Press

Rosetta Leverages IBM Business Partner Programs, Publicis Network to Drive Global Commerce Innovation

Joins Select Group of Vendors Able to Provide IBM’s Full Suite of Cloud-Based Commerce and EMM Offerings

PRINCETON, NJ, June 12 – Rosetta, a leading customer engagement agency and independent brand in the Publicis Groupe, announced today that is has been officially approved by IBM as a Software Value Plus (SVP) WebSphere Commerce Primary Support Provider and Software as a Service (SaaS) Solution Provider Reseller for Coremetrics, eMessage and Marketing Center. These new offerings enable Rosetta to accelerate global expansion and seize a significant portion of the global commerce market.

Rosetta is one of the early IBM Business Partners approved for these newly announced programs, which give Rosetta the flexibility to offer both traditional ‘on premise’ software models and SaaS offerings for clients preferring a cloud-based model for their commerce and enterprise marketing management platforms.

Building on its differentiated Commerce Plus offerings, its recently expanded partnership with IBM and the global reach of the Publicis Groupe, Rosetta serves a rapidly expanding global client list that spans the Technology & Telecommunications, Healthcare, Consumer Products & Retail, Financial Services and Distribution, Manufacturing and Utilities industries. In order to strengthen its leadership position in commerce and expand its global network, Rosetta is currently evaluating potential acquisition targets and agency partners in China, Latin American and Europe as well as strategic alliances with firms to provide end to end capabilities from call center through logistics.

Melinda Matthews, IBM’s Worldwide Director of Business Partners, Industry Solutions commented, “Rosetta’s focus around unique solutions leveraging the Smarter Commerce software portfolio sets up the agency for solid global expansion, and in particular, give them a strong position with clients seeking to drive top line revenue growth. The agency’s recent certifications give Rosetta the ability to provide SaaS offerings to clients preferring a cloud-based model for their omni-channel commerce and enterprise marketing management platforms.”

Rosetta Partner, Global Commerce Lead Gary Schoch said, “We’re seeing strong demand from clients all over the world, in mature markets and emerging, for our full breadth of value added services – including our unparalleled segmentation, analytics and optimization, SEO/SEM, Mobile and Social capabilities – all delivered as a service in the cloud. With this offering, we have the ability to bring rapid delivery to clients looking to expand globally by leveraging these market leading IBM Commerce and EMM Solutions. Our clients benefit from our results-oriented, go to market approach and are able maintain the ability to bring the solution in house when appropriate scale is reached without having to change technologies. This includes a comprehensive package of supporting solutions spanning Content Management, Ratings, Reviews and Payment. Our partnership with IBM, our global reach through the Publicis Groupe and our deep experience in commerce implementations make Rosetta the go-to agency in global commerce.”

According to Rosetta, it has completed more than 150 commerce implementations and expects commerce-related revenues to top $100 million this year.

About Rosetta

Rosetta is a customer engagement agency engineered to transform marketing for the connected world. Our mission is to be a catalyst for growth, driving material business impact by translating deep consumer insights into personally relevant brand experiences across touch points and over time. Our unique capabilities and the way we activate them have enabled our market leadership position, operating as an independent brand in the Publicis Groupe of global agencies.

www.rosetta.com
Twitter:@RosettaMktg
Facebook:www.facebook.com/rosetta

Contact:
Shade Vaughn
(646) 290-8870
shade.vaughn@rosetta.com

How Lenovo knows its new site design will boost sales

The device maker tested it with live users in digital agency Rosetta’s laboratory.

When PC and tablet maker Lenovo launches the U.S. version of its newly redesigned web site this week, it won’t be surprised if average order values shoot up by $50 to $70 apiece, says Rick Medeiros, executive director of global usability and user experience. In fact, the brand manufacturer might be surprised if revenue from the U.S. site isn’t up significantly in the first month compared with the average monthly revenue from the old site.

Lenovo’s rosy expectations are based on a series of user tests conducted in the Cleveland laboratory of digital customer engagement agency Rosetta, which worked with Lenovo over the last year on its global site redesign. In updating the site’s look and organization, the two companies streamlined the process of configuring products in order to help customers find and purchase what they need more easily than before, Medeiros says.

Rosetta tested the site’s usability with consumers in the lab at three stages in the redesign process.

First, it checked whether its initial design changes made the most important content, such as the “Help Me Decide” product selector tool, easily accessible to visitors. To do so, the agency brought 30 consumers into the lab last June and showed them screenshots from the new Lenovo site as well as pages from competitors’ sites, measuring which parts of the page they looked at the most and asking for their general impressions. That helped it discover, for instance, that most shoppers thought the IdeaCentre desktop PC was a television. So, Rosetta recommended a few changes to the images of the device, including showing it on a desk rather than a coffee table and with computer-like accessories, such as a keyboard, nearby.

In the second stage, Rosetta tested whether updating the site’s organization and navigation led shoppers to flow through the site as Lenovo expected them to, the agency says. Sixteen consumers each spent 60 minutes completing tasks on the web site, such as browsing the home page, adding products to the cart and using the Help Me Decide tool, while Rosetta researchers observed and asked them for feedback. The agency then adjusted the site layout to address problems that prevented shoppers from completing shopping tasks. For example, some users said they were overwhelmed by too much information on each page, including content and product selections, Rosetta says.

