Vmake, the AI-driven video editor from Starii Tech, has announced a major platform upgrade, targeting a growing segment of creators who rely on talking-head video content. As demand for professional-grade video creation tools rises among educators, influencers, and small businesses, Vmake positions itself as an all-in-one solution eliminating the complexity of traditional editing workflows.

The upgraded platform addresses common creator pain points—lack of editing skills, juggling multiple tools, and time-consuming production—by integrating recording, AI editing, captioning, quality enhancement, and export into one intuitive interface. Key new features include an AI Video Watermark Remover, AI Teleprompter, Auto Caption Generator, AI Templates, AI Hooks, and a Video Enhancer—geared toward creating polished, high-conversion content quickly.

“With Vmake’s AI Template, my video production time dropped from an hour to three minutes,” said Sarah, an educational influencer. Similar feedback poured in from consultants, fitness coaches, e-commerce sellers, and real estate professionals who praise the platform’s ability to simplify video creation without compromising quality.

“Vmake is designed to help creators look and sound professional without needing a production team,” said Cyril Hao, Operations Lead at Vmake. “Our goal is to help users amplify their voice and grow their influence through seamless, high-quality talking videos.”

Developed by Starii Tech Pty Ltd, Vmake continues to evolve with a focus on empowering non-professional creators to establish authority and engagement through scalable, AI-enhanced content creation.

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 5W Public Relations (5WPR), one of the largest independently-owned PR firms in the U.S., has been appointed as the agency of record for Acme Smoked Fish, the Brooklyn-based leader in premium smoked seafood.

The partnership will see 5WPR develop and execute an integrated communications strategy to grow brand awareness, strengthen Acme’s cultural relevance, and deepen consumer connections. The program will include strategic communications planning, media relations, influencer engagement, and creative storytelling, all aligned with Acme’s heritage and values.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Acme Smoked Fish, a brand with deep roots, iconic products, and an unwavering commitment to quality,” said Leigh Ann Ambrosi, Managing Partner and EVP, CPG & Lifestyle at 5WPR. “Our team looks forward to spotlighting Acme’s leadership in smoked seafood and helping tell the next chapter of its story through high-impact campaigns.”

A fourth-generation, family-owned company, Acme Smoked Fish has over a century of expertise crafting products such as lox, smoked salmon, and whitefish salad. Known for sustainability, innovation, and authentic food experiences, Acme products have become a staple in homes, delis, and restaurants nationwide.

From its New York headquarters, 5WPR will manage bi-annual product mailers, influencer partnerships, press campaigns, award submissions, and real-time media activations. The agency will also deploy robust analytics to track campaign performance and inform future strategy.

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Financial institutions swimming in data but struggling to harness it for growth may want to tune in on August 13. Alkami Technology (Nasdaq: ALKT), a leading provider of cloud-based digital banking solutions, has announced a new webinar titled “From Data Mess to Marketing Yes”, aimed at helping marketers in banking convert complex datasets into personalized, ROI-driven campaigns.

Set for Wednesday, August 13, 2025, at 2:00 PM ET, the session will feature Alkami alongside INB, a forward-leaning bank that’s successfully leveraged Alkami’s marketing tools to drive smarter, faster, and more measurable campaigns.

“Before partnering with Alkami, we had data—but no way to activate it,” said Lindsay Van Zele, communications officer at INB. “Now, our campaigns are smarter, faster to deploy, and tied directly to growth metrics.”

While many banks have matured past the hurdle of data access, the new challenge lies in translating insights into behavior-shaping campaigns. Alkami aims to fill that gap by demonstrating how enriched financial intelligence can plug directly into marketing platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce.

Key topics to be covered include:

• Extracting insights from core and third-party financial data

• Deploying pre-built campaigns that reduce time-to-value

• Powering CRMs with enriched behavioral and transactional data

• Tracking and optimizing marketing ROI at every stage

“Many financial institutions are just beginning to unlock the full potential of their data,” said Mark Leher, Director of Product Management at Alkami. “This webinar is about moving from analysis to action—where insights actually generate measurable outcomes.”

Listrak has launched its “Season of Success: Holiday Resource Center,” a strategic hub designed to help retailers thrive during the critical 2025 holiday shopping period. The resource center offers marketers a curated suite of tools, insights, and expert guidance to drive personalized, timely, and high-impact campaigns as consumer expectations evolve.

