Nearly 75 Percent of Asian Marketers Run Social Marketing Programs

New Buddy Media Research Reveals Social Marketing Trends in Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE – June 12, 2012 – Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today released key findings from a research study on how marketers are increasingly focusing on digital and social trends, spurred by rising social media usage in the region.

The survey, titled “State of Social Media Marketing in Asia Pacific,” focused on social media usage, adoption and trends among brands and agencies. Nearly half of the 125 respondents were senior management and C-level executives from brands and agency marketers.

Key findings include:

· Social spending will increase significantly in the next two years – By 2014, 20 percent of respondents expect to spend 15 to 25 percent of their total advertising budgets on social media, up from just under five per cent who do so today.

· Social media is not new to most brands and agencies in the region. Nearly 75 percent of respondents have had social marketing programs in place at their companies for more than one year.

· Social media resides in the marketing department – 88 percent of respondents said their marketing departments are largely responsible for social media, while 33 percent mentioned corporate communications.

· Facebook is the most utilized social network by marketers, followed by YouTube and Twitter – Almost 90 percent of respondents said they utilize Facebook for social marketing programs, followed by Twitter (66 percent) and YouTube (62 percent).

· Mobile is on the forefront for many brands and agencies – Over 80 percent of respondents consider mobile strategy important for social media marketing, while only 6.4 percent find mobile not important at all.

“The unprecedented growth of social media in Asia and elsewhere in the world is changing the way marketers use content and connections to power conversations,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and co-founder of Buddy Media, “Brands understand what social media can bring to the table, from generating user engagement to loyalty, to sales. To thrive in a highly competitive market, brands need to fully utilise the power of social connections to drive business growth.”

“The fact that 75% of brands and agencies have executed social marketing programs over the last year shows marketers are taking social very seriously,” said Ken Mandel, Managing Director of Buddy Media Asia Pacific. “Our findings also show that brands and agencies recognise the significance of mobile, as nearly 25 percent of them have a social media strategy for mobile in place, and half of them plan to do so in the near future. We are seeing tremendous progress of social marketing efforts in the region and are very excited to share best practices moving forward.”

To download the survey results, please visit: http://forms.buddymedia.com/whitepaper-form_asia-survey-findings.html

Buddy Media CEO and co-founder Michael Lazerow will be in Singapore for the upcoming ad:tech 2012 conference where he will deliver a keynote presentation, “Powering Social Connections to Grow Your Business” on June 13. Ken Mandel, Managing Director of Buddy Media Asia Pacific, will also deliver opening remarks at the conference and participate in a closing keynote panel “Digital Dynamics – Asia’s Future” on Thursday, June 14.

GroupM Selects Buddy Media as Preferred Social Ad Partner Globally

WPP Media Investment Management Arm Will Roll Out Buddy Media’s BuyBuddy Social Ad Software To All Agencies

SINGAPORE, May 22, 2012 - Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced that GroupM has selected the company’s BuyBuddy social ad product as its preferred social ad management partner.

GroupM will roll out Buddy Media’s BuyBuddy to all of its agencies, including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, Mindshare, M80 and other business units. It will also begin training on how to maximize the benefits of Buddy Media’s unified social marketing software solution across paid, owned and earned media.

“After extensive evaluation of the marketplace, GroupM is excited to deploy Buddy Media’s social ad software to all of our agencies,” said Rob Norman, CEO, GroupM Interaction Worldwide. “Social media success is of critical importance to our clients, and Buddy Media is the provenself-serve solution in market that has a focus on empowering agencies and being a true partner.We will continue to work with other partners but believe this consolidation will offer our clients and teams the opportunity to develop consistent high performance in a rapidly developing market.”

“We are proud that GroupM has chosen Buddy Media as its preferred social ad partner,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and Founder, Buddy Media. “Our self-serve social ad buying technology will make it easy for any GroupM agency to effectively scale and measure social spend for their clients.”

