Dell Technologies has appointed Steve Mollenkopf as its newest independent member of the Dell Technologies board of directors, effective Sept. 27, 2023. Additionally, Simon Patterson, managing director of Silver Lake, has resigned as a member of the board of directors, effective Sept. 26, 2023. With the appointment of Mollenkopf, the Dell Technologies board of directors now seats eight directors, six of which are independent members.

"Steve has decades of leadership and operating experience, with deep engineering expertise that will help us as we accelerate our innovation agenda and capture new growth," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Technologies. "We also thank Simon for nearly a decade of service on our board, during which time he has been integral to our ongoing success."

Steve Mollenkopf served as the chief executive officer of Qualcomm Incorporated from 2014 to 2021. He began his Qualcomm career as an engineer more than 25 years ago and held several leadership roles at the company. He is a published Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) author and an inventor on 38 patents. He currently serves as a director of Boeing and is a senior advisor to Consello. 

"Dell Technologies has the broadest portfolio of IT solutions with leadership positions across all of its core markets, from PCs to data center to cloud," said Mollenkopf. "I'm honored to be appointed as Dell's next board member as we stand at the beginning of the GenAI era and embark on the next wave of innovation."

Former Salesforce marketing executive brings more than two-decades of full stack digital marketing experience to support PitchBook's next phase of growth

PitchBook, the premier data provider for the private and public equity markets, today announced the appointment of Paul Stoddart as Chief Marketing Officer. In his role, Stoddart will lead PitchBook's global marketing team made up of core marketing functions including, brand, creative and media, revenue marketing and operations, SEO, web, events, strategic partnerships and public relations. Stoddart's extensive experience will be instrumental in scaling the company's growth in new and existing markets, ensuring a consistent and holistic brand experience and introducing operational efficiency and effectiveness to continue driving momentum for PitchBook. Just in the first half of 2023, PitchBook experienced 22.8% increase in revenue, grew the team to nearly 4,000 team members and executed integration milestones for LCD, following its $650M acquisition in 2022.

Prior to joining PitchBook, Stoddart was the CMO of Salesforce's Customer and Partner Success and Services portfolio. Before that, he was the CMO of Epicor, where he was responsible for improving brand awareness, demand generation and ACV growth. As CMO at PitchBook, Stoddart will focus on improving lead generation, driving conversion efficiency, strengthening the partnership with Sales and Customer Success, elevating our product go-to-market processes and continuing to enhance customer relationships through unique events and partnerships. He will also join PitchBook's executive leadership team to help shape the company's overall strategy, optimize operations and strengthen corporate culture.

"We've gotten to where we are today because we're intentional about hiring the right people, maintaining an acute focus on the highest priorities and executing at a high level," said John Gabbert, founder and CEO of PitchBook. "Paul's background and experience in supporting sales and customer success, increasing conversion rates and scaling brand awareness initiatives will allow us to accelerate efforts to deliver more value to our audiences, while also supporting the growth of our employees. I'm confident his leadership will enable us to continue innovating our go-to-market processes that have fueled our 10-year compound annual growth rate of 54% and drive $1B in sales over the next few years."

PitchBook continues to be the authoritative resource for data and insights on the global financial markets. More than 100,000 professionals rely on PitchBook's award-winning platform, research and news to identify opportunities within venture capital, private equity, credit and M&A. The company continues to invest in adding new datasets across asset classes, technologies and regions as well as building tools to streamline workflows and improve the overall customer experience. As the business continues to grow, PitchBook's brand awareness is also expanding with growing readership of its research and news offerings and public engagement through strategic partnerships, like the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), as well as Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken and UBS Arena and the New York Islanders.

"As a full stack marketer, I thrive in environments where I can build, optimize and expand marketing programs that lead to increased revenue, operational efficiencies and professional development opportunities for my teams," said Paul Stoddart, CMO of PitchBook. "The power of the PitchBook Platform and the quality of its data, research and news, makes it a clear market leader. We have a major opportunity to educate our market on PitchBook's unique IP and competitive differentiators that make it such a powerful resource. I'm looking forward to inspiring new thinking on the art and science of effective marketing at PitchBook."

New Innovid Study Reveals Disconnect Between Measurement & Optimization Across Converged TV, Resulting in Business Impact

Although the majority of marketers (56%) spend more than half of their time optimizing converged TV ad performance, only 40% believe their ad optimization practices are "very good." This means, despite the time investment, the majority (60%) believe their optimization efforts fall short. That's according to the findings of a new study released today by Innovid, an independent advertising platform for the delivery, personalization, and measurement of converged TV across linear, connected TV (CTV), and digital, to spotlight how advertisers are investing significant time and money into converged TV.