“As retailers prepare for Holiday 2025, consumers are shopping earlier and demanding greater personalization and value,” said Jamie Elden, Chief Revenue Officer at Listrak. “This hub equips marketers with practical, expert-led strategies to meet those expectations.”

Key offerings from the Holiday Resource Center include:

• Marketing Guide Monthly Calendar: A planning roadmap featuring monthly themes, key retail dates, and shipping deadlines.

• Holiday Testing Checklist: A 15-point testing framework to help marketers fine-tune their strategies before peak season hits.

• Holiday Strategy Sessions: A video series offering expert insights into holiday marketing trends and tactics.

• 2024 Insights Worth Revisiting: A data-driven recap of top-performing tactics and benchmarks from last year’s holiday campaigns.

This latest launch builds on Listrak’s broader strategic support for retailers, following the release of its Retail Outlook Reports for H2 2025, with tailored insights for Fashion, Beauty, and General Retail sectors.

In today’s digital-first world, delivering personalized service at scale is the holy grail for customer experience (CX) leaders. Glance, known for its cobrowsing and visual engagement solutions, is betting big on this vision by partnering with CloudHesive, an AWS Premier Partner with deep roots in cloud-native contact center infrastructure.

Announced hot on the heels of the AWS Summit in New York, the Glance-CloudHesive alliance brings together the best of both worlds: CloudHesive’s scalable, secure cloud platforms and Glance’s high-touch, real-time human engagement. The result? A unified offering aimed squarely at enterprises that want to improve customer experience without sacrificing speed, security, or empathy.

Why It Matters

This partnership isn’t just a feel-good story about collaboration. It directly addresses a central tension in modern CX: how to scale digital interactions while still making customers feel seen and supported.

With this integration, users of CloudHesive’s AWS-based contact center solutions—particularly Amazon Connect customers—can now embed Glance’s visual collaboration tools directly into their workflows. That means agents can guide customers through complex transactions, onboarding, or troubleshooting in real time—visually and securely.

“We're helping brands deliver more personal, empathetic, and effective experiences at scale,” said Adam Atwood, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Glance. “CloudHesive brings the infrastructure; Glance brings the high-touch human interaction.”

Guided CX, Now With AWS Muscle

Glance’s “Guided CX” approach is about meeting the customer exactly when and where they need help—whether that’s mid-purchase, during onboarding, or resolving a high-priority issue. With CloudHesive’s AWS-backed architecture providing the speed, security, and scalability, this partnership adds visual, collaborative muscle to the traditional contact center setup.

Key benefits include:

• Shorter deal cycles by reducing friction at key customer moments

• Improved first-call resolution and customer satisfaction

• Real-time visual guidance through complex workflows

• Face-to-face digital collaboration that builds trust

• Enhanced agent productivity with better tools and less guesswork

This kind of capability is increasingly critical as brands retool their CX strategies around both AI and human empathy. According to trends from the AWS Summit, enterprises are aggressively modernizing—but also realizing automation alone doesn’t cut it when customers are making important decisions or seeking support.

Available Now via AWS Marketplace

One practical upside: both Glance and CloudHesive are available on the AWS Marketplace. That makes deployment faster and easier for existing Amazon Connect users looking to add real-time human interaction to their digital playbook.

“Automation is essential, but not at the cost of human connection,” said Patrick Hannah, CTO of CloudHesive. “Our partnership with Glance empowers contact centers to resolve issues faster, close deals more efficiently, and build stronger customer relationships — with the security and scalability of the AWS cloud.”

In an era where digital self-service is expected and human support is still vital, the Glance-CloudHesive partnership is a timely reminder: scaling empathy is just as important as scaling infrastructure.

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As generative AI evolves from buzzword to business driver, many enterprises find themselves stuck in the “proof of concept” phase. Cybage, a global IT services company, is looking to change that—with a major boost from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In a newly inked Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA), Cybage and AWS aim to bridge the gap between Gen AI experimentation and real-world execution. At the core of the partnership is Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s fully managed service offering a menu of top-tier foundation models. With this collaboration, enterprises can finally bypass the usual Gen AI roadblocks—like high upfront costs, architectural complexity, and a lack of internal expertise.

