MicroStrategy® Incorporated, a pioneer in AI-powered business intelligence, today announced the appointment of Carla Fitzgerald as the company's new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). A B2B and tech industry veteran with experience spanning three decades, Carla brings a wealth of expertise in go-to-market strategy, revenue growth, and thought-leader positioning to her role at MicroStrategy.

Before joining MicroStrategy, Carla served as the CMO of BigBear.ai, a provider of AI-powered decision intelligence solutions for global supply chain and logistics, cybersecurity, and autonomous systems. Her career in technology marketing also includes leadership roles as CMO for Spireon and Smith Micro Software. Her appointment as the new CMO comes at a pivotal time for the company with its recent launch of MicroStrategy AI, the industry’s first enterprise-grade, AI-powered business intelligence platform that helps organizations rapidly deploy generative AI applications using trusted data.

"Carla's broad experience launching ground-breaking technologies that redefine markets is perfectly matched with our strategy to transform the BI landscape using the power of AI,” said Phong Le, CEO of MicroStrategy. “Our new MicroStrategy AI solution is the first to combine the flexibility and accessibility of generative AI with the precision and reliability of enterprise-grade business intelligence. Carla’s go-to-market expertise will help us penetrate new markets and elevate our brand to new heights as we continue to innovate at the intersection of cloud, AI, and BI,” he added.

“Across enterprise applications, generative AI is a game-changer if you can make it both accessible and trustworthy, a combination MicroStrategy has unlocked with our new AI/BI platform to lead the business intelligence space once again,” said Fitzgerald. “Trusted data is the cornerstone of trusted AI, and MicroStrategy’s reputation for exceptional data governance offers a tremendous advantage to our customers who can now use the platform to deliver seamless, reliable AI experiences at scale. I could not be more excited to bring these new solutions to more markets and help the company fulfill its mission of Intelligence Everywhere.”

Accenture has invested in Vū Technologies, a technology company specialized in virtual production and filmmaking. Vū helps companies create immersive, engaging experiences through a combination of real-time computer-generated imagery and live-action filming.

Vū has established a vast network of virtual studios across North America, producing memorable immersive environments and stunning visual effects for companies including Amazon, CBS Sports and Disney. Using advanced technologies such as real-time rendering, motion capture and virtual reality to seamlessly blend live-action footage and computer-generated content, Vū helps companies visualize and transform creative production at pace and scale. Vū also uses a proprietary generative AI workflow tool called Vū.ai that augments pre-built virtual environments and designs workflows based on image and text prompting.

“Massive potential exists for companies to combine virtual production and state of the art technologies to create shared, immersive experiences for customers, employees, and other key stakeholders,” said David Treat, co-lead of Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum business group. “With technologies such as digital twin environment simulation, volumetric video capture and motion control robotics, Vū’s end-to-end capabilities can help our clients create powerful new experiences that attract and engage audiences.”

Virtual production offers more options and greater control of creative pre-production factors—more accurately forecasting shoot timelines, mitigating disruptive factors such as time of day, weather conditions, and alleviating a need for locations that are difficult or hazardous to access. Being able to depict multiple locations in one studio, including hard-to-access locations, can help enable faster content creation and reduce production costs.

Dan Garrison, Accenture Song’s chief technology officer, added: “We always look for new ways to fuse creativity and technology at scale, to help clients navigate and accomplish transformational change. We believe Vū Technologies’ immersive studio network can help our clients and our people reach new levels of creativity and multifaceted storytelling in their efforts to engage relevant audiences.”

“Accenture’s investment in Vū represents a significant milestone in our journey to democratize creative content production,” said Tim Moore, CEO of Vū. “We are excited to work with Accenture and leverage their global reach to bring the benefits of virtual production and large format simulation to their clients and partners. By combining cutting-edge technology with immersive creative techniques, we aim to empower Accenture’s clients to create engaging experiences while optimizing production costs and reducing environmental impact. This collaboration reinforces Vū’s dedication to exploring new horizons of creativity and innovation in an ever-evolving, competitive landscape.”

