New Capabilities Include Digital-First Qualitative Solutions, In-Report Voice of the Consumer, Instant Survey Responses Available in Hours

Numerator, a data and tech company serving the market research space, announced an expanded suite of research capabilities in Canada, powered by a multimillion-dollar investment to grow its Canadian consumer panel and add new Numerator Surveys offerings. Building on Numerator’s ability to identify and target specific cohorts of verified buyers for authentic survey responses, Canadian brands and retailers can now access same-day survey responses and new digital-first qualitative research tools. Additionally, the launch of AskWhy, a new in-report survey solution, surfaces voice of the consumer alongside Numerator Insights findings within hours.

Numerator Survey respondents are sourced from Numerator’s Survey Panel of over 75,000 monthly active users in Canada who opt in to share their online and offline shopping data with Numerator. This enables behavioral targeting for surveys instead of relying on voluntary recall or claimed behavior. Because Numerator Panelists are highly engaged and share both behavioral and attitudinal data, the Numerator Surveys solutions result in high-quality survey data. Numerator Surveys are hosted within a consumer app and triggered by purchases, minimizing response fraud that is prevalent in market research today.

“Numerator serves a unique space in the market at the intersection of behavioral and attitudinal data. Understanding what consumers do and why is paramount to decisions being made by brands and retailers today. We’ve made a multi-year investment to help brands and retailers make those decisions faster and with more confidence. The market research industry has increasing concern for survey response quality, but Numerator has a proven process to help brands connect to real, highly engaged people,” said Sean Martin, GM of International Business, Numerator.

Numerator investments into survey data and technology include:

• Panel expansion for larger universe of verified buyers: Numerator’s Canadian OmniPanel grew by 25% in September of 2023, unlocking the ability to target more than 75,000 monthly active users and 15,000 static panelists with longitudinal purchase behavior for surveys based on verified purchase data alongside detailed demographic and psychographic profiles.
• Faster results: Numerator Instant Surveys, a self-serve, in-platform solution for brands and retailers to get fast answers directly from consumers, now provides responses within hours.
• Numerator AskWhy: This new survey capability, launched in December 2023, allows users to launch surveys directly from Numerator Insights reports for the first time. This means that custom report profiles trigger corresponding survey respondent profiles, automatically generating simple, in-context answers.
• Expanded qualitative platform: Numerator has expanded its digital-first qualitative capabilities, called NuQual, to now include three offerings:
  • NuQual Media: Adds qualitative texture to quantitative studies through the add-on of consumer photos and video uploads.
  • NuQual Pulse: Moderates interactions directly with consumers in Numerator’s app to understand consumer motivations – delivering results at twice the speed of industry averages.
  • NuQual Custom: Facilitates virtual in-depth interviews and focus groups to go deeper and connect with consumers in a real-time format.

Mintegral, Mobvista's programmatic advertising subsidiary, announced today that it has been approved as the latest vendor to join IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (V2.2 TCF). Mintegral has also launched updated SDKs to support the Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) and ensure compliance with the additional data protection regulations.

Mintegral's updates align with GDPR and reflect changes beginning January 16, 2024, when all partners using Google publisher products are required to use a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) which integrates with the TCF when serving ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK.

IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework

The TCF was developed by IAB Europe in collaboration with organizations and professionals in the online industry. It relies on standardization to facilitate compliance with certain provisions of the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR. This enables publishers of websites and apps (first parties) and technology partners that support the delivery, personalization, or measurement of advertising and content (third parties or vendors) to work together and provide users with a standardized experience.

With partners across the globe, Mintegral is acutely aware of the importance of protecting the security and privacy of customer data. Mintegral has continued to make industry-leading moves to further strengthen its data security and privacy systems.

In addition to integrating with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework, Mintegral has been issued SOC2 Type 2 and SOC 3 reports. Mintegral has also successfully  remained compliant with IAB OM SDK, GDPR, CCPA, and COPPA while receiving ISO/IEC 27001 and ePrivacyseal endorsements.

