Home > Companies > Thought Leaders > Q&A with Tom Raftery, Global VP at SAP

Q&A with Tom Raftery, Global VP at SAP

Q&A with Tom Raftery, Global VP at SAP
Tom Raftery, Global VP at SAP is an Innovation Evangelist, Futurist, and international Keynote speaker. Prior to joining SAP, Tom worked for a number of companies at Group IT Manager/CTO level, and as an Industry Analyst. Tom is a global thought leader and ranks among the top 10 Internet of Things influencers in the world. 

MEDIA 7: If I were to say to a bunch of people who know you, ‘Give me three adjectives that best describe you’, what would I hear?
TOM RAFTERY: I would like to think that I am a good communicator, maybe smart and hopefully generous. You will have to ask people other than myself though. They would be a better judge.

M7: What is the role of a technology influencer in driving environmental sustainability?
TR: The role of someone like me would be to raise awareness of the issues that are happening and potential solutions to them, particularly technological solutions. A lot of people are busy in their day-to-day lives and they might not be aware of some of the more pressing environmental issues that are happening in the world and that might impact them. So, raising awareness with people, of the importance of these issues, and the potential technological solutions to them is the role I think that influencers should be playing.


"Raising awareness with people, of the importance of environmental issues, and the potential technological solutions to them is the role that influencers should be playing."

M7: SAP is celebrating the 10th anniversary of strategic sustainability this year. What are the initiatives being taken by the company to help the world run better and achieve the UN sustainable development goals by 2030?
TR: We are involved in a lot of different projects in this front. We work for example, with Vestas Wind Systems who are the only global energy company dedicated exclusively to wind energy. We help them with their backend systems to help optimize the delivery of windfarms and turbines to windfarms, so that they are keeping their costs down and deploying the windfarms with the highest efficiency. We work with Munich Re and the European Space Agency. Munich Re are one of the largest reinsurance companies in the world and for them, they need to predict, and try and mitigate the damage of natural disasters. We use data from European Space Agency to help Munich Re do that.

We work with Brazilian company, Stara who are an agricultural company. They manufacture agricultural equipment, and the work we do with them is what’s called precision agriculture. Precision agriculture means that we can help their machines be far more precise in things like spreading fertilizers, spreading seeds to make sure that the seeds don’t overlap, the fertilizer doesn’t overlap and you’re doing it row by row. You have to sow the seeds and spread the fertilizer very accurately to avoid an overlap. Because if you have overlap with fertilizer, it can reach toxic levels and damage the plants that you are trying to help. If you have overlap in seeds, you can have excess competition between the seeds and then you get reduction in yield. Whereas if you are optimizing using precision agriculture, you are massively reducing your inputs and you are maximizing your outputs. So, you are able to feed more people with less land and less resources which obviously, as we are reaching higher population levels year-on-year, this becomes more and more important.

We work with NGOs like this one in Africa, called Elephants, Rhinos and People which was founded to preserve and protect the wild elephants and rhinos in Southern Africa. We work with local people to make sure that it’s more profitable for them to protect wildlife than it is to be poaching wildlife. We put collars on elephants and rhinos with geo-tracking in them. We use drones, to track the elephants and rhinos and if they start approaching borders of the parks that might expose them more to poaching. We send off alerts and help move them back into places where they are safer. Since we started the initiative in that area, no elephants rhinos, or humans have been harmed since the deployment of the tracking.

We work with Swiss Federal Railways, the largest energy consumer in Switzerland and they are also an energy producer - they produce electricity. So, we work with them to help reduce the peak loads, the peak demand for electricity by flattening their load which then means, they don’t need to build extra generation plants, reducing their carbon footprint and making their organization more efficient.


"Making our workforce aware of what we are doing as our external constituents is important for our employees to feel engaged and part of something important."

M7: You have been on the SmartCitiesWorld Advisory Board. How does SmartCitiesWorld help in developing smart cities of the future?
TR: The SmartCitiesWorld is a publication. It raises awareness of smart cities initiatives that cities can take to make the cities run better, reduce their energy requirements, reduce their footprint, increase their air quality, reduce noise pollution, and lots of different initiatives like that. So, as a publication, it’s primarily responsible for raising awareness and helping cities find better ways to increase quality of life for their constituents.

M7: How does SAP embrace an innovative culture in the company?
TR: Obviously, as a technology company it is very important for SAP to embrace an innovative culture in the company and what the company typically does is, it spends a lot of money on research and development and it does a lot of communication internally and externally highlighting the innovative solutions that we have come up with for our customers. And making our workforce aware of what we are doing as our external constituents because it’s important for our employees to feel engaged and part of something important. And as a consequence, every time, every year, we run this survey internally on how happy our employees are working for SAP. And our rate of employee retention is extremely high.

