Half (49%) also think government bodies should be solving issues of fraudulent content online, and over a third (36%) think the same of third-party experts

Bazaarvoice, Inc., the leading platform for full-funnel authentic user-generated content (UGC) and social commerce solutions, today released its latest study based on a survey of more than 8,000 global shoppers and over 400 brands. The results revealed that fake reviews are something that weigh heavily on people’s minds when they are shopping, and they want brands to take action in order for them to feel confident in the content they’re consuming online.

“Fake reviews undermine confidence in online content, dissuading shoppers and negatively impacting the online sales of brands and retailers,” said Andy Chakravarty, VP of Research at IDC Retail Insights. “Validating authenticity of product reviews improves the customer experience, giving shoppers peace of mind as they make informed purchasing decisions.”

Global survey highlights include:

• Consumers are concerned about all types of fake UGC: 75% are concerned about fake reviews, 69% are concerned about fake images, 68% are concerned about fake videos, 66% are concerned about fake questions and answers and 69% are concerned about fake social media content.
• They want brands to take care of it: The majority of respondents (63%) think the brand’s website they’re visiting should be solving issues of fraudulent content online, followed by governmental bodies (49%) and a third-party expert (36%). 
• Brands think they’re on top of it: While consumers want them to do more, 94% of brands and retailers said that they rate the importance of maintaining online content authenticity in e-commerce business high, and the majority (76%) are confident in their current strategies and tools for detecting and preventing fraudulent or counterfeit content within their online channels.
• However, consumers are doing a lot of work to verify the legitimacy of online stores: Using trusted online shopping platforms (63%), researching the brand online (58%), checking for secure website indicators (e.g., padlock symbol), (51%), reading customer reviews (47%), and recommendations from a friend or family member (46%) are the most common ways they do so. 
• Consumers would trust a third-party authenticator to do the work for them: When asked if they would trust an industry-leading third-party authentication provider to verify the trustworthiness of the content for all of the sites they visit, 70% said they’d trust it. When asked if they would trust a website to verify its own content, less than half (47%) said they’d trust it.
• They’d be happy with a trustworthy symbol: When asked if they would have confidence in a ‘trust signal’ (i.e. lock, checkmark, symbol) that shows each rating and review has been verified by an independent third party, 73% said they’d trust it. Almost as many (66%) said the same about a trust signal for social media content, and 60% said the same about a trust signal for influencer content. 
• Brands are interested in incorporating trust signals: 78% said they’d consider adding one to verify ratings and reviews, 73% said the same about shopper photos, and 71% said the same about shopper videos. 

“This study underscores the absolute necessity of user-generated content (UGC) being authentic,” said Zarina Lam Stanford, CMO at Bazaarvoice. “Brands and retailers need to ensure that their customers trust the content they consume online. If shoppers can’t trust UGC, it loses all of its value, and companies will lose out on sales. Trust signals like the Bazaarvoice Trust Mark is a symbol of a company’s dedication to authentic consumer feedback on its products. It’s also a signal to consumers that the content they’re consuming is protected by a neutral third party with sophisticated fraud detection technology and industry-leading best practices.”

Latest report, “Designing a Better Ad Pod,” shares key considerations for publishers on how to structure their ad breaks in terms of length, architecture and frequency.

Among the key findings: Ad breaks of two minutes or less can improve brand impact and ad experience.

Today, FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the television advertising industry, released new findings from its Viewer Experience Lab initiative. The report, Designing a Better Ad Pod, explores how publishers can optimize the quantity and frequency of ads in an ad pod to improve viewer experience and brand results.

The new findings come at a time when content continues to fragment across streaming platforms, making it imperative for content owners to focus on improving the ad experience to maintain viewers’ attention and favorability. Developed in partnership with MediaScience, this is the first research of its kind to provide insights on how to best optimize ad pods.

