Next Net Media, the powerhouse behind 200,000 website success stories, is excited to announce its acquisition of LinkBuilder.io, a prominent player in the SEO and link-building industry.

This strategic move is poised to enhance Next Net Media's suite of digital marketing brands. Next Net Media currently owns premier SEO companies Authority Builders, The HOTH, and SEOJet, as well as freelance marketplaces FreeUp and iWriter, and the advanced GAI platform, Copymatic.ai. The LinkBuilder.io acquisition further solidifies Next Net Media as a market leader in the digital marketing space.

The acquisition of LinkBuilder.io represents a significant milestone for Next Net Media, aligning perfectly with the company's commitment to providing comprehensive digital marketing solutions to clients around the world. This acquisition underscores the company's dedication to delivering quality deliverables and expanding its capabilities in SEO, a crucial component of digital marketing success.

LinkBuilder.io, known for its exceptional track record in link-building for well known consumer and business brands, brings a wealth of expertise, a talented team, and a robust portfolio of clients to the Next Net Media family. The integration of LinkBuilder.io's resources and knowledge into Next Net Media's existing services will enable the company to provide even more effective digital marketing strategies, including enhanced link-building solutions, to its clients.

"This acquisition is a significant step forward for Next Net Media, and we are thrilled to welcome LinkBuilder.io into our family,” said Marc Pickren, President of Next Net Media. “Their strong reputation in the industry, combined with their experienced team and proven results, will further empower us to meet the evolving needs of our clients.".

Marc Hardgrove, CEO of Next Net Media said, "Acquiring LinkBuilder.io signifies a monumental step in our quest to offer the very best in link-building solutions. This strategic move not only bolsters our presence in the digital arena but also propels us to provide unparalleled quality and innovation in the link-building industry. Together, we're poised to set new standards and lead the way in delivering the ultimate link-building experience."

Link-building is a critical aspect of search engine optimization (SEO), helping websites improve their search engine rankings and increase online visibility. By joining forces with LinkBuilder.io, Next Net Media will have a broader and more diversified toolbox to enhance the online presence of its clients. This strategic partnership will facilitate the creation of more robust SEO strategies, tailor-made for businesses across various industries.

"We are excited to become a part of Next Net Media, a company that shares our commitment to delivering world class digital marketing services," said Stewart Dunlop, Founder and CEO of LinkBuilder.io. "Together, we can leverage our strengths to create innovative and impactful campaigns that will benefit our clients and drive success in the digital landscape."

The acquisition of LinkBuilder.io is also expected to bring synergies and efficiencies that will result in more cost-effective solutions for Next Net Media's clients. The combined resources of both companies will enhance research capabilities, enabling a deeper understanding of the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape.

Next Net Media and LinkBuilder.io will be working closely in the coming months to ensure a seamless transition and integration of services. Clients of both companies can expect uninterrupted support and continued excellence in digital marketing.

Sinequa accelerates the use case applications of Google Cloud’s commercial generative AI tools via integration with Vertex AI

Enterprise Search leader Sinequa today announced it has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud by adding its generative AI capabilities to Sinequa’s growing list of integrations, so users can now converse with their content. By combining the conversational abilities of Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform with the deep factual knowledge provided by Sinequa's intelligent search platform, businesses can now harness the power of generative AI on their content to drive innovation, enhance customer experiences, and gain valuable insights from their enterprise content.

Sinequa's approach to generative AI is built on its agnostic approach, ensuring compatibility with all major generative AI APIs. Sinequa is proud to extend its support to Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform and its expanding library of large language models (LLMs) such as PaLM-2. This expansion enables Sinequa users to leverage the capabilities of Google Cloud's cutting-edge generative AI technologies seamlessly within their existing Sinequa ecosystem in a technique known as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

In combination with generative AI, Sinequa’s Neural Search uses the most relevant information across all your content to ground generative AI in the truth of your enterprise’s knowledge. With search and generative AI together, you can engage in dialogue with your information just as you would talk with a knowledgeable colleague, and without any of the concerns present with generative AI alone, such as hallucinations or security. This means you can converse with your content: conduct research, ask questions, explore nuances, all with the confidence of the most accurate, relevant results.