It’s not unusual in Europe to talk to SAP employees who have been working for the company for 10 or more years, which in the technology industry is unusual. So, that’s how we embrace the innovative culture and we talk of the things that we do, we work closely also with our customers because we do a lot of co-innovation projects with our customers where we take our customers into our co-innovation centers and we talk through their problems with them and come up with innovative ways to solve any particularly gnarly issues that they might have.


"A lot of people are busy in their day-to-day lives and they might not be aware of some of the more pressing environmental issues that are happening in the world and that might impact them."

M7: What is your favorite part of working at SAP?
TR: I started working for SAP in September 2016, so it’s just over 3 years ago now. And, prior to working with SAP, I had worked primarily with startups and small companies. I have never worked with a global mega vendor before. So, I was wondering what it would be like and I had my doubts, and if you would ask me in 2016, I would have said, “Yeah, I’ll probably last about three months with SAP”. But, three years later, here I am. And, a lot of that is down to the fact that the company is so big, and it has close to 100,000 employees, it means there are always people I can approach, if I need help in any country or in any industry. Because my role is across industry. So, if I need to talk to somebody who is in the transportation industry, I can just go straight to the transportation business unit and talk to people there. If I need to talk to people in the hospitality industry, same story. If I need to talk to people in the airline industry, the mining industry, the electricity industry, we cover all industries, we cover all regions globally. And, there’s a culture within SAP of helpfulness which is great. Apparently, it’s unusual. For me, it’s the norm if people bring up and ask me for help, I would say, “Yeah sure, absolutely, no problem.” And that’s the way most people in SAP are! You pick up the phone or send an email, and they are happy to help, no matter what. Apparently, that’s not the norm for big companies, but it is the norm for SAP which is great and that’s why I love working for SAP.  

M7: When did you start working, how old were you, and what was it?
TR: My first job was when I was 14. I worked on a building site where I was a builder’s mate, helping raise the scaffolding on the building and also help ferry bricks that were delivered to the site from the ground up to the brick layers on the top floor. So, that was my first job.

ABOUT SAP

SAP is a global software application vendor. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables our customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improves people’s lives.

More THOUGHT LEADERS

'Unlocking Market Potential: MyTradeZone's Dynamic Solution Bridges Supply and Demand for Businesses Everywhere,' says Bachir

February 15, 2024

Bachir Kassir, an accomplished entrepreneur and founder of MyTradeZone and WebJaguar Digital Commerce, has a notable track record in launching ventures, notably Advanced E Media, Inc., which introduced the WebJaguar Commerce and Marketing Automation platform, a software-as-a-service model. His latest endeavor, MyTradeZone.com, serves as a global B2B trade network, likened to LinkedIn for businesses, aiming to connect companies worldwide. Machintel: Please share with us your journey that led to the founding of MyTradeZone? What inspired the concept of MyTradeZone? Bachir Kassir: Some time ago, I thought about creating a B2B network to connect companies. At that time, I had just founded my digital commerce company, ‘WebJaguar’. So, I registered the domain mytradezone.com and kept the idea in the back of my mind. During my tenure as President and CEO of MyTradeZone, I dealt with over 1000 businesses, and the idea of MyTradeZone evolved even more with feedback from real customers, discussing their challenges and how MyTradeZone could help. Consequently, we developed a prototype and launched the site as a beta. Then, in December 2021, I had an exit when my company, WebJaguar, was acquired. With the freedom gained from the exit, I was able to dedicate 100% of my time to MyTradeZone, leveraging over 20 years of experience in B2B to officially launch the platform. Machintel: In your view, what are the biggest challenges facing the B2B sector today? Bachir Kassir: The biggest challenge facing the B2B sector is marketing and achieving cost-effective brand awareness for their products and services—to the right target audience. Many companies have great products and services, but the cost of exposure is expensive. Additionally, many companies, restricted by their size or location, encounter obstacles in attending various trade shows, yet they continue to offer outstanding products despite these challenges. Machintel: How does MyTradeZone aim to revolutionize B2B interactions, especially with its AI-driven matchmaking and recommendations? Bachir Kassir: MyTradeZone, think of it as a digital twin of our physical world, where every business qualifies to join. Now, MyTradeZone is the universe of companies. Within this platform, businesses are categorized, organized, and displayed according to their region, industry verticals, and more. MyTradeZone uses data science and AI algorithms for smart matchmaking between companies. We aim to revolutionize B2B interactions using this smart B2B search engine. Every business has a supply side and demand side, and because of that, MyTradeZone helps companies connect with potential customers. At the same time, MyTradeZone assists companies in procuring products and services from suppliers. Machintel: What methods are employed by MyTradeZone to ensure its users have fruitful networking experiences that result in lead generation? Bachir Kassir: When a company is on MyTradeZone, it becomes part of a vast universe of companies. At the same time, it can belong to and be part of different networking groups, trade shows, events, associations, and so on. This method ensures that users are exposed to the right targeted audience of the group they belong to. Additionally, a company can sponsor a specific group, thereby exposing itself to the members of that group. A group organizer can invite various companies to sponsor their groups, or companies can choose to sponsor a group through a self-service option. In the process, the group organizer can monetize their group. There are many free tools available, including live chat, video chat, group chat, private company notes, and other tools that ensure a fruitful networking experience. Another key feature is the request for quotation (RFQ) system, allowing anyone to submit quotations, while companies have the capability to search through these submissions. However, if a company is on the paid plan, the Business Essential plan, they get automatically alerted when someone submits an RFQ that matches their selected tags. Another incentive for users to upgrade to the paid plan, the Business Essential, is that they can select up to 20 keyword phrases of their choice, ensuring their company appears at the top of the search results. All the above and more provide both free and paid tools available for lead generation and smart matchmaking between companies. ...

