KickApps

White-label social networking provider KickApps has announced the launch of “Custom Community Insights” today. The insights are provided on a dashboard for community managers. Senior VP of Marketing Michael Chin tells me that, “each widget can then be shared with others in the company or individual dashboards can be created for different departments or uses.” Some of the items KickApps customers can track include trending topics, influential community members, most popular media and most active discussions. I wish more forum software providers offered a similar dashboard. Check out all of our KickApps coverage.

WebCollage

Content exchange provider WebCollage has announced a partnership with LivePerson today. VP of Marketing Jed Alpert describes the partnership as, “combining the best of WebCollage’s online POS marketing with LivePerson’s real-time engagement platform.” From the release, ” Companies will now be able to reach potential customers with live sales reps at the point of research on channel partner websites and influence their product selection process.” The joint solution will be marketed to brands that distribute complex products and services  including insurance, consumer electronics and high-tech manufacturers. Check out all of our WebCollage coverage.

The company was founded in 2000 and currently employs 100 people in NYC. Jed tells me that they enable brands to merchandise their products. We went through a number of examples of how the service works but basically brands enter their content into the WebCollage system either by manual input or by feeds and APIs.

From their ecommerce sites including Macy’s (seen below) pull the content and incorporate the content into their sites. In the example below Macy’s is selling Chanel perfumes and rather than just offering a simple page with price and size, WebCollage adds more content about the perfumes. It basically becomes a much richer consumer experience because brands can also incorporate video and audio along with photos and text.

Jed noted that many companies are seeing 6-20% lift in sales by leveraging the WebCollage platform. For sites that use a fully-injected model, they are seeing 12-20% lift in sales.

Another interesting component of the service is the ability to co-brand online ads. Here online ads can display a consumer brand and a merchant – this combination has been used in print ads and on tv for years.

WebCollage is yet another great example of NYC technology firms that might be unsexy as opposed to creating another twitter or iphone farting application but are creating real value for their customers, employees and the company as a whole.

New York, NY, November 18, 2008 — WebCollage, a leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners, announced today it has partnered with Vendaria Media Inc., a premier provider of rich media creative services. Through this relationship, WebCollage will deliver the product marketing content that Vendaria creates for its clients to WebCollage’s global network of online retailers and distributors — greatly increasing a manufacturer’s online marketing reach.

Vendaria creates visual merchandising solutions that integrate video, audio, animation, text and graphics into rich media presentations and allow manufacturers to interact directly with consumers that are researching their products online for purchase. Manufacturers are able to use Vendaria-created marketing content to provide rich experiences for consumers and highlight products’ key features, benefits and functionality. WebCollage’s delivery platform gives these manufacturers direct control of their presence on the Internet by enabling them to syndicate Vendaria-created rich media and product information to thousands of partners with scale and efficiency ensuring that no matter where a consumer researches a product online they experience the voice of a manufacturer.

"We are excited to combine forces with WebCollage and be able to offer the benefits of its delivery platform to our clients," said Scott Roth, President of Vendaria. "Working together with WebCollage allows Vendaria to focus on what we do best, transforming a manufacturer’s offline marketing messages into dynamic, interactive online experiences for consumers, while we gain the leverage of WebCollage’s global network of retailers and distributors."

"Working together, WebCollage and Vendaria are able to provide brand marketers with best-of-breed content creation services and best-of-breed content delivery services," said Jed Alpert, Vice President of WebCollage. "Moreover, this relationship represents the continued expansion of content partners that are using WebCollage’s platform to reach consumers on retail and distributor websites."

About Vendaria Media Inc.

Vendaria Media Inc. (Vendaria) is the market leader in providing online product video and interactive visual merchandising solutions. Vendaria’s unique technology platform and suite of services enable consumer goods manufacturers to utilize rich media to enhance the online shopping experience and dramatically improve conversion rates. Vendaria is a pioneer and seasoned expert in the creation, distribution and viewer user experience that brings to manufacturers the only end-to-end solution on the market. Vendaria’s clients include Apple Inc., LG Electronics, Whirlpool Corp., Avery Dennison, The Home Depot, Bosch, Playtex and more. Vendaria is based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit http://www.vendaria.com.

About WebCollage

From search to buy, WebCollage helps brand marketers engage consumers across the Web. WebCollage’s syndication platform optimizes marketing content and provides consumers with a consistent, engaging online brand experience that increases sales and establishes brand continuity. WebCollage works with a wide range of customers, from Fortune 1000 companies to smaller brands worldwide, to extend the power of their brands online. Founded in 2000, WebCollage is a privately-held company headquartered in New York, NY and backed by Sierra Ventures, Cedar Fund, Greylock Partners, GSI Commerce, Inc., and Gilde IT Fund. For more information, please visit: www.webcollage.com or call 1.212.563.2112.