Notably, Medeiros says the second test proved to him that data provide a better determinant of the best web design than his 15 years of experience in the field. Based on that experience, he’d been concerned that Rosetta’s plan to switch from a more commonplace, horizontal scrolling banner on the home page to a vertical version would not go over well with consumers, he says. But the switch to a vertical scrolling banner turned out to be a hit. “That’s the beauty of [testing],” he says. “This is the way to be innovative,” he says.

With all major redesign work complete, Rosetta finished the process in a real world test. It sent 5% of the three million total visitors coming to Lenovo’s U.S. site over one month to the new web site and compared their behaviors with a sample of 5% of the visitors to the old site, Medeiros says. Compared with the visitors to the old site, those shopping for Lenovo’s “Think” branded products on the new site had an average increase in revenue per visit of 14.5% and a 14.7% higher conversion rate, he says. Additionally, the new site led 9% more visitors to product pages and 4% more visitors to the shopping cart, he says.

The live test also demonstrated to Lenovo that it would have enough profit within a year to break even or surpass the cost of Rosetta’s services, Medeiros says, declining to share their exact cost.

Lenovo began rolling out its redesigned sites internationally in mid-February, adjusting each one for local language and product availability differences, Medeiros says. The company operates 66 e-commerce sites and is now 90% complete with the launches worldwide. So far, conversions are up on those foreign sites, he says, without sharing specific figures. He expects the launch in the U.S.—where Lenovo draws the bulk of its direct sales from consumers—will follow suite.

This article originally published at Internet Retailer.

Scott Sorokin Joins Rosetta as Chief Strategy Officer

Princeton, NJ, June 6, 2013 – Rosetta, the Publicis Groupe customer engagement agency, announced today that Scott Sorokin has joined the agency as Chief Strategy Officer, a newly created position. He also will serve on the agency’s Executive Committee.

Sorokin will drive Rosetta’s growth strategy and will be based in the agency’s New York office. He will report to CEO Tom Adamski.

Sorokin has more than 25 years of experience as a strategist, advisor and futurist for Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Rosetta, he was Chief Digital Officer at Mindshare Worldwide / WPP, President at Carat/Aegis Media, President at Carat Fusion/Isobar, Executive Vice President, Global Account Director at MRM /McCann Worldgroup and Executive Vice President, Managing Director at Modem Media/Digitas West. He also was Founder / Chief Creative Officer at Grey Interactive Worldwide, one of the first digital agencies, where he led strategy and development for Procter & Gamble and Dell.com. Before the digital age, Sorokin was an award-winning creative director.

“With a rare combination of executive level planning, creative and media experience, Scott is able to translate the complexities and uncertainties of the ever-changing digital world into actionable insights and exceptional results,” said Adamski. “His deep and successful experience in setting strategy and leading major digital agencies to significant growth in a rapidly evolving industry will be a powerful addition to Rosetta’s leadership team.”

“Rosetta possesses the unique ability to combine insights and data, enabled by technology, to optimize the consumer experience throughout the entire lifecycle,” said Sorokin. “I’m extremely excited to join this fast-growing agency and help drive innovation across its rapidly expanding global client roster.”

About Rosetta

www.rosetta.com
Twitter:@RosettaMktg
Facebook:www.facebook.com/rosetta

Contact:
Shade Vaughn
(646) 290-8870
shade.vaughn@rosetta.com

6 Ways Tech Marketers Need to Adapt to Sell Cloud Services

Posted by Mike Norris

The announcement from Adobe that they will no longer sell packaged versions of Creative Suite, focusing instead on a subscription-based option, caught many people off guard. We’ve all heard and talked about the inevitable move to subscription-based software, and ultimately, cloud based “everything” for years. But for a brand like Adobe to make such an enormous push so rapidly indicates that the migration is happening quicker than anticipated.

While Adobe Creative Cloud still requires an "install" and is not entirely a cloud-based solution, it’s one step closer and is likely a sign that big players will follow suit to capitalize on what is forecast to be a $210 billion market for public cloud services in 2016.

As others make the move, there will be major shifts in the ways that software and hardware vendors market, sell and support their solutions. Specifically, there will be broad implications on the profile of customers that are served, the length of the sales cycle, how companies build customer relationships, and how organizations and their products are transformed into service entities to market, sell and service customers in a highly fluid and dynamic market.

Here are six things tech marketers will need to do to succeed in the new services world:

1. Know what you want in a customer relationship. We can expect the speed and rate of demand generation and conversion to skyrocket. As the universe of potential customers begins to explode in response to the lower cost of entry, so will the costs of serving them, retaining them and creating advocacy. Understanding the needs, motivations and behaviors of high potential value customers will give you the ability to rapidly deliver targeted messages, correctly position your value propositions, optimize your returns on marketing investments, and deepen relationships with the people and organizations that will contribute to your long term success. Having a segmentation schema based on potential customer value that is actionable, and will support differential investment decisions, will be critical.

2. Predict and automate pre-purchase experiences. In more traditional software licensing or equipment sales, marketing can focus on brand-building and broader awareness initiatives. In a cloud-based service business, marketing and sales have to shift into overdrive and provide real-time automated engagement. Customers research and make decisions in minutes, not months. If an alert comes in based upon a customer action in one channel, the next move has to be calculated immediately and in context for the user in the moment. Only marketers who have strong knowledge of their customers’ purchase process, intent and motivations will be able to use a platform to digitally automate interactions at scale to optimize the purchase process.

