Integration to provide brands access to advanced suite of digital services

SmartMedia Technologies, the Web3 engagement and loyalty platform the future is being built on, announced today the integration of PN Media, a renowned digital marketing solutions consultancy for advertising and marketing agencies founded by digital marketing & ad-tech veteran Paula Novacki. This strategic integration marks a significant milestone for SMT, empowering their clients with a wider range of paid media strategy and consulting expertise while offering PN Media's existing clients access to a comprehensive suite of services, including DSP licensing, Web3 services, and strategic growth services.

PN Media's core services offerings include strategic, on demand media planning and buying, digital transformation as well as consulting with agencies that need to increase their media capacity. They specialize in SEM, Paid Social, Programmatic and Planning & Investments.

Tyler Moebius, CEO of SmartMedia Technologies, shared his excitement about the synergy, stating, "We are delighted to welcome PN Media to the SmartMedia Technologies family. Their extensive industry knowledge and track record of success will greatly enhance our capabilities as we continue to drive innovation in the Web3 engagement and loyalty landscape. This collaboration sets the stage for groundbreaking business development opportunities and positions us at the forefront of the industry."

The integration of PN Media with SMT reflects the growing demand for highly successful ad-tech companies and the need for expanded staffing and buying options within the digital media space. Amidst the current landscape where major advertising agencies and brand companies are downsizing their workforce, PN Media, and now SMT, stand poised to meet these pressing needs on a larger scale. This acquisition aligns with a broader business trend, underscoring the increasing requirement for hybrid, white-labeled digital services delivered by highly skilled professionals.

"We are thrilled to join forces with SmartMedia Technologies, a trailblazer in the Web3 space," said Paula Novacki, Founder of PN Media. "This partnership allows us to leverage our expertise in digital marketing solutions and deliver an enhanced level of service and innovation to our clients. Together, we will shape the future of engagement and loyalty strategies, unlocking unparalleled growth opportunities."

The integration of PN Media and SMT marks a significant milestone, propelling client offerings towards a future of transformative digital solutions and revolutionizing the way businesses engage with their customers. This strategic move further solidifies SMT's position as an industry leader in Web3 engagement and loyalty platforms, empowering businesses to thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Alpine IQ, a leading provider of elevating business operations and consumer experiences powered by cleaned data, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated rollout of their Summer Rock release. With a strong focus on enhancing the user experience and introducing cutting-edge features, Alpine IQ is revolutionizing the way businesses engage with their customers and staff.

Alpine IQ's Summer Rock release introduces the Planner Calendar and the Wheel of Prizes. The new Planner tool provides businesses with an intuitive way to visualize their retail strategy, allowing customers to view campaigns, discounts, co-marketing campaigns, and reports all in one place.

The Wheel of Prizes introduces a fun and engaging way to incentivize customer participation and drive increased brand interaction through an exclusive app feature. With the Wheel of Prizes, businesses can now offer customers the chance to spin a digital "wheel" that provides random discounts and promotions.

In addition to these new features, Alpine IQ is releasing a suite of enhanced platform features. Starting with enhancements to Dynamic Content, businesses can now allow preferred product and brand placements directly within the dynamic content blocks. Retailers can partner with brands for product placement or ensure that customers see products that Alpine IQ's machine learning predicts they will be interested in purchasing next.

The Data Analytics product suite is also receiving completely new demographic data sets that specifically highlight affinities related to loyalty programs and categorical spend patterns. These enhancements will enable businesses to gain valuable insights into their customer base, better understand their target audience, and tailor business operations accordingly.

Sign-Up Flows have been improved to simplify the user onboarding process with enhanced building flow and styling, a wide range of new customization options, and slide-out capabilities for better navigation. The updated flow offers a seamless and frictionless experience.

Co-Marketing campaigns, formerly known as recipes, have seen improvements to provide users with even more powerful and versatile marketing capabilities. The upgrades to Co-Marketing campaigns streamline collaboration, enhance efficiency, and amplify reach. Customers can look forward to improved budget estimators and enhanced co-marketing campaign performance in this new rollout.

The Summer Rock release will also introduce a partner integration, including a Tier 4 capable point of sale system, Jane POS. Alpine IQ remains committed to providing businesses with the tools they need to grow and thrive. With the launch of these updated features, the company is excited to help its customers achieve their goals and reach new heights of success.

Nicholas Paschal, co-founder, and CEO of Alpine IQ said, "We are thrilled to introduce Summer Rock with a range of exciting features and enhancements. These updates not only reinforce our commitment to empowering businesses with advanced analytics, loyalty, marketing, and data ops capabilities but also showcase our dedication to delivering an intuitive, engaging, and results-driven user experience."

