The document discusses Marketing Zen, a digital marketing agency founded by Shama Hyder that specializes in social media marketing. It also profiles Performics, a performance marketing agency that is reinventing the industry by focusing on understanding consumer intent across all channels. In addition, it covers Performance Horizon, a SaaS company that provides partner marketing solutions and enables brands to directly connect with affiliates and partners globally.
The Silicon Review | Best Digital Marketing Companies
1. LEADERSHIP BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY FEATURES CIOs
CEO NEWS
HOLD THAT THOUGHT / PG-8
US Issue MAY 2017
Company of the Month
Shama Hyder,
Founder & CEO
Marketing Zen
10 Fastest
Growing
Digital Marketing
Companies
SR 2017
Ted Davies
President
Chief Executive Officer
Jonathan Moneymaker
Executive Vice President
Chief Strategy Officer
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2. Helping Brands Find Their Zen in the
Chaos of the Digital Age: Marketing Zen
S
ocial media marketing is our
specialty. As pioneers and
leaders in the field, Marketing
Zen knows how to anticipate
trends and deliver results. Through
brilliantly crafted and socially
astute campaigns, consistent and
refined social media missives, and
measurable increases in brand
visibility, it can transform good
ideas into great ones and businesses
into powerhouses.
“And, we make it easy. We speak
“digital age” fluently and know
how to leverage a client’s natural
strengths to help them stand out,
become well-known, and rise to the
top of their industry,” says Founder
and CEO, Shama Hyder.
With a keen understanding of
critical mass, the company matches
client’s products and ideas with the
ideal currents in the social media
sphere to tip the scales in their
favor and yield greater renown,
recognition, and relational rapport.
We quantify the qualitative and
provide the expertise to navigate
the unknown. Welcome to the zen of
marketing.
The Marketing
Amplification; In Shama
Hyder’s words
Social Strategy and Management:
We recognize that each client has
a unique brand with unique needs.
Our vast expertise allows us to tailor
a solution that’s just the right fit. We
literally wrote the #1 best-selling
book on social media marketing.
So, whether your goal is to expand
your brand’s reach, skyrocket
engagement, boost customer loyalty
or acquire new leads, we have the
know-how to make it happen. Our
proven strategies and data-driven
social management techniques get
results. We do the market research
and the analytics, the heavy lifting
and the seed planting.
Social Community Management
(Proactive & Reactive): Engaging
with your audience on social media
is a full-time job. Tweets, posts,
status updates, and comments
are precious chances to connect
and sell; unfortunately, however,
these fleeting moments of contact
often fall through the cracks or
miss their full potential. These
budding relationships need to be
fostered in real-time with foresight,
friendliness, and creativity. Our
team of social geniuses will stay on
top of every message and comment
your brand receives on social
media, responding in real-time
and ensuring that each audience
member feels valued.
Paid Social Advertising and
Amplification: There’s an art
and science to paid ads. We make
sure you get your money’s worth
The best brands are those which play into
people’s identities. They allow people to feel like
they belong to something bigger than themselves.
COMPANY OF THE MONTH
3. by targeting exactly the right
audience and optimizing each ad’s
performance. Not only do we give
you a running start, we regularly
assess and update our strategy so
that you’re staying ahead.
Content Marketing – Strategy,
Development, and Distribution:
Being a leader in your industry’s key
conversations is dependent on being
informed and articulate. We combine
these strengths with a keen sense
of efficiency and timing. Our team
has written content that’s gone viral,
garnering tens of millions of views
and widespread media coverage
in a matter of hours. Our top-
notch writers can write and curate
original, engaging content that will
amplify your brand’s reach on social
media, boost your web traffic, and
ultimately, convert more customers.
We can take the lead or offer a more
collaborative approach. Whether
content is a burden for you or a joy,
refining and broadcasting your voice
and message is our raison d’etre.
Multi-Media Content Development
and Distribution: In today’s new
digital landscape, online video is
easily one of the most inclusive
outlets available to express your
brand’s identity and mission.
With the explosion of platforms
like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Snapchat and more,
branded media has become more
pervasive, and the demand for
quality commercial productions even
more vital.
Influencer Marketing & Digital
PR: Who you know and what you
know don’t have to be at odds. At
Marketing Zen, we understand
that when the two are combined,
a conversation becomes an
opportunity for conversion. Finding
and engaging key influencers can
drive huge visibility and results for a
brand. Whether you need a product
review campaign or a comprehensive
visibility campaign, we can help.
