The solution includes a CTV first-to-market Shopify integration, allowing for self-service shoppable campaigns

Today, Roku, the leading TV streaming platform in the U.S.*, announced the debut of Roku Ads Manager, a groundbreaking self-service solution tailored for Connected TV (CTV) performance. As TV ad spending continues to shift from traditional linear formats and digital-native marketers seek new avenues beyond search and social media, Roku Ads Manager is crafted to meet these evolving needs and help growth marketers thrive.

1. Key Features of Roku Ads Manager

• Optimization and Performance: Leveraging Roku’s extensive CTV reach, the platform offers advanced insights and technology for driving both brand awareness and bottom-of-funnel engagement.
• Efficiency and Competitive Pricing: Roku’s direct premium inventory allows for competitive CTV pricing, maximizing spending efficiency without incurring third-party fees.
• Action Ads: New interactive video overlays enable marketers to engage viewers with actionable options, such as sending themselves a text message while watching an ad.
• Shopify Checkout Integration: Shopify merchants can now create self-service shoppable ads, allowing users to complete purchases on-screen using their Roku remote.

2. Innovative Ad Formats

• Interactive Overlays: Roku Ads Manager introduces interactive features like Action Ads, enhancing viewer engagement and providing new ways for consumers to interact with advertisements.
• Shoppable Ads: The integration with Shopify allows for on-screen checkouts, blending commerce with content and creating a seamless shopping experience.

3. Benefits for Marketers

• Seamless Experience: Designed for ease of use, Roku Ads Manager provides a familiar buying experience akin to search and social media platforms, making it accessible for marketers of all sizes.
• Enhanced Reach: Roku’s platform helps brands reach new audiences with incremental ad inventory, improving conversion rates over time.

4. Quotes for Attribution

• Louis Chong, Paid Acquisition Manager, Acorns: “CTV is a rapidly expanding category, and Roku is uniquely placed to provide new incremental ad inventory to reach new audiences. A consistent CTV presence tends to generate stronger CVR over time. With Roku’s ability to connect with relevant demographics, it just makes sense to have Roku part of the CTV mix.”
• Hobson Brown, Co-Founder, Criquet Shirts: “Roku Ads Manager made it incredibly easy for Criquet Shirts to enter the CTV space. The platform’s intuitive setup and unique interactive ad formats allowed us to quickly create and launch campaigns, all while effectively reaching key geos and audiences on the big screen.”

Roku Ads Manager represents a significant advancement in CTV advertising, offering growth marketers a powerful, self-service tool to enhance their campaigns. With features like interactive ad overlays and Shopify integration, Roku Ads Manager provides a streamlined, cost-effective solution for reaching and engaging audiences in the evolving TV landscape.

Mitel selects Zoom to jointly develop an exclusive hybrid offering with bi-directional capabilities between Zoom Workplace and Mitel communications platforms; enables Mitel customers with a path to transition to Zoom UCaaS on their terms

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and Mitel, a global leader in business communications, have announced a groundbreaking partnership to deliver a hybrid cloud solution tailored for modern enterprises. This collaboration integrates Zoom Workplace and Zoom AI Companion with Mitel’s flagship communications platform, offering a seamless, secure, and highly collaborative experience for businesses worldwide.

1. The Need for Hybrid Cloud Solutions

• Evolving Work Environments: With 82% of leaders planning more flexible work styles in the next two years*, the demand for versatile and modern communication solutions is growing.
• Hybrid Approach: 91% of enterprises prioritize a hybrid approach to balance flexibility with control and security in their communications**.

2. Features of the Zoom-Mitel Partnership

• Integrated Communication Experience: The partnership provides a fully embedded experience, eliminating the need for add-ons or plug-ins. Key features include UC and mobile app integration, advanced business process capabilities, and hardware device-level integration.
• Zoom AI Companion: Users will benefit from access to Zoom AI Companion, Meetings, Team Chat, and more, enhancing their collaboration experience while leveraging existing Mitel investments.
• Zoom Phone Integration: The solution includes support for Mitel PBX platforms, whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

3. Partnership Benefits

• Exclusive UCaaS Offering: Zoom is established as Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS provider, allowing Mitel’s sales teams and over 7,000 partners to offer a Zoom-first experience or assist with migrations to Zoom.
• Enhanced Flexibility: The solution addresses the growing need for hybrid capabilities that integrate seamlessly across on-premises and cloud models, providing both flexibility and control.
• Advanced Capabilities: The joint solution will be available in the first half of 2025, with ongoing enhancements planned as part of a multi-phase partnership strategy.