3. Earn the right to have a relationship. In a subscription world there is little to prevent customers from leaving. Loyalty becomes elusive and must be earned at every interaction. Customers who become frustrated with the product or service experience, or feel like the experience is too difficult, will go elsewhere and quickly. In many ways, marketing’s role will increasingly shift to place greater focus on constantly finding ways to keep current customers engaged, deepen their experience of the value of their services, and to enable them to get what they want via CRM. Advertising, as we know it, will continue to play a critical role in awareness. But all marketers (regardless of channel expertise) will be thinking just as much, if not more, about retention.

4. Focus on the first product interactions and the OOBE. Without the “wow” experience out-of-the-box (OOBE) a lot of revenue will be left on the table. Just like all high-speed relationships, first impressions are everything. Because the financial commitment of the customer is so low to start, there is little to keep them around if OOBE is poor. How people go through consideration, trial, and on to purchase has to be so compelling and efficient that they go from start to finish without skipping a beat. If your product offering is complex, the user experience must rapidly adapt to the sophistication of the user so the experience can be optimized for the customer. People will no longer go to another destination to learn about how to get the most out of cloud services. It’s not “education” as we’ve known it, but automated on the job training. It is immersive, interactive and designed to support the job the customer is trying to do. Get this right and the customer will easily get what they are capable of experiencing from the service and deepen their experience and thus their relationship with your company as they engage.

5. CRM at light speed. CRM has to scale like never before. It has to shift to be more relevant, timely and resonant. It has to be automated, trigger-based and underpinned with real time predictive models. If people aren’t using the software enough or are not using it appropriately, levels of confusion or dis-interest can be inferred. Something will have to be done, automatically and immediately or you risk losing another customer. If a customer needs additional information or skills to do what they are trying to do more effectively, bring it contextually into the product or service environment. The lifecycle based approach for sending email communications at pre-determined intervals may still be relevant for some messages, but customers will expect more relevant and timely communications that intervene at moments of confusion and frustration. Get this right before they pack their bags.

6. Combine marketing and product insights to obtain true business intelligence. The lines between marketing and product experiences blur significantly with service-based solutions. When someone can rapidly research, sign up for a limited trial, use a free version, and buy a monthly subscription in the span of a few minutes or hours, its impossible at scale to provide immediate, relevant and personalized messaging without gaining insights from both marketing and product interactions. This convergence will drive marketing to focus on delivering against the overall brand and service experience.

As more technology businesses shift to service-based business models, the role of marketers will continue to evolve quickly. Data analytics and real-time predictive systems will form the basis of initiating, engaging, and building relationships automatically. Marketing enabling systems will only increase in their importance to deliver rapid, relevant and contextual experiences to customers at scale. Marketers will increasingly become data-driven marketing scientists that work collaboratively with technical and product teams to ensure relevant contextual communications and experiences that drive the exchange of value between their company and customers.

Mike Norris is a Partner in the Technology & Telecommunications practice at the customer engagement agency Rosetta.

This article originally published at Innovation Insights.

Rosetta Builds on Commerce Momentum as Platinum Sponsor at IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit

Agency Has Completed More Than 100 Commerce Implementations, Expects Commerce-Related Revenues to Top $100M for 2013

PRINCETON, NJ, May 20 – Rosetta, a leading customer engagement agency and independent brand in the Publicis Groupe, is building on its run of new Commerce assignments with the Platinum Sponsorship of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2013, which begins Tuesday, May 21 and runs through Thursday, May 23 in Nashville, TN. Rosetta, Publicis and IBM recently expanded a 10+ year global partnership that capitalized on the global reach of the Publicis Groupe network to establish Rosetta as the agency best positioned to capture a major portion of the global commerce market. The agency has completed more than 100 commerce implementations and expects commerce-related revenues to top $100 million this year.

Rosetta representatives will be available through the entirety of the event at Booth G-1 and will draw upon their industry-leading Commerce experience by sharing numerous case studies of clients that have been able to drive deeper levels of engagement through insight-driven commerce solutions. Executives from Rosetta will also participate in two presentations for event attendees:

Adam Brown of Rosetta, along with Jan Hedges of IBM and Michael Au of IBM Canada, will participate in the panel discussion titled “Implementing Search-Driven Merchandising Commerce Solutions” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21.
Rosetta Managing Partner Mark Eckman and Steve Schwarz of Rosetta will make a presentation titled “Rapidly Deploying an Expandable Global E-commerce Platform for Sunglass Hut” from 10:45-11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 22.

Rosetta CEO Tom Adamski said, “Our proven track record in Commerce innovation and expanded partnership with IBM make us uniquely suited to help clients build and optimize Smarter Commerce-based marketing systems that drive customer engagement, strengthen brand relationships and optimize revenue.”

Rosetta Partner, Global Commerce Lead Gary Schoch said, “We’re the only agency in the market combining a deep consulting heritage with leading edge technology to build and optimize the Commerce and content ecosystem. We bring a broader market context to Commerce, and importantly, an ability to uncover unique customer insights that enable marketers to find their most valuable customers and create transaction experiences that fuel brand advocacy. We’re looking forward to sharing our insights and experience with attendees at Smarter Commerce.”