The investment was led by Accenture Ventures as part of its broader Project Spotlight initiative. Vū is the latest company to join Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on working with companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

More than half of consumers say they have low trust in sponsored and influencer social media ads, yet 40% say they have made in-social-app purchases

Customer experience (CX) platform DISQO released new insights about how social media marketing is falling short in building trust with consumers, yet is still driving in-app purchases, in its report, “Social Media Shopping.” With nearly 80% of consumers using social media daily, DISQO’s findings underscore the massive opportunity to drive lower funnel outcomes on social media.

“With the 2024 holiday shopping season entering full force, brands need effective strategies to harness social media’s diverse audiences and undeniable engagement power,” said David Grabert, VP of Brand & Communications, DISQO. “We’re not just talking about digital natives, like Gen Z, but also older generations who are now also buying within social media. Brands should use this season to test bespoke social content for different cohorts and platforms while also considering the overriding impact of customer experience over influencer marketing.”

Key insights about social media usage and ecommerce activity in DISQO’s new report:

• CX factors are most influential in driving in-app purchase decisions. Consumers report product reviews (28%), discounts (24%), and trustworthiness of sellers (22%) as the top considerations in social media sales. Counter-intuitively, influencer recommendations were the least impactful across generations, with only 2% stating they drive purchase decisions.

• Consumer trust in social media ads is currently very low. Only 5% of consumers said they have even moderate trust in any kind of social media ads. Sponsored posts saw higher trust than influencer posts, but there was relatively low difference (6 points) between the two. Over a quarter of consumers have “OK” trust in both formats. Brands have an opportunity to win over these consumers by engaging with content that emphasizes positive reviews and promotions, which respondents said were more likely to drive them to purchase actions.

• Conventional assumptions about age and social media shopping usage are antiquated. More Millennial and GenX consumers, 45% and 39% respectively, reported shopping in-app ecommerce activity on social media than GenZers (37%). And when it comes to shopping in-app, most generational cohorts were less than a 10-point difference from the general population (40%), suggesting a strong opportunity to reach consumers across generations.

Just under half (48%) of consumers are comfortable engaging with chatbots and AI-powered customer support 

Consumers are increasingly less likely to provide companies with direct feedback about bad experiences, so brands need to tap into feedback where customers are giving it

Consumer expectations are on the rise heading into 2024, and they expect companies to deliver a consistently smooth experience whether they're shopping on a website, calling customer support or using a chatbot, according to the 2024 Consumer Experience Trends Report from Qualtrics. The study found that as AI becomes a bigger part of daily life, consumers are putting a higher value on human connection and rewarding brands that deliver exceptional digital support with their dollars and lasting loyalty.

Qualtrics asked over 28,000 consumers in 26 countries around the world about their expectations and what companies should do to win and keep their business. The findings reveal that consumers are sharing less direct feedback and they are frustrated with the customer service they receive while shopping on websites and apps.

The report identified 4 key trends that will define the consumer experience in 2024:

• Human connection is the foundation of a winning AI strategy
• Great service beats low prices in the battle for customer loyalty
• Digital support is the weakest link in your customer journey
• Consumers don't give feedback like they used to, so companies must listen in new ways

A winning AI strategy must address consumers' fear of losing the human connection

Despite all of the hype around AI, consumers aren't sure they're ready for customer service delivered by AI directly; Less than half (48%) of consumers are comfortable getting help from a chatbot or using AI-powered self-service. Skeptical consumers worry about the loss of human connection, the potential for poor service and the possibility people could be replaced by AI in their jobs.

Customer experience professionals believe AI will give them a competitive advantage, as it can augment how they do their work. With the right data, AI has the potential to deliver service that closely resembles the human experience–it can understand human emotions, adapt to circumstances, act with empathy and create connections. And it can make the humans delivering service even better.

The challenge for brands in 2024 will be identifying the tasks AI does and doesn't do well and aligning those capabilities with consumer preferences. 73% of consumers are comfortable using a brand's automated system for simple, transactional activities like checking an order status. However, they are averse to using it when the stakes are high—only 19% of consumers would prefer to engage with a chatbot or self-service channel for advice on a medical issue.

"Organizations are understandably excited about the potential of AI, but as they incorporate it into their business, they must take customers' concerns into account," said Moira Dorsey, Principal XM Catalyst, Qualtrics XM Institute. "Done well, AI-powered services will make human teams more effective and give customers a fast, effective way to get what they need through self-service and automated tasks."