With this integration, Sinequa becomes one of the first commercially available enterprise search solutions to offer such comprehensive generative AI capabilities. Powered by Sinequa's Neural Search, which is underpinned by Google’s LLMs, businesses can now enhance their enterprise search experiences with intelligent and conversational interactions powered by generative AI.

"Sinequa is excited to embrace the possibilities of generative AI and extend our integration capabilities to include Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform," said Alexandre Bilger, Co-CEO of Sinequa. "We believe this powerful combination of generative AI and intelligent search will revolutionize the way businesses uncover insights from their enterprise content, enabling them to stay ahead of the competition and deliver exceptional customer experiences."

Flagship Solution Emerges as First 'Conversational AI Data Analyst' that Instantly Finds Answers Hidden Across Large Corporate Data Sets Using Multi-Step Reasoning

DataGPT, the leading provider of conversational AI data analytics software, today announced the launch of the DataGPT AI Analyst, uniting the creative, comprehension-rich side of a large language model (LLM) (the "right brain") with the logic and reasoning of advanced analytics techniques (the "left brain"). This combination makes sophisticated analysis accessible to more people without compromising accuracy and impact.

Companies everywhere are struggling to conduct analysis as quickly as business questions evolve. Current business intelligence (BI) solutions fall short, lacking iterative querying needed to dig deeper into data. Similarly, consumer-facing generative AI tools are unable to integrate with large databases. Despite investing billions in complex tooling, 85% of business users forgo them, wasting time and money as data teams manually parse through rigid dashboards, further burdened by ad hoc and follow-up requests. Conversational AI data analysis offers the best of both worlds.

"Our vision at DataGPT is crystal clear: we are committed to empowering anyone, in any company, to chat directly to their data," said Arina Curtis, CEO and co-founder, DataGPT. "Our DataGPT software, rooted in conversational AI data analysis, not only delivers instant, analyst-grade results, but provides a seamless, user-friendly experience that bridges the gap between rigid reports and informed decision making."

DataGPT can proactively uncover insights for anyone, in any company. Non-technical business users and department managers can type questions into a familiar chat window interface using the same natural language they would when chatting with a colleague. They can ask questions like "why is my revenue down this week?" and easily dig deeper into the data using follow-on prompts that uncover additional levels of detail, like "tell me more about the drop from influencer partnerships." DataGPT can process billions of rows of data in real time and provides both insights and visualizations, a key differentiator from other available offerings.

Key benefits of DataGPT include:

• Lightning Cache - DataGPT's proprietary database is 90 times faster than traditional databases, enabling 15 times cheaper analysis and running queries 600 times faster than standard business intelligence tools.
• Data Analytics Engine - General purpose LLMs struggle with computationally complex questions. Ask DataGPT a question, and it will execute millions of queries and calculations to determine the most relevant and impactful insights.
• Data Analyst Agent - Smart enough to handle the ambiguities of human speech and accurately interpret which data elements are of interest to the user, our self-hosted LLM manages contextual interpretations and avoids the inaccuracies ("hallucinations") of generic foundation models.

By empowering anyone to ask any question of their data, DataGPT is putting skilled analysis capabilities into the hands of the everyday user, boosting efficiency, and helping companies build a modern, advanced data culture. These newly attainable insights can unlock previously undiscovered revenue streams and free up nearly 500 hours each quarter for busy data teams, allowing them to focus on higher-yield projects. DataGPT plans to open source its database in the near future.

"DataGPT has transformed our business, taking the investments we've made in our data and making those insights more broadly available to any team across our company," said Michelle Bellettiere, Head of Data Analytics, Plex. "Instead of relying on data analysts' time, I can get an instant read on our daily performance, allowing me to understand in minutes information that could take hours to track down in other tools. With DataGPT, I'm closer to our data than ever before without sacrificing other priorities."

