At the recent Accelerate 2025 conference, Varicent, a global leader in sales performance management (SPM), announced the winners of its annual Partner Awards. These awards celebrate partners who transform strategy into impactful results and shape the future of SPM.

Award Winners and Contributions

• Global Partner of the Year: Deloitte

  • Engaged executive stakeholders in global transformation initiatives.

  • Focused on certification and delivery readiness to speed up deployments and outcomes.

• North America Partner of the Year: ZS

  • Led Sales Planning initiatives that improved forecasting and sales effectiveness.

  • Helped clients uncover new revenue opportunities and rethink planning processes.

• Joint Impact Award: Argano

  • Actively participated throughout sales cycles, supporting discovery and demos.

  • Helped close key deals and accelerate project starts.

• Partner Success Award: OpenSymmetry

  • Emphasized customer success as a competitive advantage.

  • Supported faster go-lives and higher adoption with experienced teams and learning forums.

• Go-To-Market Partner of the Year: Accenture

  • Brought enterprise opportunities and collaborated closely with sales teams.

  • Helped win competitive deals and position Varicent solutions strategically.

• Innovation Partner of the Year: KPMG

  • Delivered actionable insights impacting product strategy and delivery.

  • Addressed complex implementation challenges supporting long-term growth.

• Breakthrough Partner Award: Workday

  • Fostered collaboration between sales and operations teams.

  • Enabled faster deployments and efficiency gains through early involvement.

Varicent’s Partner Awards highlight the vital role of strategic collaborations in accelerating sales performance management success. The recognized partners exemplify innovation, dedication, and impact, driving client growth and operational excellence worldwide.

Canva, the popular visual communication platform, announced a strategic partnership with Nitro Software, a leader in document and workflow productivity. This collaboration enables enterprise customers to purchase Canva and Nitro solutions together with attractive bundle discounts, enhancing productivity and creativity across organizations.

Highlights of the Partnership

• Combining Strengths

  • Canva offers intuitive design tools used by hundreds of millions globally.

  • Nitro provides enterprise-grade PDF and eSign solutions trusted by 95% of Fortune 500 companies.

• Seamless, Scalable Solutions

  • The partnership delivers a flexible, integrated offering that scales with business needs.

  • Designed to improve document creation, sharing, and management across departments.

• Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity

  • Bundled solutions aim to streamline complex document and design workflows.

  • Helps teams work more efficiently and collaboratively, driving better business outcomes.

• Customer Benefits

  • Enterprises can access exclusive bundle discounts on Canva and Nitro products.

  • The combined platform provides an alternative to inflexible legacy systems.

Executive Insights

• Rob Giglio, Chief Customer Officer at Canva, emphasized the goal of combining powerful functionality with excellent user experience to help businesses innovate quickly.

• Cormac Whelan, CEO of Nitro, highlighted the partnership as a way to free businesses from overpriced, rigid systems and maximize ROI through greater flexibility and creativity.

The Canva-Nitro partnership addresses the growing demand for simplified, integrated productivity tools that empower enterprise teams. By combining their complementary platforms, they offer a compelling alternative to traditional legacy software suites, enhancing business agility and collaboration.

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology continues to advance but has reached a plateau in accuracy improvements for English pre-recorded content. According to the latest State of ASR report by 3Play Media, human review remains essential to meet accessibility standards for captioning and transcription.

Insights from the 3Play Media Report

• ASR Accuracy Plateau

  • Remarkable progress has been made, but error rates across leading ASR engines still fall short of accessibility requirements.

  • The gap between top-performing engines and others has widened.

• Study Scope

  • Evaluated 205 hours of diverse audio content, a 30% increase from last year, spanning multiple industries and use cases.

  • Included testing of eight ASR engines and Gemini, a multimodal large language model (LLM).

• Engine Performance

  • Whisper X showed improved accuracy and avoided hallucinations found in earlier Whisper versions.

  • AssemblyAI’s Universal-2 and Whisper X outperformed Speechmatics, with all three ahead of other tested engines.

• Industry Variations

  • ASR accuracy varies by industry, highlighting the need for tailored solutions based on content type.

  • Sports content remains most challenging due to noisy environments and complex terminology, with error rates three times higher than top-performing industries.

• LLMs and Future Trends

  • Large language models are not yet ready to replace dedicated ASR engines for transcription.

  • Future ASR innovation will likely focus on real-time processing and support for non-English languages rather than further improving English pre-recorded content accuracy.

While ASR technologies are becoming more sophisticated, 3Play Media’s report emphasizes the ongoing necessity of human-in-the-loop workflows to ensure captioning and transcription meet accessibility standards. The report also suggests that future ASR developments will shift toward new applications and broader language capabilities.

GRIN, the leading creator management platform, has launched Gia (“GRIN Intelligent Assistant”), the first AI solution purpose-built for creator marketers. Integrated fully into GRIN’s platform and trained on over ten years of proprietary data, Gia accelerates and optimizes every step of the creator marketing workflow.