Press Contact:
Jed Alpert
WebCollage
+1 (212) 563-2112
press@webcollage.com

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.

September 16, 2008-New York, NY- WebCollage, a leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners, today launched WebCollage Power Product Pages to help deliver better product information at the point of sale, which is proven to increase online sales. With WebCollage’s new Power Product Pages offering, brands can seamlessly provide retailers with complete and optimized product descriptions that can be used on retailers’ product detail pages, improving the consumer experience and increasing users’ exposure to better marketing content. Power Product Pages leverage the WebCollage platform to assemble, package and deliver brand manufacturer product marketing content, including complete product descriptions, videos, tours, product data sheets and additional images right on a retailer’s product detail pages.

The arrival of WebCollage Power Product Pages comes on the heels of the WebCollage’s 2008 Survey of Online Consumer Product Research Habits that revealed 86% of consumers "preferred" or "strongly preferred" Power Product Pages driven by WebCollage when compared to standard retailer product detail pages for getting information on products to purchase. In fact, consumers’ intent to purchase increased from 42% with retailers’ standard product detail pages to 72% with WebCollage-driven Power Product pages. Moreover, 85% of consumers rated Power Product Pages as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’ versus 54% for retailers’ standard product detail pages.

Historically, retailer online marketing staff and category merchandising teams have had to manually create product detail pages on their own to provide customers with basic product information. This required a significant investment in initial content creation and ongoing maintenance by retailers and has, therefore, limited retailers’ ability to provide the deep information consumers seek when researching products for purchase. Power Product Pages, by leveraging manufacturers’ pre-existing product marketing and configuring it to a retailers’ specific site requirements, eliminate the challenge that brands and retailers face in getting compelling product marketing content in front of consumers.

Moreover, when retailers have leveraged manufacturer marketing content in the past, consumers have had to search and click through multiple links on retailer websites in order to access this essential product information from manufacturers via separate windows. Typically, only 5% – 10% of consumers clicked through to access this enhanced marketing content. WebCollage Power Product Pages ensure that 100% of consumers interested in a given product can be exposed to the full breadth of a brand’s marketing content by embedding all of this content directly onto retailers’ product detail pages – eliminating the need for consumers to click through to get more information.

"WebCollage enables Logitech to get more of our content in front of consumers and sell more effectively on our retailer sites," said Tom Henry, director of marketing communications for Logitech. "Their syndicated service delivers and integrates optimized product information into our retailer websites, which in turn empowers these retailers to give their online shoppers the full benefit of our product knowledge and differentiation in each page of content."

In addition to helping put enhanced product marketing content in front of consumers, WebCollage Power Product Pages enables retailers to boost their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to increase the volume and quality of traffic directly to their product pages. WebCollage Power Product Pages are also customized to each retailer’s unique product page and site experience ensuring that manufacturer marketing content fits seamlessly into their websites.

"WebCollage Power Product Pages provide all essential product information in a single screen for consumers and eliminate the hassles of excess clicks. We are proud to be able to execute on our vision and bring compelling brand content to the forefront of the consumer experience," said Jed Alpert, VP of WebCollage. "By doing so, we help brands and their partners be successful in driving increased revenue. This is a classic example of a ‘win win’ situation that has a very positive ripple effect on the entire e-commerce ecosystem, including brands, retailers and consumers."

For a demo of Power Product Pages, please visit WebCollage at booth 120 at Shop.org on September 15-17, 2008 or call 1-800-616-1136.

About WebCollage

From search to buy, WebCollage helps brand marketers engage consumers across the Web. WebCollage’s syndication platform optimizes marketing content and provides consumers with a consistent, engaging online brand experience that increases sales and establishes brand continuity. WebCollage works with a wide range of customers, from Fortune 1000 companies to smaller brands worldwide, to extend the power of their brands online.

Contact:
Leo Tignini
Horn Group
646-202-9760
ltignini@horngroup.com

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.

New York, NY – May 27, 2008 – WebCollage, a leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners, today announced the WebCollage Management Center, a self-service platform that brings on-demand content integration capabilities to customers. The WebCollage Management Center empowers manufacturers to deploy and instantaneously syndicate their product marketing information across all of their business partner websites.