The study, "The Converged TV Disconnect: Advertisers on Bridging the Gap Between TV Measurement Insights & Results," surveyed more than 250 brand and agency professionals, also found that when it comes to measurement, nearly 90% of respondents say that a unified view of converged TV across linear, CTV, and digital is important, with 91% saying that standard KPIs across converged TV advertising are important at some level. However, almost two-thirds (62%) use separate measurement partners and advertising management and delivery platforms, incurring data loss and increased integration needs.

"According to eMarketer, spending on CTV ads has skyrocketed by about 400% since 2019 – and with more ad dollars spent on converged TV as a whole, brands and agencies feel increased pressure to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of their investments," said Dave Helmreich, Chief Commercial Officer at Innovid. "A unified view of performance across the converged TV landscape is critical but with measurement done separately from campaign management and optimization, there is a disconnect for advertisers to be able to effectively drive ROI. Converged TV optimization needs to be made seamless for advertisers through real-time measurement that is immediately actionable and can deliver results. InnovidXP provides marketers with a unified view, actionable insights, and the ability to automatically optimize campaigns to drive business results – bridging the gap with a single, fully integrated platform."

Innovid's "Converged TV Disconnect" study also revealed that:

• Optimization Frequency Isn't Keeping Pace with Measurement: More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents stated they are measuring campaigns on, at least, a weekly basis, with almost four in 10 (39%) measuring ad performance either daily or in real time. But advertisers aren't optimizing ad campaigns as often as they measure campaign performance: Just 57% say they're implementing media optimization for converged TV campaigns on a weekly or more frequent basis. That's more than 10 percentage points below how often they measure.
• Engagement, Outcome, Reach: When respondents were asked to rank which metrics they were most interested in optimizing by, Engagement by Platform/Publisher ranked highest, followed by Engagement by Creative, Outcome by Creative, Reach by Platform/Publisher, and Outcomes by Platform/Publisher.

Truepic furthers its commitment to transparency and authenticity through Framework guidelines for Generative Artificial Intelligence

Truepic, provider of authenticity infrastructure for the internet, announced today that it has joined Partnership on AI’s Responsible Practices for Synthetic Media: A Framework for Collective Action. Using the Framework, Truepic and other tech industry leaders like Adobe, Meta, Microsoft, and Google commit to responsibly developing, creating, sharing, and identifying synthetic media. 

Since its inception in 2016, Truepic has built technologies that power transparency, disclosure, and authenticity in visual content. Most recently, Truepic worked with researchers from MIT Media Lab to add secure, cryptographic content credentials to over 30 AI-generated videos as part of on-going research on political deepfakes. Truepic also partnered with the acclaimed production studio, Revel.ai, and Generative AI thought leader Nina Schick, to create the world’s first transparent deepfake video using cryptographic signing to display the provenance of the video. As a founding member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), Truepic is committed to developing and implementing technical standards that certify the source and provenance of digital media. 

Similarly, the Partnership on AI (PAI)’s Responsible Practices Framework for Synthetic Media is based on the core principles of transparency, disclosure and consent. The first-of-its-kind Framework offers recommendations for builders of technology infrastructure, creators, distributors, and publishers who contribute to the societal impacts of synthetic media. PAI outlines crucial techniques for ethically developing and sharing synthetic media, including the C2PA open standard, and its guidelines will continue evolving alongside ever-changing technology. PAI is a non-profit partnership of academic, civil society, industry, and media organizations creating solutions so that AI advances positive outcomes for people and society, and led the iterative multistakeholder process to develop the Framework.

Truepic joins the Framework as a launch partner alongside Thorn, Meedan, and Code for Africa. Truepic will continue to pioneer projects to provide interoperable, secure, tamper-evident transparency and disclosure for synthetic media and AI-generated content in the moment of creation. 

“We have long believed that secure media provenance is the best way to ensure transparency online and elevate authenticity in digital content,” said Jeff McGregor, Truepic CEO. “Joining the Partnership on AI’s Framework is a natural progression of our work on authenticity and disclosure in digital media. We believe the Framework will continue to guide best practices and policies for the ethical, transparent use of generative AI. Our mission continues to be a more authentic, transparent internet, and we’re excited to support the Framework with this mission in mind.”

“It is easier than ever to create and share AI-generated media, making it urgent for companies to adopt and implement practices that promote transparency,"  said Claire Leibowicz, Head of AI and Media Integrity at Partnership on AI. “With Truepic’s focus on using technology to disclose how content was created and edited, they are a valuable new addition to PAI’s Synthetic Media Framework community.”

