Social media monitoring and analytics comes of age
with Alterian’s acquisition of market leader
Techrigy
Marketers now able to harness the power of the consumer’s voice
within social media as an integral part of their online and offline
marketing strategy
LONDON – 15 July, 2009 – Businesses now have a
uniquely powerful marketing platform available to them thanks to
today’s announcement that Alterian (LSE: ALN) a leading
international integrated marketing platform provider, has acquired
Techrigy Inc., a global leader in social media monitoring and
analytics software. This acquisition follows another
successful year for Alterian, with a 73% increase in revenue
reported for the financial year to 31 March 2009.
Alterian’s acquisition of Techrigy enables a
fundamental shift from mass marketing to marketing based on
engagement and conversation with the individual. The augmentation
of Alterian’s existing technology portfolio with the robust
Techrigy social media monitoring and analytics solution means
marketers can now, for the first time, get a full view of their
marketing landscape by listening to their consumers online. From
understanding consumers’ reactions to all marketing campaigns
irrespective of channel, through to monitoring brand reputation,
influencer identification, competitive analysis, and market
research, marketers now have an unprecedented ability to understand
and measure the mood of their market. Marketers are empowered
to fully utilize social media dialogue with the consumer to make
informed, intelligent and insightful decisions around their entire
marketing programmes, whether online or offline, and therefore
create a more in depth profile of their existing and potential
customers.
Social media, the creation of online content,
and the voice of the consumer are now integral parts of how a brand
is perceived by customers and partners. Jeremiah K. Owyang, author
of “Social Media Playtime is Over”, an independent report by
Forrester Research, Inc., (March 2009), notes that marketers must
now make, “…social applications a permanent part of marketing,
measuring and demonstrating their value, and integrating them into
marketing efforts.” This makes social media monitoring and
analytics an imperative area that marketers need to use as a
standard part of their marketing programmes – not just for online
monitoring or experimentation. By integrating Techrigy’s
leading products with the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform,
Alterian is leading the way in bringing social media into
mainstream marketing.
To bring marketers up to speed in this space,
Alterian is making available a free evaluation version of the
Techrigy SM2 system, ‘Freemium’, to its
1,100+ existing customers and 150 business partners, as well as any
new organisations that are planning to explore the powerful
insights available to them through social media monitoring.
This version can be upgraded to the full version which is a
subscription-based product.
“Social media monitoring and analytics
are a complex challenge. Social media and Web 2.0 applications are
developing and changing so rapidly that only those companies that
can combine an understanding of social media with a solid history
in marketing analytics will succeed in this fast emerging
space,” said David Eldridge, Chief Executive Officer of
Alterian. “By combining Alterian’s platform with Techrigy’s
SM2 technology, marketers now have a complete, easy and practical
solution to understand the complete view of their customers and
take action to use this to build brand equity and generate
opportunity.”
Eldridge continues, “Marketing is
currently going through a revolution. The days of mass marketing,
untargeted mailings, email blasts and generic brochure-ware
websites are numbered. Marketers now need to appeal to the
individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis. The
addition of Techrigy to the Alterian platform further strengthens
our ability to give marketers an holistic view of social media
which can be applied to their entire marketing mix, and a set of
tools to help strengthen the relationship their company has with
its customers.”
Aaron Newman, Founder and President of
Techrigy Inc., adds, “Today’s announcement marks a great
step in the SM2 story and for social media monitoring. We don’t see
this as the end of the Techrigy story but the start of something
bigger. Through the backing of the Alterian brand and integration
with the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform, SM2 now becomes an
integral part of the marketer’s arsenal and social media monitoring
and analytics takes a giant leap forward in becoming a key driver
of marketing activity. We are excited to be part of the online
marketing revolution and delighted to be joining the Alterian
team.”
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About Alterian
Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to
create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with their
audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their
brand, through the use of the Alterian Integrated
Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the transformation of
marketing and communications, making it practical and
cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel engagement
with the individual.
Alterian’s unprecedented integration of
analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools,
such as the Dynamic Messenger email platform and the award winning
Content Management solutions, enables companies to build integrated
communication strategies which create a true picture of the
individual.
Alterian works with marketing services
partners, system integrators and agencies who recognize the need to
plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in
partnership with their clients. For more information about
Alterian, products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing
Platform or Alterian’s Partner Network, visit http://www.alterian.com/
About Techrigy
Founded in 2005, Techrigy’s SM2 is the premier social media
monitoring and analysis tool for public relations and marketing
professionals. Designed to provide visibility into social media for
anyone managing brands and reputations online, SM2 combines a
massive data warehouse of online conversations with state of the
art search, analysis and reporting tools.