To effectively keep pace with increasingly shorter product cycles, manufacturers must be able to proactively replace outdated product information with new content in real-time. Through the WebCollage Management Center, manufacturers can make changes to short-cycle content across all business partner websites and seamlessly add the latest product information. WebCollage customers will have the flexibility to choose the best content update option to suit their individual business needs including scheduled, automated and instant update options.

Manufacturers using the WebCollage Management Center can also preview, approve and send content automatically to their network of retailers. Customers can effectively manage the way their marketing content is maintained on their business partners’ websites, and how often automatic updates are made to their content located within product mini-sites and brand showcases on the WebCollage network. Manufacturers’ marketing content can come in any format including HTML, PDFs, flash and video.

"In today’s competitive shopping environment, manufacturers run the risk of losing business if their online retail shelves feature outdated product information that is not reflective of their latest and greatest offerings,” said Jed Alpert, vice president of marketing for WebCollage. “The WebCollage Management Center addresses this need for speed by giving manufacturers a single point of control to seamlessly align their marketing objectives with real-time content deployment on partner sites, assuring them that their most compelling and up-to-date product marketing content is available to consumers with a purchasing agenda."

About WebCollage

WebCollage is the leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners — retailers, VARs and distributors. Using WebCollage’s patented, turnkey solution, manufacturers can extend their Web product marketing content to all of their business partners and address the challenge of how to optimize the selling and marketing of products via the Web. WebCollage benefits manufacturers and business partners alike with measurable bottom-line results including higher conversion rates and larger overall order sizes. Founded in 2000, WebCollage is a privately-held company headquartered in New York, NY and backed by Sierra Ventures, Cedar Fund, Greylock Partners, GSI Commerce, Inc., and Gilde IT Fund. For more information, please visit:www.webcollage.com or call 1.212.563.2112.

Press Contact:
Jed Alpert
WebCollage
+1 (212) 563-2112
press@webcollage.com

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.

New York, NY – April 10, 2008 – WebCollage, a leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners, today announced enhanced reporting capabilities to fulfill the unique requirements of multiple user roles. WebCollage’s robust reporting systems effectively gather data regarding consumer online research, and generate reports in versatile formats – such as a Web GUI, scheduled emails, and Excel – to manufacturers and retailers helping them optimize how they market their products.

Manufacturers and their business partners require constant access to detailed information so they can proactively respond to the dynamic behavior of online consumers. WebCollage’s integrated reporting systems track essential product research and shopping activity like how many consumers view product information, which pages they visit most often, and how much time they spend on each page. This information is then disseminated to business users via distinct reporting mechanisms designed to meet their unique analysis requirements: dashboards, detailed metrics and KPIs; executive reports and scorecards; and raw data. Executives can review high-level summaries to quickly measure trends in online traffic, monitor partner launch schedules, and identify top researched products and top pages, while business analysts may select reports featuring more detailed metrics pertaining to content usage across multiple partner sites.

"As consumers rely upon the Internet to conduct product research and shop online, users of multiple levels throughout a manufacturer’s organization – from executives to analysts – require the necessary reporting capabilities to transform their online sales data into meaningful information," said Jed Alpert, Vice President of Marketing for WebCollage. "Providing our customers with the knowledge of how shoppers are interacting with their products gives them the competitive advantage to strategically transform general product interest into sales."

With WebCollage’s enhanced tracking and reporting systems manufacturers are empowered to accurately measure the validity of their online merchandising efforts. Comparative metrics reports demonstrate performance activity, such as click-through-rates from promotional content to sales, within a customizable date range. Per-Product reports identify the products generating the most interest, page views, and visits, then ranks each accordingly. Custom tracking is also available so manufactures can define specific data they want to track.

"WebCollage’s flexible reporting systems provide manufacturers and their business partners with direct access to relevant data so they can effectively analyze consumer research habits," Alpert added. "Providing our customers with a broad range of customizable analytics further enables them to better view and understand the effectiveness of their current online marketing efforts, and make adjustments to promotional campaigns in development. Moreover, our analytics can easily be integrated into any third-party reporting application for easy, holistic reporting on customers’ entire online experience."

About WebCollage

WebCollage is the leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners — retailers, VARs and distributors. Using WebCollage’s patented, turnkey solution, manufacturers can extend their Web product marketing content to all of their business partners and address the challenge of how to optimize the selling and marketing of products via the Web. WebCollage benefits manufacturers and business partners alike with measurable bottom-line results including higher conversion rates and larger overall order sizes. Founded in 2000, WebCollage is a privately-held company headquartered in New York, NY and backed by Sierra Ventures, Cedar Fund, Greylock Partners, GSI Commerce, Inc., and Gilde IT Fund. For more information, please visit: www.webcollage.com or call 1.212.563.2112.

