Empowering partners to maximize revenue growth by unlocking valuable time with AffinityX's streamlined advertising solutions.

AffinityX announces significant advancements in advertising solutions by successfully integrating with Advisr, a technology platform that empowers sales teams to create custom recommendations for advertisers based on their business goals. This integration revolutionizes how AffinityX partners plan, fulfill, and manage digital advertising, and frees up valuable time to focus on revenue growth.

Adam Burnham, SVP of Digital at AffinityX: "Our commitment to leveraging technology and automation to simplify the complex is at the core of our mission. We aim to streamline processes and deliver exceptional results for our partners, giving them more time to focus on their customers and revenue growth." 

AffinityX's technology advancements facilitate seamless integrations with popular order management systems and a comprehensive marketing planning tool, offering a complete workflow solution. By eliminating duplicative order entry and providing one point of entry for planning and ordering digital marketing, these integrations significantly simplify workflows, saving time and resources for partners.

Furthermore, AffinityX and Advisr's integration provides advancements in streamlining sales processes that allow for greater control over product communication, pricing, and materials. With all salespeople utilizing a common messaging and approach, partners can ensure a consistent and impactful sales message across the board. This integrated approach also allows for seamless selling across the entire product portfolio, maximizing upselling and cross-selling opportunities for increased revenue.

AffinityX + Advisr's Integrated Solution:

• Drastically reduce time to market with proposal creation
• Unlocks the potential to increase order values and products per order
• Provides a clean and dependable sales and revenue pipeline
• Offers a streamlined order processing, with one point of entry for all users
• Brings valuable insights to optimize revenue and drive business growth

Professional-grade remote recording solution free as part of Descript

Descript, the simple, powerful video and audio editor, announced the acquisition of remote recording studio SquadCast. As of today, the professional-grade remote recording solution is free as part of Descript. Podcasters and video creators now have a single tool for their entire production workflow, from recording to publishing.

"Remote recording has become an essential part of the podcaster's workflow. And so far, podcasters have been forced to choose between something like Zoom that records at lower quality and is subject to internet glitches, or a pricey subscription to a dedicated remote recording service," said Andrew Mason, CEO of Descript. "With our acquisition of SquadCast, podcasters have a battle-tested professional grade remote recording studio integrated right into their editor, for no additional cost."

"Descript is the best way to make videos and podcasts. Together our users have the most powerful and most affordable tool to do what they love all in one place," said Rock Felder, Co-Founder and CFO of SquadCast.

Descript + SquadCast = Complete Stack
Remote recording is a staple in every podcaster's tool stack. Now, creators can record audio and video podcasts from anywhere and when they're finished, their recordings will be automatically transcribed and ready for editing in Descript.

From there, Descript's powerful AI-fueled editing features take over. AI voices, Studio Sound, transcription, automatic filler word removal, Regenerate, Eye Contact – Descript's adaptability allows any creator, in any type of workflow, to create anything from an audio podcast to a sophisticated multicam video with multiple layers of video, b-roll, audio, with video and audio effects, and transitions.

"As long-time users of both Descript and SquadCast, this is going to be game-changing for our team," said Pat Flynn, host of the Smart Passive Income podcast. "These two world-class tools coming together will streamline recording with our guests, improve the listening experience for our audience, and save us countless hours of production time behind the scenes."

Descript customers will get remote recording included immediately in their subscriptions for free. SquadCast customers can choose to switch their subscription to Descript to get its editing capabilities at no additional cost.

Podcast Movement
The Descript team will be at Podcast Movement in Denver, CO, from August 21-24, 2023 (booth #700). You can hear directly from the team on the following panels:

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

• Best Practices for Video Podcasting - 11:15 AM to 11:45 AM
• How to Stay Agile in Podcast Marketing in an Evolving Medium - 3:15 PM to 3:45 PM
• AI Tools that will Supercharge Your Social Media - 12:00 PM to 12:30 PM
• The Nuance of Narrative: Unraveling the Art of Storytelling with Successful Podcasters - 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Wednesday, August 23

• The Ultimate Substack for Building a Podcast Business - 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Derek Dean joins Industry-leading SaaS commerce data management, syndication, and analytics provider as President, Americas; Vishal Arora promoted to Chief Technology Officer

Syndigo, an Atlanta-based leading SaaS commerce data management provider, and a portfolio company of Summit Partners and The Jordan Company, today announced several executive appointments that expand the company's Leadership Team. Derek Dean has been named President, Americas, responsible for revenue operations, and Vishal Arora has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer.

Derek Dean joins Syndigo from Evercommerce, a leading service commerce platform that offers integrated SaaS and tech-enabled service solutions, where he was SVP, Sales and Customer Success. During his tenure there, he helped to significantly scale the company organically while also successfully integrating multiple acquisitions. This included consolidating the go-to-market operations of nine acquired businesses into one horizontal platform business, that grew revenue by 60% over two years.