Customer service is even more important than low prices

Despite rising prices and the risk of inflation, price will not be the primary driver of consumer purchase decisions in 2024. Consumers say that organizations that provide excellent customer service are more likely to gain their repeat business, with customer service and support ranking above low prices when it comes to the top drivers influencing consumer purchase decisions. Only product quality ranked higher.

But lagging morale among frontline employees such as cashiers, restaurant servers, and bank tellers is a huge barrier to organizations delivering the level of experience that creates loyal customers. Qualtrics research shows frontline workers are less satisfied with their pay and development compared to non-frontline staff and they feel a lack of support to effectively do their job. These issues may get worse in 2024 as only 38% of CX professionals said, "training our customer service agents and frontline employees" would be a priority for the year ahead, according to Qualtrics research.

"Great customer service starts with taking care of the humans engaging with customers on the frontline," Dorsey said. "Customer service experiences are often where people have strong emotions, so they tend to influence future purchase decisions more than any other interaction."

Digital support will create winners and losers

Great digital support can have an outsized impact on customer loyalty. Despite being equally satisfied making a purchase online or in person, consumers are 2.7 times more likely to return if they had great digital support, compared to 2.5 times after great customer support from a person. Consumers are six percentage points less likely to be satisfied by their digital customer support experience, compared to human support. 

The issue is especially pressing as brands are increasing their reliance on digital channels to drive their business. A recent Qualtrics study found that 70% of companies say that digital channels contribute to at least 40% of their revenue, and 85% of respondents expect that number to grow in the coming months.

"Digital channels, such as websites and apps, are becoming increasingly critical in shaping the customer experience," said Dorsey. "Brands that invest in improving the service and support they provide on their digital channels will pull ahead of the pack in customer retention and loyalty. "

Customers aren't giving feedback like they used to – companies must listen in new ways

Only a third of consumers give direct feedback every time they have a bad experience with a company, but they are providing feedback in less direct ways, such as in call center conversations, online chat, product reviews and social media posts. Since 2021, the share of consumers providing feedback directly to the companies they buy from following a very bad experience has fallen by 7.2 percentage points, so organizations need to be smart about gathering feedback where customers are giving it and taking action to address it.

Companies can build a richer understanding of what customers want and expect by tuning into both direct and indirect sources of feedback. The latter may even provide a more authentic view into the customer experience and can surface issues or insights that may not come up on a traditional survey.

According to Dorsey, "Companies need a diverse set of listening tools to understand customers' perceptions and deliver experiences that drive business value. As brands incorporate more unstructured and unsolicited data to understand what customers are thinking from sources like social media, product reviews, chat logs and call transcripts, they should combine it with operational data, such as average spend and visit frequency, to gain insight into what consumers are doing to understand how to serve them better."

ABM managers can easily orchestrate AI-personalized experiences for every website visitor

Intellimize, the leading AI experience optimization platform, today announced the launch of AI-powered Account Based Marketing experiences (ABX). Intellimize's recent feature releases alongside their ABM partner integrations, allowing marketers to easily orchestrate personalized experiences across every touchpoint in the buyer's journey.

"As ABM marketers, we often assume we know exactly what will make someone convert in a specific segment. We provide the right social proof, messaging, and imagery and set up a rule to funnel every visitor in that segment through that experience. But by doing that we force folks into a specific journey. The B2B buyer's journey is far more complex and it's different for every company and without AI capabilities, it's extremely difficult and time consuming to get down to that 1:1 personalization at scale." said Tracy Sestili, former CMO and now Chief Revenue Officer of Intellimize.

With Intellimize's new landing page builder, dynamic content, pop-up modals, and deanonymization functionality combined with proprietary AI Optimization capability, marketers are empowered to truly nail 1:1 personalization at scale with minimal effort.

SaaS brands like Greenhouse are leveraging key data integrations to understand website visitors and deliver highly personalized experiences to them based on known data about their visitor's history.

"We use Intellimize's AI and 6sense's account data to help identify site visitors and serve them an optimized, personalized experience. It allows us to validate our messaging and tweak the content for each of our key audiences in an efficient, automated way," said Carin Van Vuuren, CMO of Greenhouse.