GroupM invested$200 million in Facebook advertising in 2011. Social network ad revenues will grow to nearly $10 billion in 2013, up from to $5.54 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer.

Buddy Media Expands YouTube Integration; Launches First Global Solution for Brands and Agencies

Comprehensive Suite of Social Applications, Global Content Targeting and Analytics Enable Full Customization of YouTube Pages

SINGAPORE, April 4, 2012: Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced the launch of the first global YouTube social marketing solution. Now brands and agencies can deploy a comprehensive suite of “sapplets,” or social applications, to customize their YouTube pages, and deliver relevant social content globally based on a user’s country and language settings.

Video social applications consistently are among the top three most popular social applications in the Buddy Media social marketing suite.

“It’s crucial that brands deliver the right content to the right person at the right time, and Buddy Media is the only company that can help brands across the web and now on YouTube” said Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media. “With our best in class social applications now integrated with the world’s largest video platform, brands can drive more engagement and ROI from their social marketing programs.”

Buddy Media launches with the largest suite of social applications for YouTube available, allowing brands and agencies more flexibility than any other solution on the market. Brands and agencies can also receive enterprise level reporting, so that they can more efficiently track analytics across many YouTube channels. The following social applications, or “sapplets” are now available for brands to customize their YouTube pages:

· Branded Video Player: Optimize engagement with video content by creating a customized, user-friendly viewing experience

· Image: Link images, such as banners and photos, and add sharing functionality.

· Quiz: Test your fans with a series of questions and display the results. Encourage fans to share quiz results and track sharing patterns.

· Vote Up/ Down: Allow fans to vote for the content they like most, such as an image of a favored team, and against content they like least, to create a dynamic leaderboard of fan rankings.

· Photo Gallery: Showcase images to maximize fan interaction. Link photos to increase traffic to your website or drive sales.

· Product Gallery: Display product information, such as price, description and images. Funnel fans directly to the shopping cart by adding product links.

· Pledge: Drive users to share pledges by offering deals that are unlocked after the pledge goals are reached.

· Poll: Give fans an opportunity to provide an opinion and view.

· RSS: Keep fans engaged with dynamic content that automatically populates via a valid RSS feed, such as through Twitter or blogs.

All of these social applications feature Buddy Media’s powerful social hooks to encourage sharing.

BUDDY MEDIA WELCOMES NEW PRESIDENT SUSAN ST. LEDGER

Salesforce.com Executive to Lead Global Revenue Generation, Sales & Client Service

SINGAPORE, NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2012: Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced the newest member of its executive team, Susan St. Ledger, as President, Buddy Media. In her role, St. Ledger will lead global revenue generation and oversee the company’s sales and client service teams. She will report directly to co-founder and CEO Michael Lazerow.

St. Ledger joins Buddy Media after more than seven years with Salesforce.com, most recently as Senior Vice President of Industry Verticals, where she focused on Salesforce.com’s largest clients within their vertical industries, including tech, financial services, insurance, media, & telecommunications. Previously, St. Ledger was Senior Vice President of Global Platform Sales at Salesforce.com.

“It’s clear that organizations which power connections with their customers will create shareholder value, and those that don’t will lose,” said Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media. “Susan’s unparalleled experience in enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales shows her commitment to our company mission and helps us to successfully scale and serve the largest brands and agencies around the world. We’re proud that top executives in our industry recognize that Buddy Media is the clear leader and are eager to join us.”

Prior to salesforce.com, St. Ledger held the role of Vice President of the Global Manageability Services Practice at Sun Microsystems, Inc., driving sales and generating over $3.5 billion dollars in revenue annually for the company -- more than one third of Sun's total revenue. Under her leadership, Sun achieved its first $1B quarter for Services in Q4 FY'04.

“Buddy Media was my first choice, as it has the best products and team in the market,” said Susan St. Ledger, President, Buddy Media. “The company continues to innovate and stay nimble, while scaling quickly to market demand. With more than a decade of experience in this space, there is no doubt I’m going to hit the ground running on day one.”