Read More

'We’ll start to see marketers tap intelligent tools to target consumers without the need for personal identifiers' says LoopMe's Sarah Rew

Media 7 | March 15, 2022

Sarah Rew, Senior Director, Global Marketing at LoopMe elaborates on the importance of measuring campaign performance, LoopMe's innovative use of AI and ML and how high technologies are changing the AdTech marketplace in her latest interview with Media 7....

Read More

People now just want news that's true, says Ivar Krustok, Head of Data Science and IT at Ekspress Meedia

Media 7 | November 16, 2021

We had the opportunity to speak with Ivar Krustok, Head of Data Science and IT at Ekspress Meedia, who gave us an interesting insight into the world of advertising powered by data and technology. Read on to find out what makes good advertisements in the current consumer landscape....

Read More

'Unlocking Market Potential: MyTradeZone's Dynamic Solution Bridges Supply and Demand for Businesses Everywhere,' says Bachir

February 15, 2024

Bachir Kassir, an accomplished entrepreneur and founder of MyTradeZone and WebJaguar Digital Commerce, has a notable track record in launching ventures, notably Advanced E Media, Inc., which introduced the WebJaguar Commerce and Marketing Automation platform, a software-as-a-service model. His latest endeavor, MyTradeZone.com, serves as a global B2B trade network, likened to LinkedIn for businesses, aiming to connect companies worldwide. Machintel: Please share with us your journey that led to the founding of MyTradeZone? What inspired the concept of MyTradeZone? Bachir Kassir: Some time ago, I thought about creating a B2B network to connect companies. At that time, I had just founded my digital commerce company, ‘WebJaguar’. So, I registered the domain mytradezone.com and kept the idea in the back of my mind. During my tenure as President and CEO of MyTradeZone, I dealt with over 1000 businesses, and the idea of MyTradeZone evolved even more with feedback from real customers, discussing their challenges and how MyTradeZone could help. Consequently, we developed a prototype and launched the site as a beta. Then, in December 2021, I had an exit when my company, WebJaguar, was acquired. With the freedom gained from the exit, I was able to dedicate 100% of my time to MyTradeZone, leveraging over 20 years of experience in B2B to officially launch the platform. Machintel: In your view, what are the biggest challenges facing the B2B sector today? Bachir Kassir: The biggest challenge facing the B2B sector is marketing and achieving cost-effective brand awareness for their products and services—to the right target audience. Many companies have great products and services, but the cost of exposure is expensive. Additionally, many companies, restricted by their size or location, encounter obstacles in attending various trade shows, yet they continue to offer outstanding products despite these challenges. Machintel: How does MyTradeZone aim to revolutionize B2B interactions, especially with its AI-driven matchmaking and recommendations? Bachir Kassir: MyTradeZone, think of it as a digital twin of our physical world, where every business qualifies to join. Now, MyTradeZone is the universe of companies. Within this platform, businesses are categorized, organized, and displayed according to their region, industry verticals, and more. MyTradeZone uses data science and AI algorithms for smart matchmaking between companies. We aim to revolutionize B2B interactions using this smart B2B search engine. Every business has a supply side and demand side, and because of that, MyTradeZone helps companies connect with potential customers. At the same time, MyTradeZone assists companies in procuring products and services from suppliers. Machintel: What methods are employed by MyTradeZone to ensure its users have fruitful networking experiences that result in lead generation? Bachir Kassir: When a company is on MyTradeZone, it becomes part of a vast universe of companies. At the same time, it can belong to and be part of different networking groups, trade shows, events, associations, and so on. This method ensures that users are exposed to the right targeted audience of the group they belong to. Additionally, a company can sponsor a specific group, thereby exposing itself to the members of that group. A group organizer can invite various companies to sponsor their groups, or companies can choose to sponsor a group through a self-service option. In the process, the group organizer can monetize their group. There are many free tools available, including live chat, video chat, group chat, private company notes, and other tools that ensure a fruitful networking experience. Another key feature is the request for quotation (RFQ) system, allowing anyone to submit quotations, while companies have the capability to search through these submissions. However, if a company is on the paid plan, the Business Essential plan, they get automatically alerted when someone submits an RFQ that matches their selected tags. Another incentive for users to upgrade to the paid plan, the Business Essential, is that they can select up to 20 keyword phrases of their choice, ensuring their company appears at the top of the search results. All the above and more provide both free and paid tools available for lead generation and smart matchmaking between companies. ...