Rosetta has a team of more than 100 consultants able to harness and analyze a client’s multiple data streams in order to identify and understand the evolving needs and motivations of the client’s best customers. Translating these insights rapidly into execution requires deft implementation of the entire commerce and content ecosystem.

Rosetta’s Commerce specialists serve a rapidly expanding and diverse global client list that includes Dorel (Consumer Products/US), Genco (Distribution/US), hhgregg (Electronics Retail/US), Holt-Renfrew (Luxury Retail/Canada), Luxottica (Eyewear Retail/Italy), Newell-Rubbermaid (Consumer Products/US) and Sigma Pharma (Manufacturer of Over-The-Counter and Prescription Drugs/Australia).

About Rosetta

www.rosetta.com
Twitter: @RosettaMktg
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosetta

Media Contact

Shade Vaughn
Office +1 646.290.8870
Mobile +1 646.286.6935
shade.vaughn@rosetta.com

Dark Google Vexes Publishers

Looking at their Web analytics, many publishers have seen an alarming shift: their search traffic has dropped, while their share of referrals from social has risen. Perhaps the era of social media has well and truly arrived. The truth, however, is less dramatic but potentially more troubling.

The drops in search traffic is an analytics problem, caused by what some are calling “dark search” or “dark Google.” The issue is a technical one, but in simple terms, it’s caused by certain browsers blocking websites from tracking exactly how users arrived there. For example, when users of Safari on iOS 6 click on a search result, the site they’re visiting has no way of telling they found that content through search. Analytics packages typically lump this traffic in the “direct” bucket, giving an inaccurate picture of where their traffic is actually coming from.

According to digital agency Rosetta, the two biggest sources of dark search right now are Apple devices running iOS 6, which runs on all new iPads, iPhones and iPods, and some recent versions of Firefox. Neither browser passes search referral data to analytics packages accurately, and they account for a growing number of users.

“This misappropriation of traffic is already an issue, and it’s only going to get worse as people upgrade browsers and switch away from desktop to mobile search on iOS devices,” said Stephen Pitts, SEO director at Rosetta. ”Already a lot of search traffic is being misappropriated as direct.”

Many publishers and marketers are looking at this inaccurate and incomplete data and drawing conclusions based on it. Buzzfeed, for example, published a story this week citing aggregate data from 200 publishers in its “Buzzfeed Network.” In the last eight months, traffic from Google to its partners’ sites has dropped 30 percent, it said, while referrals from Facebook continue to rise. It implied this shift is indicative of a “shift in the way readers discover their content.” Perhaps in part it is, but it’s also likely that dark Google played a far more significant role.

Meanwhile, Mail Online has also seen a dip in search referrals from Google in the past few months, according to its internal analytics, but it’s also seen a spike in direct visits. “We are seeing less traffic coming from Google and more traffic coming straight to Mail Online,” said the company’s CRO Rich Sutton. “We’re converting casual users that find us through search into habitual ones,” he added.

It might look that way, but that probably isn’t the case. A more likely scenario is that the publisher’s volume of search traffic has remained roughly consistent but is actually being counted incorrectly as direct visits.

Users are changing their behaviors and habits, of course, and discovering more and more content through channels such as social but probably not to the extent that would account for the type of drastic dip reported by Buzzfeed. The problem is it’s impossible to tell what’s really going on because that referral data simply isn’t being passed.

Dark Google is as much of a problem for marketers as it is publishers. According to Rosetta’s analytics, organic search traffic has decreased for every single one of its clients as a result of this misappropriation of traffic. That’s a big issue, because both agencies and their clients are used to making investment decisions based on hard data. As that data becomes less reliable, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to allocate their spending and resources appropriately.

“It puts us in this precarious situation because the total traffic numbers are the same, but the data is telling us the mix has changed,” said Jason Tabeling, who heads up paid, owned and earned media at Rosetta. ”We’re used to making decisions based on data, but if we don’t have that, we’re flying blind. The risk now is that investment levels might shift when they shouldn’t.”

The alarming fact is that the way things currently stand, these gaps will only get bigger unless workarounds are found. That means both publishers and marketers could potentially go from knowing their audiences and customers intimately, to having to make educated guesses based on what little data they do have available to them.

Both marketers and publishers are already making assumptions they have little way of validating as a result of dark search — assumptions like, the rise of social is resulting in fewer search referrals. It often looks that way, based on analytics data, but it’s becomingly increasingly evident that the accuracy of the data itself needs questioning.

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

There's no debating that we live in an exciting, dynamic, and innovative time for marketers.

Connected consumers have access to detailed information about our brands and products before they ever directly engage with us. We're able to connect to them through “androids” and in the “cloud.” We can make thousands of virtual brand friends via Facebook and integrate GPS into our experiences. If we get lucky, a video we produce will go viral on YouTube and other social media platforms where millions of people will see it around the world in a matter of days (unless a video of a cat playing the piano captures consumer attention first). We even get to mine Big Data so we can deliver personalization that drives deeper engagement with our most valuable consumers.

It's innovative and heady stuff.

But are we getting ahead of ourselves?

All too often digital advertising initiatives fall short of delivering on initial business objectives or fail to build on the success of prior initiatives. Successful senior leaders in the digital marketing environment need to be more than just innovative—we need to be seasoned evangelists for change.

