Product and strategy veteran tapped to accelerate innovation for consumer purchase insights leader following the launch of Comet™

Affinity Solutions (Affinity), the leading consumer purchase insights company, today announced the appointment of Kalyan Lanka as Chief Product Officer.

In this role, Lanka will be pivotal in expanding Affinity's product vision and strategy, holding end-to-end responsibility for Affinity’s entire product portfolio – from ideation and innovation, to launch and lifecycle management. Specifically, Lanka will be focused on accelerating business momentum surrounding Affinity’s recent launch of Comet, an intelligence platform that provides marketers, consultancies and financial services with visibility on consumer purchase behavior outside their stores, branches and websites. With Comet, companies can fully validate the efficacy of marketing investments with true outcomes-based metrics and insights that drive company ROI.

“With the launch of Comet this year, Affinity is now entering its next phase of growth,” said Jonathan Silver, CEO and Founder, Affinity Solutions. “As such, we are expanding our executive team to align top leadership expertise with the needs of our growing and unique client base. Kalyan’s outstanding track record in product strategy and innovation directly aligns with Affinity's vision for Comet™ to reshape how marketers measure success. We are confident he will help fortify our stance as the leader in consumer purchase insights and driver of outcomes-based marketing.”

With more than 15 years of diversified experience across consumer research and insights, customer data and data management platforms, media planning, and advertising tech, Lanka joins Affinity from Ampersand where he was VP of Product Management. Before that, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at Simmons Research, Head of Product Innovation and Strategy at Experian Marketing Services, and Head of Product Management at Lotame.

Lanka joins Affinity as it continues to expand its leadership roster of executives that have a proven track record in innovating, launching, and delivering new products to market. Recent hires in the last three months include: Sean Welsh as SVP and Managing Director, Financial Institutions, Chris Clark as SVP and Managing Director, Consulting and Investor Solutions, and Bryan Crutchley as SVP, Account Management.

“Armed with experts in data insights and the largest deterministic dataset of U.S. consumer spending, Affinity is well-positioned to address the unique challenges faced by marketers, consultancies, and financial services companies – providing innovative solutions that drive market share and revenue growth,” said Lanka. “As the marketing industry grapples with the loss of valuable data signals, Comet™ is poised for growth, delivering true outcomes-based metrics that empower businesses to drive better results with confidence.”

Hundreds of thousands of monthly conversations in EMEA between BNZSA-trained agents and business buyers in multiple native languages will be analysed by AI for intent signals

BNZSA, powered by Anteriad, has launched inTNT to offer the EMEA B2B market a GDPR-compliant, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and multilingual intent solution.

This new intent solution gives B2B marketers validated, compliant intent signals captured in multiple European languages to enable them to get in front of more buyers more effectively.

BNZSA's inTNT is a smart, precision solution that verifies intent signals both digitally, using AI, and with human verification. In a market traditionally dominated by US and English-centric intent solutions, inTNT’s multilingual EMEA data stands out because it is derived from hundreds of thousands of monthly conversations with native language agents that also confirm GDPR consent.

BNZSA's inTNT will be offered to BNZSA’s and Anteriad’s existing EMEA customers as a performance enhancer to lead generation programs, and it will also be offered as an add-on to digital advertising campaigns to increase target audience engagement.

BNZSA’s Knowledge Exchange Programme, which identifies the information technology needs of end users to connect them with BNZSA preferred partner suppliers, will also incorporate inTNT. Additionally, this European intent data will be fed back into Anteriad’s global offering as BNZSA is fully integrated into the Anteriad organization.

International CEO of BNZSA, powered by Anteriad, Brahim Samhoud said, “The European market is highly regulated for data privacy and compliance. By launching inTNT, we are supplementing Anteriad’s incredibly powerful global intent offering with validated compliant intent signals in multiple languages.

“We are thrilled to offer inTNT and provide our customers the ability to get in front of more EMEA-based buyers today,” added Samhoud.

Karie Burt, Chief Data and Privacy officer at Anteriad, added, “In the past, getting compliant multilingual intent for EMEA that has been verified by human native speakers has been difficult to source. With 1,600 BNZSA-trained agents on the phone verifying and capturing intent each month, we are excited to marry together human and artificial intelligence to deliver value to more marketers in multiple languages while preserving privacy and compliance.”

