BrandMuscle introduces Palette, an easy-to-use design platform that ensures compliant marketing for highly regulated industries

Today, BrandMuscle announces they're stepping into the self-service design space with Palette. This innovative graphic design platform makes print and digital asset creation easy with user-friendly controls, built-in templates, and AI-enhanced functionalities. 

Unlike other self-service design platforms, Palette sets itself apart by conducting comprehensive compliance checks to ensure all artwork and messaging are market-ready. Palette was designed specifically for beverage-alcohol brands and distributors facing complex legal and brand compliance standards across their field marketing. In highly regulated industries, compliant designs aren't just nice to have — they're a necessity.  

With Palette, reps can create on-brand, legally compliant assets in minutes with pre-approved media, fonts, colors, and text styles that comply with brand guidelines. Then, these materials go through an automated compliance review that uses AI to look for trademark and copyright infringement, compliance with state regulations, and Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) compliance standards.

Other notable Palette features include:

• Design versatility: Use AI-supported templates to optimize artwork for digital channels or create print-ready files.
• Simple user interface: Palette offers an accessible and intuitive user experience, enabling anyone to easily create stunning designs with no experience necessary.
• AI-powered tools: With Palette's AI technology, you can generate text in the proper brand voice and produce AI-generated artwork in seconds.
• Compliance without complexity: With a series of compliance safeguards and automated compliance checks, no violations will slip through the cracks.

"Rogue assets are a major risk for bev-alc brands. Reps often use third-party design tools to create marketing materials without realizing these assets don't comply with brand or legal guidelines," said Robert Olivares, BrandMuscle's EVP Bev-Alc. "That's why we created Palette — a solution that puts compliance first while making design easy."

"For too long, reps have had to choose between compliance and speed to market when designing marketing materials. Palette streamlines asset creation with AI and ensures complete compliance every time," said James Morse, Senior Vice President of Product Management at BrandMuscle.

Marketers turn to owned brand communities as social media declines

A new study by TINT, the Community Powered Marketing platform, finds 60% of marketers are concerned about losing access to their brand's fans on social media due to increasing fragmentation, dissatisfaction with platform content, and changes in social algorithms.

"2024 is the year of owned brand communities and Zero Party Data," said Sameer Kamat, TINT CEO. "We have seen how quickly social platforms can change and fall out of favor. Brands are taking back their relationships with consumers."

The study finds that 47% of brand marketers surveyed already own or are in the process of building an online brand community distinct from social media.

Consumer participation in online communities is trending upward, increasing 9% year-over-year as people seek more active involvement with the brands and organizations they frequent.  Community-centric marketing builds direct, emotional and engaging relationships, serving as the bond that drives choiceful spending, authentic advocacy, and enduring brand loyalty.

"It is important to own this relationship because we increasingly don't own our brands," said Tiffany Pegues, Head of Social, Search, and CRM at Church & Dwight Co. "Consumers will adapt them as they want to or need to." She adds that communities are part of the omnichannel journey that bridges the gap between digital and physical experiences.

Additional Findings

• 82% of consumers are more likely to purchase new product varieties because of an online brand community.
• 69% of consumers prefer to purchase brands that they interact with in an online community.
• 59% of marketers struggle to get consumers to provide Zero Party Data.

The data for this report was gathered using online surveys between October 25 - November 15, 2023. Data was collected from a peer influencer consumer community, Smiley360, by 2,386 U.S. respondents and from 220 global marketers.

Influencer technology platform announces rapid growth alongside new retail partners and successful holiday sales, paying creators more than $20 million last year, a 5x increase from 2022

Mavely, the Everyday Influencer Platform™ powering partnerships between creators and global retail brands, today announced millions of dollars in creator payouts, new partners to its robust retail network and landmark sales for 2023. Mavely paid out more than $20M in earnings to its creators in 2023, with more than $1M paid to creators for sales made between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The platform recorded more than $300M in sales—representing Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)—for brand partners last year, with $120M in GMV in Q4 alone. Additionally, Mavely achieved $480M in GMV run rate in Q4* and drove $11.3M in GMV between Black Friday and Cyber Monday specifically. This news comes as part of Mavely’s ongoing efforts to empower the growing generation of influencers with the brand network and resources to master commission-driven social selling. 