The Mars Agency Unveils New Ecommerce Enhancements to Its Industry-Leading, Full-Service Insights Suite at Amazon unBoxed

Today at Amazon unBoxed, The Mars Agency launched new enhancements to its Marilyn Ecommerce Intelligence Platform – a global full-service insights suite designed to accelerate its current end-to-end Amazon capabilities. The platform provides the metrics that matter across four key components: sales and operations, media, digital shelf, and Amazon Marketing Cloud. To take it one step further, holistic dashboards and opportunity reports enable marketers to make better and more agile decisions, while AI tools empower marketers to succeed with Amazon Marketing Cloud. By merging the foundational expertise and data needed to fuel the Amazon flywheel, with the principles of Commerce Marketing and shopper behavior, The Mars Agency is now setting a new industry standard in ecommerce.

The noteworthy enhancements to the Marilyn Ecommerce Intelligence Platform that merge end-to-end insights with an end-to-end team include:

1)  Marilyn AMC Clean Room Solution: This new solution provides an intuitive, user-friendly portal for marketers to ask the critical questions that help guide strategic marketing decisions and media planning – from how shoppers interact with sponsored brand and display ads, to how campaigns perform regionally, to how ads drive in-store sales.

2)  Marilyn Digital Shelf Health: This new digital shelf technology helps clients move beyond content compliance and gain a competitive advantage. From content health to market share to sales and order value, the solution delivers insights that drive better ecommerce performance.

With 700% growth in three short years, the full-service Mars Ecommerce Team is composed of business analysts, business managers, advertising experts, DSP specialists, search specialists, digital shelf strategists, copywriters, and designers. The team is also currently testing chatGPT on both Product Listing Creation and Digital Shelf Copy, as well as exploring generative AI tools to determine image effectiveness. They now match their end-to-end team with end-to-end insights obtained through the Marilyn Ecommerce Intelligence Platform.

Clients agree that the powerful mix of end-to-end insights with an end-to-end team can have a remarkable impact on their business.

According to Jonathan Moy, Director of Amazon & Omnichannel at Prestige Consumer Healthcare, "Our partnership with the Mars Ecommerce Intelligence Platform helps us unearth rich digital shelf insights that enables us to not only iterate upon, but truly grow the business in an impactful way."

According to Robert Rivenburgh, Global Chief Executive Officer of The Mars Agency, "We believe we're the only company to combine what we refer to as art and algorithm in ecommerce, using data and insights to connect our clients' ecommerce assets and deliver seamless shopper experiences that drive better business results."

Ecommerce is a fast-paced industry where your business can change on a dime. Marketers need fast answers, backed by data, which can be hard to source and activate with speed. Coupling shopper marketing acumen with industry-leading data, The Mars Agency strives to identify opportunities for enhanced engagement with the shopper, improved connectivity with marketing programs, and better utilization of retail capabilities and vendor innovation – helping to achieve growth on Amazon and beyond.

Personalized digital experiences, pre-purchase, are key driver for new customers according to millions of customer interactions and survey of nearly 900 digital marketers

A new report released today, “The Value of Pre-Purchase Personalization,” finds that 78 percent of digital marketers rank personalization as one of the most critical tools for improving customer engagement, acquisition, and retention. The art of tailoring experiences to individual shoppers in real-time, before a purchase, is an increasingly critical element to 58 percent as 2024 approaches.

Conducted by Centerfield, a premier outcome-based marketing service for digital customer acquisition, the report found that personalizing the buyer journey from pre-purchase can improve conversion rates by as much as 37 percent. While a driver of transformative outcomes for brands, the practice presents challenges as 51 percent say insufficient resources, including budget, time and personnel are hurdles to drive personalization successfully at scale.

“The most important moments for converting a shopper into a customer occur between the initial interaction with digital assets and their first purchase,” said John Busby, chief marketing officer of Centerfield. “Experiences tailored in the moment, based on customer intent and context, very clearly lower costs and improve sales results.”