Press Contact:
Jed Alpert
WebCollage
+1 (212) 563-2112
press@webcollage.com

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.

NEW YORK, NY – April 1, 2008 WebCollage, a leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the Northeast 100 Top Private Companies. The first-annual Northeast 100 list was compiled by the AlwaysOn editorial panel. In order to be eligible for the list, companies in the Northeastern United States had to be creating new business opportunities in high-growth markets, demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in a key sector. AlwaysOn received hundreds of nominations for this year’s list.

WebCollage and the Northeast 100 Top Companies for 2008 will be honored at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit East to be held April 7 – April 9, 2008, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, MA. Venture Summit East a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Venture Summit East features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern US in keynote presentations and panel debates. The idea behind the Northeast 100 companies list is to identify the most promising entrepreneurial opportunities and investments in the Northeast region’s technology industry.

"For the first annual elite Northeast 100 list we surveyed more than 500 venture investors, investment bankers, and technology insiders, who nominated hundreds of companies to determine the Northeast 100 winners,” said Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor, AlwaysOn Network. “Each of the Northeast 100 winners had to demonstrate leadership among their peers in the following areas: innovation, market opportunity, commercialization, media buzz, and stakeholder value creation. We congratulate them all on this great honor!"

"It is an honor to be selected as a Northeast 100 Top Private Company as it highlights the innovative nature of and the value delivered by the WebCollage solution," said Jed Alpert, Vice President of Marketing for WebCollage. “More than 75 leading global brand manufacturers have chosen WebCollage to help drive their online marketing and branding on more than 750 ecommerce sites worldwide. We are pleased to be recognized by AlwaysOn for our unparalleled content exchange that delivers bottom-line benefits for both our client manufacturers and their business partners."

As a SaaS marketing solution, there is no software for WebCollage clients to install or maintain in order to exchange marketing content with business partners. WebCollage’s solution opens an automated pipeline, between manufacturers’ websites and their business partners’ websites, through which Web marketing and advertising are seamlessly delivered. As manufacturers update and change their marketing messages, WebCollage keeps partners’ websites synchronized — driving measurable increases in online and offline sales and ensuring that customers have access to the most up-to-date and accurate marketing information no matter where they research and buy goods.

About The AlwaysOn Venture Summit East

Venture Summit East is a two-day gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and technology trends impacting the global growth investor. Venture Summit East features the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern US in keynote presentations and panel debates. The goal of Venture Summit East is to match growth-company buyers and sellers and identify the most promising innovation-driven, growth investment opportunities.

About AlwaysOn

ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (STANFORD SUMMIT, ALWAYSON HOLLYWOOD, ALWAYSON MEDIA and GOINGGREEN) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.

About WebCollage

WebCollage is the leading content exchange for manufacturers and their business partners — retailers, VARs and distributors. Using WebCollage’s patented, turnkey solution, manufacturers can extend their Web product marketing content to all of their business partners and address the challenge of how to optimize the selling and marketing of products via the Web. WebCollage benefits manufacturers and business partners alike with measurable bottom-line results including higher conversion rates and larger overall order sizes. Founded in 2000, WebCollage is a privately-held company headquartered in New York, NY and backed by Sierra Ventures, Cedar Fund, Greylock Partners, GSI Commerce, Inc., and Gilde IT Fund. For more information, please visit:www.webcollage.com or call 1.212.563.2112.

Press Contact:
Jed Alpert
WebCollage
+1 (212) 563-2112
press@webcollage.com

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.

New York, NY – March 24, 2008

During the past year we have seen a rapid increase in the number of manufacturers eager to extend the breadth and depth of their online marketing reach and interaction with customers. WebCollage’s patented solution enables manufacturers to increase sales by 6% -15% by automating the exchange of Web marketing with business partners while uniquely addressing manufacturers’ requirements for ensuring brand consistency and providing richer, more interactive online merchandising experiences for their end customers," said Yuda Doron, CEO of WebCollage. "As we looked at whether to self-fund or accelerate our growth with new investment, we chose to go with Greylock — a partner with an impressive track record of building successful companies and whose investment will enable WebCollage to immediately take full advantage of all available product line extensions and market growth opportunities."