We connect your brand with the
influencers in your industry, from
celebrities to popular Instagrammers
to respected online publications, for
astounding and lasting results.
Meet the Zen Master
Shama Hyder is a visionary strategist for the digital
age, a web and TV personality, a bestselling author, and
the award-winning Founder and CEO of The Marketing
Zen Group – a global online marketing and digital PR
company. She has aptly been dubbed the “Zen Master
of Marketing” by Entrepreneur Magazine and the
“Millennial Master of the Universe” by FastCompany.com.
Shama has also been honored at both the White House
and The United Nations as one of the top 100 young
entrepreneurs in the country.
Under her leadership, The Marketing Zen Group has
grown an average of 400% growth annually since 2009
to include a team of 30 and serve clients ranging from
publicly-held Fortune 500 companies to privately-held
small businesses and nonprofit organizations across the
globe.
Shama is the bestselling author of The Zen of Social
Media Marketing, now in its 4th edition and Momentum:
How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand
in the Digital Age, her latest book that launched in 2016.
An acclaimed international keynote speaker, Shama has
shared the speaking stage with the world’s top leaders,
including President Obama and the Dalai Lama.
Shama Hyder,
Founder & CEO
SR
May- 2017 | | 3
4. F
ounded in 1998, Performics
has evolved significantly over
time. Originally operating
as an affiliate network, it became
the pioneer of the performance
marketing field with its early SEM
and SEO expertise. For 18 years,
the company has continued to
redefine it by using data, technology
and media in novel ways with the
singular mission of relentlessly
driving results for its clients.
Built by DoubleClick. Bought by
Google. Now the performance
marketing arm of Publicis.
Its industry leadership has
cultivated deep partner
relationships with the leading
search engines, social networks
and media management platforms,
and technology tools. These
partnerships give the clients
unparalleled access to opportunity
and innovation including early betas
and exclusive expertise.
Performics is the performance
marketing arm of Publicis Media, a
Publicis Groupe collection of agency
brands and capabilities focused on
delivering “connection solutions”
at scale. As part of Publicis Media,
Performics clients and partners
benefit from the combined
investment and innovation that
comes from being part of the third
largest communications company in
the world. This powers Performics
unqiue ability to outperform
today and lead in delivering best
in class performance solutions for
tomorrow.
‘Performance
Guaranteed,’says
Michael Kahn, CEO
Performics pioneered performance
marketing. And now, it is
reinventing it. Its suite of digital
marketing services is built
upon a foundation of intent—
understanding how consumers
decide—across all paid, owned
and earned media touchpoints.
Through fully integrated, dynamic
and personalized experiences, the
company is turning consumer intent
into conversions.
Motivating Clicks across
Channels
Performance Media is our approach
to media planning and buying,
rooted in our single-minded mission
to convert consumer intentions
into revenue for our clients. Our
extensive experience in biddable
media, digital exchanges and
addressable ad units has nurtured
a philosophy of integration across
channels and a rigorous test-and-
learn methodology.
Content that Drives Real
Results
For consumers, content often
trumps ads in authenticity, playing
a key role as the connective tissue
across the path-to-purchase. But for
brands, content development and
SEO are often black-box processes
of ideation and conception, untied
or misaligned to bottom-line results.
It’s time to hold content accountable
to performance. Performance
Content is our process of creating
and optimizing actionable content in
pursuit of ROI goals.
Deciphering Consumer
Intent
Today’s consumer is more complex,
empowered and omnichannel than
ever. To truly deliver performance,
brands must exceed consumer
expectations with relevant,
Redefining Performance
Marketing: Performics
Performics has a culture filled with openness and curiosity. Our
value lies in driving direct and attributed revenues for our clients.
| | May - 2017
4
5. engaging and personalized
communications, 24/7. Performics
Planning & Insights Team delivers
brand relevance and revenue
by uncovering and converting
consumer intent through our
proprietary process, Intent-Based
Planning.
Measure, Optimize, Convert,
Repeat
The proliferation of customer,
channel and platform data has
bred tremendous complexity
into measuring and optimizing
marketing performance. Performics
Analytics & Technology Team thrives
on this complexity, continually re-
inventing how we drive conversions
and improve ROI for our clients.
Our wide-ranging analytics, data
and engineering expertise produces
actionable insights and unified,
cross-channel reporting that powers
performance.
Connecting with Consumers
At Performics, we define social
media marketing as a balance
of media, content, insight and
analytics to create measurable
results from both participant
“impressions” and “expressions.”