A WhatsApp integration that can transform the way businesses connect with consumers globally and seamlessly by leveraging AI-powered Kustomer CRM data

In today’s fast-paced world, customers demand immediate and convenient interactions with businesses no matter the channel. To meet this growing need for seamless customer service, Kustomer, an industry-leading AI-powered conversational CRM, leads the way with its WhatsApp integration. The integration allows businesses to harness the power of WhatsApp’s global reach and Kustomer’s CRM data to deliver efficient omnichannel solutions that cater to consumers’ appetite for immediacy.

According to data gathered by Kustomer, 89 percent of consumers seek easier and more convenient ways to contact customer service, with 64 percent expressing a preference for communication channels used in their daily interactions with family and friends. Kustomer’s WhatsApp integration, leveraging Meta’s cloud API, sets a new standard for simplicity and effectiveness. With just a single click, businesses can easily connect their WhatsApp Business Account with Kustomer’s CRM platform, unlocking a myriad of possibilities for customer solutions.

Key features and highlights of Kustomer’s WhatsApp Integration include:

• Proactive Customer Outreach: Utilize WhatsApp Message Templates directly within Kustomer to reach out proactively to customers who have given their permission, providing critical updates and personalized messages.
• Enhanced Efficiency with Automation: In the face of limited resources and increasing support inquiries, the WhatsApp integration works in harmony with Kustomer’s powerful automation capabilities. Configure workflows, deploy the chatbot, aka Conversational Assistant, and use dynamic text to add a personal touch to all WhatsApp conversations.
• WhatsApp Chatbots for Self-Service: Cater to the growing preference for self-service support with WhatsApp Conversational Assistant. Empower customers with order updates and seamless chatbot-to-agent handover for a smooth experience.
• Admin Functionalities: An overview of easy ways admins can manage templates include:
  • One central place for admins to easily manage WhatsApp templates
  • Delight customers with an enriched chatbot experience that supports buttons, lists, and multimedia.
  • Automate outbound messaging via WhatsApp
  • Use WhatsApp actions to automate processes through workflows including, automatically performing a refund or cancellation
  • Get complete WhatsApp billing transparency directly in the Kustomer billing UI
• Transparent Pricing: The Kustomer WhatsApp integration is available on every plan at no additional cost so businesses can predict costs with no surprises. This peace of mind allows businesses to continue doing what they do best, which is supporting customers without worrying about inflated costs.

“With decades of experience, we understand the rapid nature of the industry and the need to evolve communication channels between companies and customers,” said Brad Birnbaum, CEO, Kustomer. “WhatsApp has grown to become the preferred messaging platform in many countries around the world. As it continues to evolve and innovate, its influence will grow, solidifying its status as a place to get business done. The way we have built our WhatsApp integration allows us to be nimble and move faster when it comes to scaling solutions for companies who want and need to support their customers on the channels of their choice.”

AdImpact, a leading ad intelligence SaaS company, today announced that they have extended their existing partnership for two additional years with TelevisaUnivision, the world's leading Spanish-language media and content company. The partnership enables TelevisaUnivision to license political spending and competitive tracking tools from AdImpact.

This marks AdImpact’s eighth year as a partner with TelevisaUnivision, which is licensed to use AdImpact’s tools for political ad spend and competitive tracking purposes, giving them access to all political races and advertisers across the 58 markets with a TelevisaUnivision affiliate.

“TelevisaUnivision has been a close partner for almost a decade, and we are looking forward to continuing our successful relationship for the future,” said Kyle Roberts, CEO of AdImpact. “AdImpact’s data-driven insights allow TelevisaUnivision to make highly-informed decisions about their business, and we are proud to be their exclusive partner for the next two years.”

“Candidates' investments are not where they should be. In 2020, about 1% of the GOP budget and about 3% of Democrat dollars were allocated to Spanish-language media," commented Michele Day, SVP for Political Advocacy Group at TelevisaUnivision in the U.S. "This partnership allows us to increase the dollars allocated to Spanish language media, and together, we will ensure campaigns are assigning significant resources to reach this important persuadable voting bloc that will represent 15% of all eligible voters in 2024."