Mavely is a technology platform that helps enable its more than 70k creators to monetize their social followings. Mavely influencers drive sales for brands and earn commissions by sharing shoppable SmartLinks that track insights including clicks, conversions, sales and more. Prioritizing authenticity over follower count, the company connects these everyday influencers—a term Mavely has trademarked—with a network of more than 1,200 brands and provides influencers with dedicated account managers, educational courses and in-depth analytics tools to help optimize their performance, including product-level data, transactions and commissions made via affiliate links, creator performance history and more.

As a creator-first company, Mavely incentivizes strong performance through influencer tools and benefits such as 10% referral commissions, access to campaigns and exclusive promotions, fast and transparent payouts, and a bonus program with various perks and rewards. One top-performing creator, Keesh Deesh, earned more than $1M via Mavely in 2023.** Keesh Deesh also achieved $2M in sales GMV for retailers in the month of November, selling $160k worth of products on Black Friday.

“At Mavely, we believe that the future of influencer marketing is performance based. In the creator economy as anywhere, influencers and brands want more predictable revenue streams,” said Evan Wray, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Mavely. “Brands rely heavily on performance data when planning their marketing budgets. It’s no longer logical to pay one influencer and hope for the best when, instead, brands can tap an army of creators each incentivized with commission-based earnings. Mavely provides the technology, community and incentives to help drive and track creator performance at scale.”

In 2024, global ad spend on influencer marketing is expected to reach $30.8 billion, according to Demand Sage. Mavely is marrying the evolving influencer space—and the brands trying to keep up—with the empirically robust affiliate marketing industry via its easy-to-use platform and results-driven account management. According to research from Influencer Marketing Hub, 82% of surveyed companies intend to dedicate a specific budget to influencer marketing this year. Brands will inevitably look to prioritize performance and results, a point in which traditional influencer marketing falls short. Mavely allows for both brands and influencers to use performance metrics to test and track the success of their influencer campaigns, bridging the gap between influencer marketing, which often leverages user-generated content for brand awareness, and affiliate marketing, which drives attributable sales. Mavely’s performance-based influencer marketing model is unlocking new revenue streams for major brands by harnessing everyday influencers who can perform in brand campaigns and as affiliate marketers, a more attractive alternative to ‘traditional brand deals’ where brands pay an influencer one lump sum with little insights into conversion.

Mavely has facilitated collaborations with more than 1,200 brands, including Old Navy, QVC and Urban Outfitters, fostering strategic and cost-effective relationships between online creators and the world’s most recognizable brands. In 2023, Mavely added 525 new brand partners to its network for influencers to share, such as Little Sleepies, Woot! and Public Lands. As Mavely grows its network of retail partners, the company continues fostering purposeful connections with brands that align with the Mavely creator community’s goals and values by selecting brands that are dedicated to fair and reliable commissions, accessible pricing and high-quality products that both creators and their audiences can trust.

“Mavely has assisted our channel with not only reaching, but surpassing our performance-focused KPIs,” said the Influencer Marketing Team at QVC. “The company introduced us to hundreds of new creators, allowing us to reach new audiences across America and unlock a new vertical of sales via social media.”

"Mavely has been an integral partner within our affiliate program, helping us scale during major moments like our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale,” said Katie Price Ross, Growth Marketing Director at Little Sleepies. “During the sale, affiliate was one of our core channels and we significantly beat ROAS goals with the help of authentic content from Mavely's influencers. Additionally, over 80% of the traffic driven to our site from affiliates was from new customers."

To celebrate Mavely’s ongoing success and in an effort to give back to the community, the platform donated $10k on behalf of the company, its retail partners and creators to Lawrence Hall, a community-based organization that serves more than 1,400 youth and families in Mavely’s home city of Chicago. As a result of Mavely’s contribution, 200 children received holiday presents and clothes and 60 children will be able to take part in a cultural immersion program. Additionally, the donation will support the construction of a new playground for families to enjoy. This continues a Mavely tradition of giving back to communities, with Watts of Love in 2022 (bringing electricity to villages in Africa) and Women in Tech in 2021 (promoting STEM careers for girls and young women) as causes that Mavely has supported.