From Prototype to Production, Fast

This isn’t just about access to tools. The agreement brings a blend of AWS cloud-native infrastructure, funding for eligible Gen AI projects, and Cybage’s engineering know-how to accelerate deployments.

For customers, this means:

• Faster Gen AI rollouts using Amazon Bedrock

• Migration support from open-source or legacy AI solutions

• Greenfield development for new Gen AI applications

• Technical and financial support for proof-of-concept to production-ready systems

AWS will provide targeted funding for qualifying proof-of-concept, pilot, and enterprise-scale Gen AI use cases, giving companies a financial on-ramp to transformation.

Why Cybage?

Cybage isn’t new to this space. With a two-year track record in Gen AI R&D and enterprise deployments, the company brings deep expertise in data engineering, cloud modernization, and AI solution delivery. Its ExcelShore® framework underpins project execution, while its proprietary Gen AI platform, SmartPal, offers secure RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) with built-in guardrails and agent capabilities.

Think of SmartPal as a Gen AI accelerator: it helps teams quickly prototype and deploy real-world AI applications without compromising on governance or security.

SonicWall: A Case Study in Speed and Scale

A recent collaboration with cybersecurity firm SonicWall illustrates how this partnership plays out. Faced with the need to deploy a secure, scalable chatbot for managed service providers, SonicWall turned to Cybage and the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center.

In just a few weeks, they migrated from an open-source solution to a production-grade system built on Amazon Bedrock. The implementation used Amazon Bedrock Guardrails, AWS PrivateLink, and OpenSearch—substantially enhancing security while slashing operational complexity.

“Cybage enabled us to migrate and launch a fully secure, scalable Gen AI chatbot in weeks—not months,” said Denis Branco, EVP at SonicWall. “Their guidance and AWS alignment were key to our transformation.”

Enterprise-Ready AI, with Guardrails On

In a market flooded with Gen AI hype, the Cybage-AWS collaboration stands out for its focus on responsible, scalable deployment. Cybage’s Gen AI delivery model emphasizes:

• Human-in-the-loop validation

• Transparent, explainable model behavior

• Robust security and governance controls

• Built-in compliance guardrails

“Realizing AI’s potential requires more than ambition—it demands structure,” said Kiran Kembhavi, SVP of Cloud, Data, and AI at Cybage. “By aligning with AWS and leveraging Amazon Bedrock, we’re helping enterprises move beyond the pilot stage and into value-generating territory.”

Market Implications

With this agreement, Cybage positions itself alongside a growing list of AWS partners using Bedrock to streamline Gen AI adoption. But unlike some peers still focused on experimentation, Cybage is doubling down on implementation at scale—an area many companies struggle with.

For organizations ready to transition from hype to hard ROI, this partnership offers a clear path: proven tools, expert support, and a fast track to production.

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As federal agencies ramp up efforts to modernize and streamline operations, ICF has stepped into the spotlight with ICF Fathom™, a newly launched suite of AI-driven solutions and services tailored specifically for government needs.

Announced this week, Fathom is designed to meet agencies wherever they are on the AI maturity curve—from pilot programs to enterprise-wide rollouts—helping them unlock immediate value without disrupting legacy infrastructure. Unlike many federal AI offerings still stuck in the proof-of-concept phase, ICF Fathom is built for real-world deployment at scale.

Modular, Embedded, and Mission-Driven

At the core of Fathom is a set of intelligent AI agents that can be securely embedded into existing systems and workflows. These aren’t just glorified chatbots—they’re built to execute complex tasks like document processing, software development, regulatory analysis, and grants management. The goal: enable faster decision-making, reduce waste and fraud, and meaningfully boost operational efficiency.

John Wasson, ICF chair and CEO, positioned the platform as a strategic response to growing modernization pressure across federal agencies. “With ICF Fathom, we've developed a flexible and production-ready solution that integrates seamlessly into existing systems at scale while unlocking the full potential of AI to support mission outcomes,” he said.

Built for Government Scale—and Speed

What sets Fathom apart is its open, modular architecture, allowing agencies to deploy AI in the way that best suits their needs—whether that’s embedded directly into on-prem infrastructure, via a hosted cloud model, or as part of a hybrid deployment. This flexibility makes it a strong candidate for diverse federal missions, especially those where security and customization are paramount.

