New Survey Explores Key Challenges and Priorities for Agency Operations

A new survey from Kantata, the leading global supplier of purpose-build technology for professional services, found that 74% of agencies are shifting their priorities and business strategies in response to significant pressures faced amidst the economic downturn. The survey, created in partnership with Canam Research and Salesforce to better understand the state of agency operations, their key challenges, and priorities, found that agencies are struggling to acquire new clients and need to do more to deliver exceptional experiences to current clients, all while managing against leaner operating models.

Nearly 60% of agencies are struggling to bring in new business, with new client acquisition listed among the top challenges agencies are facing today. Of those who have made or intend to make changes to their business strategy because of economic factors, 94% report that those adjustments have been substantial. Half of respondents are increasing their focus on customer retention and half will prioritize the client experience in the next 6-12 months to improve performance and profitability. Additionally, almost half (46%) of respondents have expanded their portfolio of product and service options, 30% have revised their proposal process, 28% have revamped pricing and 28% have increased the use of automation.

“The demands on agency leaders aren't new or unusual, but economic uncertainty is prompting many to reconsider their business strategies to minimize the impact of external factors,” stated Kantata's CEO, Michael Speranza. “All professional service organizations, and especially agencies, rely on their employees' expertise and creativity to serve clients. Optimizing resource management to meet shifting market dynamics is more critical than ever to deliver exceptional client experiences both now and in the future.”

The most pervasive challenge behind new client acquisition is employee retention. What’s more, 42% shared that resource capacity planning and resource allocation is difficult. To optimize the employee experience and improve agency operations, 41% plan to invest in learning and development, and 46% plan to invest in software to streamline agency operations.

“Happy customers are not possible without happy employees who are engaged in their work and believe in the mission and vision of their business. To achieve both, agency leaders should seek solutions purpose-built for how their business operates, and include talent development, and centralized access to the data needed to efficiently deliver outcomes consistently,” added Speranza.

Almost 3/4 of respondents (72%) feel they could not be successful without the use of spreadsheets. Interestingly, 32% also acknowledge that one of the top challenges in their technology stack is too much manual effort because of spreadsheets. Other challenges leaders face with their current technology stacks related to agency operations and client work delivery include integration (35%), workflow management (30%) and data silos (26%).

“While spreadsheets have their uses they are not effective for resource or project management, client servicing, and business development. Solutions like Kantata can help transform how agencies operate, improving productivity for increased performance and profitability,” Speranza noted.

The Kantata Professional Services Cloud platform enables organizations to improve resource allocation and management, increase productivity, and deliver more accurate revenue forecasting. To learn more, request a demo of the Kantata Cloud here and download the State of Agency Operations Survey here.

Methodology:

51 professionals with job titles including, but not limited to, Account Director, Head of Strategic Planning, VP of Operations, Creative Director, Media Strategist, and Group Program Director. The focus of our research was mid-size and enterprise agencies, with respondents hailing from businesses like RPA, 9th Wonder, Publicis, Horizon Media, Iris Worldwide, GKV, and Infiniti Research.

Content Licensing Marketplace Democratizes Access to Images and Videos Through Rapid Discovery via AI-Powered Search

Catch+Release, the content licensing marketplace, today introduces a series of transformative features streamlining how great brands access relevant, fresh content from creators worldwide, who post online, everyday. New product capabilities include Collections, Licensing, and Managing of content assets across a variety of marketing campaigns and use-cases. At the forefront of this innovation is an industry-leading AI-powered search that delivers a new kind of discovery experience for creative teams, making it possible to deliver authentic, relevant content for successful campaigns. Catch+Release’s licensing features ensure creators and intellectual property holders are protected and compensated for their participation.

Beyond Custom Shoots + Stock: The Democratization of Imagery

Traditional stock libraries, known for providing a wide range of content across numerous media types, have traditionally favored staged imagery from a narrow set of creators. At the same time, a growing preference for natural, authentic visuals has emerged as everyday people share genuine moments via social media channels. Because consumers demand a more authentic experience that resonates with brands they like and trust, it demands marketing teams to look more broadly beyond only stock and custom production and integrate content from the Internet into all types of campaigns, which delivers a better return on marketing investments.