“When we launched this initiative at Cannes, we committed to driving it forward through research and innovation in order to understand how consumers feel and react to ads and how we can improve their overall viewing experience,” said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel. “With so much choice for consumers on how and where they engage with content, it’s more important than ever that platforms prioritize the viewer. This research provides practical considerations for publishers to make the ad experience better and limit subscription churn, while giving brands the best environment to connect with viewers.”

In the study, 700 viewers participated in at-home or in-lab viewing environments and were shown programming with varied ad pod lengths, ad durations and frequency. They were then surveyed in real-time to understand their perception of the ad experience and test their recall of ads within the content.

The FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab and MediaScience then analyzed their responses to create a report that provides research-backed insights that can be used to design optimal ad pods and a positive viewer experience:

• Pod Length: Ad breaks of two minutes or less can improve brand impact and ad experience.
• Pod Architecture: Grouping consistent ad lengths within individual pods can improve ad sentiment and make breaks feel shorter.
• Frequency: Capping the frequency of each ad at two to three per program can positively impact ad recognition and brand purchase intent.

"This is ground-breaking research that empowers media planners to best capitalize on their investment,” said Dr. Duane Varan, CEO, MediaScience. “By applying a research-based approach to a commonsense problem, the findings finally give due regard to key characteristics of the ad pod, while also optimizing the ad environment for viewers. It’s win-win all around."

Designing a Better Ad Pod is part of ongoing research from FreeWheel to help the TV industry improve the ad environment for viewers across all premium video platforms. The goal of the Viewer Experience Lab is to educate the industry and inspire innovation to address this important and complex topic. Further custom research studies across the other core areas, Quality and Relevance, are expected to launch later in 2024.

Joint landmark Oxford Economics/Cognizant study predicts generative AI will affect 90% of U.S. jobs, underscoring the critical need for strategic reskilling to maintain economic growth

In partnership with Oxford Economics, Cognizant today revealed findings from its new economic impact study New Work, New World, which predicted that 90% of jobs will be disrupted in some way by generative AI (gen AI), setting the stage for a profound shift in how we approach work, productivity and economic growth. The study also found that the technology's impact will be influenced by the rate of business adoption and how quickly individuals can adapt to new ways of working.

"Our study aims to lift the curtain on the effects generative AI may have on our global workforce," said Adrian Cooper, CEO at Oxford Economics. "The research findings showcase just how quickly this technology might disrupt the trajectory of the U.S. economy, offering invaluable insights for leaders to harness its potential and adapt swiftly."

Generative AI offers the potential to improve operational efficiency, create new revenue streams, innovate products and services, and ultimately redefine businesses. To quantify generative AI's potential impact on productivity and the future of work, Cognizant partnered with Oxford Economics to create an economic model that explores three scenarios of U.S. businesses' generative AI adoption. This model considered 18,000 tasks that drive the U.S. economy, and carefully examines the impact Generative AI may have on the jobs that ladder up to these tasks. While focused on the U.S. workforce, the general themes that emerged from the findings can be applied globally. The research unveiled key insights, including:  

• AI adoption will skyrocket over the next decade before settling into maturity: Businesses are in the experimental phase of adoption for AI capabilities. However, the findings reveal that adoption could leap from 13% to 31% in just four to eight years. After the 15-year mark, the findings predict that adoption may slow but will continue to grow for at least 15 more years.
• Economic advancement could soar: Generative AI technology could boost U.S. productivity by 1.7-3.5% and grow the U.S. GDP between $477 billion and $1 trillion in annual value over the next 10 years, based on business adoption rates.
• Simultaneously, the job market could be disrupted: Half of all jobs (52%) are predicted to significantly change as generative AI is integrated to automate job tasks. As a result, approximately 9% of the current U.S. workforce may be displaced, with 1% potentially struggling to find new employment based on historical economic shifts.
• Jobs with higher levels of knowledge work may be most affected: In the past, technology advances and automation have impacted mainly manual labor and process-centric knowledge work. Generative AI is poised to do the opposite, having a higher disruption on knowledge work. Additionally, jobs involving credit analysis, computer programming, web development, database administration, and graphic design already have a theoretical maximum exposure score of about 50%. By 2032, as technology advances, some jobs' exposure scores may climb to 80%.
• Even CEOs will feel an impact: The data found that C-Suite executives even CEOs could see a theoretical maximum exposure score (the degree to which a job's tasks are prone to being automated by generative AI) of more than 25%, as they begin using gen AI for everything from competitive assessments to strategic decision-making.

