Tesco Makes a Social Media Move With BzzAgent Acquisition
ADOTAS – Boston social media marketer BzzAgent has been acquired by Dunnhumby, the wholly-owned marketing subsidiary of the supermarket chain Tesco. The retailer is the third-largest in the world in terms of revenue following WalMart and Carrefour.
The reported $60 million price tag is a lot less than the $300 million that WalMart spent last month on Kosmix. Also unlike the WalMart acquisition, BzzAgent will continue to operate as a standalone business; Kosmix is being integrated into the new social and mobile strategy group @WalMart Labs.
While it’s interesting to see two of the world’s biggest retailers inorganically boost their social media efforts, the acquired companies offer quite different services: Kosmix aggregates and curates content across the web and social networks while BzzAgent’s claim to fame is ramping up word-of-mouth campaigns on blogs and other social media — the company even released a field guide to spotting social marketing influencers.
In its 10 years of action, BzzAgent reports running running 2,000 social media campaigns for more than 500 companies — including CPG giants Procter & Gamble, Unilever and SC Johnson among others — that have employed 800,000 brand advocates. In addition, the company uses third-party ROI modeling such as Nielsen’s market mix modeling to answer the riddle that is social media ROI. BzzAgent cofounder and CEO Dave Balter will remain in charge of the business, bringing along his 60-person staff.
Dunnhumby uses Tesco data to provide brands with consumer insight and assist in marketing and building loyalty programs. Obviously having a go-to network of social media influencers could enhance said programs exponentially.
“dunnhumby has built a stellar reputation in the retail and CPG space by focusing on customer attitudes and behaviors,” Balter said in the release. “BzzAgent shares that focus and we are excited to leverage dunnhumby’s unmatched targeting and analytic capabilities to provide our programs greater scale and proof of impact. Together we think we have a huge opportunity to connect the dots between shopper marketing and social media.”
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More News
- AdTruth Assembles Industry Leaders in Gambit for a “Mobile Universal Identifier”
- Adobe Announces “Simulcast” Solution to Make Cross-Device Viewing More Like TV
- Two Reports: Photo/Video Is the Fastest-Growing App Category
- Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming
- Infographic: The Evolution of Marketing Automation
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- AdTruth Assembles Industry Leaders in Gambit for a “Mobile Universal Identifier” May 22nd 2012 ADOTAS - Device recognition service AdTruth (a division of fraud [...] more »
- Adobe Announces “Simulcast” Solution to Make Cross-Device Viewing More Like TV May 22nd 2012 ADOTAS - Today, Adobe released an updated version of its [...] more »
- Two Reports: Photo/Video Is the Fastest-Growing App Category May 22nd 2012 DM CONFIDENTIAL – According to recent numbers released by Flurry, [...] more »
- Facebook’s IPO: You Knew It Was Coming May 18th 2012 ADOTAS - It’s been a day of superlatives, as the [...] more »
- Infographic: The Evolution of Marketing Automation May 18th 2012 ADOTAS – Marketing automation — the process of automating a [...] more »
- Welcome Aboard: New Hires at BrightRoll, AdSafe, More May 18th 2012 ADOTAS – While one internet-related company has pretty much dominated [...] more »
- Now You Can Be a Certified Digital Media Sales Pro through the IAB May 17th 2012 ADOTAS – You think you’re a digital sales pro, but [...] more »
Features
- How The New “Call Spammer” Spends Your Mobile Click-to-Call Budgets May 23rd 2012
- Infographic: Where to Sell Online (A Flow Chart) May 22nd 2012
- How Online Measurement Is Transforming the Traditional Ad World May 22nd 2012
- Infographic: The ROI of Tag Management May 21st 2012
- Digital Goes Offline: Can Brands Take Back the Store? May 21st 2012
Spotlight
Sponsormob Leads the Way Into RTB for MobileADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Business Director-IEB-Microsoft Studios (792444)
- Marketing Communications Manager, Senior-IEB-TV &
- Senior Industry Marketing Manager - Media and Ente
- MARKETING DIRECTOR (medical software company)
- Senior Product Marketing Manager
Recent Comments
- How The New “Call Spammer” Spends Your Mobile Click-to-Call Budgets: [...] benign “pocket dial” or “accidental call,” call spammers explain why click-to-call ads can receive as
- The motivations behind gamification: Tapping into psychology | e6be marketing: [...] (http://www.adotas.com/2012/05/starting-simple-with-gamification/) (http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_private_platforms/231900162) [...]
- David: Photo sharing and video sharing apps are growing at an exponential pace. This is but
- Afternoon Announcements: Seven Essential Email Marketing Tips, How Engagement Can Measure Customer Sentiment & Lessons in Content Strategy From Children's Books | Duncan/Day Advertising: [...] How Much is a Facebook Follower Worth? [Ragan's] How Engagement Can Measure Sentiment &