Reports highlight a growing demand for content that captures real-life moments. In a study by Stackla, it was showcased that 88% of consumers accord importance to authenticity when deciding which brands to endorse. Furthermore, a report by TINT shows that user-generated content is considered the most trustworthy, as it's created by people who are documenting firsthand experiences, original perspectives, and are sharing those assets online.

Rising Trends: Everyday Creators and Empowered Storytelling

The landscape of content creation is shifting dramatically. The ubiquity of smartphones with built-in high-resolution cameras has transformed everyday individuals into creators, capable of capturing stunning visuals that rival the quality of professional cameras. This democratization of content creation transcends influencers and professionals, giving rise to a wave of authenticity and quality that Catch+Release has harnessed to enable the world’s best brands to deliver award-winning campaigns that connect with customers and deliver a 5X ROI.

Empower Collaboration and Authenticity: New Features Unveiled

Catch+Release is at the vanguard of democratizing content licensing, and offers a potent alternative. By embracing the power of AI-powered search, Catch+Release equips brands, agencies, and creators to discover the most genuine and captivating content, sourced from social platforms like Instagram and TikTok. This groundbreaking set of capabilities is reshaping the content licensing landscape.

Catch+Release's latest features include:

• Collections: Curate Collaboratively, Inspire Creativity. Users self-create collections, collaborate with team-members to find the gems that fit the brief. Whether sourcing content from Catch+Release public galleries or search, teams assemble and curate shots that fit the need and budget. Easily invite colleagues to contribute, give feedback, and rate assets based on the Catch+Release licensability score to streamline content selection.
• Licensing: Intuitive License Usage Process. Automate licensing by specifying usage channels, geography, and timeframes. Catch+Release manages the creator verification, negotiation, and payment processing, plus compensates all IP owners and creators. Licenses are generated and stored in one place. Content buyers are protected through indemnification starting at $1M, and up to unlimited, depending on spend level.
• Management: Centralize and Reduce Risk. Assets are easy to manage with license-stage filters, giving users a centralized view from discovery to licensing and tracking including possible renewals. A dashboard view minimizes risk and reduces manual work as all licensed assets and usage details are centrally stored.

"With these groundbreaking features, Catch+Release isn't just changing the world of content licensing; we're orchestrating a major shift in how teams collaborate and deliver better content for better campaign results. Our marketplace brings brands together with creators, giving users the power and control to uncover, license, and distribute genuine content that resonates profoundly with audiences," said Jim McCollum, Head of Product & Engineering at Catch+Release. "With these game-changing features, we’re forging strong marketplace bonds between storytellers and creators.

New beta-testing local video advertising platform provides a new source of potentially significant ad revenue for Loop TV

Loop Media, Inc. ("Loop Media") (NYSE American: LPTV), the free streaming television media company for business which provides over 2 billion video views every month via restaurants, retail businesses, office buildings, doctors’ offices, airports, bars, and college campuses, announced today that it has rolled out in beta testing a self-service video advertising platform (“Loops Ads Manager”) for local businesses and venues to advertise on the Loop Media platform. Loop Media believes this anticipated new line of advertising revenue could be a significant additional contributor to Loop Media’s revenue, as Loop Media seeks to capture local advertising dollars that do not generally flow through the larger ad demand partners working with regional and national advertisers.

Local and regional venues, services, brands, businesses, and agencies will be able to place ads on any of Loop TV networks’ 71,000+ screens, including partner screens, via the Loop Media Ads Manager, built in partnership with OrkaTV. This partnership is designed to empower local and regional marketers’ access to Loop Media’s powerful network at am.loop.tv.

“The Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) estimates that national advertising makes up 35% of the yearly out of home advertising revenue and this is the area where Loop Media has primarily participated in since its inception,” said Jon Niermann, Chief Executive Officer of Loop Media. “With Loop Ads Manager, which we’ve built for the growing local demand for our platform, we are now able to more aggressively participate in the local advertising revenue stream which makes up 65% of the annual out of home advertising revenue. In addition, we’re providing our customers--and essentially any local business--the opportunity to advertise directly on the Loop TV platform in their local markets or beyond. Advertisers will be able to select their choice of markets anywhere in the nation with a quick, efficient, easy to use tool, and at an advertising entry price point that a local business owner can justify and manage,” Niermann continued.