Because the boundaries between
Paid, Owned and Earned nearly
dissolve inside of social platforms,
acute measurement, strategy and
reporting is critical. Capturing
the value of social is more than
fan acquisition, engagement or
community metrics, it is about
driving a comprehensive and data-
driven social media marketing
strategy to activation.
Experiences Delivered
Seamlessly
Mobile marketing is more than
just a marketing channel. It exists
across customer needs, any number
of devices, across digital/physical
bounds and across multiple internal
departments. While it’s true that the
devices that we use are “mobile,” so
too are the hundreds of millions of
customers seeking engagement with
brands and products while they’re
mobile. At Performics, we think
about mobility solutions, which
involves the measured impact that
mobile has on participant behavior,
commerce, conversion and action.
Where They Are, When They
Need You
In real-estate, it’s “location, location,
location,” but the last decade of
digital effectively equalized the
playing field between physical
and virtual spaces, until now.
The evolving application of
location-based targeting through
search, content, and data feeds is
reinvigorating the practice of local
marketing. The ubiquitous use of
smartphones and connected devices
is turning your network of physical
presence into the key attribute to
winning new digital customers.
Performics’ local internet marketing
practice connects customers and
brands over 100,000 times daily
with the right message, the right
time in the right place.
Meet the Master brain
Michael Kahn, CEO of Performics
Worldwide: Michael is Chief Executive Officer,
Performics Worldwide, the global performance
marketing agency of Publicis Media, and the
Performance Global Practice Lead for Publicis Media.
Working with the agency’s global leadership team,
Michael oversees strategic service and performance
excellence for 2,200+ employees across 57 countries.
With a passion to move clients’ businesses ahead every
day, Michael motivates the organization to set the
standard for strategic leadership, proactive service and
sustained innovation, and embodiment of a “performance
never rests” mindset. Michael’s Performics career spans
ten years where he has led the creation of the agency’s
account management practices, marketing function and
business development team.
Michael’s early career originated in traditional media
agencies but recognizing the transformational change
coming with the dawn of the Internet, he quickly jumped
to digital e-commerce start-ups beginning in 1998. As an
early digital pioneer he played pivotal marketing roles at
Art.com, TruePoints.com and VisaNow.com.
When he is not driving performance across the globe
and earning Hyatt Gold Passport points, he is relaxing
with his wife and 3 daughters in northern Michigan or
cheering for his beloved Wisconsin Badgers.
Michael Kahn, CEO
SR
6. I
n 2010, a group of affiliate market-
ing veterans founded Performance
Horizon, today’s leading provider
of SaaS solutions for partner market-
ing. The company enables customers
to directly connect with their affili-
ates and marketing partners to dra-
matically increase customer acquisi-
tion and drive high margin revenues.
Currently, the company’s platform
drives $3B+ in advertiser top line
revenues across 200,000 marketing
partners in over 212 countries and
territories.
Catching up
with Malcolm
Cowley, CEO
What drove this
venture?
In 2010, enterprise
brands were finding it
increasingly difficult to
manage disparate and
fragmented partner
marketing initiatives in
a global marketplace
that was full of poten-
tial.
We recognized that
this was our chance to
imagine new possibil-
ities in this space and
sought to better under-
stand the frustrations
and challenges that
brands and partners had been expe-
riencing. Three key findings emerged
that helped us define our vision for
the future for partner marketing:
1. Brands wanted to manage and
connect with different types of
marketing partners and affiliates
at scale
2. Brands wanted to understand
and consume more data as well
as have the flexibility to integrate
more deeply with partners
3. Partners wanted to ingest more
data to optimize and grow reve-
nue more efficiently for brands
Can you talk about your
product?
Our API-first partner marketing
platform gives our clients and their
partners unique solution to man-
age all aspects of running a partner
marketing program. This ranges from
efficient partner onboarding to clear
visibility into performance with a
single global view of partner data to
automating reconciliation & partner
payouts. With the Performance Hori-
zon platform, brands can apply per-
formance-based commercial models
to virtually any partner, anywhere in
the world. They can also reward their
partners and affiliates more effective-
ly to drive higher margin revenues
through flexible commissioning
based on highly granular data points.
Today, our SaaS platform is being
used by over 150 Global 2000 com-
panies, including 5 of the top 10 For-
tune 500 companies. We empower
our customers to develop their own
partner marketing programs adapted
to their unique needs.