Additionally, brands are leveraging integrations with Demandbase to personalize pages for specific target industries, even revenue tiers, to drive better conversion rates with the most relevant content and messaging.

"We used the Intellimize integration with Demandbase to personalize pages on our website by industry and by revenue tier, and as a result we were able to boost conversions by an average of 8.4% (and for a certain industry it was a 227% boost in conversion rates!). We were also able to figure out which messages work best for which industry and which revenue tier, which is extremely valuable across all of our marketing efforts," said Ally Vandenherik, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Coupa Software

As B2B marketers finalize 2024 plans and start to think about how to be more strategic by integrating AI into their overall marketing strategy, Intellimize delivers a codeless, cookieless, AI-powered ABM solution that easily integrates with Demandbase, 6sense, or Rollworks, to set them up for a successful year ahead.

Soren Abildgaard and Marylou “ML” Maco Bring Deep Experience to the Avaya Technology and Go-to-Market Teams

Avaya, a global leader in customer experience solutions, announced the appointments of Soren Abildgaard, who joined the company on November 1 as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Marylou “ML” Maco, who will join on December 1 as its Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer. The appointments further strengthen the company’s executive leadership team and related plans to accelerate its innovation strategy and growth. In addition to Maco’s responsibilities as Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer, she will continue her role on the Avaya Board of Directors.

Their decision to join Avaya serves as a strong validation that the Company is on a path that resonates with not just the market but also with industry leaders. “These appointments are another milestone in Avaya’s transformation as we continue to build upon our leadership in customer experience,” said Alan Masarek, CEO of Avaya. “In a sector where innovation is crucial for staying ahead, Soren will bring his cloud and software expertise, while ML possesses an exceptional track record of driving market share and revenue growth. I am confident that they will prove vital assets in fueling our strategic plans and establishing Avaya as a clear leader in Enterprise CX.”

• Soren Abildgaard, Chief Technology Officer (CTO): Abildgaard is leading the company’s efforts to refine its technology vision, steering its innovation strategy and investments to ensure that Avaya stays in front of the latest trends and emerging technologies. By doing so, Avaya aims to continue providing high-value solutions to its customers and to fortify its future growth. Abildgaard brings to Avaya over two decades of global, customer-focused software development and engineering experience from high-growth SaaS companies. He has driven transformation at scale, developing business applications, and automating workflows to deliver frictionless customer experiences. As the Head of Engineering at Zendesk, he led the build out of the product portfolio and platform enabling the company’s rapid scale to serve thousands of customers and grow to more than a billion dollars in revenue during this tenure. Most recently, he served as the Executive Vice President of Engineering at Contentful.
• Marylou “ML” Maco, Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer: Maco possesses nearly three decades of experience leading enterprise software, cloud services, and network computing sales and services organizations. She has built billion-dollar global businesses by delivering predictable revenue growth, expanding market share, and earning customer and partner loyalty across sales, marketing, channel, services and customer success. She will drive a single revenue engine at Avaya, aligning people, processes, and technology to foster customer success and growth. ML brings a wealth of experience from her tenure as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Genesys, and leadership roles at Cisco, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Anaplan.

Both Abildgaard and Maco are joining Avaya at a time when the company is poised to take advantage of significant market opportunities. “We are committed to our North Star of CX, building from a position of strength with our global scale, brand, and ecosystem,” added Masarek. “These appointments, alongside other strategic changes in our executive team, are key to accelerating our innovation trajectory and leading the customer experience revolution.”

AdRoll, the leading marketing and advertising platform that helps direct-to-consumer brands grow their businesses, today released the Q4 2023 edition of its State of Digital Marketing Report, a comprehensive summary providing invaluable insights into the changing digital marketing landscape in the third quarter of 2023. The report enables a deeper understanding of overall marketing trends and offers strategic ideas to improve marketing return on ad spend (ROAS) and return on investment (ROI) during the holiday season.

“Despite the economic headwinds in the first half of 2023, the economy mostly stabilized in Q3, yet consumers are still hesitant to spend,” said Vibhor Kapoor, president of AdRoll. “Marketers need to leverage data to segment their target audiences strategically, take advantage of low CPMs, and personalize messaging and offers to win the battle of this challenging holiday season.”

