[Here's the "authorized version"... the full press release about the VivaKi Social launch this week]
NEW YORK (December 17, 2008) - VivaKi, the strategic entity created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, today announced the 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 Facebook, as well as Buddy Media, Converseon, Meebo, Social Vibe, SocialMedia and Vitrue. The suite also encompasses internal social marketing offerings from Publicis Groupe agencies Denuo, Moxie, MS&L and Performics.
"Clients want to participate in the consumer conversation, but there currently is no true infrastructure that allows them to participate in the dialogue," said David Kenny, Managing Partner of VivaKi. "We have brought together media owners, technology providers and internal partners to create access points and mechanisms that begin to scale audiences, and deepen engagement while also building tools that let us measure how well we are resonating with the communities we engage."
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. Performics, for example, has extended its search marketing skill set into the social web to help clients reach highly targeted audiences at scale, and optimize performance against target metrics.
- ENGAGE and AMPLIFY: The VivaKi partners enable our clients to participate directly in the social web through innovative ad units or via engaging experiences. SocialMedia, Social Vibe and Meebo all provide variations on "socially activated ads," ad units that directly leverage social connections to make messages more relevant to participants. Buddy Media and Vitrue develop rich social campaigns across social environments that will increase and extend a brand's reach to consumer engagement. Moxie and MS&L deliver seeding solutions. Buddy Media and Vitrue develop rich social campaigns across social environments that will extend a brand's reach and increase consumer engagement. Moxie and MS&L deliver seeding solutions.
- 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 don't have all of the answers to activating social media, but by forming strategic alliances with a spectrum of partners and collaborating with them on tools, measurement approaches and best practices, we create a process and platform that we can continue to fortify,” said Cam Balzer, SVP of Vivaki's Social practice. "We will continue to welcome other leaders and pioneers in the social space, toward the goal of creating viable 'on ramps' for our clients to more deeply and effectively engage their customers as fellow participants in the social web."
[update: release is live here: VivaKi And Social Media Owners Collaborate...]