Research highlights affinity for privacy-forward targeting approaches, CTV and AI/ML-based technologies

AdTheorent Holding Company, Inc., a machine-learning pioneer and industry leader using privacy-forward solutions to deliver measurable value for programmatic advertisers, today announced the results from a study with Advertiser Perceptions, the leading provider of research-based strategic market intelligence to the media, advertising, and ad tech industries.  The research examines the state of the open-web programmatic advertising industry with the goal of understanding how brand and agency advertisers in the US and Canada are evolving their programmatic strategies and leveraging new channels.

The State of the Programmatic Advertising Industry Report takes a deep dive into four key areas:

1.  Programmatic Goals, Priorities and Investments: 

• • Advertisers view open-web programmatic (i.e., outside the walled gardens of social media and search) as a critical driver of growth, expecting to drive brand lift, sales and advanced digital actions; the top three programmatic goals for advertisers are:
    • US: audience delivery (59%), brand lift (53%) and sales lift (52%)
    • Canada: sales lift (55%), brand lift (52%) and viewability rate (51%)
  • Advertisers are turning to programmatic to activate the full funnel for their campaigns; 49% of US and 50% of Canadian advertisers utilize programmatic for all campaign types (top, mid and lower funnel).
  • Investment in programmatic remains strong, with 54% of US advertisers and 72% of Canadian advertisers planning to spend more in the next 12 months.

2.  Connected Television (CTV):

• • Nearly 89% of US and 95% of Canadian advertisers rate CTV effective at driving intended objectives, specifically, they are seeing success with buying CTV programmatically for:
    • US: Ability to reach target audiences (47%); Better ROI/ROAS (42%); Easier campaign targeting and optimization (42%).
    • Canada: Ability to reach target audiences (53%); Easier to achieve scale/reach (50%); Ability to activate one video campaign across multiple properties (45%).
  • The vast majority of advertisers in the US (71%) and Canada (90%) are interested in utilizing CTV to drive superior performance when used as part of a full-funnel approach vs. utilizing the channel as solely an upper-funnel tactic.  Additionally, advertisers are tracking campaign attribution in a variety of ways reflective of this full-funnel approach:
    • US: Video completes (65%); Business outcomes: (63%); ROAS (55%)
    • Canada: Business outcomes (68%); ROAS (60%); Video completes (52%)

3.  Privacy and Identity:

• • Advertisers are faced with the difficult task of succeeding in an environment of increasing privacy restrictions; from a cookie-less future to the demise of mobile ad identifiers (MAIDS), to stricter limitations on what data can be collected from consumers.  Three steps that advertisers in the US and Canada have taken to prepare are:
    • Developing or partnering with providers not dependent on personal data for targeting (US: 59%; Canada: 65%)
    • Developing or partnering for contextual targeting solutions to complement behavioral targeting (US: 51%; Canada: 53%)
    • Developing or partnering for first-party solutions such as sign-ins and email newsletters (US: 47%; Canada: 50%)
  • Advertisers will continue to evolve how they identify their target audiences. A majority in each market expressed interest across various techniques to identify audiences, with the highest level of interest being the use of ML-based audiences that are not reliant on IDs or personally identifiable information (PII) (87% US; 93% Canada).

4.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML):

• • Significant majorities of advertisers are using or plan to use AI/ML in their programmatic advertising strategies. More specifically, in the US about 9 in 10 programmatic advertisers are using or will use AI/ML for contextual targeting, to drive performance and personalization. In Canada, about 9 in 10 are using or will use AI/ML for custom ad creation, and again to drive performance and personalization. These uses of AI/ML bode well for programmatic audience engagement and the ability to drive the full-funnel metrics cited earlier.
  • Notably, 99% of US advertisers and 100% of Canadian advertisers plan to maintain or increase their levels of investment in AI/ML over the next 12 months. The better news is that significant shares are expecting to increase their AI/ML spend (50% in the US and 69% in Canada). This reflects the optimism advertisers have for their widespread adoption of AI/ML technologies going into 2024.