Without leading broader change, progressive marketers risk not having the proven track record of results that justifies further digital investment, even if all the trends point in that direction.

Driving change means going beyond the traditional mandate for marketing and creating consumer-centric organizational conditions, capabilities, and culture that will enable us to deliver profitable growth in the evolving and increasingly complex world of the connected consumer.

Check yourself: While change is never easy, there are some basic elements that organizations need to understand and embrace in order to truly be consumers-centric and see the full impact from efforts in the new marketing environment.

1. Do you have a multi-year vision and plan that defines the road-map and business case for taking advantage of this new environment? In order to improve the likelihood of success in an ever more complex environment, it's important that management clearly understands both the opportunity and investment required—not just in terms of marketing dollars, but also in technology and infrastructure, in changes to process and workflow, and in the type of people required to drive impact.

2. Do you activate marketing based on a full understanding of your consumer's “DNA?” While Big Data means access to a wealth of rich data, effective organizations need to be able to digest the data so they have a clear understanding of the code that defines how customers choose and use brands. The code needs to reflect customers' beliefs (needs and attitudes), behaviors (channel preference, product usage, interaction with marketing), and the context (LTV, demographics, life stage).

3. Is your marketing organization aligned and rewarded around the consumer, not the channel? As consumers become increasingly multichannel, we need to develop integrated marketing objectives and KPIs that measure and reward organizations based on shared success with the customer as opposed to channel-specific metrics. Ideally, the KPIs reflect the “return on the customer relationship” using composite metrics that reflect both customer engagement and direct business impact.

4. Is your marketing platform agile and performance-based? The discipline of marketing in the new reality requires a marketing process and capability that is operating at the same pace as the customers. Team members, process, and workflows all need to be agile in the way they execute with the emphasis shifting from planning to dynamic execution and optimization. In doing so, the organization can realize the benefit of the increasing complexity of the marketing environment and get more from more.

5. Has the culture of the entire organization been engaged to understand the new reality? Ultimately, impact relies on the whole organization understanding and embracing the new approach to marketing. An organization bound together by a singular culture is one with less internal frictions and barriers to change.

With these basic fundamentals in place, progressive marketers have the conditions for success that drive consistent impact and sustained change. We can focus on engaging the customer across the breadth of new touchpoints and driving impact from the innovation that makes the job of the marketer more dynamic and exciting than ever before.

Digital Agency 'Newsrooms' Brand Oil Spills and Cat Videos

'Brand Journalism' Straddles Blurred Line Between Ads and Edit

At 10 a.m. on April 15, Deep Focus manager Christina Cooksey gathered a group of social-media managers in the Moment Studio -- the agency's new "digital newsroom" -- for the team's morning editorial meeting. She browsed the morning's headlines while others pitched stories pegged to the day's events.

One staffer suggested running a Vine video of cat pawing at a tax form because it was Tax Day. Ms. Cooksey added it to the editorial calendar, assigned it to a team member and moved on to the next pitch.

While it works a lot like a newsroom, the Moment Studio's mission differs from most news operations': The cat video was made to promote client Purina.

As the lines between advertising and editorial continue to blur online, Moment is just one of the newsrooms sprouting at digital shops. The idea is to marry journalism and marketing to promote clients or themselves, by producing what's sometimes called "brand journalism." The output varies, from videos for marketers to "thought leadership" pieces on digital media.

The question is whether editorial with marketing under the hood can get much mileage with consumers. Complaints about the media don't usually prescribe a bigger role for advertisers.

Agencies say running their own editorial operations can benefit marketers and consumers.

Many employees at Huge have a natural enthusiasm for exploring technology, audience research and design, said Aaron Shapiro, CEO. "It's a key way for us to continually develop our own expertise and push the quality of the work we do with clients," he said.

Huge has hired former business consultant Ken Allard to head Huge Ideas, which provides blog posts, aggregated news and analysis about digital advertising.

"This will be a resource for the community," Mr. Allard said. "It's not about convincing anybody that we're great at what we do."

Interactive agency Rosetta has an even larger writing operation -- 40 writers who cover health-care, film and TV topics for the agency's clients, and another 12 who create SEO-friendly branded content for clients.

Digitas has found success with Brand Live, which helps clients take advantage of real-time events. It helped Tide create content in 2012 after the detergent was used to clean up an oil spill at the Daytona 500.

Digital agency Possible earlier this year began a content effort dubbed Quarterly, which will produce three to four digital issues of video, Q&As and articles each year, said Chief Creative Officer Jon McVey. While the primary goal is to create original editorial that presents the agency's perspective on an issue, certain pieces of work will be self-serving, highlighting how well the agency does what it's paid to do.

Touting your agency's own work might seem at odds with creating unbiased editorial, but Mr. Allard said agencies can reconcile the two by being up front.

"Objectivity doesn't matter. Transparency does. ... No one wants us to report. But we can advise on a strategic decision and show you our point of view," he said.

Rosetta Finds New CEO From Within

Digital agency Rosetta, owned by the Publicis Groupe, has promoted its former president and chief client officer, Tom Adamski, to CEO. Chris Kuenne, the company's cofounder and former CEO, will take on the role of chairman. Both Kuenne and Adamski will report to Publicis Groupe Chief Operating Officer Jean-Yves Naouri.