St. Ledger joins Buddy’s burgeoning West coast team based out of its San Francisco office. In order to further support the community, Buddy Media has joined forces with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and a number of other Silicon Valley giants, in participating in San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology & Innovation (sfCITI). sfCITI seeks to be a civic leader in technology, promoting job growth in the Bay Area technology sector.

BUDDY MEDIA ANNOUNCES BRIGHTER OPTION ACQUISITION, ADDS PAID ADVERTISING SOLUTION TO SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE SUITE

Integration of Social Ad Management Software Into the Buddy Media Social Marketing Suite Eliminates Barriers Between Marketers’ Paid Advertising and Social Publishing

SINGAPORE, NEW YORK and LONDON, February 27, 2012: Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced the acquisition of Brighter Option, a London-based Facebook Ads API partner providing innovative social ad management software. With this acquisition, Buddy Media will be the only company to combine social publishing, applications, analytics, commerce and paid advertising in a unified software suite.

Brighter Option’s social ad management software enables marketers and agencies to create, monitor, optimize and measure highly targeted Facebook advertising campaigns. It is currently being used by major advertising agencies, including many agencies within GroupM, Omnicom and Aegis.

The acquisition comes after a nearly six-month process in which Buddy Media analyzed more than 20 Facebook advertising technology partners and concluded that Brighter Option had the most scalable technology, team and business model. Last quarter, the company’s social ad management software managed more than 92.5 billion impressions for more than 291 advertisers in 42 countries.

“Customers want to manage more of their social and digital programs in one software suite,” said Buddy Media founder and CEO Michael Lazerow. “Through Buddy Media, marketers can more easily manage and be more effective with their social and digital programs than with other incomplete solutions on the market. Smart social content gets the conversation started, then social ads provide scale, which in turn leads to larger owned media channels. It’s a virtuous cycle of increasing returns for brands.”

Unlike many Facebook Ads API partners that primarily offer managed solutions administered and maintained by the provider, Brighter Option’s social ad management software is offered as a self-serve tool for advertising agencies, game developers, brands, retailers and other advertisers – empowering them to manage their own Facebook advertising.

Buddy Media also announced today a deal with 24/7 Real Media, WPP’s marketing technology company, to use Brighter Option’s social ad management software to power Facebook ads for its clients worldwide. Additional partners will be announced shortly.

“We are very pleased to be one of the first organizations to roll out Brighter Option’s social ad management software to our clients worldwide,” said David J. Moore, CEO, Founder and Chairman of 24/7 Real Media. "Our assessment was that Brighter Option’s social ad management software was the most powerful and easiest to use Facebook ad solution in the marketplace. With this in mind, the addition of this functionality to our broad cross channel, data-driven offerings made complete sense. It enables our clients to fully integrate social advertising into the rest of their online spend, while managing all of these channels on one connected platform. This partnership positions 24/7 Real Media as a leader in the growing area of social advertising.”

Social advertising is the largest growth area of online advertising, predicted to grow to $8 billion in 2012 and increasing to $10 billion by 2013[1]. Of this, Facebook advertising is the largest, with more than $3.2 billion in advertising revenue and 27.9% of all display advertising in the U.S. last year.

“Joining forces with Buddy Media will enable us to provide a comprehensive social marketing software suite unlike anything available on the market,” said Peter Goodman, CEO and founder, Brighter Option. “Brands and agencies simply cannot have their advertising teams and community management teams working in silos. Now, for the first time, they won’t have to.”

“By combining Buddy Media’s social enterprise software suite with Brighter Option’s deep audience insights and powerful advertising platform, we can bring a complete social marketing solution to the market,” added Andrew Craven, CTO and co-founder, Brighter Option. “We’re tremendously excited by the possibilities this acquisition presents us for developing powerful, complete, and easy to use software for social marketers.”