A PDF of the Framework can be found here.

unitQ GPT revolutionizes how product builders, engineers and support leaders understand real-time user feedback to build superior products, fix bugs faster and resolve trending support issues.

unitQ, the leader in Quality Automation, today introduced unitQ GPT, a generative AI engine for measuring the quality of your products, services and experiences. unitQ GPT harnesses unitQ's proprietary AI models to extract meaning from support tickets, surveys, app reviews, social media posts and product engagement data to connect the dots between what users say and do.

unitQ is empowering its customers to ask even more complex questions and get clear, immediate answers from hundreds of millions of pieces of granularly categorized user insights that they can trust to make critical business decisions. With unitQ GPT, companies can learn directly from what users are sharing, across any feedback source in any language, inclusive of engagement data and user metadata like device type and payment tier — all in real-time.

To use unitQ GPT, just ask a question and get an answer:

For unitQ customers struggling with prioritizing tasks based on impact, unitQ GPT can answer questions including the following:

• "How can I improve iOS user retention?"
• "How should I prioritize my bug backlog based on revenue impact?"
• "How can I reduce support tickets?"

For unitQ customers interested in identifying end user pain points, unitQ GPT can answer questions including the following:

• "Did I introduce any new issues in my newest release?"
• "What are the top feature requests related to search?"
• "What are five quotes from users talking about their favorite features?"

Category leading companies like Bumble, a values-driven business that enables people to build healthy and equitable relationships through Kind Connections™, are delivering incredible experiences to their members by paying attention to what they like, dislike, and want more of with unitQ's AI-powered user insights.

"At Bumble, my team is focused on delivering the best possible customer experience to our members everyday. unitQ GPT will help us turn insights to action, so that we can have a larger impact on the business and better serve our members across the globe," said Cathleen Doorenbosch, VP of Customer Care, Bumble. "With unitQ GPT, we'll be able to identify trending support issues, spot new bugs, and see what's driving the sentiment of new product releases with an easy to use, conversational interface that queries member feedback in real time. This will transform the way we work across the company, from support to product to engineering."

unitQ GPT is democratizing access to AI user insights, allowing companies like DailyPay, the industry leader in on-demand pay, to deliver even higher quality experiences to their members. This means fewer bugs, better user interfaces, less support issues, and delivering on the product features members are asking for most.

"At DailyPay, we are constantly innovating our product and identifying new ways to improve the experience for our valued users," said Darlene Miranda, VP and General Manager, Enterprise Product, DailyPay. "unitQ GPT speaks to that mission with its accuracy, transparency, and ability to speed up the team's natural workflows. It feels like having an extended member of our team that can answer the most pressing questions to make every user's experience 10x better."

unitQ GPT is purpose-built to empower organizations to drive growth with AI user insights and is: 

• Easy to use: unitQ GPT leverages user feedback and engagement data from 60+ sources to answer critical business questions and provide supporting visualizations. With all teams leveraging the same user insights, going from hypothesis to resolution has never been faster.
• Opinionated and actionable: Because unitQ GPT leverages our cleansed, translated and granularly categorized data, it deeply understands your business like a tenured employee. It can prioritize initiatives and suggest product improvements to optimize KPIs.
• Built for transparency and security: unitQ supports its conclusions with citations, allowing you to verify insights in a single click. Trust extends deep into unitQ GPT's architecture, with enterprise-ready security and automatic redaction of all personally identifiable information.

"Our customers today rely on unitQ to distill insights from hundreds of millions of pieces of user feedback everyday. Our insights are informing roadmaps at Fortune 500 companies and have caught bugs and product quality issues impacting millions of users," said Christian Wiklund, CEO and Co-Founder of unitQ. "unitQ GPT is the next milestone in our product evolution. With unitQ GPT, our customers can access powerful, game changing information about their business and product by simply asking a question and getting an answer in seconds."

• The number of video services used by consumers has declined slightly over the past 6 months as the adoption of ad-supported video increases

• SVOD churn remains considerable as consumers are becoming more agile in juggling their entertainment needs

Research released today from TiVo Platform Technologies LLC (TiVo), a wholly owned subsidiary of entertainment technology company Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER), found an emerging shift in entertainment consumption that is changing how consumers view entertainment spend and usage. The average number of streaming services used by consumers decreased from 11.6 in Q4 2022 to 10.9 in Q2 2023, followed by a decrease in consumer spending from an average of $189 a month to $170 over the last six months. While consumers are undoubtedly reconsidering their spending habits, this change has shown growth in consumer video consumption; the report saw a jump from 4.4 hours a day in video consumption in Q4 2022 to 4.7 hours per day.

