Over the last two years Net Influencer has profiled hundreds of creator economy professionals including influencers like Kendel Kay and Vlad and Niki as well as technology and industry leaders like Tony Tran of Lumanu and Conor Begley of CreatorIQ/Tribe Dynamics.

Tim Glomb, vice president of global content at Marigold, formerly CM Group, a relationship marketing solutions provider, told CMSWire that the data collection landscape is changing due to new privacy regulations and with companies like Google and Apple changing how data is shared. “Zero-party data is quickly becoming the source of truth for any organization’s personalization efforts if they want to succeed.”

Marketing experts agree that email marketing is a highly effective strategy for connecting brands and businesses with potential prospects and customers, and eventually drive sales. A new report by Cheetah Digital revealed email outperforms paid social and display advertising by 228% in Australia and 120% higher than consumers globally.

MARCH MADNESS TV BY THE NUMBERS
Inscape, the data subsidiary of smart TV maker Vizio, is out with fresh data surrounding basketball as March Madness ramps up:

• From Jan. 1 through March 13, basketball—men’s and women’s college ball and the NBA—accounted for nearly 3.5% of all time spent watching TV. Over the same period, 2% of all TV watch time went to men’s college basketball.

Social video has emerged as the place where trends originate and utilizing the platform is no longer a “nice to have” for marketers and brands looking to grow. Engaging with attentive audiences is a key objective for many brands, and social video is a “must-have” channel to achieve this.

Enter MadHive, the DSP superhero swooping in to help media buyers access CTV inventory and OTT platforms, bridging the gap between advertisers and those coveted TV screens.

Adam Bergman, Group Vice President, Advertising & Data Sales, Vizio

Produced in partnership with sports betting and gaming entertainment company BetMGM, the series launches on 17 March exclusively on the VIZIO home screen. Following the premiere, the mini-series will be available on demand on VIZIO WatchFree+.

Last summer, smart TV giant VIZIO announced the launch of the TikTok TV app from the platform’s home screen. In order to help users discover their new favorite TikTok trends, VIZIO allows TikTok TV content on its home page as part of the launch, with a dedicated carousel highlighting the most popular videos and categories.

Wunderkind, a platform that enables brands to target web visitors through emails, texts and other digital advertising formats, has raised $76 million in a Series C. Wunderkind aims to scale brands’ abilities to foster customer relationships through digital channels. How? By analyzing smartphone and desktop web visitors’ real-time and historical behaviors to match value to intent.

Streamers either promote their own titles or pay app distributors like Roku or Vizio to sponsor content for them. Neither strategy is an example of heating, whereby platforms boost content they don’t own without telling anyone. (Heated content is not labeled as sponsored, nor as an ad.)

It will also be hard to miss as it will be featured on the Vizio SmartCast hero bar on the home screen when the TV is turned on. Vizio says exposure in the hero bar has led to a 34% increase in sales for some brands.

Smart TV maker Vizio has launched its first original program in partnership with the sports betting service BetMGM that the company hopes will resonate with foodies and sports lovers alike.

“[The series] captures important criteria as we evaluate what to put in front of our audiences: relevance, timeliness, and premium storytelling,” Steve DeMain, VP of branded content & sponsorships at Vizio, said in a statement.

The content was produced by food and lifestyle veterans Turn Card Content. 3 Pointers is available on the VIZIO home screen and on demand on WatchFree+.

Vizio said it is launching 3 Pointers, an exclusive branded entertainment program from BetMGM.

The four-part series, hosted by Casey Webb, features game-day recipes that can be enjoyed during March Madness, one of the busiest times of the year for the betting business.
The series launches March 17 and will be available on the Vizio home screen and on demand on WatchFree Plus.

Here’s a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Mar. 6-12, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks with data from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio, with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs.

Wunderkind, a behavioral marketing platform, has raised $76M in Series C funding led by Neuberger Berman Group. Founded by Andreas Spartalis, Brooke Partelow, Cole Sharp, Namik Abdulzade, and Ryan Urban in 2010, Wunderkind has now raised a total of $152M in reported equity funding.

According to Vizio’s Inscape data unit, The Oscars delivered 5.67% of all minutes watched on March 12, the most of any program.

The first part wasn't so hard, since the umbrella company doing the buying wasn't a strong brand to begin with. It was just a placeholder as we built our strategy through acquisitions. So, changing from CM Group to Marigold wasn't a huge risk.

Far more challenging was how to reposition the multiple companies underneath it — each with its own customers, employees and existing marketing and messaging in the field. In particular, the employees of each company were tied both professionally and emotionally to those brands, and upsetting that carries its own risks.

Wunderkind, the performance marketing solution that delivers guaranteed revenue and performance for brands, publishers and advertisers, has announced the appointment of Bill Ingram, a proven marketing technology leader, as Chief Executive Officer. Ingram brings over 30 years of experience scaling tech start-ups, leading enterprise SaaS organisation advancement, and driving product development and growth. Before joining Wunderkind, Ingram served as President and Chief Product Officer at Cheetah Digital, driving the global innovation and advancement of next generation B2C marketing automation solutions.