4. Executive Quotes

• Eric S. Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom: “Together, Zoom and Mitel are now able to address the largest segment of today’s communications market, particularly in EMEA, strengthening growth potential and enabling more users worldwide to reimagine the ways in which they work.”
• Tarun Loomba, President and CEO of Mitel: “Partnering with Zoom strengthens our ability to deliver flexible and innovative solutions for customers around the world, enhancing our ability to support the complex needs of today’s distributed workforce.”

5. Industry Insight

• Dave Michels, Founder and Lead Analyst, TalkingPointz: “The partnership brings the best of hybrid communication to market, offering a seamless solution without integration burdens. It addresses the need for flexibility, control, and resilience in modern business communications.”

The strategic alliance between Zoom and Mitel marks a significant advancement in hybrid cloud communications, offering a powerful solution that integrates the strengths of both platforms. This partnership aims to meet the evolving needs of enterprises, providing a flexible, secure, and highly collaborative environment to enhance business productivity.

The BigTravel accelerator will leverage BigCommerce’s open, composable platform to empower travel agents and enhance the traveler experience

BigCommerce, a leader in open SaaS and composable ecommerce platforms, has teamed up with Ubique Digital to unveil BigTravel, a state-of-the-art solution crafted to transform travel industry operations and elevate customer experiences. With travel and tourism projected to contribute $11.1 trillion to the global GDP in 2024*, BigTravel aims to simplify the complexities of this vast industry and address the technology gaps faced by travel agencies and aggregators.

1. The Challenge in the Travel Industry

• Complex Industry Landscape: The travel industry encompasses a multitude of services including transportation, lodging, and excursions, often managed by disparate legacy systems.
• Integration Difficulties: Travel agencies face challenges integrating with fragmented systems and complex booking processes, hindering their ability to deliver a cohesive customer experience.

2. BigTravel Features and Benefits

• Unified Interface: Provides a single platform for managing customer inquiries and bookings across various channels, streamlining workflows for travel agents.
• Automation and Efficiency: Automates routine tasks, allowing agents to concentrate on high-value interactions and simplify the creation of custom travel packages.
• Personalized Customer Experience: Utilizes BigCommerce’s analytics to offer tailored experiences and targeted promotions, moving away from generic approaches.

3. Enhanced Travel Booking and Operational Efficiency

• Seamless Booking Process: BigTravel offers mobile-optimized storefronts and sophisticated search and booking experiences, ensuring a smooth process for travelers across devices.
• Unified Brand Experience: Ensures consistent brand presentation across all touchpoints, addressing the issue of fragmented experiences.
• Headless Framework: Leverages the BigCommerce Catalyst storefront architecture for flexible and efficient marketing content changes.

4. Real-Time Adaptability and Integration

• Real-Time Control: Allows for instant strategy adjustments, improving upon traditional static pricing models.
• Fast Implementation: Reduces the time and cost of technology migration from legacy systems to a modern open SaaS platform.
• Pre-Integrated Channels: Facilitates inventory listing across social, advertising, and remarketing channels, optimizing ad performance and reducing costs.

5. Industry Expert Opinions

• Christopher J. Cook: “A solution that combines frontend flexibility with powerful ecommerce features is crucial in today’s competitive travel market. BigTravel is set to significantly benefit travel companies of all sizes.”
• Nandakumar Balasubramanian, Partner at Ubique Digital: “BigCommerce’s platform, with its openness and composability, is the ideal backend engine for delivering an exceptional frontend experience. This partnership represents a major advancement for the travel and tourism sector.”

The introduction of BigTravel by BigCommerce and Ubique Digital marks a significant evolution in the travel industry, offering a unified, flexible, and efficient solution that addresses the challenges faced by travel agencies and aggregators. By streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences, BigTravel aims to drive growth and reduce costs while delivering a superior booking process.

Self-Service Platform Empowers Software Companies to Create High-Quality Developer Content 10x Faster

CortexClick, an innovator in AI-assisted marketing tools, has unveiled its new self-service content generation platform, designed specifically for developer tools, cloud services, and enterprise SaaS companies. This platform empowers businesses to produce top-notch content—including blog posts, tutorials, landing pages, and technical documentation at an unprecedented speed and scale.