New report finds that the world averaged 8.4 new social media users per second over the past year

Meltwater, a global leader in media, social and consumer intelligence, and We Are Social, the socially-led creative agency, have released Digital 2024, their latest annual report on social media and digital trends worldwide.

In a year full of digital milestones, Digital 2024 shows that active social media user identities* have passed the 5 billion mark (5.04 billion), equivalent to 62.3 percent of the world’s population. The global total increased by 266 million over the past year - an annual growth of 5.6 percent.

The typical social media user now spends 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on their social platforms of choice, and uses 6.7 platforms each month. TikTok has the highest average time per Android user of any social platform globally, clocking in at an impressive 34 hours per month - equating to more than an hour per day using the platform. In second place is YouTube, with the average user spending just over 28 hours per month on its Android app.

In terms of the world’s ‘favorite’ social platform, Instagram has taken the crown from last year’s winner, WhatsApp. Digital 2024 shows that 16.5 percent of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 consider Instagram their most loved platform, pushing WhatsApp into second place with 16.1 percent.

Digital 2024 is a 550+ page report that covers data points from across the entire online ecosystem, from social media to smart devices, gaming to social commerce.

Other key highlights from the report include:

• The typical internet user now spends 6 hours and 40 minutes online each day - up by 3 minutes per day, or 1 percent, year-on-year.
• Facebook - which celebrates its 20th birthday on 4th February - grew its global ad reach by more than 200 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 10.5 percent.
• LinkedIn, Snapchat, WeChat, and Pinterest all reported strong user growth year-on-year.
• Digital ad spend grew by 10 percent year-on-year, with almost $720 billion spent on digital ads in 2023. Social ad spend increased by 9.3 percent to USD $207 billion, and investment in influencer activities increased by 17 percent.
• The typical internet user now spends 17 minutes per day less watching TV content than they did this time last year - a decline of 8.2 percent year-on-year.
• In a rich analysis of TikTok hashtags, Digital 2024 reports that TikToks tagged with #fyp (for your page) have amassed a total of 55½ trillion views - making it the platform’s top hashtag.

Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, Chief Strategy Officer at Meltwater, said: “As social media enters its next chapter with five billion-plus users, understanding usage patterns, engagement, and emerging trends is crucial to helping brands find their unique voice amidst all the online chatter. The rise of TikTok, coupled with Instagram’s ‘favorite’ status and the growth of professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, paints a picture of evolving preferences. With so many platform choices, brands need to really understand where their target audience is going for information—and shape compelling narratives that engage them with unparalleled precision and authenticity.”

Nathan McDonald, co-founder and group chief executive at We Are Social, commented: “Social media continues to be a vital part of the way we connect with one another, from building communities to researching purchases and everything in between. TikTok’s continued popularity has changed the way that people behave online - social is not somewhere where a broadcast approach works for brands, and the importance of thinking social first has never been more important. It’s encouraging to see strong growth across multiple social platforms, each offering something different, whether that’s Pinterest for social commerce or Facebook for connecting with communities. For marketers, understanding platform nuances - and how to use social media to connect in culturally relevant ways - will be more crucial than ever.”

HIA Technologies, Inc., a leader in innovative technology solutions, announces the launch of Qvio™️, the world's first interactive video platform that empowers viewers to interrupt videos with questions and receive instant answers directly from the video's creator. Because the platform allows creators to use their existing content, creators can capitalize on their prior investments while adding new engagement opportunities. The patented platform transforms the traditional video-watching experience and holds immense potential for reshaping the realms of education, learning, and brand marketing.

In education, learning, and development, Qvio becomes a game-changer by enabling educators to deliver content more dynamically and engagingly. Learners can now interact with the media publisher in real-time and receive answers to questions exactly as the publisher intended. This dynamic approach to learning enhances comprehension and caters to diverse learning styles and environments, promoting equity in education. Compared to question and answer models available today which provide replies at a later time or outside of the session (via the public comments section), Qvio's conversational approach keeps the viewer engaged in the moment and avoids disruption.

