Marketing News Roundup: Pernod Ricard, XL Marketing, GSI Commerce

Pernod Ricard uses Facebook to fight underage drinking; XL Marketing gets $70 million investment.

Pernod Ricard fights underage drinking in a Facebook campaign. It launched a Facebook platform, “Here’s to Tomorrow.” The so-called “-1 Movement” invites parents to make a pledge to talk with their teens and become “one less” number in the statistics surrounding underage drinking. When parents and teens sign the “Pledge to Talk,” their “-1” profile photos will appear on the Here’s to Tomorrow Facebook page, and a -1 badge will appear on their individual Facebook pages. Roundarch Isobar created the campaign on behalf of Pernod Ricard.

pernod-ricard-facebook

XL Marketing, digital and direct marketing company, gets $70 million investment. XL Marketing CEO David A. Steinberg, in a news release, said the capital infusion will be used to grow the business organically and via acquisitions. XL Marketing, which is based in New York City, focuses on several sectors including financial services, education, insurance, and health and wellness. It has a consumer marketing platform that encompasses email, search, social media, and call centers.

Microsoft Advertising adds new video ad format. The ad tech vendor said it’s enabled the VPAID standard for interactive video ads across MSN, MSNBC, and the Microsoft Advertising Video Network. The company said the move will help advertisers easily deliver experiential video ads that increase consumer engagement. To date, seven partners have been certified: MediaMind, PointRoll, Mixpo, Adotube, Innovid, Vindico, and Tremor. Nordstrom Rack, which is working with Mixpo, is using the ad format.

Beauty, style, and social media mavens meet up. During the Women’s Health Magazine Beauty Awards program in New York City, the publisher hosted a breakfast and social media panel discussion. Jean Scheidnes, social media managing editor, Neiman Marcus, discussed how the high-end retailer developed a Facebook page tab featuring fashions from the Rachel Zoe collection. And Rachel Lightfoot, senior programming strategist, YouTube Next Lab, discussed some upcoming programs. “One of the channels I’m most excited about launching this summer is Ds2dio [the Dance Lifestyle Channel],” Lightfoot explained.

Oracle continues march into social media. The enterprise software company said it is buying Collective Intellect, a company that makes social media monitoring and text mining analytics software, and data analysis services for businesses, the Denver Business Journal reported. Customers of Collective Intellect, which is based in Boulder, CO, include iVillage, Hasbro, and Pepsi. The move comes two weeks after Oracle said it is buying Vitrue, a social marketing and engagement platform, for a reported $300 million.

GSI Commerce opens new office in NYC. The new location brings together GSI Commerce’s marketing services including mobile advertising, ad retargeting, ad analytics, affiliate, and email. A total of 150 staff will work out of the office; Reuben Hendell, CEO, marketing services of GSI Commerce, heads up the NYC office.

Channel Intelligence said it’s a launch partner for Google Shopping. The company, which is based in Orlando, FL, also said Rob Wight, founder and CEO, will take on the role of board chairman, while Doug Alexander, president of ICG and a CI board member since 2006, will serve as CEO.

SeeWhy releases analytics hub for e-commerce. The ad technology vendor, which is based in Boston, said its newest offering, SeeWhy Core, is designed to integrate socially savvy marketing techniques to make connecting with online shoppers easier for brands and retailers.

LookSmart names chief revenue officer, Chris O’Hara. His latest work has been focused on helping marketers understand digital display technology.

NetProspex receives $7 million in funding. The provider of business contact data services said the Series B funding round deal was led by investment firm Edison Ventures.

Eloqua and Kapost team up. Eloqua, a provider of revenue performance management software, and Kapost, a provider of content marketing software, said they’ve integrated their technology to make it easier for marketers to create, publish, and promote marketing-relevant content, and see the business results.

Bill Ogle to join Blue Calypso as CEO. Ogle, the former chief marketing officer at Motorola Mobility, heads to the digital word-of-mouth marketing company that offers brands a white label solution to reach their customer.

Return Path launches ISP anti-phishing program. The email certification and reputation monitoring company Return Path said the ISP anti-phishing program includes ISPs such as AOL, Libero, Microsoft, Synacor, UOL, and Yahoo.

Content marketing, email marketing services companies partner. Compendium, a content marketing platform developer, and ExactTarget are making it easier for their customers to take content from websites and blogs and use it in email marketing programs. The College Network is among the customers of both.

Content marketing, community software platform partner. PostRelease, which develops content marketing technology, said its platform will be integrated into vBulletin, a community software platform. Under the exclusive partnership, forum owners can use PostRelease to automatically carry relevant branded content as a sponsored post in their forums and blogs.

Rewards program hires three. Affinity Solutions, which specializes in merchant-funded rewards and transaction-based marketing programs, has hired three executives for its business development team: Jim Fissel, Sharon Raffo, and Matt Strawn. Fissel was previously a senior partner and merchant services practice leader with ALG Partnership Marketing; Raffo was previously director of business development at Epsilon; and Strawn was previously SVP at Omnicom’s Targetbase, a full-service direct and digital agency. The trio will report to Wendy Norman, chief retail strategy officer at Affinity Solutions.

C3 Metrics launches new tool. Company executives said they’ve launched iMMedia-C, a tool that combines marketing mix modeling with a data collection, attribution, and viewable impressions measurement platform.

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