"I am truly pleased to have Derek join the executive team at Syndigo," said CEO Simon Angove. "He has a strong record of accomplishment driving double-digit revenue growth, both organically and through successfully integrating acquisitions. Derek's proven skills and experience are important as we scale Syndigo in our next chapter of growth."

Dean began his career with the business analytics arm of Dutch conglomerate RELX, where he rapidly ascended to roles of increasing responsibility, including inside sales, enterprise sales, and account management, ultimately serving as a P&L leader with oversight of a team of 150. During his tenure, Derek established SaaS go-to-market operations for newly acquired businesses while transitioning traditional print businesses globally. During his 20+ year career, Dean has led several large sales teams through organizational growth and expansion, culminating in the integration of the high-performing sales and customer success organization at Evercommerce.

In a related move, Vishal Arora was promoted to the position of Chief Technology Officer, responsible for all Syndigo technology roadmap strategy and implementation globally, including integration of acquisitions, platform migrations, and enabling continued scalability and innovation. Arora was previously SVP, Engineering at Syndigo, where he led the company's software engineering teams. Before joining Syndigo in 2021, he held senior leadership roles at software development companies Perforce and Entrust, leading global and North America engineering teams. He also led product management and development teams for PLM business at PTC.  

Both Dean and Arora join a growing Executive team. In January 2023, Syndigo named Simon Angove its new CEO, followed by the additions of Ryan Peisel as Chief Financial Officer, from First Advantage, and Justin Anovick as Chief Product Officer, from Optimizely.

"We have accomplished an incredible amount in the first half of 2023, accelerating product innovation, strengthening our go-to-market organization, and transforming the customer experience across the entire commerce data journey," commented Angove. "With our expanded leadership team and highly talented staff I am excited for the opportunities to bring even more innovation and services to our customers and the marketplace."

ID.me, the market leading digital identity and credentials network, is pleased to announce the appointment of Taylor Liggett as Chief Growth Officer. Taylor brings extensive digital identity experience to ID.me and was most recently the Head of Identity at Sterling, a leading global provider of background and identity services.

"Taylor will help ID.me achieve our vision of streamlining people's lives wherever they go while strengthening our exclusive partnership with Sterling." said Blake Hall, ID.me co-founder and CEO. "Taylor is a world-class expert at understanding how digital identity can streamline workflows to remove friction from people's lives and cost from companies' business processes – saving everyone time and money. We're building digital fast lanes across industries to replace manual processes. Taylor will lead the way for ID.me in the vanguard of consumer-centric digital identity."

Taylor Liggett, known for his visionary approach, is a people-centric executive leader and digital identity evangelist. He is credited with a robust skill set encompassing leadership and strategy, business development, client relations, and technology. Taylor's career path illustrates his dexterity in navigating startup ecosystems while also handling the intricacies of enterprise, domestic, and global businesses.

"I'm incredibly excited to embark on this journey with ID.me." said Taylor Liggett. "The company's mission aligns perfectly with my belief in harnessing the power of technology for creating seamless and secure digital experiences for users. Being at the forefront of digital identity, ID.me is uniquely positioned to define and own the digital wallet ecosystem. My aim will be to ensure that our customers receive unparalleled solutions tailored to their needs, bridging the gap between innovation and user satisfaction."

Badge Inc., the award-winning privacy company enabling Identity without Secrets™, announced a new integration with Ping Identity, the intelligent identity solution for the enterprise, leveraging PingOne DaVinci™, a no-code identity orchestration service. The partnership will provide customers with easy access to integrate Badge's novel privacy solutions to enable unprecedented multi-factor authentication experiences across all channels, including new and shared devices.

Badge Inc. joins a growing network of technology partners developing integrations with DaVinci through the Ping Identity Global Technology Partner Program. Partner solutions that integrate with DaVinci deliver an improved customer experience in a fraction of the time, through easy drag-and-drop design of digital user journeys across multiple applications and ecosystems.

The Badge connector for DaVinci lets customers access Badge's privacy-preserving authentication technology. The trigger is an authentication request via any device – trusted, new, or shared.  From there, the customer can select their preferred biometrics and factors to enable a holistic and safe user experience on any device.

"Ping Identity is committed to delivering exceptional user experiences that decrease friction without compromising security," said Andre Durand, CEO and founder of Ping Identity. "We are excited to partner with Badge to enable truly privacy-first user journeys that can be delivered quickly and efficiently across all devices using PingOne DaVinci."

"Badge is revolutionizing privacy for consumers so that enterprises can safely move to a future without the liability of storing user biometric templates, pins, or secrets," says Charles Herder, Badge Co-founder and MIT Cryptography Ph.D. "Our partnership with Ping Identity is in line with our commitment to integrate our patented and award-winning technology seamlessly with partners using open standards to extend privacy-preserving authentication to the masses."

