Q&A with Tyler Lessard, VP Marketing, Vidyard

Media 7 | February 9, 2021

Christopher Marriott, President and Founder at Email Connect LLC, is a recognized expert in the process of connecting leading brands with the right marketing technology partners and platforms. Before founding Email Connect as a consultancy focused exclusively on the ESP/CRM/CDP vendor selection process, Chris served as a tenured executive at Acxiom, leading and building its Global Digital and Email Agency Services team into one of the industry’s top services providers. He is also a regular columnist on email marketing and the RFP process and is an adviser to several emerging marketing technology companies including AudiencePoint and Shotzr....

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MEDIA 7 | June 11, 2020

Philippe Guiheneuc is the Marketing Director at Akio, a company that provides customer experience software platforms. It proposes cross-channel solutions that help you with customer engagement management, voice of the customer analysis and brand reputation monitoring. In this Q&A, Philippe speaks about customer satisfaction, CRM, marketing strategies, challenges, branding, and more. MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into Marketing? PHILIPPE GUIHENEUC: Coming from a family of officials, farmers and painters, I discovered the world of business at the ESSEC business school in Paris. I carefully avoided three subjects: Computer Science, with its flashy green dashboards on a black background, Accounting, for its remarkable ability to make me lose patience, and Selling, because I could not bear to be told no. Consequently, my first job was to sell accounting software! Only fools refuse to change their mind. So I may be half intelligent, because althoughI have discovered a passion for businesswith its three components (communication-marketing-sales) and innovation, to the point of teaching storytelling in business schools, unfortunately I remain insensitive to the poetry of a P&L. That's why I chose to work at Akio. Respect for customers is no longer just a professional obligation but an extraordinary lever for growth. Thanks to the Akio.Cx platform, I contribute a little bit every day to make life easier for customer agents, and that's what makes me happy. M7: What core issue does Akio.Cx software aim to address and what sets it apart from the competition? PG: Akio is the editor of the omnichannel call centre platform Akio.Cx. Our core mission is to turn complexity into simplicity! In the context of increased competition, the quality of the response delivered to clients has become a major stake for all companies. However, the job of a customer advisor is becoming increasingly complex as customers use new channels to interact with companies. With the customer service platform Akio.Cx, the customer service will develop a personalised experience for its clients, regardless of which channel they choose (phone, e-mail, chat, social media, etc.), thanks to unified client knowledge that is reinforced by semantic analysis. In 20 years, Akio has built a solid base of references among the largest French companies (AxaBanque, Banque de France, MGEN, URSSAF, Air France, Interflora, Engie, GrDF; Sarenza, Kiabi, Arkea, BPI France Cora, LPM Dyneff, Grep, Ircem, Photoweb, Sandoz, MTP, VMmag, MSD, CAFAT, CGSS, OPT, Bruneau, AMDM, etc.) Initially, the platform was provided ‘on-premise’, then through a ‘hybrid’ model, and since 2017 it’s provided as a ‘SaaS’ tool. Recently, Akio announced a global partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise that will offer the Akio.Cx platform to all of its 800,000 customers. This alliance is coupled with a project linked to the notion of the "augmented agent", i.e. high-tech tools made available to customer service representatives to facilitate their work and help them gain in efficiency. ...

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Media 7 | March 10, 2022

Chris Kim, Director of Social Media at Airtable shares some of his best practices to creating engaging and customer-centric social media marketing campaigns, and the impact that community and influencer marketing have on strategic marketing strategies. In this interview with Media 7, Chris speaks about the development of the role and importance of the social media professional to become a key contributor in strategic marketing conversations within organizations. Read on to find out how marketing teams can leverage different social media channels using data-driven insights to understand what works on each channel....