Brighter Option is Buddy Media’s second acquisition in the last twelve months. In May 2011, the company acquired social commerce and analytics leader Spinback, and integrated the technology into the Buddy Media social marketing suite as ConversionBuddy.

Buddy Media Expands Team in Asia

Singapore, February 21, 2012 – Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced the addition of two new members to its growing team in Asia. To support the company’s expansion plans, Lena Savitsky and Eddie Cliff will champion Buddy Media’s sales and client relations programs, respectively, in the Asia Pacific region.

As Regional Account Director for Asia Pacific, Lena Savitsky will be driving Buddy Media Sales in the region. Prior to joining Buddy Media, Lena was Yahoo!’s Head of Agency Development, where she managed key regional agency partnerships.

Eddie Cliff joins the company from its New York headquarters as Senior Account Manager who will oversee Buddy Media’s client relations team in the region. Based in Singapore, Eddie will be responsible for managing and growing the company’s regional client portfolio.

“We are excited to have Lena and Eddie join the Buddy Media family. Their collective digital media and marketing expertise and deep industry experience are invaluable to Buddy Media as it speeds up its momentum in Asia,” said Ken Mandel, Managing Director, of Buddy Media Asia Pacific. With the two new additions to our team, we are strengthening our position to reach out to more brands and agencies in Asia and address their growing demand for cutting edge solutions to manage social media marketing programs. “

Buddy Media opened its Singapore office late last year, along with other offices in London and San Francisco. Reporting record growth in 2011, Buddy Media has doubled its workforce from over 100 employees in January last year to 225.

Lena Savitsky, Regional Account Director for Sales

Lena Savitsky is a digital media and technology specialist with over seven years of experience in the industry. Lena has been a driving force in selling integrated and display solutions across portal, vertical and network products across European and Asia Pacific markets.

In 2006, Lena worked to launch one of the UK’s first behavioural targeting products, Tacoda, which later sold to AOL and became part of the Platform A umbrella brand.

Originally from Moscow, Russia, Lena has been based in Singapore since 2009, where she most recently worked for Yahoo! APAC as Head of Agency Development. In this role, Lena managed key regional agency partnerships including WPP, Omnicom, Publicis and IPG.

Eddie Cliff, Senior Account Manager for Client Relations

Eddie Cliff is a digital marketing specialist with over nine years of experience working with global brands. Originally from Tennessee, Eddie joined Buddy Media in 2010, and has played a major role in leading the company through strategic brand and agency partnerships.

Having been drawn to the world of start-ups since 2004, Eddie previously held senior roles at companies including Blackbaud (NYSE: BLKB), Benefitfocus.com and avVenta Worldwide. Most notably, Eddie played a pivotal role in Blackbaud’s IPO in 2005.

Eddie graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2003 with a BS in Computer Science. He currently resides in Singapore, where when he isn’t working can be found surfing, golfing, fishing or scuba diving.

Rice Communications Kicks Off 2012 with Buddy Media Partnership, Strengthens Digital Media Practice

Singapore, February 3, 2012 – Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, announced the appointment of Singapore-based Rice Communications as its PR partner for stakeholder outreach in the Asia Pacific region, supporting programmes in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

“Asia is a dynamic social media market and key to Buddy Media’s growth plans,” said Joe Ciarallo, Vice President for Communications, Buddy Media. “We see a strong demand for strategic initiatives among brands as they engage with their customers through social networks. Rice’s wealth of experience in digital media makes it a strategic partner to support Buddy Media’s outreach in the region.”

Buddy Media recently reported record growth in 2011, fuelled by signing up over 300 customers that include some of the most recognizable global brands such as Citibank, IBM, and Volvo among others. To meet global demand, Buddy Media has opened new offices in London, San Francisco besides Singapore, and has doubled its workforce from over 100 employees in January last year to 225.

