Comments Conclude ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Conference that Welcomed the Launch of New Real-Time Marketing Products Before More Than 3,000 Attendees
INDIANAPOLIS – The future of marketing will come from brands’ evolving to meet the real-time demands of hyper-connected consumers, according to executives from the world’s largest technology companies.
Discussed before a sold-out crowd of more than 3,000 marketers attending ExactTarget’s Connections conference, executives from Yahoo, Facebook, Adobe, Twitter, Klout and Foursquare underscored the ongoing transformation of marketing and the new real-time imperative for business.
“Social media has completely changed what marketers do and how they do it,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager, Omniture Business Unit, Adobe, during his remarks to conference attendees. “Interactive marketing is delivering on the dream that Madison Avenue has had for years – delivering messages with speed, context and relevance in real time to drive results.”
The comments concluded ExactTarget’s annual Connections conference that welcomed marketers from around the world for three days of education and content that included keynotes from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, author Aron Ralston and executives from Facebook, Adobe, Yahoo!, Best Buy, Klout and Foursquare. The event also marked the unveiling of ExactTarget’s expanded suite of interactive marketing products including:
Audience Builder – Provides marketers a powerful solution to consolidate, analyze and take action on customer data in real time through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create targeted audiences for campaigns across email, mobile, social media and the Web.
Automation Studio – Adds drag and drop automation to plan and power messages across email, mobile, social or Web campaigns based on consumer behavior, time or custom attributes.
Campaign Management – Expands central campaign planning and calendaring capabilities to seamlessly coordinate channels using a single integrated storyboard that dynamically links campaigns on email, mobile, Twitter, Facebook, Web and offline channels.
HubExchange – Opens ExactTarget’s interactive marketing platform for select third-party application development and innovation. The first applications available include Marketo’s lead management application and Klout’s social influence data application.
Integrated Reporting – Expands real-time Pulse dashboard reporting to provide cross-channel analytics and campaign performance measurement and ROI analysis.
MobileConnect – Expands ExactTarget’s mobile application with messaging templates, automation, cross-channel execution, campaign management and real-time analytics.
Report Builder – Provides a new data discovery and customizable reporting application that enables marketers to explore engagement metrics and channel preferences.
SocialPages – Adds new Facebook page creation and campaign management capabilities with integrated analytics and real-time engagement features.
Protected By ExactTarget – Adds enterprise ‘WatchDog’ functionality to provide users real-time monitoring and alerting of account activity and customizable access controls.
The conference also marked the launch of ExactTarget’s Latin America Division in Sao Paulo, Brazil following the acquisition of email marketing provider Frontier Digital. The company also announced the ExactTarget Foundation, a charitable foundation chartered to combat childhood hunger, advance education and accelerate entrepreneurship worldwide.
“We challenged marketers this week to harness the power of technology to evolve their brand, improve their interactions with consumers and make a positive difference in the world,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget cofounder and chief executive officer. “The news and innovations unveiled this week provide cutting-edge solutions to empower organizations to market to the power of one by creating a common view of each consumer and connecting with each in real time with relevant content across all channels.”
For more information about ExactTarget’s expanded product line, visit www.ExactTarget.com.
About ExactTarget
ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub technology provides organizations a single solution to connect with customers via email, integrated text messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget powers permission-based multichannel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Best Buy, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com.