Features and Benefits of Gia

• AI-Powered Efficiency

  • Automates tasks that previously took hours or days, now completed in minutes.

  • Frees creator marketers to focus on relationship-building and creative campaign development.

• Strategic, Data-Driven Support

  • Trained on a decade of GRIN data to offer intelligent, tailored assistance.

  • Designed to work alongside marketers, not replace them.

• Comprehensive Workflow Integration
  Gia supports every phase of creator marketing programs, including:

  • Finding suitable creators quickly without manual searching.

  • Automating personalized outreach efforts.

  • Suggesting fair compensation by analyzing industry trends.

  • Streamlining the entire creator onboarding process.

  • Managing creator performance and retention efficiently.

• Adaptive Learning

  • Learns from user behavior to integrate seamlessly into workflows.

  • Acts like a teammate, adapting to individual marketer styles and needs.

GRIN’s Vision and CEO Statement

• GRIN has led the creator management industry for over a decade, setting the gold standard for influencer marketing technology.

• As creator marketing grows more complex, Gia represents a new era of AI designed to autonomously handle day-to-day tasks.

• Ryan Debenham, CEO of GRIN, emphasizes that Gia is built for function, not just form, truly doing the work to give marketers more time for meaningful human interactions.

Gia marks a significant advancement in creator marketing, combining AI-powered automation with human-centric strategy. By embedding intelligent assistance directly into the GRIN platform, Gia empowers creator marketers to work smarter and build stronger, more creative campaigns.

LoopMe, a global leader in brand performance, announced the availability of its Chartboost in-app bidding capability for publishers on AppLovin’s MAX platform. This integration offers publishers greater flexibility to optimize monetization strategies and adopt header bidding alongside traditional waterfall methods.

Benefits and Features

• Maximized Publisher Revenue

  • Enables publishers to develop new revenue streams and gain enhanced control over their inventory.

  • Supports operational efficiencies through unified auctioning with multiple demand sources, including LoopMe’s brand advertiser network.

• Enhanced Advertiser Access

  • Demand partners gain access to quality, transparent in-app inventory.

  • Creates new opportunities alongside existing monetization methods.

• Industry Evolution and Innovation

  • LoopMe is committed to advancing in-app bidding as a core monetization approach alongside waterfall and mediation.

  • Plans to incorporate AI and automation to enhance optimization and management, setting new standards for in-app monetization.

Customer Endorsement

Kate Ellis-Hill, Senior Manager of Ad Monetization at Zynga, highlighted LoopMe’s unique value:

“We have seen growth and a pronounced lift on banners since adding LoopMe’s bidding SDK on MAX. We look forward to continuing this successful partnership.”

Industry Impact

LoopMe’s Chartboost in-app bidding on the MAX platform aims to expand the mobile advertising market by attracting more advertisers. This innovation helps advertisers diversify their strategies to better engage consumers in an increasingly crowded media environment.

Intuit Inc., in partnership with Canvas8, released The New E-Commerce Calendar report revealing a shift in customer shopping behavior. Traditional retail and price promotions now influence only 22% of purchase moments. Instead, shopping is driven by personal, cultural, and community events throughout the year. This evolution demands marketers rethink their engagement strategies beyond the conventional holiday season.

The New Year-Round Shopper Rhythm

• The end-of-year holiday season accounts for only 10% of annual shopper engagement opportunities.

• Brands face up to 15 retail, cultural, or religious moments to engage customers each month.

• 39% of shoppers feel overwhelmed by the volume of sales and promotions, and 25% avoid shopping during major sales events.

• This saturation presents both challenges and opportunities to capture customer attention more meaningfully.

Six Key Categories in the New E-Commerce Calendar

• Sales Moments:

  • Traditional events like Black Friday and Prime Day remain influential.

  • 76% of shoppers use these moments for planned purchases.

  • 72% remain open to unplanned buys if the deal is right.

• Celebratory Moments:

  • Events like Valentine’s Day and Halloween hold strong emotional appeal.

  • 54% and 39% of shoppers respectively make purchases around these occasions.

• Holiday Moments:

  • Holiday season remains significant but with evolved shopper motivations.

  • Price sensitivity drops 38%, with a focus on joy and tradition.

• Entertainment Moments:

  • Sporting and cultural events (World Cup, Super Bowl) influenced 15% of shoppers in the last two years.

• Advocacy Moments and Together Moments:

  • These include social causes and community events shaping purchase behaviors, especially among younger demographics.

Shopper Segments and Regional Insights

• Parents are more likely (54%) to shop during discount-driven moments than non-parents (45%).

• Younger shoppers (18–34) shop more during Advocacy and Entertainment Moments but feel more overwhelmed by promotions.