Read More

'We’ll start to see marketers tap intelligent tools to target consumers without the need for personal identifiers' says LoopMe's Sarah Rew

Media 7 | March 15, 2022

Sarah Rew, Senior Director, Global Marketing at LoopMe elaborates on the importance of measuring campaign performance, LoopMe's innovative use of AI and ML and how high technologies are changing the AdTech marketplace in her latest interview with Media 7....

Read More

People now just want news that's true, says Ivar Krustok, Head of Data Science and IT at Ekspress Meedia

Media 7 | November 16, 2021

We had the opportunity to speak with Ivar Krustok, Head of Data Science and IT at Ekspress Meedia, who gave us an interesting insight into the world of advertising powered by data and technology. Read on to find out what makes good advertisements in the current consumer landscape....

Read More

Related News

Display Advertising, Social Media Advertising

MyTradeZone.com Joins Certified Trade Mission to Hong Kong to Explore Business Expansion Opportunities in Asia

MyTradeZone | November 28, 2023

MyTradeZone.com, a trade and Social Networking for businesses, is pleased to announce its upcoming visit to Hong Kong from December 4th to 8th, 2023. Bachir Kassir, founder of MyTradeZone, will join a delegation of American companies to Hong Kong as part of a U.S. Department of Commerce Certified Trade Mission organized by IBS Global Consulting with the support of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the U.S. Commercial Service. The delegation, comprising a diverse group of American companies, aims to foster cross-border partnerships, explore export opportunities, and deepen economic ties between the United States and Hong Kong. The visit to Hong Kong presents an exciting opportunity for MyTradeZone.com to expand its global reach, tap into new markets, and establish key connections with Hong Kong's dynamic business community and trade associations. With Hong Kong's strategic location as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, robust financial services sector, and reputation as a major international trade hub, this visit holds immense promise for American enterprises looking to navigate the Asian market. Led by Tonya McNeal-Weary, Managing Director at IBS Global Consulting, the delegation will engage in a series of high-level meetings, networking events, and industry-specific forums during the five-day visit. These activities are designed to facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships between U.S. and Hong Kong businesses across various sectors. [MyTradeZone.com] is a disruptive business networking platform, and is like an always open trade show: • Businesses: Add company profile page. Showcase products & services. Network locally and around the world • Event Organizers, Trade Associations, & Networking Groups: Provide value-added offering to members & sponsors in a public or private setting • Creators & Group owners: Monetize your creations via peer-to-peer payment enablement • Advertisers and Marketers: MyTradeZone's B2B search engine offers highly targeted and cost-effective advertisements to both buyers and sellers • Business Professionals: Grow your professional network, chat, connect, follow, takes notes, share and collaborate As an official member of the delegation, MyTradeZone will have the opportunity to gain firsthand insights into Hong Kong's business landscape, explore regulatory frameworks, exchange best practices, and forge lasting relationships with key stakeholders. Additionally, the itinerary includes tailored site visits to cutting-edge facilities and industrial parks, showcasing Hong Kong's commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship. The visit to Hong Kong aims to enhance trade cooperation and seeks to highlight the enduring friendship between the United States and Hong Kong. As both economies continue to recover from the challenges posed by the global pandemic, this visit becomes even more crucial in reinvigorating trade ties and promoting long-term economic growth. About MyTradeZone.com MyTradeZone is a social networking platform for businesses. We are working on the next thing to disrupt business networking. MyTradeZone is a forward-thinking B2B media technology company reshaping how businesses connect and network. MyTradeZone's B2B search engine offers highly targeted and cost-effective advertisements to both buyers and sellers. MyTradeZone is also a perfect companion offering to trade show organizers and networking groups offering value added benefits to both members and sponsors.