OrkaTV built the Loop Ads Manager on top of its best-in-class Streaming TV ad tech infrastructure. This enables Loop TV to offer differentiated features such as the proprietary “Venue Type” forecasting tool for targeting desired audiences watching TV-Out-of-Home (TVOOH) FAST channels. The Loop Ads Manager can ingest existing creative, or its creative experts with decades of experience can assist a business owner in creating a new ad with minimal input.

“We built the Loop Ads Manager to democratize the entire process and cut through the prohibitive cost thresholds, clutter and usability issues that are inherent in most DSPs,” said Mike Woods, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder of OrkaTV. “The result is the easiest way for small businesses or any business to get their ads on Loop TV’s premium streaming TV channels,” he added.

“We love having Loop TV in our venue! We are even more excited to be able to efficiently advertise The Pink Tub in other venues in order to reach new customers in our local market at a cost that is affordable for us!” said Victoria E. Thomas-Bodie, Founder & Executive Vice President of Operations at The Pink Tub, an opulent organic handmade body and bath brand based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Loop Ads Manager will begin service in beta-testing mode on September 21st.

Mediawrkz, the specialist Publisher Monetization Solutions Division of Datawrkz - is excited to announce that it has been recognized as a Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP). This prized certification (achieved by a limited set of Google partners) solidifies Mediawrkz’s position as a trusted, transparent partner to online publishers and showcases its proficiency across a variety of Google monetization products like Google Ad Manager. The certification reinforces Mediawrkz’s commitment to working hand-in-hand with publishers, fostering growth, and unlocking new opportunities powered by the latest technologies from Google.

The GCPP certification process is a multi-step approach that involves rigorous evaluation of Mediawrkz’s ability to deliver exceptional service, offer and maintain the highest performance standards, and consistently meet and exceed publisher expectations. The accomplishment shines a light on Mediawrkz’s commitment to empowering online publishers to maximize ad revenue with Google’s suite of advanced publisher monetization tools.

Publishers enjoy several exclusive benefits by working with Mediawrkz:

• Expertise: Being a GCPP partner enables our teams to access the latest resources and training from Google. This gives publishers the trust & confidence to rely on our expertise to set up and optimize digital content that attracts the most profitable and relevant advertising.
  
  
• Access: GCPP partners are plugged into the Google Ecosystem. So they stay ahead of the curve. Partners have advanced access to the latest Google products and features by passing Google-administered exams every year.
  
  
• Results: GCPP Partners provide cutting-edge strategies and solutions powered by Google’s advanced monetization technologies that maximize results consistently

Senthil Govindan, the CEO of Datawrkz expressed, “Our longstanding partnership with Google has been key to our success as a trusted publisher partner. Earning GCPP stripes is a truly proud and momentous accomplishment for us all here at Datawrkz. It reaffirms our expertise in guiding publishers in every aspect of their monetization journey.”

Arunprabu Kesavan, Head of Mediawrkz commented, “Becoming a Google Certified Publishing Partner is an important milestone for Mediawrkz. This recognition further validates our expertise in and dedication to helping publishers maximize their ad revenue. We are proud to partner with Google and look forward to continuing our work in delivering exceptional results for our clients.”

Kim Attains SOC 2 Type 1 Compliance

Kim, the no-code, SaaS, patent-protected document generation, assembly, and workflow automation platform, is proud to announce the successful completion of the System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) Type 1 compliance certification for its cloud-hosted platform. This achievement underlines Kim's unwavering dedication to the highest standards of data security and customer privacy.

SOC 2 evaluates an organization's control environment based on trust service principles, covering critical aspects such as security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. While SOC 2 compliance is an optional standard, it holds exceptional regard within the SaaS industry. Kim's swift acquisition of the certification underscores the company's robust approach to security and privacy practices.

"Kim's patent-protected technology has been designed carefully with security at its core. Achieving SOC 2 Type 1 compliance, alongside our IS27001 accreditation, reflects our dedication to safeguarding our users' data and privacy," said Richard Yawn, Founder and CTO at Kim. "We are committed to solving customer problems and delivering a seamless and secure experience for our customers.

This certification marks another milestone in Kim's journey to provide secure and efficient document and workflow automation solutions for small, mid-sized and large enterprises.

Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS), a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, today announced the appointment of Yossi Almani as Chief Legal Officer, effective immediately. As a member of the senior leadership team, Almani will report directly to Lisa Utzschneider, CEO, and oversee the global legal and compliance functions. He will play a pivotal role in strengthening IAS's commitment to fully protecting consumer privacy and combatting disinformation, while providing marketers with greater transparency into their ad spend.