AdImpact’s cutting-edge tools provide TelevisaUnivision with deep insights on ad market share and individualized multi-channel creative analysis, as well as quick access to advertiser contracts and schedules on other stations. This data allows TelevisaUnivision to analyze media buys with ease, generate leads to increase revenue, and better understand the organization surrounding Spanish-speaking language competitive and messaging. As a result of their renewal agreement, AdImpact will further integrate its software to help TelevisaUnivision better serve its network and clients. This integration allows TelevisaUnivision to identify lead opportunities in other individual markets while helping its advertisers reach their target audiences.

MGID, the global advertising platform, has expanded its partnership with GeoEdge, the premier provider of ad security and quality solutions for the online and mobile advertising ecosystem. The expansion follows a successful, years-long partnership, over which several types of cloaking practices were identified across tens of thousands of scenarios.

Through this reaffirmed, long-term collaboration with GeoEdge, MGID’s compliance team can ensure that campaigns launched through its platform are protected with cutting-edge advertising content security. MGID’s robust suite of security features includes:

• Up-to-date threat detection algorithms: GeoEdge systematically updates algorithms for tracking existing and potential threats, focusing on verticals identified by MGID’s compliance team as sensitive. This enables the anticipation and immediate reaction to violations.
• AI-modeled grouping violations: AI models build violation scenarios to pre-empt prohibited practices at the content and ad creation campaign stage, so that MGID’s AI-generated creatives are compliant by default.
• Enhanced manual verification resources: Specialized regional teams monitor the status of advertising content in rotation 24/7, paying attention to even the smallest violation details, such as borrowed design elements and fake statements.
• Zero-tolerance for malware and malicious content: Any hint of malware, malicious content, or phishing practices is blocked by MGID without exception, or subjected to additional review, before entering the system.
• Robust verification system: All MGID clients must undergo personal verification and submit required documentation before commencing activity on its platform, through processes called KYC (know your customer) and KYB (know your business).

“Digital advertising is caught in an endless arms race between legitimate actors and fraudsters that siphon ad spend from the supply chain, impacting advertisers, publishers, and users,” commented Sergii Denysenko, CEO of MGID. “To protect our clients and the wider open web, we seek partnerships with leading innovators, such as GeoEdge, in the fight against deceptive and fraudulent ads. The results of our collaboration so far speak for themselves, and we look forward to our continued work together.”

“Escalating threats from malicious actors present persistent challenges across the entire digital advertising supply chain. As these cyber adversaries refine their tactics, MGID leverages GeoEdge's insights into the threat environment, empowering MGID to combat malvertising and protect its partners from cybercriminal activities.” - Amnon Siev, CEO of GeoEdge.

Pinterest, Inc., (NYSE: PINS) today announced it has appointed Scott Schenkel, former Chief Financial Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer of eBay, to its Board of Directors.

“Scott is recognized as one of the industry’s top financial and ecommerce experts," said Bill Ready, Chief Executive Officer of Pinterest. "He’s widely respected for the operational discipline, business rigor, and financial acumen he’s brought to major global companies, notably at eBay and GE. What’s more, while at eBay, Scott oversaw its advertising investment in Pinterest and therefore brings a first-hand customer perspective to the table. Scott is an ideal fit for our Board of Directors and we’re thrilled to have him join.”

Scott spent 13 years at eBay, including serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer, following additional finance leadership roles such as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to eBay, Scott spent nearly two decades as Chief Financial Officer of multiple business lines at General Electric. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at NetApp where he was the Audit Committee Chairman from 2019-2022, and recently transitioned to be the Talent and Compensation Committee Chair in late 2022. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Forter, the Trust Platform for digital commerce, providing accurate, real time decisions about every digital interaction. He holds a B.S. in Finance from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s Pamplin College of Business.

“Pinterest is uniquely positioned at the intersection of search, social, and commerce," said Scott Schenkel. "I’ve long admired the high commercial intent of the Pinterest audience. Scaling how users on the platform go from discovery to purchase while increasing conversion for retailers is a tremendous opportunity for Pinterest. I’m thrilled to join the Board of Directors to help with Pinterest’s next phase of growth.”

Afterparty, the platform empowering thousands of creators with the tools and technology for personal fan connections and monetization, announced today that it has secured $5 million in funding. The strategic growth round was led by Blockchange Ventures, with participation from existing investors Acrew Capital, Act One Ventures, and Tamarack Global, as well as new investors Wilson Sonsini and Vinny Lingham.