Read More

Programmatic Advertising

TripleLift and Reset Digital Forge Partnership to Help Advertisers Meet Diverse Spending Goals All The Way Through The Programmatic Ecosystem

PR Newswire | January 05, 2024

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, and Reset Digital, a first-of-its-kind platform that gives brands and publishers broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, today announced a partnership to significantly expand diverse spend and representation across the programmatic ecosystem. Together, the companies are offering advertisers multiple pathways to ensure a greater portion of their digital budgets can be directed toward diverse-owned media companies. The partnership allows advertisers to buy quality inventory from minority-owned businesses throughout the programmatic ecosystem: TripleLift (a SSP) and Reset Digital (a DSP), and TripleLift's UNREP (Underrepresented Voices) deal package of impressions directing dollars straight to minority-owned media publishers. This way of buying media is available immediately across display, online video, and CTV and will be launched with Native this year. In 2023, an ANA survey of certified diverse suppliers found that while a majority say that interest from the media and advertising community in supporting diverse suppliers has increased in the past year, there is still a gap between intent to spend and actual spend. TripleLift and Reset Digital are helping all stakeholders bridge the gap quickly by making it easy for them to access diverse-owned media at scale. "This partnership allows advertisers to achieve their diverse spend goals with an end-to-end solution that is more aligned with their corporate supplier diversity reporting requirements," said Thomas Brandon, VP of Agency Strategy and Economic Inclusion at TripleLift. "Importantly, it allows them to use their media spend to impact the economic growth of the diverse communities they serve." Over the last 12 years, TripleLift has cultivated a vast inventory of publishers that includes access to 220 billion monthly impression avails across diverse-owned sites as part of its UNREP curated packages. These packages include inventory among publishers owned by Women, LGBTQ+, Blacks, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and can be accessed as a whole or individually depending on client goals. "TripleLift has been on our radar for a partnership for some time," said Charles Cantu, founder and CEO of Reset Digital. "Specifically, our marketplace combined with their offerings like UNREP now provides a single pathway to diverse spending across the programmatic ecosystem – a solution we are excited to finally have in the market together." Reset Digital, the industry's only verified, black-owned and operated DSP, has been long recognized for its neuroprogrammatic capabilities, which allow advertisers to engage audiences based on what they desire versus what they look like, its ability to help connect brands and multicultural audiences around the world and its partnerships with brands like P&G, GM and Verizon, as well as the leading global media and creative agencies. In 2023, Reset Digital launched a new programmatic marketplace for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade organization that represents more than 200 Black-owned newspapers in the U.S. along with the NABOB (National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters); these entities created a path to connect large advertisers with publications that previously did not have the capabilities to run national programmatic advertising campaigns. This partnership stands to benefit any of the buy-side clients working with these companies. "TripleLift and Reset Digital have both been great partners to Horizon Media for many years," said Karina Dobarro, EVP, Multicultural at Horizon Media. "We've long worked with DSPs and SSPs to better direct investment to diverse-owned media, but partnerships like this one make it a much more seamless endeavor." TripleLift works with 80%+ of comScore 200 ad-supported publishers and delivers over 2 trillion monthly global impressions across North America, EMEA, LATAM, APAC, and MENA. To learn more about this partnership, please visit www.triplelift.com. About TripleLift We're TripleLift, an advertising platform on a mission to elevate digital advertising through beautiful creative, quality publishers, actionable data, and smart targeting. Through over 1 trillion monthly ad transactions, we help publishers and platforms monetize their businesses. Our technology is where the world's leading brands find audiences across online video, connected television, display, and native ads. Brand and enterprise customers choose us because of our innovative solutions, premium formats, and supportive experts dedicated to maximizing their performance. We are part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio. As an NMSDC certified minority-owned business, we qualify for diverse spending goals and are committed to economic inclusion. Find out how TripleLift raises up the programmatic ecosystem at triplelift.com. About Reset Digital Reset Digital's Neuroprogrammatic™ advertising platform is a first-of-its-kind programmatic platform that allows brands to engage omnichannel audiences based on what motivates them as people versus targets and gives brands and publishers much broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, including underrepresented audiences they could not reach in the past. The results are radically better outcomes. Reset Digital's partners include the world's top brands, agencies, and publishers, including P&G, GM, Verizon, Dentsu, IPG, Publicis, GroupM, NABOB, Newsweek, NNPA, and others.