Shutterstock delivering industry-forward experiences, powered by OpenAI

Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform offering high-quality content and full-service creative workflow solutions for transformative brands, digital media and marketing companies, today announced the expansion of its partnership with OpenAI, a pioneer in artificial intelligence. Through a new six-year agreement, Shutterstock is set to solidify its position as a leading provider of high-quality training data for OpenAI models, propelling transformative capabilities for brands, digital media, and marketing companies.

As part of this expanded collaboration, OpenAI has secured a license for access to additional Shutterstock training data including Shutterstock's image, video and music libraries and associated metadata. Shutterstock also gains priority access to the latest OpenAI technology and will continue to leverage DALL·E's groundbreaking generative text-to-image capabilities directly into the shutterstock.com platform. In addition to text-to-image generation, the integration will also provide Shutterstock customers with synthetic editing capabilities, allowing them to not just create new content, but also to simply edit and transform any image in the entire Shutterstock library to accelerate ideation and production. Shutterstock and OpenAI will work in collaboration to bring generative AI capabilities to mobile users through Shutterstock's newly acquired GIPHY platform.

"The renewal and significant expansion of our strategic partnership with OpenAI reinforces Shutterstock's commitment to driving AI tech innovation and positions us as the data and distribution partner of choice for industry leaders in generative AI," said Paul Hennessy, CEO of Shutterstock.

Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, added, "We're pleased to be able to license Shutterstock's high-quality content library. This extended collaboration not only enhances the capabilities of our image models but also empowers brands, digital media, and marketing companies to unlock transformative possibilities in content creation and ideation. We look forward to bringing the next generation of generative AI capabilities to Shutterstock and GIPHY's vast user base, further revolutionizing the way people express themselves through visual media."

This partnership expansion is the latest in several strategic steps Shutterstock has taken as one of the leading innovators bringing AI advancements to the creative industry. Earlier this year, the company launched its AI Image Generator, a DALL·E-powered groundbreaking tool that empowers users to instantly create customized visuals. Shutterstock was also the first to introduce a Contributor Fund, its pioneering initiative that to date has compensated hundreds of thousands of artists for the role their content IP has played in training Shutterstock's generative technology as well as to compensate them with ongoing royalties tied to licensing activity for newly generated assets.

In addition to OpenAI, Shutterstock has collaborated with industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Meta, LG and others to develop foundational generative AI tools and standards for creators across 3D, images and text. Shutterstock's high-quality content library, enriched with vast metadata, leads the industry in size, diversity and annotation—making it unrivaled for training AI capabilities.

Expanded partnership provides scale, flexibility, and efficiency for advertisers and publishers across streaming and more

TransUnion  and Magnite , the world's largest independent sell-side advertising company, are expanding their TruAudience® Data Marketplace partnership beyond connected TV (CTV) to provide agencies, brands, and publishers with the opportunity to reach audiences across digital media channels including streaming video, audio, gaming, and digital-out-of-home (DOOH).

TransUnion’s TruAudience Data Marketplace offers advertisers and brands audience solutions that cover over 80 million U.S.–connected homes. The solutions provide Magnite with audience building and targeting capabilities. This solution set also empowers Magnite to enhance its data-driven omnichannel advertising strategies and reach audiences at scale with greater precision and effectiveness.

"Our partnership expansion is a significant milestone in helping marketers reach their intended audiences across various digital media platforms, including audio, gaming, and DOOH,” said Julie Clark, senior vice president of the media and entertainment vertical at TransUnion. “Building on the success of our CTV relationship, we can now offer better audience curation through the TruAudience Data Marketplace, enabling brands to target effectively. Moreover, publishers can monetize more inventory, resulting in better targeting opportunities and increased revenue, especially with the growth of streaming audio and gaming channels."

Connected TVs, smart speakers, and gaming consoles have become popular streaming devices, but cannot be reached using legacy digital identifiers such as cookie-based audiences. However, by leveraging TransUnion’s TruAudience Data Marketplace, advertisers gain access to a more accurate view of identity for clients to achieve scale, accuracy, and speed across streaming media campaigns.

"This expanded partnership with TransUnion further enhances our omnichannel audience capabilities to provide greater value to our clients,” said Kristen Williams, SVP, Strategic Partnerships, Magnite. “With privacy regulation changes underway and the pending retirement of third party cookies, the sell-side will play an essential role in audience enablement. By tapping into TransUnion's TruAudience solutions through Magnite’s platforms, publishers and advertisers can continue to utilize audience-based advertising across all screens and formats.”