1. Unique Challenges of Developer Marketing

• Specialized Content Needs: Developer audiences require highly technical and specific content that traditional marketing tools may not adequately address.
• Efficiency Demands: Marketing teams need tools that can scale quickly and handle the complexity of developer-centric content.

2. Key Features of CortexClick

• LLM-Powered Content Editor: Generates high-quality blog posts from simple titles with AI-assisted refinement and editing.
• GitHub Integration: Streamlines pull requests and accelerates review processes with AI-generated suggestions.
• Automated Knowledge Base Management: Simplifies the ingestion and updating of marketing materials, developer docs, and blogs.
• Custom AI Agents (Cortexes): Allows configuration of AI agents to align with brand voice and specific marketing tasks.
• Enterprise Chat: Enhances customer-facing experiences and internal tools with chat functionality integrated with your knowledge base.
• Developer API and SDK: Provides powerful backend tools for building custom integrations and applications.

3. Impact on Developer Marketing

• Scaling Content Creation: CortexClick enables teams to produce technical content efficiently, with a reported 75% reduction in content production time according to Matt Bowers, former head of SEO at Zapier and Zillow.
• Enhanced Content Quality: Utilizes multi-agent workflows and real-time web research to generate superior content.
• Human-in-the-Loop Review: Ensures that AI-generated content is reviewed and refined by human experts to maintain quality and relevance.

4. Pricing and Accessibility

• Pay-As-You-Go Model: Offers immediate content generation capabilities without lengthy sales processes or commitments, making it accessible for companies of all sizes.

Quotes for Attribution:

• Evan Boyle, CEO of CortexClick: “CortexClick is not just another AI writing tool. We've built a comprehensive platform that understands the unique challenges of marketing to developers.”
• Ethan Chan, CEO of Allium: “CortexClick allows our team to scale technical content creation with just one person using their generative AI platform.”
• Matt Bowers, SEO Consultant: “SEO teams can cut content production time by around 75% with CortexClick.”

CortexClick’s new platform addresses the specific needs of developer marketing by offering advanced content generation tools that improve efficiency, content quality, and scalability. With its innovative features and flexible pricing model, CortexClick is set to significantly enhance the content production capabilities of developer-focused businesses and SaaS companies.

Findings reveal average daily hours of viewing and session length are on the rise following a post-pandemic dip, while ad fill has declined amid rapid channel growth

Wurl, a leader in the connected TV (CTV) industry, has released The CTV Trends Report 2024. This comprehensive study provides an in-depth analysis of the latest shifts in content and ad experiences on CTV platforms, offering valuable metrics on sessions, ad load, and viewership. The report aims to guide streamers and content providers in making informed business decisions amidst a rapidly evolving CTV landscape.

1. Current Trends in CTV Viewing

• Rising Average Daily Viewing Hours: After a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, average daily hours of viewing (HOV) are up by 5% in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023.
• Increased Session Length: Average session lengths have improved by nearly 7% in Q3 2024 from the previous year, indicating longer viewer engagement.

2. Viewer Engagement and Behavior

• Stable Churn Rates: Churn rates have stabilized, showing a slight downward trend, suggesting that viewers are increasingly sticking with their CTV services.
• Holiday Channel Performance: Holiday channels see a significant spike in viewership during December, with viewership up to four times higher than other months. Interestingly, 25% of viewers continue to engage with holiday content year-round.

3. Advertising Trends and Challenges

• Ad Fill Rate Trends: The ad fill rate in 2024 has seen a decline due to an oversupply in the market. This cyclical and seasonal variation in fill rates highlights the need for strategic ad placements.

4. Opportunities for Innovation

• Discoverability Challenges: Despite increasing engagement, discoverability issues with the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and user experience persist, presenting opportunities for innovation in CTV platforms.

Quotes for Attribution:

• Ron Gutman, CEO of Wurl: “As one of the largest operators of FAST channels, Wurl is uniquely positioned to recognize viewership habits and help our partners develop strategies to engage their audiences. Our latest insights show climbing engagement on CTV, though growth isn’t where it used to be, highlighting a need for greater innovation.”