Read More

Advertiser Platforms

Stagwell (STGW) and MNTN Partner to Forge a Unified Performance Marketing Ecosystem for Brands

PR Newswire | January 12, 2024

Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, is partnering with connected TV (CTV) advertising leader MNTN to broaden the market of performance advertising for brands. With the partnership, brands will now have access to a comprehensive set of buying solutions that combine the best of MNTN's Performance TV platform with Stagwell Marketing Cloud products, providing added streaming, performance PR and performance influencer capabilities in a one-stop shop. Stagwell and MNTN's strategic partnership allows for a more unified approach to brand and performance media, offering brands access to advanced technologies and a comprehensive suite of tools enabling brand campaigns on television to now seamlessly coexist with other digital channels. "For too long, brand and performance media have battled to co-exist in an industry that worships creative ideas and measurable metrics separately," said MNTN President and CEO Mark Douglas. "Now Stagwell's performance-focused clients can see their brand campaigns at work through MNTN Performance TV and not only qualify but quantify results of traditionally less measurable media." "Stagwell believes all media is performance media, and our partnership with MNTN is our next step in creating an integrated ecosystem of technology and media solutions that enable speed to market, improved outcomes, and ultimately, scaled brand performance for clients," said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. "In combination with SMC tools, including social, streaming, and PR capabilities, brands can now attach metrics to their big marketing ideas in a granular way." Meeting Client Demands The partnership between Stagwell and MNTN Performance TV addresses the growing importance of performance advertising for modern brands, offering a comprehensive suite of buying solutions that feature cutting-edge targeting, measurement, and automated optimization technology. The collaboration introduces an innovative approach to television advertising, offering brands metrics that matter together – reach and revenue. Expanded Toolset MNTN clients will now benefit from an enhanced suite of tools, incorporating products from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud. This includes: PRophet, a generative and predictive AI platform for PR professionals Koalifyed, an influencer discovery and campaign management platform ReachTV, the largest streaming television network targeting travelers in airports Together, Stagwell and MNTN aim to meet the evolving needs of modern brands in a performance-driven landscape. Stay tuned for insights from Stagwell's Mark Penn and MNTN's Mark Douglas at CES next week, where they will discuss the power of this collaboration. Brands and/or journalists interested in connecting on the ground should contact ces2024@stagwellglobal.com for more information. About MNTN MNTN is the Hardest Working Software in TV, bringing unrivaled performance and simplicity to Connected TV advertising. Our self-serve technology makes running TV ads as easy as search and social and helps brands drive measurable conversions, revenue, site visits, and more. MNTN is one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2023 and was recently named one of the Next Big Things in Tech for its upcoming VIVA creative suite. For more information, please visit https://mountain.com/. About Stagwell Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Read More

Display Advertising, Social Media Advertising

MyTradeZone.com Joins Certified Trade Mission to Hong Kong to Explore Business Expansion Opportunities in Asia