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Channel Partnerships

FiscalNote | December 11, 2023

FiscalNote Holdings, Inc. ("FiscalNote"), a leading AI-driven provider of policy and global intelligence, today announced a commercial partnership with Era Global Technologies, LLC (“Era”), a technology-focused investment firm backed by leading, closely-held family enterprises. This marks continued support from an early-stage investor and strategic advisor to the Company who has been closely aligned with FiscalNote for over five years. Era’s dedicated value-creation platform, Era Catalyst, will be a foundational channel partner, providing distribution support for FiscalNote’s recently-announced AI Co-pilot program. Era will provide referral services into their extensive network to accelerate sales and introduce FiscalNote’s proprietary AI products in the legal and regulatory space to several of the world’s largest conglomerates. Through these referrals, FiscalNote will drive further AI innovation augmented by input from Era’s network of family-owned enterprises, including large European and Asia-based multinational chemical and consumer goods conglomerates which operate across 19 countries and 25 industries. The collaboration is expected to enable FiscalNote to accelerate its ongoing growth and expansion strategy, advance new product development, and optimize sales and marketing efforts. In connection with the agreement, Era’s investment vehicle, EGT–East, is investing $5.5 million in FiscalNote in the form of a convertible subordinated promissory note, with the potential for up to an additional $2.0 million. The strategic investment will, in part, fund further capital expenditures and development of FiscalNote’s next generation of AI Co-Pilot capabilities, inclusive of deployments into Era’s network of global companies. The terms of the promissory note are further described in FiscalNote’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 11, 2023. “We are delighted to have Era as a foundational partner in our mission to extend the power of AI-driven policy and global intelligence to businesses and organizations around the world,” said Josh Resnik, President and COO, FiscalNote. “This investment is a testament to the industry-leading and innovative nature of our technology and our potential to transform the way businesses operate by leveraging our longstanding pedigree and leadership in AI. We are especially excited that this investment will galvanize and accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategy for our AI Co-pilot program, which is positioned to revolutionize the legal, regulatory, and legislative domain. Our Co-pilot program marks yet another development in FiscalNote’s ongoing leadership as we innovate and bring to market more AI-enabled solutions aimed at the legal and regulatory sector, while providing incremental growth opportunities to complement our proven, durable base of recurring revenue solutions.” FiscalNote’s AI Co-pilots are new AI solutions customized for policy and risk management professionals to facilitate their day-to-day work such as key tasks related to legislation, advocacy, constituent communications, regulatory responses, and global risk analysis. FiscalNote’s Co-pilots will combine the power of large language models, FiscalNote’s trusted industry leading policy and geopolitical data, and customers’ data, all in a seamless workflow to provide intelligent assistance for the world’s most important decision makers. By deploying FiscalNote’s AI Co-pilots, customers will be able to automate tasks, improve decision-making, and increase productivity and efficiencies – driving value and results across the enterprise. About FiscalNote FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) is a leader in policy and global intelligence. By uniquely combining data, technology, and insights, FiscalNote empowers customers to manage political and business risk. Since 2013, FiscalNote has pioneered technology that delivers critical insights and the tools to turn them into action. Home to CQ, FrontierView, Oxford Analytica, VoterVoice, and many other industry-leading brands, FiscalNote serves approximately 5,000 customers worldwide with global offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. To learn more about FiscalNote and its family of brands, visit FiscalNote.com and follow @FiscalNote. About Era Global Technologies Founded by Jasper Lau, Era is a global investment firm backed by leading closely-held family enterprises across 19 countries and 25 industries. Era harnesses the collective knowledge, corporate intelligence, and strategic capital of the firm's families to build and back transformative, category-defining technology companies.

