Raj Choudhury named CEO of BLiNQ

ATLANTA, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BLiNQ Media, a G/O Digital company and leader in real-time, local, social marketing, has named Moxie executive Raj Choudhury as Chief Executive Officer.  Choudhury will focus BLiNQ's growth strategy on solutions that drive store sales for local and national businesses.

Choudhury brings more than 15 years of experience building businesses and implementing innovative digital marketing solutions for leading brands such as UPS, Anheuser-Busch, InterContinental Hotels Group, Porsche and The Home Depot. Choudhury was an early entrepreneur in the digital marketing space and brings deep experience in the agency and technology world, including a recent focus on social and mobile solutions.

"BLiNQ is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the local social opportunity. Over the last year, we have received strong validation from our customers and partners who are very enthusiastic about products that drive measurable results in store," said Vikram Sharma, president and CEO of G/O Digital. "We are excited to have Raj join the BLiNQ team. His deep digital, marketing, and social experience will help take BLiNQ to the next level as a leader in local social marketing."

BLiNQ has created a highly differentiated position in the local, social marketing space by leveraging its core technology along with the unique combination of assets available through G/O Digital and Gannett. These assets include promotion content streams that drive commerce, a localization engine, deep customer relationships and an operational infrastructure to drive both automated and high-touch solutions at scale. The BLiNQ LocalLiFT product, winner of the Facebook's Preferred Marketing Developer Innovation Award in October 2013, is one such example of the products from this combination. These products are in line with the needs expressed by social network advertisers today - highly relevant and targeted messages that deliver unparalleled social distribution and amplification at scale and drive measurable in-store sales.

An industry thought leader across new technology and agency services, Choudhury has a consistent track record of successfully building and growing innovative businesses. Choudhury co-founded Spunlogic — which became one of the largest privately held digital agencies in Atlanta — before Halyard Capital acquired it in 2008 to form Engauge. In 2013, Engauge was acquired by Publicis Groupe and then merged with Moxie to form the largest agency in the Southeast.

"I am very excited to join the BLiNQ team," said Choudhury. "The growth potential at BLiNQ is tremendous.  In addition to the core services, we have an opportunity to transform local marketing with unique social solutions that have a clear and compelling value proposition."

About BLiNQ Media

BLiNQ Media, part of G/O Digital, a Gannett company (NYSE: GCI), is a leader in real-time, local social marketing.  Named as Facebook PMD Award Winner, selected from more than 260 Preferred Marketing Developers (PMDs) in 45 different countries who were invited by Facebook to participate, BLiNQ Media solutions drive brand engagement and bridge the gap between social media and sales.  Powered by a robust proprietary platform, BLiNQ Media services dynamically localize, automate complex campaign planning, execution, management, optimization and audience insights.  Since 2008, BLiNQ Media has managed campaigns for more than 600 of the world's largest advertisers. For more information, please visit www.blinqmedia.com or www.facebook.com/BLiNQMedia or follow us at www.twitter.com/BLiNQMedia

The G/O Digital vision: To Transform Local Marketing and #WinLocal.

For Local Businesses, G/O Digital, a Gannett company, is one-stop shop for local businesses looking to connect with consumers through digital marketing, from search to social and everything in between.  For National Brands and Agencies, G/O Digital delivers local digital activation at national scale with push-button simplicity powered by G/O Digital brands Shoplocal, BLiNQ Media & Key Ring

G/O Digital partners with more than 5,000 of the nation's top brands and retailers, including P&G, Target, Walmart and Walgreens and leads digital marketing programs with thousands of local businesses across more than 110 local markets.

For more information, visit www.godigitalmarketing.com.  @godigitalmktg

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SOURCE BLiNQ Media