MyTradeZone | November 28, 2023

MyTradeZone.com, a trade and Social Networking for businesses, is pleased to announce its upcoming visit to Hong Kong from December 4th to 8th, 2023. Bachir Kassir, founder of MyTradeZone, will join a delegation of American companies to Hong Kong as part of a U.S. Department of Commerce Certified Trade Mission organized by IBS Global Consulting with the support of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the U.S. Commercial Service. The delegation, comprising a diverse group of American companies, aims to foster cross-border partnerships, explore export opportunities, and deepen economic ties between the United States and Hong Kong. The visit to Hong Kong presents an exciting opportunity for MyTradeZone.com to expand its global reach, tap into new markets, and establish key connections with Hong Kong's dynamic business community and trade associations. With Hong Kong's strategic location as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, robust financial services sector, and reputation as a major international trade hub, this visit holds immense promise for American enterprises looking to navigate the Asian market. Led by Tonya McNeal-Weary, Managing Director at IBS Global Consulting, the delegation will engage in a series of high-level meetings, networking events, and industry-specific forums during the five-day visit. These activities are designed to facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships between U.S. and Hong Kong businesses across various sectors. [MyTradeZone.com] is a disruptive business networking platform, and is like an always open trade show: • Businesses: Add company profile page. Showcase products & services. Network locally and around the world • Event Organizers, Trade Associations, & Networking Groups: Provide value-added offering to members & sponsors in a public or private setting • Creators & Group owners: Monetize your creations via peer-to-peer payment enablement • Advertisers and Marketers: MyTradeZone's B2B search engine offers highly targeted and cost-effective advertisements to both buyers and sellers • Business Professionals: Grow your professional network, chat, connect, follow, takes notes, share and collaborate As an official member of the delegation, MyTradeZone will have the opportunity to gain firsthand insights into Hong Kong's business landscape, explore regulatory frameworks, exchange best practices, and forge lasting relationships with key stakeholders. Additionally, the itinerary includes tailored site visits to cutting-edge facilities and industrial parks, showcasing Hong Kong's commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship. The visit to Hong Kong aims to enhance trade cooperation and seeks to highlight the enduring friendship between the United States and Hong Kong. As both economies continue to recover from the challenges posed by the global pandemic, this visit becomes even more crucial in reinvigorating trade ties and promoting long-term economic growth. About MyTradeZone.com MyTradeZone is a social networking platform for businesses. We are working on the next thing to disrupt business networking. MyTradeZone is a forward-thinking B2B media technology company reshaping how businesses connect and network. MyTradeZone's B2B search engine offers highly targeted and cost-effective advertisements to both buyers and sellers. MyTradeZone is also a perfect companion offering to trade show organizers and networking groups offering value added benefits to both members and sponsors.

Read More

Programmatic Advertising

TripleLift and Reset Digital Forge Partnership to Help Advertisers Meet Diverse Spending Goals All The Way Through The Programmatic Ecosystem

PR Newswire | January 05, 2024

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, and Reset Digital, a first-of-its-kind platform that gives brands and publishers broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, today announced a partnership to significantly expand diverse spend and representation across the programmatic ecosystem. Together, the companies are offering advertisers multiple pathways to ensure a greater portion of their digital budgets can be directed toward diverse-owned media companies. The partnership allows advertisers to buy quality inventory from minority-owned businesses throughout the programmatic ecosystem: TripleLift (a SSP) and Reset Digital (a DSP), and TripleLift's UNREP (Underrepresented Voices) deal package of impressions directing dollars straight to minority-owned media publishers. This way of buying media is available immediately across display, online video, and CTV and will be launched with Native this year. In 2023, an ANA survey of certified diverse suppliers found that while a majority say that interest from the media and advertising community in supporting diverse suppliers has increased in the past year, there is still a gap between intent to spend and actual spend. TripleLift and Reset Digital are helping all stakeholders bridge the gap quickly by making it easy for them to access diverse-owned media at scale. "This partnership allows advertisers to achieve their diverse spend goals with an end-to-end solution that is more aligned with their corporate supplier diversity reporting requirements," said Thomas Brandon, VP of Agency Strategy and Economic Inclusion at TripleLift. "Importantly, it allows them to use their media spend to impact the economic growth of the diverse communities they serve." Over the last 12 years, TripleLift has cultivated a vast inventory of publishers that includes access to 220 billion monthly impression avails across diverse-owned sites as part of its UNREP curated packages. These packages include inventory among publishers owned by Women, LGBTQ+, Blacks, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and can be accessed as a whole or individually depending on client goals. "TripleLift has been on our radar for a partnership for some time," said Charles Cantu, founder and CEO of Reset Digital. "Specifically, our marketplace combined with their offerings like UNREP now provides a single pathway to diverse spending across the programmatic ecosystem – a solution we are excited to finally have in the market together." Reset Digital, the industry's only verified, black-owned and operated DSP, has been long recognized for its neuroprogrammatic capabilities, which allow advertisers to engage audiences based on what they desire versus what they look like, its ability to help connect brands and multicultural audiences around the world and its partnerships with brands like P&G, GM and Verizon, as well as the leading global media and creative agencies. In 2023, Reset Digital launched a new programmatic marketplace for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade organization that represents more than 200 Black-owned newspapers in the U.S. along with the NABOB (National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters); these entities created a path to connect large advertisers with publications that previously did not have the capabilities to run national programmatic advertising campaigns. This partnership stands to benefit any of the buy-side clients working with these companies. "TripleLift and Reset Digital have both been great partners to Horizon Media for many years," said Karina Dobarro, EVP, Multicultural at Horizon Media. "We've long worked with DSPs and SSPs to better direct investment to diverse-owned media, but partnerships like this one make it a much more seamless endeavor." TripleLift works with 80%+ of comScore 200 ad-supported publishers and delivers over 2 trillion monthly global impressions across North America, EMEA, LATAM, APAC, and MENA. To learn more about this partnership, please visit www.triplelift.com. About TripleLift We're TripleLift, an advertising platform on a mission to elevate digital advertising through beautiful creative, quality publishers, actionable data, and smart targeting. Through over 1 trillion monthly ad transactions, we help publishers and platforms monetize their businesses. Our technology is where the world's leading brands find audiences across online video, connected television, display, and native ads. Brand and enterprise customers choose us because of our innovative solutions, premium formats, and supportive experts dedicated to maximizing their performance. We are part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio. As an NMSDC certified minority-owned business, we qualify for diverse spending goals and are committed to economic inclusion. Find out how TripleLift raises up the programmatic ecosystem at triplelift.com. About Reset Digital Reset Digital's Neuroprogrammatic™ advertising platform is a first-of-its-kind programmatic platform that allows brands to engage omnichannel audiences based on what motivates them as people versus targets and gives brands and publishers much broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, including underrepresented audiences they could not reach in the past. The results are radically better outcomes. Reset Digital's partners include the world's top brands, agencies, and publishers, including P&G, GM, Verizon, Dentsu, IPG, Publicis, GroupM, NABOB, Newsweek, NNPA, and others.

