supported audiences.
• To top it off, eight-in-10 marketers consider AI to be very important when making a decision about what marketing company to use for product placement opportunities.
• Successful product placement can elicit positive emotions in viewers – A little over six-in-10 (63%) of respondents reported feeling positive emotions (happiness, inspiration, interest, and/or curiosity) after seeing a product or brand in a film or TV programs, while 47% like seeing their favorite brands and products in TV shows and films. Given a choice, a majority (52%) of consumers would prefer to watch a TV program with product placement over advertising.
• Consumers are quick to research products and brands they see on screen – Three-quarters (75%) of consumers have searched for a product/brand on at least one platform after seeing it on TV/film, furthermore, 57% of those consumers go on to purchase the same product, or a different product from the same brand.
• Almost one-in-five (17%) made the purchase as they were watching, 12% did so within two hours, 14% waited more than a day and 18% took longer than one week.

"We found that 46 percent of consumers have actually learned about a product for the first time after seeing it on TV or in movies. That's a staggering number and speaks to the effectiveness of product placement throughout the marketing funnel, from driving awareness and cultural relevance all the way down to sales and marketing," says Erin Schmidt, Chief Product Placement Officer of BENlabs. "Combining the power of this marketing channel with AI allows brands to target the audience most likely to drive ROI for their entertainment marketing investments."

Ad avoidance is at all-time highs, with over 41% of viewers habitually skipping or avoiding television advertisements. Combined with a massive shift to ad-free streaming platforms, this makes it harder than ever for businesses to reach audiences through traditional methods. BENlabs' newest report, with insights from approximately 350 marketing managers and 650 consumers, found product placement offers a strong new avenue for businesses to reach, retain and grow their customer base.

89% of companies embrace business process automation as IT teams take the lead in the race for efficiency and innovation

Jitterbit, a global leader for empowering transformation through automation, today announced the results of its 2023 State of Automation in IT survey. Available now, the report, titled “Prioritizing Integration to Drive Innovation,” uncovers recent trends, organizational drivers and key challenges in automation for IT leaders.

The data reveals that IT leaders are driving an increasing number of automation initiatives as a way to stay competitive, reduce costs and scale as they navigate an unpredictable social and economic environment. In particular, businesses are turning to integration technology as a way to connect systems and automate workflows to boost productivity and efficiency. Organizations are also discovering that to truly move the needle on their digital transformation journey, strategic collaboration and alignment between IT and business technologists is a must.

Business process automation is a top priority for IT teams to remain competitive

A significant 89% of companies state that business process automation is part of their technology strategy this year, with the IT department taking precedence over other departments. Concerns around competitors accelerating automation efforts are a key driver for this prioritization. However, only one-third of respondents feel they are currently ahead of the competition when it comes to automation – a perception that is motivating IT leaders to take action.

Operational optimization fuels the demand for automation, with security, data privacy and cost emerging as top concerns

According to respondents, the top two forces driving the need for automation are operational optimization and rising economic pressures. However, there are still lingering concerns when it comes to implementing automation tools. Among the top automation challenges reported by IT leaders, security and data privacy took the lead, followed closely by cost and complexity.

IT teams lead the charge in automation initiatives, but line of business (LOB) user participation is rising with the explosion of SaaS apps

While IT leaders remain at the forefront of organizational automation initiatives, the survey reveals that business leaders in HR and Marketing departments are increasingly responsible for executing automation and integration projects. In terms of integration requirements, hybrid integrations are in high demand as companies continue to incorporate SaaS apps into their existing ecosystem, often consisting of legacy, on-premises systems.

"The data shows a clear commitment from today’s IT leaders to leverage automation as a way to drive real change and accelerate digital transformation,” said Manoj Chaudhary, Chief Technology Officer at Jitterbit. “With mounting pressures for efficiency and productivity gains with reduced budgets, embracing integration and automation technology helps unburden IT teams and lay the groundwork for a truly optimized and futureproofed enterprise.” 

Methodology and availability

Within the context of a larger study into the current state of business automation, Jitterbit collected survey data from IT, marketing, and human resources executives at organizations spanning B2B, B2C, and B2G sectors. There were 167 respondents to the survey, all in firms with 100+ employees.

For more insights from Jitterbit’s 2023 State of Automation series, download the first three reports below:

• How Low-Code Application Platforms Disrupt the IT Status Quo and Ignite Digital Growth
• Eliminate Application Integration Challenges to Elevate Customer Experiences
• The Promise of a Consumer-Grade Employee Experience is Finally Becoming Reality