Qvio answers come directly from the content creator via Author-Controlled AI™️, which relies on the creator to approve the answers before publishing the video. This guardrail ensures the answers cannot go rogue, eliminating the risk of "AI hallucinations" and AI plagiarism. These validated answers are delivered instantly, accompanied by additional multimedia that reinforces the response, brand, or other calls to action.

"For too long, video content has been a one-way street, a passive viewing experience with no ability for viewers to dive deeper into the topics presented or have their questions answered. Qvio transforms videos into two-way conversations between viewers and content creators, allowing viewers to actively engage with the material for a more personalized experience and better comprehension of the topics presented," says Vacit Arat, CEO of HIA Technologies, Inc.

Beyond education, Qvio's impact extends into the brand marketing space, providing marketers with a unique tool to connect with their audience. By incorporating interactive elements into their video campaigns, brands can create a more memorable and personalized experience. Viewers can ask questions about products or services directly within the video, leading to a more informed and engaged consumer base. Marketers can conserve budgets by upcycling existing media while expanding their customer touchpoints.

Qvio introduces the concept of "insight" filters, allowing users to query videos based on specific keywords, themes, or topics of interest. This feature enhances the overall user experience, enabling viewers to jump to relevant portions of the content that align with their specific needs or preferences, saving time and ensuring that users can extract the most value from the content.

Content creators also benefit from Qvio's robust analytics, gaining valuable insights into what their audience wants to know. This data-driven approach enables creators to tailor their content to meet their viewers' needs and interests, ultimately driving audience engagement, awareness, and retention.

HIA Technologies, Inc. invites educators, content creators, and marketers to explore the limitless possibilities of Qvio and join the movement toward a more interactive and engaging digital landscape.

Following the debut of Amazon's ad-supported Prime Video service this week, new and exclusive analysis from Omdia reveals the streaming platform is set to generate more than $2bn in incremental ad revenue in 2024, its launch year. This will be in addition to revenue already generated by the sale of advertising slots during live sports broadcasts on the service.

Amazon Prime has successfully built a strong subscriber base of over 200 million due to the range of services it offers, including an extensive shopping range, free shipping, music, and cloud services. These services allow Amazon to remain competitive and continue to attract and retain customers.

The main difference between Amazon Prime's advertising strategy compared to other players such as Netflix is the subscription model. Amazon will place all current users into the ad-supported tier of its service, giving subscribers the option to pay extra to view without advertising. Netflix users all begin in the non-ad-supported tier and have the option to pay less for a service that incorporates advertising.

Commenting on Amazon Prime's entry into the ad-supported video market, Matthew Bailey, Omdia Principal Analyst said: "The forecasted global revenue of over $2bn for Amazon's ad-supported Prime Video tier in 2024 indicates considerable growth potential for the streaming platform and reflects Amazon's efforts to diversify its revenue streams beyond subscription fees.

"A significant factor contributing to Amazon's success will be their capability to provide closed-loop attribution and the inherent advantage of having all their users ad-addressable by default. Amazon has already experimented with directly shoppable ad formats, and this would enhance their ability to monetize their platform even more."

Omdia's research also considers the introduction of new services by Amazon's ad-supported Prime Video, including shoppable TV. This feature allows viewers to directly purchase products they see in shows or movies, creating a new avenue for e-commerce within the streaming platform.

Concluding, Bailey said "Omdia expects more partnerships between prominent retailers, broadcasters, and online video platform owners as they look to compete with Amazon. These will range from data-sharing partnerships to enable commerce-led video advertising measurement and targeting through to direct retailer integration with video services."

Alliance accelerates migration from Oracle to Yellowbrick Data Warehouse

Datometry, the pioneer in database virtualization, and Yellowbrick Data announced today that they have entered into a technology partnership. By supporting Yellowbrick as a destination platform, enterprises can adopt Yellowbrick considerably faster. Existing Yellowbrick customers can increase usage by consolidating workloads from Oracle or Teradata systems to Yellowbrick.

Conventional approaches to switching analytical database systems rely on extensive application rewrites. Historically, these approaches have proven time-consuming, extremely costly, and risk-laden, cementing the strong vendor lock-in of the incumbent legacy database vendors.

