The MarTech Minute: Sprint launches innovation center, Accenture rolls out new features & a slew of executive hires

The martech week in review: News and announcements in marketing technology this week that you might have missed

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Kaltura acquires Rapt Media
The video technology provider has bought interactive personalized video startup Rapt Media. The company says that Rapt Media’s interactive branching video technology is ideal for personalized marketing, customer education, recruitment, learning and educational video experiences.

Brightcove adds features
The video cloud service has added new capabilities to its platform, including interactive and personalized video experiences; one-solution-for-all enterprise video; streamlined user management; granular permissions; custom user roles; and access to user audit trails.

Havas unveils Montreal innovation center
Havas Group has created an innovation center for artificial intelligence (AI) in Montreal. The center’s objective is to use AI to monitor at-scale customer journeys to improve clients’ business performance through a predictive and automated user experience. The center is part of Havas X, a larger global initiative that focuses on new technologies and disruptive solutions.

Accenture rolls out new services
The global management consulting company has launched Accenture Interactive Programmatic Services. The services include programmatic consulting and “in-housing,” media strategy and planning and activation, as well as ad tech implementation and support.

Sprint launches IoT Factory
Sprint has announced the Sprint IoT (Internet of Things) Factory, an online marketplace for business. It provides a selection of complete, ready-made boxed IoT solutions — from refrigeration temperature monitoring for grocery/convenience stores to energy management tools.

Martech Movers

Pandora promotes Lauren Nagel to vice president, executive creative director. Nagel will be responsible for further defining Pandora’s view in the “power of sound” across the brand and original content offerings.

Voxy appoints Anita Absey as chief revenue officer. Absey previously managed sales at Return Path.

Eyeota taps Elissa Reiling as vice president, marketing, to lead its global marketing and communications initiatives. Reiling most recently held senior positions at Yieldbot and Exponential Interactive.

Whistle Sports adds Joyce Parente as senior vice president of marketing brand partnerships. In the past, Parente has worked for National Geographic and Complex Media. Parente replaces Michael Davis, who departed from the role in January.

linknexus™ adds Lindsay O’Neill as senior vice president of business development. O’Neill previously held key leadership roles at Rocketfuel, PulsePoint, Digital Media Review, Futures Media and Inuvo.

Dropp.TV brings on Andrew McCartney as the company’s first chief executive officer. Most recently, McCartney founded Whitespace Ventures Ltd., a venture capital fund based in London.

Pixability announces several new hires and promotions. Former chief financial officer Nancy Lazaros has been promoted to chief operating officer. Todd Taplin has joined as chief revenue officer. His experience includes positions at Celtra, Adobe and Yahoo. Former Facebook business development lead Grant Stratemeyer was named vice president of business development. And Anthony Mazzarella has joined as vice president of strategic accounts. Mazzarella was previously at OMD and Viant.

Have you read The story of data, Part 3: Who owns it? The answer is not as simple as you might think.  And don’t forget to look for our fourth installment about whether data will ever really be secure — available on Tuesday.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Robin Kurzer
Contributor
Robin Kurzer started her career as a daily newspaper reporter in Milford, Connecticut. She then made her mark on the advertising and marketing world in Chicago at agencies such as Tribal DDB and Razorfish, creating award-winning work for many major brands. For the past seven years, she’s worked as a freelance writer and communications professional across a variety of business sectors.

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