"We are excited to share the powerful results of AdTheorent's 'State of the Programmatic Advertising Industry Report,' conducted with Advertiser Perceptions.  The results reflect the enormous opportunity across open-web programmatic advertising, specifically its success driving business outcomes across the full funnel of available digital tactics, including CTV," said Jim Lawson, CEO of AdTheorent. "It's promising to see advertisers embrace and have success with privacy-forward methods, including advancing their audience targeting strategies to utilize ML-based audiences that are not reliant on IDs, which we believe is the future of the industry."

"These research results demonstrate the growing importance of programmatic advertising for brands and agencies across all verticals," said Stuart Schneiderman, EVP, Business Intelligence at Advertiser Perceptions. "What our data shows is that advertisers are prioritizing programmatic, connected TV and AI/ML and that they will be sources of investment and success for many years to come."

Based on social video content from thousands of global brands, Emplifi’s findings reveal a noticeable shift in Instagram Reels performance rates, with longer videos outperforming short-form videos

Emplifi, a leading customer engagement platform, today released video performance data for branded Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels and videos, and TikTok content, offering advertisers valuable insights as they develop social media marketing strategies for the year ahead. After analyzing 2023 video performance for thousands of brand-owned social media accounts using the Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud, Emplifi discovered Instagram Reels are generating massive results for advertisers, outperforming all other types of video content, including branded TikTok videos and Facebook video content.

Emplifi also compared video views for short, medium, and long Instagram Reels, as well as varying TikTok video lengths, and found longer Instagram Reels (over 90 seconds) generated more than double the number of median video views compared to TikTok videos.

“One of the most interesting findings from our research is the shift we’ve witnessed in Instagram Reels video lengths, with longer run-times winning more engagement for brands compared to short-form video. This represents a change in user behavior, with more time being spent on videos that run longer than the average 15-second or 30-second video ad format,” said Zarnaz Arlia, CMO, Emplifi. “This insight offers an exciting opportunity for brands to reconsider their creative strategy on Instagram. The data shows that audiences are responding positively to longer videos — the key is producing entertaining and valuable content that keeps them watching.”

Emplifi’s data supports broader industry findings. According to Insider Intelligence, people spend more time watching social videos than any other social media content format. When looking at the average amount of time U.S. adults spent on social media platforms in 2023, more than half of their time (56.5%) was devoted to social videos, up more than 15 percentage points during the last three years.

Instagram Reels Dominate All Other Instagram Content

Not only are Instagram Reels outperforming videos posted on other social media platforms, but they are also the top-performing content type on Instagram, delivering six times the reach of Instagram Stories.

Yet, brands continue to consistently post more Stories than Reels. Between May and October 2023, the number of Instagram Stories posted by global brands was five times the number of Instagram Reels posted.

Video Lengths Matter on Instagram, Not So Much on TikTok

Emplifi found longer-form videos on Instagram generated more views compared to short- and medium-length videos, while TikTok video views remained in the same range regardless of video length.

Instagram Reels that ran longer in length gained 8,372 median views compared to 3,379 views on TikTok. In fact, longer Instagram Reels outperformed all other Reels lengths, with short Reels (under 30 seconds) earning 6,145 median views and medium-length Reels (30- to 90-seconds) earning a median of 7,830 views.

Based on Emplifi’s analysis, brands are maintaining similar content volume across both Instagram and TikTok, indicating a balanced approach to their overall video marketing efforts. The substantial difference in video views for branded Instagram Reels versus branded TikTok content is likely the result of Instagram’s push to prioritize Reels on the platform.

Facebook Reels Driving More Views Than Other Facebook Video Content

Facebook Live saw a surge in usage by brands during Q4 2023, with 1.5 times more Facebook Live videos posted than the previous four quarters. This uptick in Facebook Live content underscores the broader trend of consumers wanting more real-time, interactive content.

Meanwhile, Facebook Reels performance rates mirror that of Instagram, with longer Facebook Reels consistently gaining more reach compared to shorter video lengths. When looking at engagement metrics, Facebook Reels saw more than three times the number of median views as other video content on the platform.