At a time when online marketing and advertising programs are rapidly proliferating, WebCollage offers a unique, transformative solution that allows manufacturers to engage with their customers directly at the point of product research and purchase," said Yoram Snir, Partner at Greylock Partners Israel and new WebCollage Board Member. "Moreover, we believe that with its proven ROI, its rapidly growing network of 750 top ecommerce sites and its more than 75 leading global brand clients, WebCollage is poised to become the premier online content exchange for online marketing and sales programs."

With this new investment, Yoram Snir will join WebCollage’s Board of Directors and Laurel Bowden, a London-based Partner with Greylock Partners Israel, will help guide WebCollage’s European expansion.

As a SaaS marketing solution, there is no software for WebCollage clients to install or maintain in order to exchange marketing content with business partners. WebCollage’s solution opens an automated pipeline, between manufacturers’ websites and their business partners’ websites, through which Web marketing and advertising are seamlessly delivered. As manufacturers update and change their marketing messages, WebCollage keeps partners’ websites synchronized — driving measurable increases in online and offline sales and ensuring that customers have access to the most up-to-date and accurate marketing information no matter where they research and buy goods.

Forrester Research’s recent February 2008 report: B2B CMO Investment Priorities for 2008 included four recommended investment priorities for marketing executives, one of which was to give partners new ways to hook into your online systems. Forrester states that B2B CMOs should automate data exchange between partner ecosystems to keep distributors, resellers, and suppliers on message and to reduce wasted sales time and sales costs. Technology that offers lightweight integration, like WebCollage’s content syndication software service, is faster and cheaper to implement than full-blown content management systems.

About Greylock Partners

Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the world’s leading venture capital firms. Over the past 43 years, Greylock has funded and helped build several hundred successful companies. The Greylock approach uniquely puts the entrepreneur first, with Greylock working as an "invited guest" in a highly supportive yet consultative way to help entrepreneurs build market-leading companies. Companies Greylock has funded include Ascend Communications, Continental Cable, Data Domain, Decru, DoubleClick, Internet Security Systems, Legato, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Openwave, Red Hat, RightNow, Tellabs, Trilogy and Wily Technology.. Companies Greylock has funded in Israel include Imperva, PortAuthority, Red Bend, Siliquent Technologies, Aeroscout, Camero, MySuprmarket.com, Celeno and Zend Technologies. Greylock’s offices are located in Silicon Valley, the Boston area, Israel and India. For more information, please visit www.greylock.com.

About Sierra Ventures

Sierra Ventures, founded in 1982, is a privately held venture capital firm focused on investments across all areas of the Information Technology sector from semiconductors to enterprise software. Sierra Ventures has managed nine venture capital partnerships and currently has more than $1.5 billion of capital under management. Some of the firm’s investments include 360Commerce (acquired by Oracle), Active Software (acquired by WebMethods), AmeriGroup (AGP), Authentec (AUTH),Centex (acquired by WorldCom), ConvergeNet (acquired by Dell), FatBrain (acquired by Barnes & Noble), Frontbridge (acquired by Microsoft), Healtheon (merged with WebMD), Interact Commerce (acquired by Sage), Intuit (INTU), Micromuse (acquired by IBM), OnAssignment (ASGN), OnLink (acquired by Siebel), Quinta (acquired by Seagate), StrataCom (acquired by Cisco), Sourcefire (FIRE), Sychip (acquired by Murata Manufacturing) and Teradata (acquired by NCR). More information is available at http://www.sierraventures.com.

About Cedar Fund

Cedar Fund is a venture capital firm, investing in high technology companies. Cedar Fund seeks to invest in outstanding entrepreneurs pursuing high growth markets with distinguished technologies in the telecommunications, networking, Internet-infrastructure and enterprise software areas. While the fund invests in all stages, it specializes in early stage, Israel-related situations, including Pre-Seed®, seed and first round, where it believes its strategy and capabilities offer the greatest potential. With its quality investment track record and over $225 million under management, Cedar Fund is among the largest and most notable venture capital firms focusing on Israel-related, early stage investments.

About Gilde IT Fund

Gilde IT Fund is an international venture capital fund, focused on providing world-wide funding and support to software, communications and internet companies in various stages of development. With more than 100 investments in the IT industry in Europe, the U.S. and Israel, Gilde IT Fund has distinguished itself among other venture capital firms with its entrepreneurial and long-standing track-record in building leading international IT enterprises. Past investments include No Wires Needed, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Docent, MatrixOne, Seagull, and Skybernet. More information is available at www.gilde.nl.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post may not necessarily represent the views of CenterNetworks. This press release was paid for and provided in its entirety by WebCollage.