Based on hundreds of millions of first-party consumer engagements across every major marketing channel and a survey of nearly 900 digital marketers, the report identifies key insights including:

• Investment Surge: More than half of senior marketers – 58 percent – plan to invest in pre-purchase personalization in 2024; nearly eight-in-10 (78 percent) rank personalization very important.
• Adoption Barriers: Skill gaps hinder wider adoption as nearly half – 42 percent – cite lack of necessary data analysis and tech skills; 51 percent of marketers challenged by limited budget, time and personnel for personalization.
• Attributable Payoff: Marketers see multiple benefits to pre-purchase personalization with 87 percent of marketers convinced that personalization substantially decreases the CPA, while accurately quantifying ROI through rigorous measurement and optimization.
• Tangible Benefits: There is an attributable payoff for businesses utilizing personalization. First-party tests reveal improvements in sales-per-visitor by up to 40 percent, echoing McKinsey’s data that the fastest-growing companies in a sector receive 40 percent more sales from personalization.

Investor, Board Member and Global Agency Executive Brings Leadership and Experience to Shape Growth Strategy

VidMob, the leading AI creative performance platform today announced the recent appointment of Mainardo de Nardis. In this leadership role, de Nardis will support the executive team in setting the company’s growth strategy. An acclaimed global agency leader, Mainardo de Nardis also brings deep and relevant experience that will support VidMob’s strategic agency relationships.

de Nardis is an investor, Board Member and advisor to a number of innovative private companies. He has served on the Board of Directors for VidMob for three years. Previously, de Nardis was a successful advertising agency executive, serving from NY and previously in London as Executive Vice Chairman of Omnicom Media Group, CEO of OMD Worldwide and CEO Worldwide of Aegis Media and MEC Global among a number of industry-shaping roles.

de Nardis will be an active and hands-on member of the leadership team, working closely with key clients and partners to deliver creative data solutions for the world's largest agencies and their brand clients.

Commenting on the announcement, Mainardo de Nardis said: “VidMob is leading the evolution of creativity in advertising, harnessing the power of data, artificial intelligence, and cutting-edge technology, to drive business results and growth. I’m excited to take on a more active role as we focus on bringing scalable solutions to major global agencies and brands. Already we’re seeing tremendous traction with leading brands fully embracing the power of creative performance to drive growth.”

CEO and Co-Founder Alex Collmer said: “I am thrilled to welcome Mainardo to our executive team. He is an entrepreneur and global agency visionary that deeply understands the value of AI and data in the creative process. His agency leadership experience unlocks new opportunities for VidMob in our next stage of growth, which is focused on a technology platform that can transform the way brands think about their creative performance.”

The Board of Directors of Arelion has today appointed Daniel Kurgan as President and CEO of Arelion. Staffan Göjeryd will leave Arelion, after heading the company for seven years.

Daniel Kurgan, Board Executive of Arelion since January 2022, has more than 25 years of experience from the industry and several leading positions, including 14 years as CEO of BICS, Chairman of TeleSign, Chairman of Intercloud and Senior Advisor at Drake Star. 

"Arelion enters a new chapter as an independent company after the completed spin-off from Telia, and it is the Board's assessment that the company's long-term development will benefit from a new leadership. We are therefore pleased to appoint Daniel Kurgan as CEO for Arelion," said Eva Elmstedt, Chairman of the Board. "With a proven track-record from leading positions in the industry, Daniel brings with him the experience and qualifications required to lead Arelion on this new journey. Having been on the Board for two years, he is also well familiar with the company and its culture."

"I am honored to be appointed as CEO of Arelion. As a provider of the world's best-connected IP backbone, our mission is to enable our customers' growth, and to grow with them, and I am excited to build on that position in an operative role," said Daniel Kurgan. "Having had the opportunity to be part of Arelion's transformative journey, I know the immense potential of the company and now, as an independent company, we are in the position to realize it. I'm looking forward to working closely with the Board on the implementation of our growth strategy and to working together with all our talented people to keep the world connected."

Daniel Kurgan assumes the position as CEO of Arelion with immediate effect and leaves the Board, of which he has been a member since January 2022. Staffan Göjeryd, who has been heading Arelion (previously Telia Carrier) since August 2016, will step down.

Eva Elmstedt continued: "The Board would like to take the opportunity to thank Staffan Göjeryd for his great contributions and long commitment to the company. Staffan has been the backbone of Arelion for many years and he laid the foundation for what we will now continue to build on. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors."