Bazaarvoice and Badgeville Form Strategic Partnership to Help Global Client Base Use Gamification to Increase Reputation, Customer Loyalty

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Bazaarvoice and Badgeville today announced a strategic partnership that will – through game mechanics – provide reputation and social loyalty programs to Bazaarvoice's network of more than 260 billion customer conversations across the world's most recognized brands. Bazaarvoice's solutions now will be integrated with Badgeville's Behavior Platform to increase contribution of customer-generated content and online social sharing.

The joint offering focuses on three key objectives to drive brand loyalty and revenue:

Increase onsite engagement. Design and implement gamification campaigns to encourage customers to interact with content across a company's site. Results include helping shoppers discover new products and services, leading consumers to helpful articles and reviews, and encouraging people to share recommendations with friends.

Create additional brand advocates. Enable customers to establish an on-site reputation that drives loyal behaviors and reinforces trust and credibility. Incent customers with game mechanics to interact with the brand by rating products, writing reviews, answering questions and engaging in discussions -- core features of the Bazaarvoice platform.

Reward loyal customers. Recognize the most loyal customers with special achievements and reputation rewards, such as badges and leaderboards, via on-site profiles and customer reviews. Tie gamification campaign metrics to loyalty programs, and credit loyal customers for creating content about product purchases and social product sharing.

"Our partnership with Badgeville has delivered as much as a 200 percent increase in key business objectives like content contribution and social sharing for global clients," said Mike Svatek, Chief Strategy Officer at Bazaarvoice. "By tapping consumers' desire to be helpful to fellow shoppers, as well as challenged and recognized, gamification will accelerate the rate that word-of-mouth is spread, benefiting all consumers worldwide."

"The strategic partnership between Bazaarvoice, a market leader in bringing the voice of the customer to the center of business strategy, and Badgeville, a leading provider of SaaS gamification solutions, represents a significant opportunity for businesses to increase consumer engagement," said Wanda Meloni, Principal Analyst, M2 Research. "Gamification will be one of the most prominent trends in the social enterprise for the coming years because it provides real results for business."

Badgeville, which was recently named as one of Forbes' Most Promising Companies, delivers sophisticated gamification and reputation solutions to more than 100 customers, including dozens of the Fortune 1000 companies and the world's most innovative brands.

"Gamification and reputation programs have become exponentially more important throughout the enterprise landscape. Together with Bazaarvoice, we will increase lifetime customer value, loyalty and revenues for its roster of global clients with proven techniques to measure and influence user behavior," said Kris Duggan, Badgeville CEO.

About Badgeville

Badgeville, the Behavior Platform, makes it easy for business leaders, marketers and innovative technologists to use smart gamification techniques to increase user loyalty and engagement across eCommerce, Media & Entertainment, Health, Education, Services and Enterprise web & mobile experiences. Using Badgeville, brands can reward users with real-time achievements and reputation, while at the same time driving user behavior, achieving specific business goals, and measuring and optimizing user engagement. Badgeville customers include Samsung, CA Technologies, X.Commerce, NBC, Bluefly, Interscope Records, Deloitte Digital, and The Active Network. Founded in 2010, Badgeville is based in Menlo Park, California and has offices in New York and Europe. For more information, visit Badgeville on the web at http://www.badgeville.com/.

About Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice's Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions have powered more than 260 billion customer conversations on brand web sites like Best Buy, Blue Shield of California, Costco, Dell, Macy's, P&G, Panasonic, QVC, and USAA. The company connects organizations to their influencers through a unique network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe, enabling authentic customer-powered marketing. Through syndication, analytics, partnerships, and consulting, Bazaarvoice brings the voice of the customer to the center of their clients' business strategy, proving "social" can drive measured revenue growth and cost savings for manufacturing, retail, travel, and financial services companies. Headquartered in Austin, the company has offices in Amsterdam, London, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, and Sydney. For more information and access to client success stories, visit www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarvoice.com/blog, and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.

SOURCE Badgeville