"Generative AI has already astonished us with its capabilities across industries, but the true impact of its integration in our daily business operations has just scratched the surface," said Ravi Kumar S, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant. "To apply the technology's potential to amplify our productivity, we must understand its full influence on the future of work and come together to create the best opportunities for people to grow alongside it."

Reskilling The Workforce as AI Advances

While the timeline of this research spans more than a decade, Cognizant believes that leaders across all sectors of society should work together today to establish a new trust compact that will enable businesses, workers, and economies to thrive in the age of generative AI. As this technology becomes commonplace in the workforce, new employee skills will be in demand to support areas including business strategy and AI management. Reskilling programs, once seen as a tactical add-on to an employee's career path, will become an essential part of the workday, with time allocated for training and education.

In line with this vision, Cognizant recently launched its Synapse initiative, designed to revolutionize and rebalance the landscape of tech education and workforce development by redefining opportunities for more than one million individuals worldwide. Drawing on Cognizant's deep expertise and long history as a tech reskiller, the initiative aims to create a new, employable talent pool for the expanding digital economy by 2026.

Partners can earn revenue share from day one when creating on Wix Studio, further enriching the financial advantages of the Wix Partner Program

Wix.com Ltd., the leading SaaS website builder platform to create, manage, and grow a global, digital presence, today announced a new revenue sharing plan for Partners creating on Wix Studio, the ultimate creation platform built for agencies and freelancers. The new revenue share plan is part of the exclusive Wix Partner Program which is a loyalty-based program with benefits such as priority support, a Partner success manager, eligibility to join the Wix Marketplace, advanced features, and collaboration opportunities within the Wix community. These benefits are designed to empower professionals and fuel their business growth.

Agencies and freelancers can now apply to join through the Wix Studio Workspace, a dashboard designed for agencies and freelancers to manage all of their projects seamlessly. From the moment they join the new program, Partners can start earning revenue share on Wix Studio sites they've created.

The revenue-sharing program includes:

• Rev Share on Wix Studio Sites: Partners will receive a 20% rev share on every new Studio site created in 2024, subject to the Wix Partner Program eligibility conditions. All Partners in the highest level of the program will enjoy 30% revenue share for their Studio sites created in 2024 along with 20% for Wix sites.
• Payment Volume Earnings Based on Client Sales: Partners can earn a revenue share of the client sales on client sites processing with Wix Payments.
• Enhanced Enterprise Benefits: Both new and existing Partners are eligible for a 50% revenue share for Enterprise packages signed during 2024, including renewals.
• Diversified Types of Revenue Shares: The expanded revenue sharing program extends beyond website revenue to build a multifaceted income stream. Partners can now earn revenue shares for a variety of packages, including the Branded App, Wix Logo Maker, Google Ads, mailboxes and more.

"Wix Partners play a critical role in the Wix ecosystem and we're thrilled to significantly broaden earnings opportunities to reflect our commitment to them," said Michal Bignitz, VP of Partners at Wix. "The new program is designed to empower Partners to start earning on day one, through a lifetime partnership with multiple growth opportunities. We look forward to continuing to develop our thriving ecosystem where every Partner can achieve their business goals."

To qualify for the new revenue sharing program, Partners must be the first owner of the Wix site and the program applies exclusively to new yearly plans, sites, and packages. Participants in the program are subject to a retention condition, requiring the generation of at least one Wix premium or Wix Studio premium site per year to qualify for the revenue share and the Partner program's benefits. The terms of the program are subject to change.