Since Rosetta's acquisition by Publicis Groupe in May 2011 for $575 million in cash, the agency has focused on remaking itself as a "customer engagement agency," which Forrester Research notes are legacy database marketing companies and digital or direct agencies that are developing or have developed capabilities in "areas like customer journey mapping and business strategy consulting."

Adamski says that Rosetta's growth in this area came by "simplifying our business and our key client relationships." He will continue to push the agency's Personalized Lifecycle Management solutions—a framework designed to allow brands to understand its highest potential customers, connect with them, and maintain business relationships.

"Our mission is to be a catalyst for growth, driving material business impact by translating deep consumer insights into personally relevant brand experiences across touchpoints and over time," Adamski said in an email to Direct Marketing News. He added that a recently opened campus on San Luis Obispo, CA, "represents a significant investment by Publicis and a vote of confidence in our business strategy, our differentiation, and our future within the Groupe."

In a statement, Naouri praised Adamski's “leadership and vision” as he helped guide Rosetta's global growth.

Tom Adamski Named CEO of Rosetta

Tom Adamski has been promoted to CEO of Rosetta, the Publicis Groupe customer engagement agency, from his previous position as President and Chief Client Officer, Jean-Yves Naouri, Chief Operating Officer of Publicis Groupe [EURONEXT Paris: FR0000130577], announced today. Chris Kuenne, founder and CEO of Rosetta, will assume the role of chairman. Both executives will report to Naouri.

Adamski was President and CEO of LEVEL Studios, the integrated marketing and product development agency that Rosetta acquired in 2010, from 2002 to August 2012, when he was named President of Rosetta. In that role, Adamski has driven growth and innovation across the agency, including Rosetta's Business Development group, its industry-leading Commerce solutions business and its recently expanded Smarter Commerce partnership with IBM.

Rosetta is differentiated by its Personalized Lifecycle Management and Commerce solutions that are deployed on behalf of a diverse global client roster that spans the technology, entertainment, telecommunications, healthcare, financial services and retail industries. The agency just announced the opening of a new West Coast headquarters office with the completion of a 47,000 sq. ft. building in San Luis Obispo, CA, where Adamski is based. The new space represents a significant investment by Publicis and Rosetta to bring together technology, marketing and commerce expertise under the same roof, with the goal of driving innovation for Rosetta's consumer brand and business-to-business clients. Rosetta's Technology and Telecommunications Vertical, which was also led by Adamski and remains an important focus for the agency's West Coast headquarters, saw unprecedented new business growth during the first quarter of 2013.

"Tom has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision throughout his career, including the tremendous impact he has had at Rosetta and the Publicis Groupe in a relatively brief period of time, while guiding Rosetta's inevitable march toward becoming a premier Customer Engagement agency with a global reach. We are excited for him to take on new responsibilities as Rosetta's CEO and are confident that this is the right leadership evolution for Rosetta and for the Groupe," said Naouri.

Kuenne said, "Tom's unique perspective on the interplay of branded content, technology platforms and connected devices is a key differentiator for Rosetta in how the agency personalizes the relationship between brands and consumers across touch points and over time. The essence of why I founded Rosetta will be enhanced through Tom's leadership. He's proven to have the instinct and the character to lead Rosetta's next chapter."

Adamski said, "Rosetta's strengths in Personalized Lifecycle Management, Commerce and technology are a unique, powerful and exciting combination that have already placed us among the top performers in the emerging Customer Engagement space. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to guide Rosetta toward greater global impact and relevance and I am pleased that Chris Kuenne will continue his involvement with the agency he founded in his role as chairman."

Rosetta's core executive leadership team will remain the same. In addition to Adamski and Kuenne, Mark Taylor will remain as Chief Operating Officer, where he will continue driving Personalized Lifecycle Management as one of Rosetta's core differentiators across all Rosetta solutions and continue to strengthen the agency's operational model. Rich DeMilt will continue as Chief Financial Officer and Nigel Adams remains as Chief Talent Officer.

Adamski, 40, began his technology career in 1995 at Xing Technology Corporation, where he worked across QA, Product Marketing and Product Development groups to help pioneer audio/video streaming technology for IP networks. He has a B.S. degree in environmental design from the University of California, Davis.

Rosetta Announces Opening of New West Coast Headquarters Building in San Luis Obispo

State-of-the-art gold LEED-certified building serves as hub for technology, commerce and innovation

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (April 17, 2013) – Rosetta, a Publicis Groupe company, today announced the opening of its new West Coast headquarters office with the completion of a 48,000-square-foot building in San Luis Obispo. The LEED-certified two-story building will house 150 current team members of the interactive agency with capacity to grow the location to more than 300 employees in the next three years. The building’s modern exterior and light-filled open interior encourage collaboration and innovation for Rosetta’s diverse global clients that span the technology, entertainment, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and retail industries. Immediate hiring plans are to add staff in the areas of multi-channel experience design, user interface development, marketing program management, account management and commerce platform development.

The new building represents a significant investment by Publicis and Rosetta to house technology, marketing and commerce expertise in the same office, with the goal of driving innovation for the agency’s clients. A highlight of the office is a state-of-the-art video and motion graphics production studio designed to support the agency’s work in developing engaging branded experiences across web, mobile, social media and television platforms. The 3,500-square-foot studio includes broadcast-ready and live/post production capabilities, a color and edit bay, world-class acoustics, and 3D and motion capture capabilities.