"I am thrilled to announce Yossi Almani as our new Chief Legal Officer," said Lisa Utzschneider, IAS CEO. "Yossi brings 15 years of legal experience as both in-house general counsel and has held positions with top law firms. His expertise in privacy law will ensure IAS is at the forefront of industry compliance standards."

Based in New York City, Almani is a global legal leader with a broad range of experience with both public and private companies. He has demonstrated success at representing U.S. and international financial institutions and other clients, and has also driven public company functions and legal and business strategies on data privacy, compliance, and M&A. 

Prior to joining IAS, Almani was General Counsel at Affinity Solutions, Inc., a leading consumer purchase insights company, supporting digital advertising and other industries. Previously, he also served as VP of Corporate, Securities and Licensing of Revlon, Inc., a worldwide beauty and cosmetic company. In addition, he was a Senior Associate at Paul, Weiss.

"IAS has established itself as a global leader in media measurement and optimization," said Almani. "I am excited to bring my legal expertise to a company that is at the forefront of bringing trust and transparency to the digital media landscape."

Almani holds a LL.M. (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar) from Columbia University School of Law; and a M.A. in Law and Economics, a LL.B. and a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University. Almani is also CIPP/US certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

DAT Freight & Analytics today introduced the first purpose-built, AI-powered identity fraud detection and prevention platform through a partnership with Verosint, to help prevent the unauthorized use of customer login credentials and combat the growing threat of identity theft in trucking and logistics.

Through this new technology, DAT can now leverage AI and machine learning to validate user identities and scrutinize suspicious accounts. Users of the DAT network can now:

• Verify the identity of the entities they are doing business with.
• Ensure the legitimacy of load postings on the DAT load board.
• Monitor, detect and block fraud in real time.
• Leverage industry-leading DAT rules, signals and intelligence to identify signatures and block fraud.

DAT’s AI-powered identity-verification solution is powered by Verosint and works in the background to maintain a secure and seamless login experience for legitimate users. It harnesses DAT’s expertise in data, analytics, and generative AI to detect potential fraudulent activity and stop unauthorized access to DAT One, the industry’s largest freight marketplace and analytics platform.

Stephen Shoaff, CEO & Co-founder of Verosint says: “Identity based cyber crime is challenging all businesses and account fraud is a key enabler of these crimes. We are thrilled DAT chose our platform to monitor all identity transactions for real-time detection and prevention of fraud. Our combined expertise will deliver the industry’s highest protection against fraudulent identity events, setting what we believe to be a new standard.”

The partnership is a significant step in DAT’s multifaceted fraud-prevention program announced earlier this year. The program includes:

• Predictive fraud detection, identity verification and multi-factor authentication to detect and stop suspicious logins.
• An expanded Network Integrity Unit (NIU) dedicated to investigating reports of fraud and maintaining DAT as the most trusted freight marketplace.
• Anti-fraud education and training for customers.
• Collaboration with customers and industry partners, law enforcement agencies and regulators in the fight against fraud.

Like so many other industries, the truckload freight market has been plagued by bad actors looking to exploit carriers, brokers and shippers with various identity theft scams. DAT reports that 56% of the fraud cases it investigates are identity-related, driven by account takeovers, credential stuffing, new-account fraud and synthetic (BOT) accounts.

Without sophisticated identity verification to detect and preempt potential fraud at scale, operators of online freight networks have to investigate reports of suspicious activity individually, a laborious manual process. This AI and Machine Language-based innovation enables DAT to intervene swiftly and selectively, enhancing its ability to prevent fraud activity before it happens.

Mac Pinkerton, President of North American Surface Transportation at C.H. Robinson said: “Automated identity verification is a game-changer. The ability to automatically detect and stop cybercriminals in real-time is crucial to a more secure freight marketplace and a testament to DAT’s commitment to fighting fraud.”

“Ensuring a safe, secure and scalable network for our customers is DAT’s top priority,” said Satish Maripuri, CEO & President at DAT. “Innovating closely with our customers on our fraud-prevention program is already yielding substantial results. Verosint’s identity-centric platform combined with DAT’s data and AI capabilities takes identity verification to a new level - a first in the industry.”