Social Marketing Company Crowd Factory Secures $6.5 Million in Funding

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Crowd Factory, the leader in crowd-powered marketing applications, today announced that it has secured $6.5 million in equity financing in a round led by new investor, Storm Ventures.  Existing investors Hummer Winblad, Peninsula Ventures and several angel investors also participated in the round.  With this round of funding, Ryan Floyd from Storm Ventures will join the Crowd Factory board of directors.  The company plans to use the funding to support development and marketing of its suite of social marketing applications.

While many brands' early social marketing efforts were limited to social media sites, most are now eager to build social capabilities into all of their programs and turn customers into brand advocates at every touch point.  But as they invest more heavily in social marketing, the need to deliver and measure ROI on these activities has become more critical than ever.  According to a recent study by the Altimeter Group, creating ROI measurements is the #1 social strategy objective for 2011.

Crowd Factory's social marketing applications enable marketers to integrate social engagement across all online programs – from email, to videos, to web pages, to microsites, to webinars, to ads and to all of the social networks themselves.  Importantly, Crowd Factory's technology tracks results from interaction to conversion, adding a quantifiable social boost to every digital interaction. Customers using Crowd Factory applications typically report a 300 to 500 percent improvement in conversions, a 50-100 percent lift in overall campaign performance and 5 to 15 new visitors from every social activity.  Crowd Factory customers are able to measure this social activity and influence down to the individual level, with the ability to see who is promoting their products and programs and who bought or responded as a result.

For example, a leading global media agency used Crowd Factory to provide a social and viral lift for a contest run by a Fortune 50 client. Not only did Crowd Factory provide an uplift of 73 percent in traffic and responses for the contest compared to the online ad campaign, but the company did it for a tenth of the cost – delivering over 700 percent ROI.  Crowd Factory has also seen early customer success in ecommerce, with companies using Crowd Factory applications to encourage customers to share their product finds without leaving the site or interrupting the purchase flow.

"Last year, companies were focused on creating a presence on social networks; this year, they're looking at ways to make all of their programs more social," said Sanjay Dholakia, CEO of Crowd Factory.  "Crowd Factory helps companies not only to amplify their marketing messages through the crowd on social networks, but also provides brands with the data and analytics they need to measure and monetize their social marketing spend."

Since launching the suite in June of last year, the company has more than tripled its customer base, working with companies such as HBO, Sony, Speck and Universal McCann.

"Crowd Factory's early customer traction and program success underscores the fact that the company is solving a significant and growing problem for brands," said Ryan Floyd, Managing Director at Storm Ventures.  "We look forward to working with Crowd Factory as they help more companies build social into all of their marketing programs and lead the industry in measuring social ROI."

The Crowd Factory Social Marketing Suite

The Crowd Factory Social Marketing Suite is a robust set of enterprise-grade social marketing applications that allow companies to embed social elements into any marketing experience -- including videos, emails, registration pages, ecommerce sites, ads and more -- with built-in analytics to track and optimize these programs in real-time.  Applications in the suite also enable customers to create a social database to better understand their audience, pinpoint their most influential fans and reach out directly to super fans.

Key applications in the Crowd Factory Social Marketing Suite include:

• Social Campaign: with Social Campaign, marketers can integrate social functionality into all of their marketing channels, turning customers into brand advocates empowered to spread the word.
• Social Offers: Social Offers lets companies build group buying and social gaming elements into their promotions and ecommerce and track each share through to conversion.
• Social ROI: a social marketing control center, Social ROI allows marketers to track and optimize social engagement across multiple networks in a single dashboard, viewing who is promoting their messages and who is purchasing or responding as a result.

About Crowd Factory

Crowd Factory helps brands drive customer acquisition and increase conversion rates by adding a quantifiable social boost to every digital interaction.  The Crowd Factory Social Marketing Suite is a robust set of enterprise-grade social marketing applications that allow companies to embed social elements into any marketing experience -- including videos, emails, registration pages, ecommerce sites, ads and more -- with built-in analytics to track, measure and optimize these programs in real-time. For the first time, marketers can offer social engagement across their entire online presence and measure social ROI from engagement to conversion.  Early customers include HBO, Sony, Speck and Universal McCann. Crowd Factory is a privately held company based in San Francisco, Calif.  For more information about Crowd Factory, please visit www.crowdfactory.com.

SOURCE Crowd Factory