“Rosetta is unique in its ability to bring together customer insights, leading-edge technology and world-class creative under one roof, and our shared investment in this new space is intended to give the agency room to grow so that it can continue to drive deeper levels of customer engagement for clients across the globe,” said Maurice Levy, Chief Executive Officer of Publicis Groupe.

To advance the Smarter Commerce partnership between Publicis and IBM, the new building will feature a Commerce Center of Excellence, a customized lab space used to explore and develop new online and offline payment methods, uncover insights about consumer and business buyer purchasing behavior, and create unique opportunities for brands to interact with customers.

“This is more than just a building,” said Tom Adamski, President of Rosetta. “It is an opportunity for architecture to redefine how our agency inspires collaboration and creativity to help our clients better engage their customers and grow their businesses. Our agency has been at the forefront of design and technology innovation and the assets of this new office will help evolve the ground-breaking work we are known for and the talent we are able to attract across all Rosetta locations.”

As one of the largest employers in San Luis Obispo, Rosetta continues to be an integral part of the local business community, including an ongoing partnership with California Polytechnic State University. Local architectural and engineering partners in the project include Garcia Architecture + Design, NKT Commercial, and JW Design and Construction.

To view photos of the new Rosetta office, visit our Facebook page.

Gary Schoch Joins Rosetta as Partner, Global Commerce Lead

Former IBM Worldwide Commerce Solutions Sales Leader Will Drive Rosetta’s Global Expansion of Commerce Services

PRINCETON, NJ, March 19, 2013 – Former IBM Worldwide Commerce Solutions Sales Leader Gary Schoch has joined digital and direct interactive agency Rosetta as Partner, Global Commerce Lead. Schoch will drive Global Commerce Business Development for the agency and will be based in Rosetta’s San Francisco office, reporting to Tom Adamski, President.

The move adds significant muscle to Rosetta’s global commerce expansion efforts as the agency continues to solidify its position as a leader in the rapidly growing area. The addition of Schoch is expected to accelerate the agency’s global sales of commerce‐related services and technologies.

Rosetta continues to be one of the leading sellers of IBM Smarter Commerce software in North America and the addition of Schoch coincides with a 20 percent increase in the agency’s global new business pipeline since the announcement of the enhanced IBM partnership in September 2012. Rosetta’s commerce‐related revenues are expected to surpass $100 million in 2013 and more than $300 million by 2015, fueled in part by this global expansion.

Schoch led IBM’s transformation to Smarter Commerce as an architect of the acquisitions of Sterling Commerce, Coremetrics and Unica to complete the robust portfolio of WebSphere Commerce. He was instrumental in the creation of IBM’s Smarter Commerce and a new go‐to‐market business model in IBM’s Industry Software Solutions Division, which he led for Commerce Solutions.

“Throughout our 12‐year partnership with IBM, Gary has been of invaluable service to Rosetta, helping us to complete more than 100 Commerce implementations around the globe, while using best‐in‐class tools that deliver effective results,” said Adamski. “Gary’s background and skill set make him uniquely capable of accelerating global growth of our Smarter Commerce offerings and this important partnership with IBM, while ensuring consistent delivery of successful projects. We’re the only agency in the market combining a deep consulting heritage with leading‐edge technology to build and optimize the Commerce and content ecosystem. We bring a broader market context to Commerce, and importantly, an ability to uncover unique insights that enable marketers to find their most valuable customers and create transaction experiences that fuel brand advocacy.”

“Throughout my career, I’ve worked with a wide variety of strategic partners, but none have measured up to Rosetta’s unique, differentiated approach to Commerce that combines holistic, insight‐driven marketing with leading‐edge technology,” said Schoch. “While most partners continue to see Commerce as a technology implementation, Rosetta enables clients to build and optimize Smarter Commerce solutions‐based marketing systems that enhance customer engagement, strengthen customer relationships and maximize business outcomes. I’m excited about the opportunity to help drive this powerful partnership forward to benefit Rosetta, IBM and most importantly our clients.”

Schoch has held leadership positions both in the field and at a headquarters level while providing key insights into product roadmaps and global organizational structure. At IBM, he was responsible for leading and developing the business and technical solutions for clients from around the world to support their omni‐channel business needs, helping to define their Commerce business strategies and technical designs to allow them to expand their businesses.

Prior to joining IBM, Gary was President and CEO of Business Systems Architecture Inc., where he led implementations of large‐scale transformation projects spanning Supply Chain, CSR, Branch Teller Systems, Customer Portals and eCommerce initiatives for Wells Fargo, Ameritech, DHL, New York Life and Scholastic.

Schoch has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from The Catholic University of America.

To further support this rapid growth and accelerate leadership in commerce innovation, Rosetta is currently building a new West Coast headquarters in San Luis Obispo, CA, that will open in April 2013 and will house a Commerce Center of Excellence. The state‐of‐the‐art facility will serve as the agency’s West Coast hub for commerce assignments. Rosetta also plans to launch dedicated commerce hubs in Western Europe, China and Latin America in the next three years.