Already deployed across several key U.S. government agencies, Fathom is showing early signs of delivering measurable returns. According to ICF, deployments have resulted in improvements to productivity, regulatory compliance, and overall mission performance.

Not Just AI for AI’s Sake

Unlike AI solutions that often arrive packaged in buzzwords but short on execution, ICF Fathom reflects a grounded approach. It draws on ICF’s long-standing federal domain expertise and a legacy of digital modernization. The company’s portfolio spans cloud platforms, automation, machine learning, and advanced analytics—giving it the technical and operational chops to deliver solutions that aren’t just cutting-edge but also fit for mission-critical use.

A Competitive Edge in a Crowded Federal AI Landscape

With agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, NASA, and the IRS accelerating their AI initiatives, vendors are jockeying for position. ICF's bet on embedded AI agents with modular architecture is a notable differentiator in a market still saturated with "AI-adjacent" tools. Its emphasis on production-ready deployment over experimentation could give Fathom an edge as federal buyers prioritize outcomes over hype.

More importantly, Fathom is launching at a time when U.S. agencies are under clear directives to adopt AI ethically, securely, and effectively—thanks in part to the Biden administration’s 2023 executive order on safe and trustworthy AI use in government. Solutions like Fathom, with human-in-the-loop design options and explainable AI capabilities, check many of those critical boxes.

ICF Fathom isn't just another toolkit promising AI magic. It's a serious entry into the government AI space—backed by deep policy know-how, an agile deployment framework, and a clear vision for transforming mission delivery with measurable impact.

For federal agencies facing the pressure to do more with less—and to do it faster—Fathom offers a smart, scalable pathway from AI intent to AI impact.

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In the high-stakes world of consumer packaged goods (CPG), visibility is everything. But for early-stage brands, cracking into crowded markets often feels like shouting into the void. Enter 5WPR’s CPG Brand Accelerator—a new offering designed to give emerging CPG brands the tools, traction, and storytelling chops they need to stand out, scale up, and get on shelves.

Announced this week by one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the U.S., the CPG Brand Accelerator is a tailor-made solution for startups navigating the chaotic early phases of growth. It fuses traditional PR, digital marketing, and founder-led storytelling into a cohesive strategy aimed at turning product launches into retail-ready momentum.

Not Just Shelf Space—Mindshare

“Getting a new CPG brand off the ground is about more than just shelf space,” said Leigh Ann Ambrosi, Managing Partner and EVP of CPG & Lifestyle at 5WPR. “It requires visibility, credibility, and momentum from the start.”

The accelerator focuses on building foundational awareness through media relations, influencer engagement, and thought leadership. At the same time, it aligns with performance marketing to create demand and track outcomes—because brand equity is only half the battle. ROI matters.

From press and social to behind-the-scenes storytelling and mission-driven messaging, 5WPR’s teams aim to humanize products and connect with consumers through values like transparency, sustainability, and authenticity—critical decision drivers in today’s market.

Designed for CPG Realities

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The CPG Brand Accelerator is led by 5WPR’s consumer and digital marketing teams, both experienced in fast-moving verticals like food and beverage, beauty, wellness, and home essentials. Each campaign is built around key marketing funnel stages, supporting short-term wins (like media buzz and early adopter engagement) and long-term goals (like retail sell-in and investor visibility).

Key features of the accelerator include:

• Media relations and influencer outreach tailored for CPG storytelling

• Launch communication strategies that capture attention and credibility

• Integrated PR and digital marketing campaigns for omnichannel reach

• Founder-led narratives that personalize brands and deepen consumer trust

• Performance marketing alignment to track and amplify campaign ROI

A Growth Engine with Purpose

For new brands, the real challenge isn’t just creating demand—it’s doing it with purpose. 5WPR’s approach helps startups tell stories that resonate with today’s conscious consumers while building trust with retailers and investors.

Whether it’s a first launch or a scale-up into national distribution, the CPG Brand Accelerator is positioned as both a starting point and a growth partner. And with the line between PR and performance marketing increasingly blurred, 5WPR is leaning into what it calls a “PR-first” approach to measurable brand building.

In a market where many early-stage brands burn out before they break through, this offering might just be the competitive edge needed to go from concept to category contender.

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