According to Emplifi’s CMO, the primary takeaway from these findings is that Instagram Reels are driving massive results for brands, but the format is still not being adopted by advertisers as quickly as other content types.

“When you look at Instagram content specifically, brands continue to use Stories more often than Reels — mostly likely because Stories take less of a lift to create — but Reels are delivering far better results. The same is true when you compare Facebook Reels to other Facebook video content. Despite the growth in Reels on Facebook, brands still publish more traditional video formats,” said Arlia. “The underlying theme here is that there are untapped opportunities for the brands that are willing to lean further into their Instagram video strategy and make Reels part of their social media campaigns. By investing in an effective social media solution like Emplifi Social Marketing Cloud, brands could quickly scale their Reels creation efforts, a strategic move that could have a massive impact on the number of consumers they reach and the amount of video views they generate.”

LTK, the platform that powers Creator Commerce™, empowers hundreds of thousands of creators to maximise their income by monetising their content and connecting them to global brand partnerships. Today, LTK announced a significant 70% increase in UK creators applying to the platform over the past year, signifying accelerated growth of new entrepreneurs fuelling the next phase of the creator economy.

Every year LTK Creators have helped contribute to more than £3.24B in annual sales for 1000s of brands around the world.

The recent surge in LTK's creator community within the UK showcases the platform's success in fostering collaboration, creativity, and entrepreneurship among content creators. By providing a user-friendly and intuitive platform for content monetisation, LTK has become a trusted partner for thousands of UK creators seeking to transform their content into a viable and sustainable income avenue. For over a decade now, LTK Co-founder and President and legacy content creator, Amber Venz Box has enabled women across the globe to diversify their income, engage with their communities and make a living from their passion. There are currently 240 LTK Creators that are millionaires through the platform - all are women.

“LTK is one of the best platforms for digital content creators like me,” said UK content creator, Annam Ahmad. “It has been one of my main sources of income for many years.”

According to a shopper study conducted by LTK, an overwhelming majority of shoppers make purchases from creators now - 73% of Gen Z, 69% of Millennials, and 57% of the general population. In the UK, 55% of Londoners and 42% of the entire British population have bought from a creator. Creators have become more trusted among consumers than social media ads and celebrities. Globally brands have already invested more than £2B in LTK Creators through the platform.

LTK enables content creators to monetise their authentic recommendations and inspire their audiences by offering a seamless shopping experience for their communities. Through LTK's innovative platform, creators can easily share shoppable content across various social media platforms, enabling their followers to discover and purchase the products they love.

UK content creator Mollie Campsie said, “I’ve gained a lot of financial freedom this year, and I did it using LTK. I can genuinely say that being part of the LTK community has had an immeasurable impact on my career and actually my life. There is serious money to be earned if you’re ambitious, enthusiastic and love creating content.”

Creators that have gone on to build their own products and brands leveraging LTK include: Sarah Ashcroft, We Are Twinset, Anisa Sojka, Louise Roe, Sammi Maria, Grace Beverly, Louise Thompson, Ruby Holley, Helena Critchley, Chloe Adair, Lorna Luxe.

Customers expected to save millions across HR, IT, and Operational expenditures

IntelePeer, a leading AI-powered communications automation platform provider, announces the delivery of generative AI solutions to its customers. With a total value worth more than $2.3M in revenue for IntelePeer, the deals are anticipated to generate millions of dollars in savings for these companies stemming from reductions in human resources, IT and operational expenditures.

“This has been an exciting year for IntelePeer as we lead the communications automation marketplace and grow our AI practice to capitalize upon the powers of generative AI,” commented IntelePeer CEO Frank Fawzi. “IntelePeer is delivering game-changing solutions to our customers, with the vast majority seeing in-quarter return on their investments. Additionally, our solutions enable businesses to fill the talent gap in their contact centers which reduces the cost of labor while providing a better customer experience through AI and automation. As we look to 2024, we’re positive this momentum will continue.”