Wurl’s CTV Trends Report 2024 provides crucial insights into the evolving CTV landscape, highlighting trends in viewer engagement, session length, and ad performance. With average viewing hours and session lengths on the rise, while ad fill rates experience seasonal fluctuations, the report underscores the need for continuous innovation to address discoverability challenges and optimize the viewer experience.

As part of the Fall 2024 Spotlight at INBOUND, HubSpot launched Breeze, its embedded AI with new Copilot and Agents; Breeze Intelligence for data enrichment; and updates to Marketing Hub and Content Hub that give marketers new tools for growth

At INBOUND 2024, HubSpot has unveiled a series of groundbreaking updates aimed at transforming how go-to-market (GTM) teams spanning marketing, sales, and service operate. Faced with challenges such as inefficiency and disconnected data, GTM teams are struggling to drive growth. HubSpot’s latest innovations, including Breeze AI, Breeze Intelligence, and agent.ai, are set to revolutionize how these teams manage customer interactions and fuel business growth.

1. Breeze AI: Revolutionizing GTM Efficiency

• Copilot: HubSpot’s new AI companion designed to streamline workflows and simplify tasks.
• Four Breeze Agents: Specialized agents—Content, Social Media, Prospecting, and Customer—each aimed at enhancing specific aspects of GTM activities.
• 80+ Features: Includes content remixing and sales forecasting enhancements embedded across the platform.

2. Breeze Intelligence: Enhancing Data and Buyer Insights

• Data Enrichment: Access to over 200 million buyer and company profiles to enhance records in HubSpot’s Smart CRM.
• Buyer Intent: Tools to identify high-fit prospects and optimize lead conversion.
• Form Shortening: Automates the inclusion of known information to increase conversion rates.

3. Updates to Marketing Hub and Content Hub

• Content Remix: AI-driven tool to repurpose video content into a full campaign.
• Lead Scoring: Identifies high-engagement, high-fit prospects.
• Google Enhanced Conversions: Utilizes first-party data to improve campaign performance.
• Marketing Analytics Suite: Consolidates marketing metrics for faster insights and improved campaign results.

4. HubSpot’s Unified Platform Impact

• Unified Platform Benefits: 89% of customers using a unified platform report daily use across marketing, sales, and service, leading to 107% more leads, 35% more deals closed, and a 28% increase in ticket resolution.
• ROI: 80% of HubSpot customers achieve return on investment within 3 months or less.

5. agent.ai: The Future of AI Agents

• Agent Builder: Enables users to create AI agents for various tasks such as SEO research and competitor analysis.
• Agent Network: With over 47,000 users and 1,700 builders, agent.ai facilitates the creation and hiring of specialized agents for marketing, sales, and service tasks.

Quotes for Attribution:

• Dharmesh Shah, Co-Founder and CTO of HubSpot: “We want to make it exceptionally easy to not only use agents but build and distribute them on our network. Just as Apple said ‘there’s an app for that,’ we say: ‘there’s an agent for that.’”

HubSpot’s latest announcements from INBOUND 2024 promise to address the inefficiencies and challenges faced by GTM teams through innovative tools like Breeze AI, Breeze Intelligence, and agent.ai. These updates are designed to unify and streamline operations, driving growth and improving ROI for businesses.

Strategic partnership enables Go To Market teams to automatically prioritize leads, improve sales conversion, and retain more customers

At INBOUND 2024, Amplitude, Inc. and HubSpot, Inc. unveiled a strategic partnership aimed at transforming how Go-To-Market (GTM) teams drive growth and close deals. By integrating Amplitude's customer behavior analytics with HubSpot's Smart CRM, this collaboration promises to provide deeper insights into customer engagement, enhancing the effectiveness of marketing, sales, and service teams.

1. Enhanced Lead Scoring and Targeted Campaigns

• Integration Benefits: Combining HubSpot's Lead Scoring with Amplitude's behavioral data allows for better lead qualification and targeted marketing campaigns.
• Marketing Impact: Marketers can create more personalized and effective campaigns based on comprehensive user behavior insights.

2. Improved Customer Health Scoring and Retention

• Customer Success: Sales and Customer Success teams can leverage HubSpot’s Customer Health Scoring enhanced with Amplitude’s data to identify opportunities for upselling and reduce churn.
• Engagement Timing: Insights into user behavior help teams understand the optimal moments for customer engagement and expansions.