When looking at how respondents spent their time watching video, the report found that ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) consumption increased considerably from Q4 2022. This increase in AVOD/FAST is a reflection of consumer budget constraints and major subscription video on demand (SVOD) companies offering lower-cost services that generate higher ad revenue. This new SVOD/AVOD hybrid structure allows users to consolidate their subscriptions, cut costs and still watch the same or more amount of content. With less disposable income available among consumers, the demand for flexibility in entertainment choices has surged in response to the evolving preferences in entertainment over the recent years.

As entertainment consumption rises, content discovery continues to be a pain point for many consumers. When trying to select a movie or show, 82% of consumers are prone to browsing before making a final selection - with over 60% use multiple apps in their pursuit.

“Consumers know what they want in a video service and are adjusting their entertainment habits to fit their needs – whether that be cancelling their SVOD subscriptions or reviving their cable,” said Scott Maddux, VP of global content strategy and business at Xperi. “As we continue to see this shift in consumer behavior it’s essential that entertainment providers focus on solving consumer content discovery issues to help consumers who are juggling their entertainment needs get back to what’s important, enjoying entertainment.”

Additional TiVo Video Trend Report Highlights

• TV is King: In competition with other devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers, TV remains the preferred choice by more than 3x other types of devices for watching video. Although, preference for watching on TV is slipping, with only 63.7% currently reporting a preference for watching content on this device – compared to 73.4% in Q2 2022. The drop appears driven primarily by pay TV subscribers.
• Word of Mouth Leads Discovery: When it comes to discovery methods, the percentage of those who find out about new TV shows or movies from commercials has declined 6% year-over-year. In comparison, word of mouth and recommendations from friends remain as strong as ever, inching out commercials as the most common method of discovery in the spring of 2023.
• Local Content Remains Important: While virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) continues to be a top competitor to pay TV, 28% of people who cut the cord later decided to resubscribe to traditional TV to solve their need to watch sports, live events and local programming. Of all time spent watching video, 22.6% was spent watching different types of local content.

Trends To Watch

As the entertainment industry continues to grow and shift, Xperi is noting the following trends as ones to watch:

• In-Car Media Consumption on the Rise: Of those who watch video in the car, over 80% do so at least a few times a month, with 49.8% saying they do so to pass the time while waiting for something. The introduction of larger in-cabin screens in vehicles marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of in-car entertainment, allowing consumers to easily access and enjoy video content within the car.
• Subscription Seasonality Spikes: As consumers become more agile in managing their entertainment needs, a rise in cord reviving or adjusting subscriptions based on when live events or show premiers launch may increase in popularity. The report found that one of the top reasons consumers signed up for a SVOD service in the last six months was because it had one specific show or movie they wanted to watch (31.9%).
• Smart TV Brand Loyalty Will Remain Strong: As the use of smart TVs continues to increase, so will smart TV brand loyalty. A trend emerging from the report shows that only 1.6% of respondents with three or more smart TVs in their home have three different brands.

Find more information from the latest Q2 2023 Video Trends Report here.

Additionally, TiVo is an expert in video trends and TV viewership data. TiVo TV Viewership Data includes second-by-second level data captured from set-top-boxes within households across all 210 DMAs in the U.S. The data reflects both live or time-shifted viewership information which is the cornerstone of TiVo’s expertise in TV data processing. Find more information about TiVo’s Viewership Data here.

Methodology

Since 2012, TiVo has surveyed consumers to uncover key trends relevant to TV providers, digital publishers, advertisers, and consumer electronics manufacturers. The latest TiVo Video Trends Report surveyed 4,518 adults 18 and older living in the U.S. and Canada during the second quarter of 2023 (3507 US, 1101 Canada). In addition to identifying and analyzing key trends in viewing habits, the TiVo Video Trends Report provides insight to consumer opinions regarding Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) and Advertising-Based Video on Demand (AVOD) providers, emerging technologies, connected devices, over-the-top (OTT) apps and content discovery features, including personalized recommendations and search.

Integration of transactional email into Telesign’s omnichannel Messaging and Verify APIs serves to further enhance customer communications

Telesign, the leading provider of customer identity and engagement solutions, today announced the expansion of its omnichannel Messaging API to include transactional email capabilities. This addition empowers businesses with a global, scalable, and flexible solution to elevate their customer engagement strategy. Telesign enables businesses to effortlessly incorporate email communication into their brand omnichannel platform with this new seamless integration. Via a single messaging API, Telesign customers can reach and engage their customers across SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Viber, and now email.