"Ping Identity is committed to expanding our technology partner ecosystem to deliver better, more frictionless customer experiences," said Loren Russon, the SVP of product management at Ping Identity. "Our partnership with Badge leverages DaVinci's seamless orchestration to ensure dynamic user journeys are delivered quickly and efficiently at every stage of the user journey."

Acquired Titles Boost Momentum of Streaming Viewership. Broadcast and Cable Each Exhibit New Lows.

Streaming accounted for a record high 38.7% of total TV usage in July, while linear TV viewership fell below 50% for the first time, according to Nielsen's July 2023 report of The Gauge™, the media measurement company's monthly snapshot of total broadcast, cable and streaming consumption that occurs via television. Broadcast and cable each represented record low shares at 20.0% and 29.6% of total TV usage, respectively, to combine for a linear television total of 49.6%.

Time spent streaming (via a television) increased 2.9% in July compared with June, and the category gained a full share point to finish at 38.7% of total TV usage—topping its previous record-high share, which it recorded just last month. On a yearly basis, streaming viewership has grown 25.3%, and the category has gained 7.3 share points.

Across streaming platforms, three achieved record high shares of TV in July:

• YouTube (not including YouTube TV) viewing increased 5.6% vs. June, and its share climbed to 9.2% of total TV usage (the largest of all platforms).
• Netflix viewing increased 4.2% vs. June, which brought it to 8.5% of total TV usage.
• Amazon Prime Video viewing was up 5% vs. June to represent 3.4% of total TV usage (+0.2 pts.) in July.

In terms of streaming content, the premiere of new seasons of streaming originals across various platforms in July could not match the momentum of acquired content viewing. Suits (Netflix, Peacock) and Bluey (Disney+) were July's most-watched streaming programs, combining for 23 billion viewing minutes, with Suits accounting for nearly 18 billion on its own. By comparison, the Netflix original Stranger Things also captured nearly 18 billion viewing minutes in July 2022 following the conclusion of its most recent season.

Broadcast viewership fell 3.6% in July to finish the month at 20.0% of overall television usage (-0.8 pts.), marking a new low for the broadcast category. While Dramas remained the top broadcast genre in July at 25.7% of the category, the top broadcast programs were ABC World News Tonight and the MLB All Star Game on FOX. Cable viewing was down 2.9% in July and its share also fell to a record low, finishing the month with 29.6% of overall TV usage (-1.0 pts.). ESPN's Home Run Derby and College World Series were the top two cable programs in July, followed by When Calls The Heart on The Hallmark Channel.

In the shift towards a cookieless future, joint customers gain a deeper view of the customer journey without compromising privacy

Sendbird, the global in-app conversations platform with over 300 million monthly active users, today announced a new partnership with LiveRamp, the leading data collaboration platform, to enable joint customers to leverage their highly valuable first-party data to personalize in-app chat and messaging while protecting users' privacy. Joint customers of Sendbird and LiveRamp can now power personalized experiences using LiveRamp's identity framework, as well as benefit from improved analysis and measurement. For the first time, marketers can bring together media exposure logs and marketing technology exposure logs to build a deeper view of the consumer journey.

Through this partnership, marketers and product teams can connect their first-party data through LiveRamp, then learn more about and engage with their target audiences via Sendbird through in-app chat and messaging. LiveRamp's foundational identity offers the most connectivity across the most channels with the most open web absorption, including the most connected partners. Leveraging LiveRamp's identity means that every interaction is measurable, enabling marketers to tie together in-app chat and messaging experiences with offline data, such as in-store transactions, and media exposures to create an anonymous view of the complete consumer journey. As companies are required to embrace addressability without cookies and mobile identifiers, it is more important than ever for brands to turn to new technologies for trust, reach, measurement, and optimization. The partnership between Sendbird and LiveRamp was built to help.

"First-party data is the holy grail for marketers and product teams as we shift towards a cookieless future," said Sendbird CEO and Co-founder John S. Kim. "By partnering with LiveRamp, we can help our customers make informed decisions and create new, highly engaging brand experiences in a manner that continues to safeguard consumer privacy."

On behalf of nearly 4,000 apps, Sendbird powers more than 85 billion customer interactions every year. From in-app messages, to video calls between people, to user actions triggered by notifications, these signals add to the picture of who each customer is and their preferences.

"Every brand has countless consumer touchpoints, and our integration with Sendbird will help to further reach customers at the right time in their journeys, now including in-app chat and messaging," said Travis Clinger, SVP, Activations & Addressability, LiveRamp. "By partnering with Sendbird, we're enabling marketers to give customers the personalized and convenient experiences they expect, across more channels than ever before."