The new revenue sharing plan is open to Partners globally subject to the limitations that apply to the Partner Program.

There’s a shift in the way Microsoft Teams users communicate, and Clerk Chat, a leading conversational messaging platform, is at the forefront of this technological advancement. Clerk Chat enables native integration into Microsoft Teams for SMS text messaging and WhatsApp.

Microsoft Teams, with over 271 millions users, serves as both a leading collaboration platform and a unified communications powerhouse. Embraced by more than 15 million companies daily, it excels as a UCaaS platform, particularly for remote work, functioning as a virtual workspace. The platform offers robust calling and productivity features, including chat, audio/video calls, virtual meetings, and real-time document sharing.

However, one area where Microsoft Teams falls short is not providing a native SMS texting solution, and when many companies transition from Zoom Phone, RingCentral, 8x8, Dialpad and other VoIP providers, they find themselves hand-tied when they cannot text.

And now, with Clerk Chat’s ability to natively integrate with Teams, users can finally make both calls and send SMS to people outside of their organization, whether it be clients or customers, using their existing business phone number. There is no more need to choose multiple providers for texting and calling - Clerk Chat, through its Operator Connect partnership with Tier1 telecom providers, is able to provide seamless communication services. Clerk Chat’s solution is powered by Bandwidth, the main carrier for Microsoft Teams calling, which allows you to avoid lengthy and messy porting processes. In fact, customers can bring their existing Teams phone numbers with absolutely no disruption to calling.

Bringing messaging to Microsoft’s calling customers allows businesses to tap into the most popular channels of communication: SMS and WhatsApp. Companies can confirm appointments, schedule automated messages, and dominate voice or text-based customer service - all while ensuring compliance¹ due to Clerk Chat’s SOC2 Type2 certification.

From an outside perspective, Clerk Chat appears to be effortlessly building the future of communication. “We enable a multi-channel approach that allows businesses to speak to their customers via their channels of preference,” said Igor Boshoer, Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of Clerk Chat. “The telecommunication component, integrating within Operator Connect, is really the backbone of powering those channels in a really elegant way for those businesses - we’re able to meet the most rigorous compliance standards by encrypting the messages as well.”

Integrating Clerk Chat into Microsoft Teams for SMS and voice streamlines communication, saving time and eliminates channel-switching. And, with Operator Connect, which revolutionizes connectivity, businesses simplify PSTN integration directly in Teams, gaining access to Clerk Chat's technical expertise, secure products and services, and its reliable infrastructure all while still receiving capabilities of Microsoft’s software support.

“We're really trying to be at the forefront of defining a secure digital landscape as a company,” said Will Chertoff, Vice President of Engineering and Co-Founder of Clerk Chat. “It’s integral for businesses to feel confident and be able to trust their sensitive data with a reputable messaging provider.”

Loyalty360 releases new research report that includes insights on how marketers are defining, planning for, and managing next generation customer loyalty strategies.

Loyalty360 has released its Next Generation Customer Loyalty: 2024 Loyalty360 Brand Marketer Research, including insights from brand marketers who run leading customer loyalty programs, on how their organizations are defining, planning for, and managing next generation customer loyalty strategies.

In October 2023, Loyalty360 led qualitative discussions with Brand Members and surveyed over 90 brand marketers to gain deeper insights into their perceptions of next generation customer loyalty, the opportunities marketers are embracing, and the potential challenges hindering their progress. The results highlighted the importance of next generation customer loyalty and shed light on the obstacles marketers must overcome to improve and enhance their customer loyalty efforts.