Rosetta’s experienced team of commerce specialists has completed more than 100 commerce infrastructure implementations in the past decade. The agency serves a rapidly expanding and diverse global client list that includes Dorel (Consumer Products/US), Genco (Distribution/US), hhgregg (Electronics Retail/US), Holt‐Renfrew (Luxury Retail/Canada), Luxottica (Eyewear Retail/Italy), Newell‐ Rubbermaid (Consumer Products/US) and Sigma Pharma (Manufacturer of Over‐The‐Counter and Prescription Drugs/Australia).

Four Industry Veterans Join Rosetta's Technology and Telecommunications Vertical

New Additions to Leadership Team Enhance Personalized Marketing Expertise in Rosetta's Fastest Growing Vertical

PRINCETON, N.J., April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosetta, an independent brand in the Publicis Groupe of global agencies and one of the nation's largest digital and direct interactive agencies, today announced it has hired four new Partners to support the rapid growth of its Technology and Telecommunications Vertical, the agency's fastest growing practice. Frank Garavaglia , Mike Norris , Rachel Rapaport and Bill Melton will be based on the West Coast and will report directly to Managing Partner Grant McDougall.

"The tremendous growth in the vertical is being fueled by our clients' demand for data-driven marketing and the personalized experiences that become possible when we combine technology and marketing," said Grant McDougall , Managing Partner of Rosetta's Technology and Telecommunications Vertical. "These four new partners bring together the enterprise-grade project management, B2B and B2C business strategy, integrated marketing and customer relationship management experience we need to continue to lead the industry and redefine the way technology brands engage customers across marketing, commerce and product experiences. Frank, Mike, Rachel and Bill chose Rosetta because they believe in what we are doing, and we are excited about the value they'll bring to our clients and agency."

Garavaglia has 15 years of experience ensuring seamless production and delivery and was most recently Director of Production at Havas Worldwide San Francisco. While there, he defined the agency's UX strategy process and interactive process and served as Interactive Relationship Lead on the Sony Computer Entertainment of America, U.S. Air Force and AFROTC engagements. He brings extensive experience managing large technology implementations, including transaction engines and robust marketing websites for major brands such as HP, Microsoft and Sprint.

Norris comes from Covalence Solutions LLC, where he advised high tech and biotech clients on business strategy, business development processes, operations, technology strategy and market strategies for products and services. He brings significant B2B marketing experience, with knowledge of media, multi-channel program optimization, CRM, social networking, supply chain management and operations improvement. Throughout the course of his 23-year marketing career, Norris has worked on behalf of a variety of big name brands, including Microsoft, Verizon, Texas Instruments, Xerox, Comcast, Level 3, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Internet2. At Rosetta, he will be leading the San Jose office and helping software and hardware clients adapt to changes in the technology purchase cycle.

Rapaport joins Rosetta with more than 15 years experience in direct and interactive marketing and has spent the majority of her career in strategy and client service roles at Ogilvy and Digitas (New York and San Francisco). Most recently, she served as director of customer experience for Zinio LLC, driving a consistent brand experience across channels and platforms. She brings to Rosetta extensive loyalty and retention experience with clients, including American Express, Charter, Eli Lilly, IBM, Jaguar Cars, Microsoft, The Weather Channel and Wells Fargo. At Rosetta, she will be based in San Francisco and help technology clients uncover more meaningful ways to engage with prospects and customers.

Melton has 13 years of integrated digital marketing experience, managing profitable multimillion-dollar accounts and crafting successful, multi-channel digital marketing initiatives for Starbucks, Target, T-Mobile, Walt Disney , 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Activision and DIRECTV. Most recently, he was Client Partner at Wunderman/Blast Radius. He brings to Rosetta a unique set of skills and work experience on behalf of both technology and entertainment clients, as well as expertise in crafting Paid, Owned and Earned media strategies and highly engaging global marketing programs. Bill will be leading Rosetta's Los Angeles office.

To see pictures and learn more about the new hires, please read the post: "Meet Rosetta's Growing West Coast Leadership Team" at http://currents.rosetta.com/index.php/2013/04/meet-rosettas-growing-west-coast-leadership-team/

Google Announces Enhanced Campaigns

Today's announcement of Google's "Enhanced Campaigns" as the next major evolution in their AdWords platform is critically important. Not only is AdWords Google's primary revenue driver, but it is also the ad-serving platform for 80% of consumer search activity.

There is a delicate balance in this release between Google leading advertisers into a brave new world of touchscreen and mobile marketing. What will be perceived in the short-term as a revenue play will be transformational for the advertising community.

The main idea is that advertisers were overindexing for the actual device vs the user's context. In this case, context is defined by various parameters that an advertiser can use to understand what a consumer is trying to accomplish, for example, device type, location, and time of day. We like the approach, but in the meantime, the way advertisers think about optimizing their PPC management campaigns is getting flipped on its head.

Even Google's own best practices of setting up mobile- and tablet-only campaigns is no longer applicable. Desktop and tablet will be grouped together, and mobile bids will only be able to occur at the campaign level. This doesn't change all the targeting capabilities, but it does change the level of granularity for search marketers' optimization of their campaigns. A mobile-only viewpoint is no longer sustainable; you now must think about context of the user and ensure a positive experience under multiple parameters. It should be an exciting next few weeks and months as advertisers and marketers scramble to reorient themselves in this new system of "enhanced campaigns."

Check out the official Rosetta POV for a detailed overview of Enhanced Campaigns and some initial thoughts regarding impact it may have on paid, earned and owned media strategies.