Press Releases
Powered Introduces Panorama Social Commerce Platform that Engages Consumers & Drives Sales
New solution combines social networking capabilities with rich content to build communities and drive purchase conversion for major brands
Austin, TX — November 19, 2007 — Powered, a leading provider of social commerce programs, today launched Panorama, a new platform that lets Fortune 1000 brands quickly deploy highly customizable social commerce sites that engage consumers and move them from consideration to purchase faster. Powered's rich learning content combined with Panorama's extensive collaborative features will allow consumers to connect with peers online, gain advice from trusted individuals, conduct research and purchase products — all at a single online destination. Panorama's social commerce sites are fully customizable and quickly deployed to vastly improve conversion to product purchase, create greater brand affinity among consumers, and provide key insights into consumer behavior.
"From social networks to blogs to the brands themselves, consumers have access to more information than ever before when making purchasing decisions," said Dave Ellett, CEO of Powered. "We are very excited about the new Panorama platform because it allows brands to quickly create an active community on their sites while consumers are in the consideration phase of the buying cycle. Over the past few years, we have proven that a rich learning experience is both highly engaging and useful to consumers and that combination increases product sales and loyalty to the brand. With Panorama, we're providing social interaction alongside our proven content offering to create engaged and informed communities of buyers."
Panorama's Rich Feature Set
Panorama includes a host of innovative Web 2.0 features that help companies build an ongoing relationship between consumers and their brand. Users benefit from the wisdom and experience of others, and engage in an interactive community of enthusiasts to make more informed purchasing decisions. Because Panorama enables brands to create "persistent communities," consumers can benefit from the knowledge and experience of other consumers and can enjoy many of the benefits of the community without needing to register. Some of Panorama's most engaging features include:
· User Profiles / User Badges
With Panorama communities, consumers can easily create their own unique profiles, adding photos, personal preferences, ratings of content, posts and product reviews — all of which can be easily shared with other members of the community. User Badges let individual community members earn and showcase a reputation based on their participation in the site and the content they create.
· Community Features: Message Boards; Ask the Expert; User Ratings; User Showcase
Panorama communities include many interactive features, such as message boards and user-generated ratings, reviews and content. Panorama also lets brands create blogs and 'Ask an Expert' applications, effectively opening up a two-way dialogue with their customers. Social marketing plug-ins make it easy for users to share their content and opinions with others outside the community via email, Digg, Delicious, RSS feeds and bookmarks, while the User Showcase highlights active and interesting community members. All of these features greatly enhance SEO for brands, driving a significant increase in traffic to their sites.
· A Rich Lineup of Engaging Content
User-generated content is an integral part of online communities, but Panorama goes far beyond the typical community content mix by delivering numerous forms of engaging, expert-based content. Brands can create interactive whiteboard videos to lead viewers through product demonstrations; how-to videos deliver insights into product features and services; and special "content trailers" combined with audio podcasts instruct consumers while entertaining them. Rich, text-based content helps consumers learn about products, services and informational topics — everything from "How to Shoot Better Digital Photos" to "How to Give a Great Marketing Presentation." With Panorama, users can take courses, browse "How-to Guides", read product "Getting Started Guides", participate in class discussions, ask the instructor for advice and rate the course after they participate. Highly engaging content is proven to drive sales: 1 in 5 consumers who participate in online courses will purchase a product from the sponsoring brand.
· Data & Insights: Polls, Surveys, Quizzes & Reporting
Panorama offers brands unparalleled insight into their customers to help them make the most effective product and marketing decisions. Companies can easily create customer polls, surveys and quizzes, and then effortlessly analyze the results to get a clear view of their customers' unique preferences. Detailed reports give actionable insights on how to improve campaign effectiveness. What's more, executives can review Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to get a comprehensive view of campaign trends — including financial metrics, user satisfaction and loyalty, user activity and engagement, SEO performance and merchandising effectiveness.
· Whiteboard Video; How-To Video; Content Trailers
Panorama lets brands easily create video-rich experiences for consumers. Brands can create interactive whiteboard videos to lead viewers through product demonstrations; how-to videos that deliver insights into product features and services; and special "content trailers" combined with audio podcasts that engage and entertain consumers.
"The Panorama platform creates social commerce sites that are highly customizable to give consumers a single resource to research products and benefit from the wisdom and experience of others," said Ellett. "Marketers benefit because they are engaging consumers in a way that's desirable for the consumer, resulting in a higher propensity to purchase and a greater affinity for the brand."
About Powered Inc.
Austin-based Powered Inc. is the market and technology leader in social commerce solutions that engage consumers and move them from consideration to purchase faster. Powered provides a proven way for the world's largest brands to use social commerce to drive sales, build brand loyalty and deliver a significantly higher ROI than other marketing programs. Manufacturers, retailers, media properties and web publishers also rely on Powered to gain new insights into consumer attitudes and buying behavior. Powered clients include AOL, Atkins, BusinessWeek, HP, iVillage, Motorola, Radio Shack, Sanofi Aventis, Shire and Sony, among others. For more information, visit www.powered.com.
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