What has changed for
the company since it was
founded?
We’re never satisfied with resting on
our laurels and always stay focused
“We empower advertisers and partners to
engage in real-time to drive growth in their
performance-based marketing”:
Performance Horizon
We are the leading
provider of SaaS
solutions for
partner marketing.
“
“
| | May - 2017
6
7. on innovating - that will never
change. What has, and contin-
ues to change, are consumer
behaviors, their devices, and
the channels they use along the
path to conversion. It’s our mis-
sion to help our customers and
their marketing partners to bet-
ter serve consumers and ensure
that we provide the support and
technology they require.
What challenges did you
face in your initial years?
What can your peers
learn from it?
Our extremely rapid scale and
expansion over the past seven
years has definitely made it
challenging to manage multiple
business units and geographies.
We grew into a truly global
company thanks to our custom-
ers, most of which are well-
known, global businesses that
have very high expectations for
our products, technology, and
support. Consistently exceeding
these expectations is a chal-
lenge we tackle every day with
the support of colleagues across
our offices on four continents.
The key takeaway here is there
is no substitute for experience,
so investing early in the right
level of leadership as we scaled
has paid for itself many times
over.
‘It is difficult to start a
venture, but far more
difficult to maintain
it’ - How would you and
your team interpret this
saying?
We consider accountability to
be absolutely key. It’s one thing
to say “this is what our technol-
ogy provides,” but another to
actually deliver consistently and
well throughout the integration,
deployment, migration and on-
going customer success stages.
The passion to deliver on our
promises to customers runs
deep in our company culture,
which is key to maintaining our
long-term partnerships.
Can you talk about
the factors that have
contributed to your
product popularity and
consistent growth as an
organization?
Many businesses focus first on
what they have to sell instead
of what problem they’re solving
for their customer. We strive
to listen carefully to customers
and potential customers so that
we understand their challeng-
es and goals and work hard to
deliver a product or service that
meets and needs their expecta-
tions. Secondly, it’s important
to build and foster a company
culture that prizes growth.
When you empower employees
to think big and make bold deci-
sions, you’ll be surprised at the
innovation that can happen.
What challenges are on
the horizon?
We are very excited about find-
ing innovative ways to help our
customers grow their business.
Right now, we are looking into
how customers can use their
data more effectively. One
initiative focuses around tying
sales and conversions across
all channels—not just online—
back to the marketing partners’
activities. Correctly under-
standing the contribution of key
marketing partners to a custom-
er’s revenues is very important
and allows both companies to
work more closely together to
further top line revenue growth.
A second initiative centers on
how applying artificial intelli-
gence capabilities to provide
our customers with predictive
insights as well as support to
refine decision-making.
Malcolm Cowley, CEO
/ Founder: Malcolm is
a successful entrepreneur
who oversees all aspects
of the company’s global
growth. After establishing
a successful background
in the affiliate marketing
space, Malcolm understood
the shifting landscape and
had a vision to change how
brands use technology to
manage their own affiliate
and partner marketing
programs.
The man behind the
Venture
Malcolm Cowley, CEO & Founder
SR
8. Right marketing and sales promotion tools
in the right places at the right moments:
“In 20 years, we have set a work culture at Regan group to be diverse, entrepreneurial, and multidisciplinary”
The Regan Group
A
ugmented reality, live video
streaming, data visualization:
There’s plenty of hype about
which digital marketing trends will
hit the big time in 2017. But, before
you rush to jump onto the latest
trend bandwagon, take a look at these
combat-ready promotional strategies
designed by The Regan Group.
Established in the year 1991, Regan
puts the right sales promotion tools
in the right places at the right mo-
ments, forging real connections with
your audience. We’re acknowledged
leaders in sweepstakes, contests,
games, loyalty programs, FSIs,
mobile apps and every other form
of sales promotion and consumer
engagement, working on behalf of
blue-chips brands and agencies for
25+ years.
In conversation with
the key executive;
Patti Regan
What inspired you to start
The Regan Group?
“In initial days, I grew up frustrated
with my observance of mediocrity
in the marketplace; I just wanted to
bring new things for better, bigger and
amazing future. Being competitive
and doing right things inspire me in
business.”
When I was doing entertainment
promotions for the leading movie
studios in Hollywood, I saw a need
in the market place for feature film
and television promotions. Thus I
decided to focus on helping the
studios to get their movies on
retail store shelves and then
pushing it through the distribution
channel, which helped the studios
to grow their home entertainment
business.