The customers span industries from healthcare to transportation and education and includes a contact center provider. Details are as follows:

• An educational software company: IntelePeer is developing a dynamic, self-serve FAQ that will be powered by generative AI and is implementing an automated alphanumeric password reset solution. The customer’s goal is to reduce its need to hire thousands of seasonal employees for fall and spring semesters, saving approximately $20 million in overhead costs.
• A contact center catering to the on-demand transportation industry: Handling more than 70K calls per week, the contact center is looking to use generative AI to automate the fare estimate, booking, and payment process, while offering customers self-serve FAQ capabilities. By harnessing IntelePeer’s communications automation platform and Managed Solutions, the company aims to take its call containment rates to 80% and anticipates more than $1.3M savings in labor and operational costs.
• A logistics and trucking company: Providing final mile delivery solutions, this customer is using IntelePeer’s generative AI solutions to automate delivery and pick-up scheduling, tracking of delivery status, rerouting of shipments, and the processing of loss claims. The company will also integrate IntelePeer’s solution with its proprietary shipping software to provide real-time freight analytics to its customers. As the project grows, the company is expected to scale the solution to work with its international freight shipping division. IntelePeer’s solution is estimated to provide the customer with hundreds of thousands in labor cost savings.
• A dental support organization: Supporting more than 120 offices around the country, this company is looking to improve the patient appointment process as well as in-office experience. IntelePeer is using generative AI to automate the company’s scheduling process and is developing an interactive FAQ that can respond to patient questions regarding symptoms and dental needs. In addition to lowering cancelled appointments and no-shows by 30%, the customer’s goal is to increase call containment rates up to 75% while reducing overhead costs by approximately $1.5 million annually.

IntelePeer’s communications automation platform leverages world-class generative AI enabling users to build communications-enabled workflows that integrate seamlessly with existing processes. At the heart of the platform is the AI Hub. The AI Hub is a one-stop-shop for IntelePeer engineers, CX experts, and partners, allowing them to quickly ingest customer data, test and deploy AI-driven solutions for customers. The AI Hub helps the rapid building and deployment of bots to handle both inbound and outbound interactions, fulfilling specific business needs. Key features include:

• Omnichannel bot building and testing functionality,
• secure and private customer data and information ingesting capabilities,
• an AI modeling and testing environment,
• integration with IntelePeer SmartFlows a low-code platform for building communications and AI workflows,
• security and compliance frameworks, and
• performance monitoring capabilities.

Retail and consumer sector executive brings extensive experience and strategic insight to foster Kibo's growth.

Provides Businesses with the Fastest Path to Messaging Success

MessageWhiz, a leading provider of messaging services, today announced that its CPaaS platform is available on Google Cloud Marketplace. These channels form the bedrock of modern customer communications and enable businesses to foster one-to-one relationships with their stakeholders.

For Google Cloud customers, MessageWhiz's SMS, RCS and chat apps will enable them to easily create two-way conversations with their customers, send rich media messages, and secure accounts with one-time passwords. The platform helps manage all engagements, and integrates easily with leading CRMs. It empowers enterprises and SMBs to deliver omnichannel support over voice, text and chat with its carrier-grade calling and messaging platform.

"We are thrilled to offer MessageWhiz's powerful business messaging on our CPaaS platform on Google Cloud Marketplace, making it more accessible for businesses, and help improve their customer relationships," said Arie Frenklakh, CEO of  MMDSmart, creators of MessageWhiz.

"Bringing MessageWhiz to Google Cloud Marketplace will help customers quickly deploy, manage, and grow the CPaaS platform on Google Cloud's trusted, global infrastructure," said Dai Vu, Managing Director, Marketplace & ISV GTM Programs at Google Cloud. "MessageWhiz can now securely scale and support customers on their digital transformation journeys."

Through MessageWhiz, customers can improve, monitor, and manage their voice and messaging efforts, including:

CPaaS: Communication platform as a Service digitally transforms the call center to the cloud, enabling businesses to easily scale call center activities over a carrier-grade voice network

Messaging: Reaching customers over SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and other channels with rich communication options that include images, video, interactive buttons, file sharing and payment options.