AdRoll analyzed data from 2,000 online businesses in North America across finance, beauty and fashion, fitness, technology, travel and other industries, resulting in these key findings:

• CPM in Q3 was 33% lower than a year ago, but it started to increase as the holiday season approached in September. However, the magnitude of this increase was relatively mild, especially factoring in the CPM drop earlier in the year. It signals that advertisers are still quite conservative and slower to ramp up their holiday campaigns this year.
• While the U.S. inflation rate stabilizes, consumers are still hesitant to spend. Marketers will likely face a more challenging holiday shopping season this year, with holiday sales growth projections ranging from 3% to 4.6%, lower than those of previous years.
• Website visitor traffic has been stable, with a moderate gain of 2% in Q3 of 2023 compared to the last year. To succeed this holiday season, marketers need to take advantage of the lower CPM this year to get in front of high-intent shoppers and increase website conversions.

“Aligning strategies with consumer shopping behavior proves critical,” Kapoor continued. “Employing effective tools like retargeting and abandoned cart recovery is vital for steering high-intent shoppers to complete purchases, while personalization, particularly during the competitive months of November and December, will help capture consumers’ attention.”

AdRoll’s report emphasizes the importance of a cross-holiday campaign strategy, recognizing that Christmas is just one among several gift-giving occasions in December. Marketers who are mindful and respectful of diverse traditions associated with various cultures and groups celebrating their respective holidays during this period will ultimately find success in navigating the competitive holiday season.

The AdRoll State of Digital Marketing Report will be updated quarterly.

The recent additions of a Chief Financial Officer and a Senior Vice President of Strategy at Seedtag bring added strength to both the leadership team and the company's global operations

Seedtag, the leading contextual advertising company, recently welcomed two key additions to its leadership team: Eric Lebeau as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Nick Timms as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Strategy. Lebeau is located in Madrid, while Timms is based in the UK. Both roles are essential to continue driving Seedtag's global strategy in the new phase of growth the company is entering.

As CFO, Lebeau oversees Finance, FP&A, Tax, Legal, Compliance, and M&A strategy with a team of 40, leveraging technology for improved finance processes and settling a data-driven mindset. Timms leads a global team of 10, focusing on go-to-market strategies, helping clients get more from their partnerships with a privacy-preserving approach, and driving product-driven solutions aligned with Seedtag's clients' strategic objectives.

Eric Lebeau brings Seedtag more than 18 years of experience in the logistics and shipping industry, including roles at multinational companies like DHL and GeoPost. From these positions, Lebeau acquired significant knowledge in Finance and M&A and served as CFO of the GeoPost subsidiaries in Spain (SEUR). In 2020, Lebeau entered the tech industry as CFO at Packlink, where he successfully completed the sale of the company before becoming the leader in Finance for the EMEA region at Auctane.

Lebeau says of his appointment: "I'm very excited to take my career further in the Ad-Tech industry with Seedtag. The company operates in 15 countries, with clients and teams from more than 30 different nationalities. Its diversity makes it a great place to learn from people with various perspectives and backgrounds. Joining Seedtag gives me a fantastic chance to work with young, talented people with many creative ideas. I'm genuinely inspired by how much Seedtag has already achieved, and I can't wait to help shape the company's future."

Nick Timms joins Seedtag with 15 years of experience working on both the buy-side and sell-side of the media companies MiQ, GroupM, and DailyMail. He comes with a mix of commercial and product leadership expertise. At MiQ, he served as Global Chief Commercial Strategy Officer. Before joining Seedtag, Timms worked as a consultant for the company.

Timms says of his new role: "During my 6 months of consulting with Seedtag and my regular visits to its headquarters in Madrid, I've been continuously impressed by its amazing culture and talented people. Seedtag pushes the boundaries of our industry with cutting-edge contextual capabilities. This phase in Seedtag's growth is truly unique and offers fantastic opportunities for expansion in our rapidly evolving contextual field. I'm genuinely thrilled to be part of this exciting journey with such an exceptional team."

Jorge Poyatos, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Seedtag, commented: "I extend a warm welcome to Eric and Nick as they join our leadership team. Their diverse backgrounds and extensive experience will be invaluable as we steer Seedtag's global strategy in this exciting new phase of company expansion. I'm convinced their contribution will help us seize new growth opportunities."