In contrast, the Datometry Hyper-Q platform makes existing applications work natively with Yellowbrick without changing SQL or application code. The combined technology of Datometry and Yellowbrick gives enterprises a powerful and cost-effective replacement for Oracle and Teradata systems with a highly accelerated path to adoption.

"We're excited to partner with Yellowbrick Data to offer enterprises a true alternative to overly expensive legacy systems," said Mike Waas, CEO of Datometry. "Through our technology partnership, enterprises can move their existing workloads to Yellowbrick Data at a fraction of the cost, time, and risk of conventional migrations."

"With Datometry, Yellowbrick is a complete replacement for Oracle and Teradata systems, out of the box," said Allen Holmes, VP of Business Development and Partner Alliances. "The combined technology of Datometry and Yellowbrick ensures customers move to a modern data warehouse or lakehouse architecture with confidence and at unprecedented speed."

The combined technology of Datometry and Yellowbrick ensures customers move to a modern data warehouse or lakehouse architecture with confidence and at unprecedented speed.

Redefining the Meeting Experience with AI and AV Expertise 

Highlights

• AudioCodes and Kramer are partnering to redefine the Microsoft Teams Meeting Experience.
• The partnership brings together AudioCodes' expertise in Microsoft Teams Room solutions, management tools and AI-powered meeting analytics, with Kramer's expertise in innovative audio-visual solutions.
• Combining AudioCodes AI and Kramer's AV innovation allows enterprises to improve the user experience during a meeting and drive more productive, intelligence-based meeting outcomes.
• The collaboration provides system integrators with a uniquely comprehensive solution for Microsoft Teams meeting spaces to support their customers' hybrid workplace strategies.

Details

AudioCodes, a leader in advanced communications software and AI and Kramer, a pioneer in audio-visual products and solutions have announced a new partnership to deliver complete Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) solutions. This collaboration is set to redefine the meeting experience and AV-enabled hybrid work environments, offering a comprehensive approach to modern collaboration needs.

Uniting Expertise for Enhanced Communication

This strategic partnership integrates AudioCodes' Microsoft Teams Room products with Kramer's innovative audio-visual solutions. The partnership encompasses a full range of components, from video bars and compute units to speakers, DSPs, switching, efficient cable management, plus AI recording and analytics for Teams meetings, ensuring a seamless and comprehensive meeting room experience that delivers more productive meeting outcomes.

Transforming hybrid work and meeting environments, this collaboration aims to provide end-to-end solutions from small huddle rooms to expansive, fully equipped boardrooms. The synergy between AudioCodes' expertise in MTR-certified products and AI-powered voice applications, plus Kramer's proficiency in the audio-visual field is expected to elevate user experiences in hybrid work settings.

For system integrators, this partnership offers significant value. They receive a fully tested room solution where all components are guaranteed to work in harmony, along with ready-made plans and schematics for the entire installation. This approach significantly reduces adjustment times and labor costs, resulting in considerable savings and allowing system integrators to offer more competitive solutions to their customers.

Commitment to Excellence

Both companies bring a legacy of quality and innovation to this partnership, promising a user-friendly, reliable, and cutting-edge MTR solution. This alliance is not merely a combination of products but a fusion of visions, set to revolutionize the way businesses communicate and collaborate in a hybrid world.

Leaders from Kramer and AudioCodes share their excitement about this partnership:

"As we announce our partnership with AudioCodes, an esteemed leader in voice and AI solutions for Microsoft Teams, we at Kramer are taking a significant step towards fulfilling our vision of providing the most comprehensive and complete solutions for Hybrid Workspaces. This collaboration marks a milestone in our journey to enrich and streamline the way people communicate in today's ever-evolving work environments," said Gilad Yron, Kramer's CEO.

"Partnering with Kramer, we're leveraging the unique strengths of both our companies to create a more connected, efficient, and productive work environment. This collaboration embodies AudioCodes' specialty in MTR products and AI-powered meeting analytics, with Kramer's cutting-edge AV solutions, setting a new benchmark in hybrid workplace communication," said Lior Aldema, AudioCodes Chief Business Officer.

Looking Ahead

Kramer and AudioCodes are dedicated to continual innovation and improvement of their joint solutions. With this partnership, they are poised to set new industry standards, driving the evolution of meeting spaces and collaborative environments.