• Older shoppers (55+) are more skeptical of discounts, perceiving many as exaggerated.

• Regional differences:

  • UK and Canada shoppers respond strongly to loyalty rewards (43%).

  • German shoppers more often set holiday budgets (49%).

  • Benelux shoppers show less concern about missing deals (66%).

  • Scandinavian shoppers are least influenced by discount sales (41%).

Strategic Takeaways for Marketers

• The traditional marketing calendar must evolve into a dynamic, year-round strategy that aligns with cultural and community moments.

• Understanding emotional drivers behind each moment category can unlock new growth opportunities.

• Tailoring marketing efforts by demographic and regional nuances enhances engagement and loyalty.

• Brands focusing on meaningful, timely connections beyond price promotions can build deeper emotional ties and sustain long-term growth.

The New E-Commerce Calendar highlights that today’s shopping behavior is complex, diverse, and culturally driven across the calendar year. Marketers who adapt to this evolving landscape by focusing on moments that matter—beyond traditional sales events—will better resonate with their audiences, create stronger brand loyalty, and achieve sustained business success globally.

Everstage, a leading platform for modern incentive compensation management (ICM), announced powerful validation for its Crystal forecasting module. A new research report, Turning Incentives Into Revenue, shows how Crystal has helped customers increase revenue by 10-25% across key performance metrics. The company also welcomed Jose Aleman, former VP of Commercial Operations at Diligent, as VP of GTM Excellence, aiming to expand its strategic impact on sales compensation.

Crystal Forecasting Module: Proven Revenue Impact

• Research analyzing dozens of customers, including Diligent, highlights Crystal’s transformative effect on ICM.

• Key performance improvements include:

  • 15-20% increase in average deal size.

  • Over 90% accuracy in sales forecasting.

  • 15-25% improvement in deal profitability.

  • 80% reduction in commission disputes.

  • 23% increase in win rates.

• Jose Aleman credits Crystal with transforming sales compensation from a necessary evil into a strategic growth driver.

Executive Leadership Strengthens Growth Vision

• Jose Aleman joins Everstage to help customers unlock Crystal’s strategic value based on his experience leading sales compensation transformation at Diligent.

• Abelardo Gonzalez, appointed VP of Product Marketing, brings 15+ years of experience to amplify Everstage’s positioning of ICM as a business driver.

• Gonzalez emphasizes shifting the narrative of commissions from back-office functions to forward-looking tools that influence sales behavior and revenue.

Changing the Incentive Compensation Management Narrative

• Everstage is redefining ICM from a manual, reactive process to a strategic revenue engine.

• The Crystal module exemplifies this paradigm shift by enabling more accurate forecasting, higher deal profitability, and fewer disputes.

• Aleman and Gonzalez will collaboratively promote Crystal’s methodology: Aleman through customer engagement and Gonzalez through market messaging.

Everstage’s validated Crystal forecasting module and strategic executive hires mark a new era for incentive compensation management. By transforming compensation into a strategic function, Everstage empowers companies to drive sales performance, improve revenue predictability, and realize significant business growth.

Trevelino/Keller, a nationally ranked integrated PR, marketing, and creative agency, has announced its client partnership with FlexTecs, a global leader in recovery audit services and payment accuracy solutions. FlexTecs uses advanced technology to prevent financial leakage and optimize financial operations for enterprise businesses worldwide.

Strategic Partnership and Scope of Work

• Trevelino/Keller will lead strategic go-to-market planning to accelerate the launch and adoption of FlexTrap, FlexTecs’ new SaaS platform.

• The agency will oversee brand evolution and digital experience development, reflecting FlexTecs’ expanded and innovative service offerings.

• The partnership includes a revitalized market positioning through a refreshed digital presence and an updated website experience.

Multi-Channel Growth and Marketing Approach

• Trevelino/Keller will implement an integrated multi-channel strategy combining:

  • Public relations (earned media) and paid media campaigns

  • Content development and SEO optimization

  • Lead generation initiatives

• The agency will design and develop a new web property specifically for FlexTrap and refresh the overall FlexTecs brand and website.

Leadership and Vision

• Tom Cook, co-CEO of FlexTecs, emphasizes the company’s commitment to innovative solutions that minimize financial leakage and improve profit protection using future-ready technology.

• Trevelino/Keller’s expertise in scaling fintech companies positions them as the ideal partner to support FlexTecs’ growth ambitions.

• Genna Keller, Co-CEO at Trevelino/Keller, highlights the agency’s integrated 3GEN funnel approach to drive rapid growth and long-term category leadership for FlexTecs.

The collaboration between Trevelino/Keller and FlexTecs marks a significant step in accelerating FlexTecs’ SaaS platform launch and evolving its brand presence in the fintech industry. Through strategic marketing, digital innovation, and targeted growth efforts, the partnership aims to solidify FlexTecs’ leadership in recovery audit and payment accuracy solutions.