Press Releases - 2009

VivaKi and Social Media Owners Collaborate to Build Social Media Marketplace in Europe

LONDON (March 6, 2009) - VivaKi, the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, today announced the EMEA launch of its REAL Social Suite. REAL is an acronym for Reach, Engage, Amplify and Listen—requirements for clients who want to engage consumers on the social Web.

The REAL Social suite—a series of tools and partnerships that inform social outreach and messaging—was launched at a Social Media Summit held in conjunction with the VivaKi social partners featuring SocialMedia.com, BzzAgent, Converseon, Facebook, GoViral and Techlightenment. The suite also encompasses internal social marketing offerings from Publicis Groupe companies Denuo, MS&L, Digitas, BlogBang and Performics.

Following the initial launch in the United States, EMEA marks the second region in the toolkit’s global roll-out plan.

“Our clients want to start a dialogue with consumers in the social space, but there is no clear infrastructure and very little inventory to buy,” said Fred Joseph, managing director of the VivaKi Nerve Center in Europe. “With this suite, we have brought together media owners, technology providers and internal partners to create access points and platforms that can help scale audiences and provide engaging connection points for our clients.”

The REAL Social Suite is divided into three “toolkit” components, each focusing on a specific step in the social media process. As a cornerstone for the suite, Facebook spans across all components of the REAL framework through its Facebook Ads system and marketing tools. Other specific partners contribute to each component of the suite as follows:

• REACH: Publicis agencies are tapping into the mass reach of social media across brand and performance marketing, and working with partners to expand both CPM and CPC buys. Through partnerships with Socialmedia.com and Techlightenment, VivaKi agencies have the ability to access social performance media at scale for their clients.

• ENGAGE and AMPLIFY: The VivaKi partners enable our clients to participate directly in the social web through the development engaging social experiences. Techlightenment and Digitas develop rich social campaigns across social environments that will increase and extend a brand's reach through consumer engagement. BzzAgent, Performics and MS&L deliver outreach solutions across the blogosphere and other consumer generated content. Through partnerships with GoViral and BlogBang we are also able to offer highly effective video seeding in social environments.

• LISTEN: Proprietary tools developed in partnership with Converseon frame social media content alongside search, traditional media and UGC data. Insights and inspiration about audiences, brands, conversations, trends and networks fuel inspiration for creative development and research, with measurement delivered on demand via dashboards and reports. Denuo’s Socialight tool (developed with Satmetrix technology) also provides a detailed snapshot of the word-of-mouth dynamics that exist in each category and for the key brands in the competitive set.

“We are effectively helping to build the social media marketplace with the help of premier social media partners and some of the top thinkers in the space,” said Nick Burcher, VivaKi’s social lead in EMEA. “We will continue to welcome other social media leaders and pioneers, as we continue to create solutions that allow for engaging conversation with consumers. “

About VivaKi

In June, Publicis Groupe launched VivaKi, a new strategic entity designed to improve the performance of advertisers' marketing investments, as well as boost Publicis Groupe's growth in the context of rapidly expanding digital markets.VivaKi leverages the combined scale of the autonomous operations of Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia. It is the world's largest center for developing new technologies, partnerships and platforms required to build brands in a digital world.

Web Site: www.vivaki.com

Contact:
Cheri Carpenter
VivaKi Communications
1. 312.220.3069
Cheri.carpenter@vivaki.com