“Social engagement is considered a critical cornerstone in customer engagement today. Brands and their agency partners need to manage multiple touch points seamlessly, which is exceptionally hard keeping in mind the cultural mosaic that is Asia,” said Sonya Madeira, Managing Partner at Rice Communications. “Buddy Media is uniquely positioned to deliver results to global brands with its full suite of social marketing solutions and we are delighted to be chosen as its partner in this region.”

“We are excited about contributing to build Buddy Media’s brand equity and presence in the region. As digital marketing continues to pick up pace, this partnership bolsters Rice’s growing digital media practice and client portfolio,” added Madeira.

Rice Communications has carved a niche in strategic communications for companies interested in targeting brands and agencies across Asia Pacific’s diverse markets. With key clients such as the Mobile Marketing Association, InMobi, Out There Media, Interactive Advertising Bureau, e-Dialog, BluGrapes and others, Rice continues to strengthen its status as a strategic communications partner. Rice has also managed media outreach for regional events such as Festival of Media Asia 2011 and the Mobile Marketing Association Forum Asia Pacific since 2009.

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.”

Buddy Media Reports Record Growth As Investment in Social Software Accelerates

Product Innovation; Global and Domestic Expansion Fuel Growth

SINGAPORE, January 26, 2012 - Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced record growth for 2011, fueled by winning more than 300 new customers, including some of the world’s most recognizable global brands such as Citibank, IBM, Volvo, New York Life, Yoplait, and the National Football League.

Buddy Media has doubled in size, from just over 100 employees in January 2011 to more than 225 globally today. The company scaled aggressively to meet demand and in 2011 opened new offices in London, San Francisco and Singapore. Buddy Media will also move to a new 65,000 square foot space in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in February 2012.

Additional significant milestones for Buddy Media in 2011 include:

· Increased revenue by 2.5X.

· Increased monthly software licensing fees by 250% on average for the top 20 Buddy Media customers. Increased monthly software licensing fees for all Buddy Media customers by 24% on average, indicating brands and agencies are expanding to use of multiple Buddy Media products.

· Expanded user base of the Buddy Media social marketing suite to more than 91 countries.

· Named the only social marketing software company to be a ranked a “best” vendor in all categories among 41 competitors according to analyst firm Gleanster.

· Named a charter member of the developer programs for LinkedIn and Google+, making Buddy Media the only company to be named a charter partner for both these networks and Facebook.

· Expanded Buddy Media University, the largest certification program in the social software space. More than 2,600 students participated in 2011.

· Acquired social commerce and analytics company Spinback, and integrated the technology in less than four months -- ConversionBuddy gives customers the ability to tie social programs directly to sales and conversions.

· Launched a strategic partnership with comScore to help brands and agencies measure and maximize the value of their social marketing programs.

· Launched ReachBuddy, which gives customers the ability to create social content for any website or blog.

According to comScore, social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide, accounting for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online globally in October 2011. As brands continue to look for ways to leverage social activity, in 2012, Buddy Media will add new features, functionality and products providing new options for customers. In addition, Buddy Media has moved to a product release schedule of three major releases per year, in which the company will launch significant new innovations.

“Over the course of 2011, Buddy Media remained intensely focused on building, supporting and selling the best social media marketing software on the market. This intense focus is the cause of all of these massive results,” said Buddy Media founder and CEO Michael Lazerow. “I’m incredibly happy with Buddy Media’s product innovation and global expansion; it is the social marketing software of choice for the world’s largest brands and agencies to power their connections in this new, social world. The numbers speak for themselves and I’m excited for the rest of 2012, as the best is yet to come.”

The Buddy Media product suite consists of four core products:

· PROFILEBUDDY: Easily create and deploy content inside social networks.

· CONVERSATIONBUDDY: Manage two-way communications on social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

· REACHBUDDY: Use social hooks to create and deploy content across the open web.

· CONVERSIONBUDDY: Analyze how social media drives sales and conversions.