3. Unified Data for Better Insights and Action

• Integrated Dashboards: Joint customers can view Amplitude charts directly within HubSpot dashboards, integrating product usage data with CRM information.
• Personalized User Engagement: Teams can target customer cohorts based on product usage and other key signals, improving message relevance and timing.
• Campaign Performance: HubSpot data can be imported into Amplitude to evaluate and enhance marketing campaign effectiveness.

4. Simplified Installation and Integration

• Ease of Use: HubSpot customers can easily install Amplitude with minimal setup, requiring just one line of code.
• HubSpot App Marketplace: Amplitude is natively integrated and certified within the HubSpot App Marketplace, ensuring it meets HubSpot’s standards for security and performance.

Quotes for Attribution:

• Andy Pitre, Executive Vice President of Product at HubSpot: “Our partnership with Amplitude delivers the context organizations need to be successful. When marketing, sales, and support teams are aligned, they can drive better results.”
• Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude: “Amplitude and HubSpot are changing the game. Instead of wasting time on the wrong leads and campaigns, teams can use product behavior signals to upsell, convert, and retain more customers.”
• Anas Masood, Growth Product Manager at Polly: “Amplitude and HubSpot are making it possible to understand how campaigns influence customer behavior and key metrics like retention and revenue growth.”

The partnership between HubSpot and Amplitude marks a significant advancement in enabling GTM teams to harness the power of integrated customer behavior and CRM data. This collaboration offers a unified approach to customer insights, paving the way for more effective marketing, sales, and service strategies that drive growth and improve customer engagement.

One of the first contact center providers to join Salesforce pilot program as a premier provider for Service Cloud Voice, now with the ultimate omnichannel solution

At the forefront of digital transformation, Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications and part of Ericsson, has become one of the first contact center providers to join Salesforce's Bring Your Own Channel for Contact Center as a Service (BYOC for CCaaS) pilot program. This integration allows Vonage Premier for Salesforce Service Cloud Voice customers to enrich their contact center solutions with Vonage’s omnichannel and AI-powered capabilities, offering a seamless and personalized experience for customers across multiple communication channels.

1. Enhanced Omnichannel Capabilities

• Integration Benefits: Vonage Premier for Service Cloud Voice now supports voice, SMS, chat, social messaging apps like WhatsApp, and more.
• Customer Experience: The integration delivers faster resolution times and a more native, personalized experience by connecting with customers on their preferred channels.

2. AI-Powered Tools and Insights

• Data Insights: Access to data insights and AI-based agent productivity tools enhances overall customer journeys and agent efficiency.
• Agent Productivity: AI-powered Virtual Agent solutions for self-service automations across voice and digital channels improve both customer support and agent performance.

3. Unified Contact Center Experience

• Single Interface: The integration provides a unified user interface with omnichannel communication and a 360-view of customer information, reducing the need for application switching.
• Workforce Engagement Management (WEM): Seamless integrations with WEM solutions like Verint, Calabrio Teleopti, Playvox, and injixo optimize workforce planning, scheduling, and management.

4. Streamlined Operations and Efficiency

• Pre-Built Capabilities: Vonage integrates its Communications APIs for voice, SMS, social, and chat into the contact center, enhancing efficiency.
• Salesforce Desktop: Agents and supervisors benefit from a single Salesforce desktop, which consolidates functionalities and improves operational efficiency.

Quotes for Attribution:

• Tony Flores, Senior Director of Product Management for Salesforce: “Vonage’s participation in the BYOC for CCaaS pilot expands its Salesforce integration, delivering omnichannel capabilities that create meaningful customer experiences and drive engagement.”
• Reggie Scales, Acting Head of Applications for Vonage: “Contact center agents need robust tools to handle increasing customer demands and remote work challenges. Our unified solution offers omnichannel communication and a 360-view of customer information, defining the future of contact centers.”
• Jim Lundy, CEO, Founder & Lead Analyst, Aragon Research: “Vonage addresses the growing need for a unified, customizable customer experience with BYOC for CCaaS, leveraging Salesforce platforms and AI-powered insights.”

Vonage’s integration into Salesforce’s BYOC for CCaaS pilot represents a significant advancement in enhancing contact center operations. By combining omnichannel capabilities with AI-driven insights and a unified user interface, Vonage and Salesforce aim to set a new standard in customer engagement and agent productivity.