Read More

Advertiser Platforms

Stagwell (STGW) and MNTN Partner to Forge a Unified Performance Marketing Ecosystem for Brands

PR Newswire | January 12, 2024

Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, is partnering with connected TV (CTV) advertising leader MNTN to broaden the market of performance advertising for brands. With the partnership, brands will now have access to a comprehensive set of buying solutions that combine the best of MNTN's Performance TV platform with Stagwell Marketing Cloud products, providing added streaming, performance PR and performance influencer capabilities in a one-stop shop. Stagwell and MNTN's strategic partnership allows for a more unified approach to brand and performance media, offering brands access to advanced technologies and a comprehensive suite of tools enabling brand campaigns on television to now seamlessly coexist with other digital channels. "For too long, brand and performance media have battled to co-exist in an industry that worships creative ideas and measurable metrics separately," said MNTN President and CEO Mark Douglas. "Now Stagwell's performance-focused clients can see their brand campaigns at work through MNTN Performance TV and not only qualify but quantify results of traditionally less measurable media." "Stagwell believes all media is performance media, and our partnership with MNTN is our next step in creating an integrated ecosystem of technology and media solutions that enable speed to market, improved outcomes, and ultimately, scaled brand performance for clients," said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. "In combination with SMC tools, including social, streaming, and PR capabilities, brands can now attach metrics to their big marketing ideas in a granular way." Meeting Client Demands The partnership between Stagwell and MNTN Performance TV addresses the growing importance of performance advertising for modern brands, offering a comprehensive suite of buying solutions that feature cutting-edge targeting, measurement, and automated optimization technology. The collaboration introduces an innovative approach to television advertising, offering brands metrics that matter together – reach and revenue. Expanded Toolset MNTN clients will now benefit from an enhanced suite of tools, incorporating products from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud. This includes: PRophet, a generative and predictive AI platform for PR professionals Koalifyed, an influencer discovery and campaign management platform ReachTV, the largest streaming television network targeting travelers in airports Together, Stagwell and MNTN aim to meet the evolving needs of modern brands in a performance-driven landscape. Stay tuned for insights from Stagwell's Mark Penn and MNTN's Mark Douglas at CES next week, where they will discuss the power of this collaboration. Brands and/or journalists interested in connecting on the ground should contact ces2024@stagwellglobal.com for more information. About MNTN MNTN is the Hardest Working Software in TV, bringing unrivaled performance and simplicity to Connected TV advertising. Our self-serve technology makes running TV ads as easy as search and social and helps brands drive measurable conversions, revenue, site visits, and more. MNTN is one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2023 and was recently named one of the Next Big Things in Tech for its upcoming VIVA creative suite. For more information, please visit https://mountain.com/. About Stagwell Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Read More

Spotlight

SAP

SAP is a global software application vendor. SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced...

Events

Resources

resource image

Pipeline Management and Forecasting Are Key to Improving the Sales Experience

Whitepaper

resource image

Change the sales rep experience, improve the customer experience

Whitepaper

resource image

Shopping ads come to YouTube’s home feed and search results

Video

Events