Summit to feature Aditi Sharma from Google as keynote on the future of marketing for small businesses

Keap, the leader in sales and marketing automation software for small businesses, announced today that the Let's Grow Summit by Keap will take place from Nov. 8-10, at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix. The speakers for the event will include keynote Aditi Sharma, principal for product operations and strategy at Google, Donald Miller, CEO at StoryBrand, and Heidi Jannenga, chief clinical officer at WebPT.

"Our mission is to empower small business entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, but also their leadership skills, so they can positively impact their families and communities. We'll offer them new ways to learn, network and build community at the Let's Grow Summit," said Clate Mask, co-founder and CEO of Keap. "We believe that this event will help us deliver on our mission and give entrepreneurs the tools and insights they need to thrive."

Formerly known as the Keap ikon conference, the Let's Grow Summit is designed to train and inspire small business owners to take control of their growth and lead the way in their industries as well as train them to better use Keap's automation to grow their businesses.

The theme of this year's summit is "Lead the Way," and will focus on training attendees to approach disruption head-on and become leaders in their industries. The summit will feature an extensive curriculum with breakout sessions on how to implement and optimize customer lifecycle automation to fuel business growth, and offer valuable insights into personal and business growth tactics as well as networking opportunities with other small business entrepreneurs.

Keynote speaker Aditi Sharma, principal for product operations and strategy at Google, is an expert in business development and strategy. Sharma's talk will cover the future of marketing for small businesses according to insights from Google. Attendees will be inspired and empowered by Sharma's takeaways and expertise, and will leave the Let's Grow Summit with clarity on how to future-proof their growth strategy.

Basis Omnichannel DSP Provides Marketers with Access to Vistar Media’s Leading Marketplace for DOOH Media; Encompasses Digital Billboards, Street Furniture, Transit, and Place-Based Displays

Basis Technologies , a leading provider of cloud-based workflow automation and business intelligence software for marketing and advertising, today announced an integration with Vistar Media – the world’s leading marketplace for programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH). The Basis platform now provides marketers with DOOH programmatic buying capabilities through access to Vistar Media’s supply-side platform (SSP). This connects buyers to compelling digital signage encompassing billboards, street furniture, transit screens, and other place-based screens from Lamar Advertising, Clear Channel Outdoor, GSTV, Topgolf and many more. This capability was made available to select customers early this year.

Activating traditional out-of-home campaigns could be complex, requiring the marketer to identify locations in which to serve ads, ensure they reach target audiences, and then arrange deals with individual vendors. Furthermore, DOOH campaigns are often orchestrated alongside advertising on other channels. Basis gives users DOOH advertising capabilities to use alongside other digital channels and tactics through its omnichannel demand-side platform (DSP) that is nestled within media automation software for all major parts of campaigns, including buying on vendor-direct, search and social. 

“Utilizing Basis and Vistar for DOOH advertising gives DashHound, our proprietary technology platform, a distinct advantage in the market. We are able to extend our clients' targeted audiences from other channels into dynamic out-of-home media, reaching customers almost everywhere,” said Sok Verdery, director of digital strategy, Comporium (https://www.dashhound.com). “By seamlessly integrating data-driven insights and targeting capabilities, we can create cohesive and impactful advertising experiences that transcend silo’d channels. This strategic integration maximizes the effectiveness of our clients' advertising investments and enables them to meet their audience wherever they are.”

Vistar Media offers advertisers advanced targeting capabilities for their DOOH campaigns, ranging from geographical (postal code; DMA, region; point of interest); contextual (venue type); and day/time-parting (specific time of day or day of the week). The overall benefits of DOOH capabilities in Basis for agencies and marketers include: 

• Streamlined workflow for running programmatic DOOH campaigns. 
• Built-in impression multiplier accounting for DOOH being a one-to-many medium.
• Omnichannel targeting across different audiences and media channels. 
• Holistic reporting to compare DOOH value relative to other channels such as CTV, direct, social, and search, including media available in programmatic channels.

“DOOH is poised for accelerated growth as audiences fragment and become far more reachable in on-the-go, real-world settings,” said Marissa Bernstein, VP of Marketing, Vistar Media. “Basis Technologies’ approach of unifying omnichannel programmatic advertising with other buying tactics provides marketers with another avenue for streamlining their DOOH advertising needs. Now, brands connected to Basis can tap into Vistar’s robust network of inventory to maximize their DOOH campaign’s reach and results.”

“Industry projections show that programmatic DOOH advertising could eclipse $1 billion by 2025, with video formats making up a significant portion of that spending and value,” said Tyler Kelly, president, Basis Technologies. “Vistar has been a pioneer in providing advertisers with DOOH media accessibility at scale. Its key value has been the knowledge it delivers to media professionals on how DOOH can amplify the visibility and engagement of brands.”