The funding fuels Afterparty’s latest product development and mission to enable scalable interactivity between creators and fans. Afterparty, whose platform already includes live streaming and 1:1 chats, IRL community events, and collectibles, will soon deliver AI voice, photo, and video messaging. The new platform, Afterparty AI, allows creators to infinitely scale personalized fan interactions while activating fans to generate one-of-a-kind images and videos that live as collectibles on the blockchain.

“We are thrilled to introduce 24/7 interactions between creators and fans with Afterparty AI. The all-new ability to turn one-to-one AI experiences into fan-generated content takes interaction to an entirely new level,” said Afterparty CEO and Founder, David Fields. “Creators retain control over their content, revenue, and fan relationships. Fans get the opportunity to become content creators and participate in the growth and success of those who inspire them.”

“As a team of creators and superfans ourselves, Afterparty AI represents a full realization of our founding vision – to create more meaningful connections through interactive fan experiences and infinitely scale them,” added Fields.

Afterparty AI gives fans 24/7 on-demand access to conversations with their favorite creator’s AI. Images and videos created with Afterparty AI also become one-of-a-kind collectibles unique to each fan who generates them – all of which are verified on the blockchain and can easily be shared on social platforms. Every interaction and piece of content fans share serves as a “point of access” to exclusive experiences, opening up opportunities for fans to connect one-to-one with the creators on Afterparty Livestreams.

“The fragmented landscape of social media and content platforms, marked by limited interactivity and inconsistent monetization models, has put creative freedom, earnings, and fan engagement at stake. Afterparty’s model benefits the entire creator ecosystem,” said Blockchange Ventures Managing Partner, Ken Seiff. “By leveraging the latest technology, starting with blockchain and now with AI, Afterparty puts creators in charge of their own content and revenue in a way that also enhances value for their fans.”

Thousands of creators, including headlining musicians Lauv and Jaden Hossler, dancer and choreographer Matt Steffanina, global podcasters Tana Mongeau and Mads Lewis, and international stars Nicolle Figueroa and Strangehuman, have made Afterparty a pivotal platform in their creative growth and strengthening fan relationships. Artists like Eben, who have taken to Afterparty to release new tracks and EPs, give fans firsthand access to exclusive new content.

"Fans bring so much meaning to my music and personal journey as an artist. With Afterparty, I’ve been able to share new music through Livestreams and connect with them on a much deeper level," said Eben. "Afterparty is more than a platform, it's the place where I give my fans exclusive updates with songs, remixes, and more. I always drop the news on Afterparty before anything else! Time has always been one of the biggest barriers for me to connect with more fans. Now, Afterparty Al gives me an incredibly unique way to engage with hundreds to thousands of fans at any time."

Debuted in 2021, Afterparty has scaled from a token-gated fan access and collectibles platform to an interactive destination delivering the tools and experiences creators want - and need - to regain control of fan relationships and revenue. Afterparty Livestreams give fans one-to-one unfiltered access which has been shown to double or triple creator livestream revenue with a higher CPV (Cost per View) when compared to TikTok Live. IRL experiences, such as token-gated music and art festivals, and curated community events, provide immersive “points of connection” for creators and fan bases.

“We heard from many of our creators in the Afterparty community that DMs were their fans’ most-valued experience. However, with thousands of messages coming in at any given time, they have found it impossible to respond in a more personal way both creators and fans crave,” said Afterparty Co-Founder, Robert Graham. “With Afterparty AI, we have developed a proprietary system from the ground up to scale creator-fan interactions. We work closely with creators to ensure that the AI experience is truly authentic to them in the same way we built our creator tools and IRL experiences.”

Afterparty’s rapidly expanding community and suite of platform tools continue to scale with the booming creator economy, an industry that is expected to double over the next five years to $480 billion by 2027 from $250 billion today. With a reported $300 million in venture capital going towards creator-focused AI startups in Q2 of 2023 alone, Afterparty AI marks a strategic and timely opportunity to capture AI market share.

The strategic growth round brings total capital raised to $12 million. Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, Spencer Rascoff, Jason Calacanis, and Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew are among the dynamic community of investors who have participated in Afterparty’s previous rounds, including $4 million unsolicited funding in 2022 and a $3 million pre-seed round in 2021.