Akoo International Inc., a digital marketing technology and services company, today announced a non-exclusive alliance with global marketing and communications agency Leo Burnett USA and its marketing services partner, Arc Worldwide. Akoo and Leo Burnett/Arc will develop digital marketing solutions for leading retailers and brand partners powered by Akoo’s IP-based digital media and advertising platform, m-Venue™, the first retail media, or “out-of-home” (OOH), network fully interactive with more than 250 million mobile phones in the U.S.
For the first time, m-Venue enables multi-user interactivity between mobile devices, on-demand in-store programming, and integrated digital advertising at the retail point-of-sale and post-visit consumer touch points. As a result, agency clients can more effectively engage consumers and execute highly targeted digital marketing campaigns across the Internet, consumer mobile phones, and point-of-sale digital signage networks to drive purchase behavior at critical decision points.
“We’re extremely pleased to collaborate with Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide, who have helped build some of the world’s most valuable brands,” said Akoo’s CEO, Niko Drakoulis. “With technology increasingly becoming the key to engaging consumers in a fragmented media world, the combination of Akoo’s digital marketing technology and services with our agency partners’ creative and shopper marketing expertise provides a powerful differentiator for advertisers seeking the highest ROI on marketing expenditures.”
“We are intrigued by all things digital as they relate to customer experience at retail and were especially attracted to m-Venue’s unique combination of digital content, interactive customer engagement and data capture potential,” said Pat Dermody, EVP/Director of Retail for Leo Burnett and Arc, Chicago. “We're always looking for opportunities to bring new technologies to our clients and anticipate Akoo will be a valuable resource."
m-Venue’s suite of applications and digital ad serving capabilities empower consumers to select customized in-store programming using their mobile phones as “universal remote controls” and have their selections publicly performed, on demand, over digital signage networks at participating locations. Users can activate more than two million pieces of licensed entertainment, branded content, and information, including songs, music videos, sports clips, movie previews, fashion programming, and pre-approved user-generated content using mobile Internet, Wi-Fi, or text messaging. m-Venue is optimized for Apple’s® iPhone™ Safari™ browser and Microsoft® Windows Mobile® devices.
Users can also discover, ID, and “tag” music for subsequent purchase on leading online music services; earn, bank, and redeem loyalty & rewards points; and interact with digital signage networks, all from the convenience of their handset.
Simultaneously, every m-Venue interaction unobtrusively captures valuable consumer usage and behavioral data for participating retail, brand, and strategic content partners. With m-Venue’s real-time targeting, measurement, and analysis capabilities, advertisers can serve more personalized digital ads to mobile devices and digital screens, while stimulating consumer-to-brand interactivity. m-Venue deployments have already resulted in double-digit sales increases, location partners report.
About Leo Burnett and Arc – www.leoburnett.com
Leo Burnett Company, Inc., comprising the Leo Burnett brand agency and marketing partner Arc Worldwide, is one of the world’s largest agency networks and a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe (www.publicisgroupe.com), the world's fourth-largest communications company. Leo Burnett holds people at the center of its strategic thinking, technological innovation and creative ideas, focusing first and foremost on human behavior before attempting to tell a brand’s story.
With this approach, Leo Burnett ensures that people who buy into client brands believe in them all the more. With expertise in mass advertising and digital, promotional and retail marketing, Leo Burnett partners with blue-chip clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Kellogg, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Samsung. The company has won more advertising awards for campaign effectiveness than any other agency in the last six years in the U.S., has been heralded as a “pioneer on the frontier of marketing” and continues to be ranked as one of the world’s top five creatively awarded networks worldwide.
About Akoo International Inc.
Akoo International Inc. develops, deploys, manages, and licenses m-Venue, an IP-based digital media and marketing platform fully interactive with more than three billion consumer wireless devices worldwide. For the first time, m-Venue enables multi-user interactivity between mobile devices, on-demand programming, and integrated digital advertising at the retail point-of-sale and point-visit consumer touch points. Akoo International was founded in 2001 and is based in Chicago. Visit www.akoo.com for more information