BAZAARVOICE AND BUDDY MEDIA PARTNER TO LINK CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT ACROSS THE WEB

Integrated Social Application Enables Brands to Boost Customer Engagement and Forge Deeper Relationships By Bringing Customer Conversations About Products and Services Into Social Media Campaigns

Westin Hotels & Resorts First to Implement Innovative Joint Offering

Singapore, February 1, 2012 – Bazaarvoice, a market leader in bringing the voice of the customer to the center of business strategy for more than 700 global clients, and Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced a partnership to help brands integrate online customer conversations in their social media campaigns. Westin Hotels & Resorts is the first to use the joint offering on facebook.com/westin, which will be showcased at the upcoming Social Media Week on Feb. 13-17, 2012.

Launching today, “What’s Popular Right Now” is the first social application, or “sapplet,” to result from the partnership, allowing companies to seamlessly integrate Bazaarvoice customer-generated content into their Buddy Media-powered brand pages and social media campaigns. Brands first define the category of products or services to feature in their campaigns. The most popular products or services – based on customer conversations such as ratings, reviews, comments and shares – are then promoted within the sapplet, encouraging consumers to scroll through and interact with the brand’s Bazaarvoice content and share their experiences with their friends and across their online networks. In addition, fans clicking through the sapplet are directed to the specific brand destinations, increasing traffic to the brand site.

“Building on Starwood’s successful launch of ratings and reviews, we’re expanding the program to our social channels like facebook.com/westin,” said Clay Cowan, Vice President, Digital for, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “Individually, the Bazaarvoice and Buddy Media products have been powerful tools, and combining these services was an organic fit for Starwood’s guest engagement strategy.”

“For six years, Bazaarvoice has been helping brands bring the voices of their customers into the heart of their business,” said Mike Svatek, Chief Strategy officer at Bazaarvoice. “Our solution enables our clients to create authentic conversations with their consumers, scale the reach of those conversations throughout the purchase path, and uncover and act on valuable insights. As brands strive to make the most of social networks, we’re enthusiastic to partner with Buddy Media to generate greater product awareness on social networks, deeper engagement with fans and followers, and increased conversions from social media.”

“The Buddy Media social marketing suite is built specifically for brands to power connections with their customers and fans. In this case, the capabilities of Buddy Media and Bazaarvoice aligned perfectly to build a unique product,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media. “This solution helps brands like Westin build their business and provide a better experience for their online communities. Creating the ability for people to communicate with each other at scale is what social media is all about.”