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Marketing Analytics

Business Wire | January 11, 2024

Abnormal Security, the leading AI-native cloud email security platform, today announced that it is fueling its continued hypergrowth by expanding its sales leadership. The company has appointed two executives to lead its channel and alliances initiatives, with Jonathan Corini joining as Vice President of Worldwide Channel Sales and Stephanie Goodman as Head of Global Alliances. Corini will lead Abnormal’s global channel sales strategy and oversee all aspects of the company’s channel partner program, while Goodman will expand Abnormal’s strategic alliances ecosystem and accelerate growth among technology partners. These appointments cap a banner year for the company, which now serves 1,880+ customers and recently crossed $100M in ARR. This unprecedented success over the past year is due in large part to the company’s extensive partner system, ongoing dedication to the channel, and deep technology alliances across the industry—all of which will continue under new leadership. Corini has over 23 years of experience in cybersecurity and has held numerous sales and channel leadership positions. He most recently served as the VP of Global Channels at HYPR, where he designed and launched a new channel-focused GTM strategy that was responsible for over one-third of the company’s pipeline. Previously, Corini was SVP of Global Channels at Mimecast, where he grew channel sourced bookings to over 40% of the company's revenue and expanded the global MSP business to 20,000+ customers. In addition, Corini has held channel leadership roles at ForeScout Technologies, Tanium, and Intel Security throughout his extensive career. Goodman brings over 15 years of security experience and comes to Abnormal most recently from Google, where she served as the Global Lead of Strategic Alliances & OEMs. While there, she launched a global OEM program that grew over 200% in its first year and led her team to grow GSI revenue by 250% over the course of 2023. Previously, Goodman was the Director of Global Strategic Alliances at ForeScout Technologies, where the alliance team created an integration monetization plan that now represents 25% of overall company revenue, and held channel program management roles at McAfee. The two executives are joining an established channel-first organization with strong technology partnerships. Abnormal currently supports dozens of strategic partners, including value-added resellers, by providing its behavioral AI platform to protect customers against the growing threat of advanced, socially-engineered email attacks. The email security platform currently integrates with Microsoft, Google, and CrowdStrike, as well as dozens of other cybersecurity platforms. Moving forward, the focus will be on deepening relationships with enterprise partners throughout North America, expanding channel partnerships across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and launching strategic alliances with key organizations across the industry. About Abnormal Security Abnormal Security provides the leading behavioral AI-based email security platform that leverages machine learning to stop sophisticated inbound email attacks and dangerous email platform attacks that evade traditional solutions. The anomaly detection engine leverages identity and context to analyze the risk of every cloud email event, preventing inbound email attacks, detecting compromised accounts, and remediating emails and messages—all while providing visibility into configuration drifts across your environment. You can deploy Abnormal in minutes with an API integration for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and experience the full value of the platform instantly, with additional protection available for Slack, Teams, and Zoom. More information is available at abnormalsecurity.com.

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Channel Partnerships

PR Newswire | January 12, 2024

Vendavo, the global market leader in B2B pricing, selling and rebate solutions announced a strong 2023 finish today, noting a 12% growth in annual recurring revenue and 43% growth in higher margin recurring services. "As economic uncertainty persisted through 2023, global organizations increased investments in AI-driven technology to drive profitable growth, placing their trust in Vendavo," said Alex Hoff, Chief Product Officer, Vendavo. "While many predict stronger economies in 2024, manufacturers and distributors face a growing demand for agility in pricing, channel incentives, and commercial processes. We take pride in enabling significant revenue and margin growth for our customers." Vendavo's products and services enabled a 1.5% margin increase for customers in 2023 through improved pricing over cost. On average, customers achieved $27 million benefit from price improvement. To offer more features to customers, Vendavo's product investment increased by 21% in 2023. New AI product innovations have set the stage for smarter, more efficient commercial processes for customers. A new AI fueled Price Sensitivity metric was added to Vendavo Deal Price Optimizer, a solution that maximizes revenue and profitability through a better understanding of customers' willingness to pay. AI algorithms allow for more in-depth segmentation and analyses that deliver more precise sales guidance. AI now powers timely pattern detection for Price/Volume/Mix analyses in Vendavo Margin Bridge Analyzer. Ranked a Strong Performer in the 2023 Forrester Wave™ for CPQ, Vendavo Intelligent CPQ now has new pricing capabilities within the solution's agreement's function. Sales teams can incorporate more accurate pricing from the onset for even the most complex quotes. Vendavo Pricepoint, the flagship solution for B2B price management, improved both pricing calculation speed and performance. Vendavo's commitment to growing its partner ecosystem led to a doubling of partner-originated pipeline year over year. Notably, Vendavo's existing partnership with Oracle significantly expanded with the creation of new rebate and channel management incentives and the addition of support staff. In response to increasing market demand for rebate and channel management solutions, and following the 2022 acquisition of Market Medium, Vendavo integrated Rebate & Channel Manager into their suite of growth and profitability products. Many customers now effectively manage their rebate programs with the solution. About Vendavo Vendavo empowers global manufacturers and distributors to accelerate growth and profitability with leading pricing, selling, and rebate management solutions. Companies like Emerson, Medtronic, and GAF rely on Vendavo to manage, optimize, and digitize their end-to-end commercial processes. Vendavo's solutions, team of pricing and selling experts, and proven process accelerates value and outcomes that are not only predictable, but unrivaled. With Vendavo, the world's most ambitious B2B organizations can develop dynamic customer insights and execute optimal pricing strategies that maximize margin, boost sales effectiveness, and improve the customer experience.

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