Transactional emails are messages triggered by specific user-initiated actions initiated by users. Unlike promotional emails, transactional emails focus on delivering important and relevant information to recipients, such as account updates, purchase confirmations, or security alerts related to user activities. They boast 2x more opens and 3x better click-through rates compared to average emails, making them highly effective in engaging recipients. With Telesign’s email capabilities, businesses can reliably reach and engage their customers when it matters most.
  
“Email is a cornerstone of communication that allows businesses to establish relationships with customers,” said Telesign Product & Portfolio Vice President Chris Thompson. “With the integration of transactional email into our omnichannel Messaging API—which now includes SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Viber, and email through a single API—businesses now have access to a more comprehensive communications platform. Telesign’s expansion into transactional email enables companies to engage customers more effectively and enhance the overall end-user experience.”

“Integrating transactional email capabilities into Telesign’s Messaging API marks a significant advancement within today's digital landscape, making it easier and more cost-effective for companies to enhance their digital communications with customers,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group. “In a climate with rising tides of data breaches, Telesign is at the forefront in helping businesses take proactive measures and foster a more secure environment in digital transactions.”

Key Benefits of Telesign’s Transactional Email Solution

Transactional emails are an essential engagement tactic throughout the customer journey. From purchase confirmations to password resets and order shipment notifications, these types of emails ensure instant delivery and exceptional open rates.

They also create positive experiences, enhance brand engagement, and increase customer satisfaction. By layering transactional emails across the customer journey, businesses can deliver a trusted experience that resonates with their customers.

Telesign’s all-in-one messaging API enables businesses to reach and engage customers on their preferred channels worldwide. More businesses are embracing omnichannel communication to streamline operations, as this option accelerates time-to-market, delivers a superior customer experience, and provides an additional channel choice.

New Use Cases for Transactional Email

• Verification Notifications: Enhance security and authenticity by sending verification links to users’ email addresses.
• Password Resets: Make it quicker and easier for customers to regain account access with email-based password reset links.
• Order Confirmations: Instill confidence in customers by providing timely and detailed order confirmation information via email.
• Account Onboarding Notifications: Guide users through the initial stages of the onboarding process with step-by-step instructions via email.
• Double Opt-in Strategy: Increase the likelihood of users completing the opt-in process successfully by using omnichannel email to deliver verification links.
• Reminders: Increase conversion rates by sending timely email reminders for appointments, subscriptions, or abandoned carts.
• Follow-up Surveys: Gather valuable customer feedback by sending post-interaction surveys via email.

KORE, the leading engagement marketing platform for the sports and entertainment industry, is proud to announce its newest joint-client with Sports Alliance and first-ever Netherlands-based customer, PSV Eindhoven. This milestone marks a significant step in KORE's expansion into the European market and reinforces the company's commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions to sports organisations worldwide.  This development is a direct result of KORE's recent acquisition of digital marketing solutions provider Sports Alliance and the first Sports Alliance client to expand into the KORE platform.

PSV Eindhoven, a prestigious football club founded in 1913 and based in Eindhoven, has earned a well-deserved reputation for excellence on and off the field. As a top-tier Dutch Eredivisie team, PSV's ambitions include being a perennial contender for the Dutch championship and striving for UEFA Champions League glory, all while fostering a top sports climate with professionalism at its core.

KORE's partnership with PSV is a testament to the strong relationships forged by the Sports Alliance team. This landmark collaboration will see the integration of KORE's Activate software into PSV's operations, empowering the club to manage its partnerships business in ways previously unattainable. This landmark deal, spanning five years, represents a true partnership between KORE and PSV, aimed at elevating partner activation management and optimising sponsorship revenue streams.

"We are thrilled to welcome PSV Eindhoven as KORE's first Netherlands-based client," said Matt Roberts, Sr. Director, Customer Strategy & Success (EMEA) at KORE. "This is not only a significant milestone for KORE's global expansion but also a testament to the great collaboration between PSV and Sports Alliance historically to bring us to this point. PSV's commitment marks the first instance of KORE 'software' cross-selling with a Sports Alliance customer, and it exemplifies our unwavering dedication to delivering exceptional solutions to our valued partners."

Activate, KORE's premier asset management software, will enable PSV to seamlessly manage its activation assets and strategically cultivate and nurture partnerships like never before. With its robust and intuitive features, Activate provides PSV with an unprecedented level of control and insight into its partnership ecosystem, unlocking new opportunities for growth and revenue generation.

"We are enthusiastic about our collaboration with KORE" said Koen van Haastert. "Activate's capabilities align perfectly with our vision of becoming a frontrunner in fan engagement and partnership management. This partnership will enable us to maintain the highest levels of professionalism on and off the field, and we look forward to achieving remarkable milestones together."