The company’s first product was the
Lions Gate Entertainment film under
this banner “Leprechaun” an Irish
film got promoted. My company has
‘little people’ from all over the
country to do street-team field
marketing, which amassed massive
publicity. The Regan Group then
conceived and implemented the
movie business’ first-ever online
promotion for a feature film saw
“The Blair Witch Project”.
Regan group recruited a team of
college students nationwide to post
faux stories in online chat rooms,
which went viral in just a couple of
days, thus it contributed to massive
word-of-mouth and greater-than-ex-
pected box office admissions.
What was the biggest
challenge you and your
team faced in shaping Regan
Group’s road map?
Road mapping is critical, every year
as a team we work on our 1, 3 and
5 year plans. We understand our
client’s current and emerging needs,
new technologies, and the market-
place in general and as well we define
our own internal operations, produc-
tivity and profitability for the compa-
ny’s growth.
What kind of mixed responses
have you received from
your consumers? What are
you doing to ensure for the
growth of your company?
When I understood that product
distributors, retailers, and consumers
are alike and constantly looking for
For Sweepstakes or Sales
Promotion, The Regan Group
will activate instant.”
“
9. ‘the next best thing’ when it comes to
digital marketing. They are also in
search of online and physical world
promotions that got significantly
increase in consumer engagement
and eventually help to ‘ring the cash
register’. Consumers are also looking
for promotions that are easy-to-use
in online, mobile and social environ-
ments, so here, technology plays a
vital role in promotions created and
activated by The Regan Group.
I realized the necessity for digital
promotions industry is consumer
engagement, what brands really
need is the ability to capture con-
sumer contact information, demo-
graphic and behavioral data, and
relevant analytics. So I began to
develop and operate a number of
online tactics that would be able to
capture particular data in a pro-
motional environment and reward
consumers for providing the
information. With this kind of
approach it was able to satisfy the
needs of brands, distributors, retails
and consumers simultaneously, and
cost efficiently.
A client, Mimi Wunderlich, Brand
manager at Villa Italian Kitchen says
“TRG’s promotion for Villa Italian
Kitchen, the “Passport to Italy
Sweepstakes,” was the most successful
promotion in our company’s history.
It increased our fan base by 13%, and
delivered great results all around.
We can honestly say that TRG knows
every detail of the consumer acti-
vation business, and we’ve been the
beneficiaries.”
What’s your company’s
biggest asset?
Team, Clients, Bank Relationship,
Emerging Technology and
Exploration; The continual learning
and best-practices taught us to
use current and emerging technolo-
gies. We provide to clients the best
things, productive and efficient; to
fuel the growth and longevity of our
company.
Share your experience on the
success of Regan Groups?
Talking about Regan group’s suc-
cess- that was ultimate experience
–it was dream come true-(vision,
continual technology exploration,
innovation, and unparalleled client
service). And I have to thank my
team without whom Regan Group
success would be impossible - it
didn’t come not only through ability
but on mutual respect and a positive
working environment.
Where do you see Regan
Group’s in 5 years down the
line?
At the pinnacle of technological in-
tegration in the consumer products
promotions industry.
Patti Regan, CEO and Founder: Began her career at national promo-
tions and field marketing office of Orion Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
‘The Regan Group’ was created with the vision to implement promotions for
the entire entertainment industry, and doing it ‘smarter’.
Patti established solid relationships with executives of basically every motion
picture studio. The Regan Group soon ‘pioneered’ retail account-specific
promotions for the studios developing and implementing tent-pole programs,
on-pack and in-pack programs, and in-store activations for DreamWorks, Fox,
Universal, Warner Bros. Lionsgate, Disney, ABC, NBC, FX, Hallmark Channel,
and Spike TV etc. It is with this innovative thinking that The Regan Group was
able to build relationships with basically every marketing touch-point of the
studios.
Under her supervision, the company has received numerous awards and
accolades include ranking #37 in The Top 100 Fastest Growing Private
Companies (Los Angeles Business Journal), “Top 50” Agencies in America
(Promo Magazine), and the Top 100 Women-Owned Businesses (Los Angeles
Business Journal). Patti was also recognized as of Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing
Businesses Top CEOs.
She is an active member of WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National
Council), PMA (Promotion Marketing Association), AMA (American Marketing
Association), CTAM (Cable and Telecommunications Association for Market-
ing), and NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners).
Meet the key executive
Patti Regan, CEO and Founder
SR
May - 2017 | | 9