Key findings and takeaways from the report include:

• Emerging and innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), as well as solutions for customer service/support, chatbots/virtual assistants, gamification, and augmented/virtual reality, are top of mind for marketers when it comes to next generation loyalty efforts.
• Personalization opportunities that can be delivered at scale and in a measurable manner are significant enhancements brands are looking to add to their loyalty strategies.
• Most brands believe there is a need to cultivate a better understanding of their customer loyalty efforts internally and externally.
• The primary obstacles for marketers in crafting a next generation customer loyalty strategy include challenges with resource allocation, organizational commitment, and technology. Meanwhile, many face difficulties due to the absence of a consistent definition of what precisely constitutes next generation customer loyalty.

"Our most recent research on next generation customer loyalty was driven by the eagerness of Loyalty360 Brand Members to gain a deeper understanding of the trends, technologies, and strategies poised to deliver significant value to their customer loyalty programs," stated Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360. "In this era of rapid change, pioneering the evolution of loyalty programs and customer experience strategies that align with the expectations of consumers is not merely an option but a strategic imperative for marketers."

"Brands acknowledge that customer loyalty has transcended mere points and rewards; however, formulating a strategy for the next evolution of loyalty programs can be daunting," explained Carly Stemmer Ivory, Vice President and Research Analyst at Loyalty360. "Our latest report aims to provide valuable insights into how marketers can adeptly navigate this complex and ever-changing industry."

With 67% of UK marketers expecting email signatures to help generate leads this year and a third of US marketers using social media to communicate with customers, businesses can now use Exclaimer’s email signature solution to amplify their social content

Exclaimer, the leading email signature management platform, today launches its Social Feeds feature, enabling organizations to embed their social media posts directly into their email signatures.

Over half (52%) of US consumers prefer to communicate with a business through email and 75% of US marketers have indicated that they want to explore social media further. At the same time, almost half (48%) of UK marketers consider one-to-one emails their company's primary communication channel. Exclaimer’s new Social Feeds feature gives businesses the opportunity to align these channels further to create a more seamless customer experience and help businesses maximize their ROI whilst increasing brand engagement.

“While organizations are continuing to look for ways to increase engagement with customers and offer them a more human and personalized experience, it remains crucial to work smarter and do more with less. Business tools need to evolve and adapt to meet these needs, and email signature solutions are no exception,” comments Vicky Wills, Chief Technology Officer at Exclaimer.

“Our Social Feeds feature helps companies maximize every 1-2-1 engagement opportunity by giving them a way to marry up social and email communications. We’re thrilled to launch our Social Feeds feature with Facebook and look forward to including additional social media platforms in the future. This is just one example of how Exclaimer has listened to its customers and evaluated the market to enhance our solution.”

The new Social Feeds feature enables organizations to:

• Expand social media marketing reach for existing campaigns by automatically inserting social media posts within email signatures to increase exposure and engagement with a wider audience.
• Create more interactive and visually appealing email signatures to increase engagement and click-throughs to websites and social pages.
• Measure performance by analyzing how effectively email signatures convert recipients to click-through and read posts. With these insights, customers can discover what performs well and tailor future content for the greatest effect.

Exclaimer will also roll out further additional product features to empower organisations to boost and streamline their marketing efforts. These include Salesforce integration to more accurately target content in email signatures based on buying or customer journey stage. A new Campaign Management feature will enable brands to more easily and rapidly align email signature messaging with other promotional campaigns for optimal performance.

Further recently launched features to enhance personal communications between organizations and their customers, prospects and partners include:

• QR Codes for users to add hyperlinks as scannable QR codes to their signatures to increase engagement, improve lead generation, and provide an easier method to interact through mobile devices.
• vCards (similar to a traditional business card) that allow customers to add centrally controlled employee contact information to signatures that recipients can scan to save directly to their device contacts.
• Photo Sync to automatically synchronize employee photos from a user directory and add them to signatures to help build personal connections by putting a face to a name.

Exclaimer has been providing advanced email signature solutions to a global customer base of over 60,000 businesses since 2001, including big players like Sony, Mattel, NBC, the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and the BBC. These latest product updates are intended to reinforce email signatures as a marketing tool to prospects and add value to existing customers in a world where getting your message across in a cost-effective way is more challenging than ever.