Zeta Global (Zeta Interactive)

Zeta Global is customer lifecycle management marketing company which was founded in 2007.[3][4] Zeta helps Fortune 1,000 brands and large middle-market companies create, maintain and monetize customers, using 'people-based, precision marketing' to provide customers with enhanced multichannel marketing solutions[buzzword] to help them manage the full customer life-cycle.[5] The privately owned company's headquarters are in New York City, with 25 additional offices worldwide, including Silicon Valley, London, as well as Chennai and Hyderabad in India.[6][7] Zeta has more than 1300 employees worldwide.[3][8] The company's CEO is David A. Steinberg.[9] Forbes Magazine reported that the company has been referred to as a 'Unicorn' - a "billion-dollar startup".[10] Contents 1 History 2 Products 3 Activities and Events 4 Awards 5 References History[edit] Zeta Global was founded by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley in 2007 under the name 'XL Marketing'. The company changed its name to 'Zeta Interactive' in 2014, then again to 'Zeta Global' in October 2016.[11][12][6] Zeta was built to capitalize on major shifts in the advertising and marketing industries which occurred with the rise of Big Data, such as the emergence of more sophisticated methods of data mining and analytics, the rise of mobile technologies, and the trend toward sophisticated data-driven marketing by advertising firms. Making acquisitions has been a key part of the company's expansion strategy - as of April 2017 they had bought nine companies in the past nine years. In July 2015, the company raised US $125 million from Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners specifically to grow its business through the acquisition of data startup companies.[10][13] In November 2013 Zeta acquired the Adchemy Actions division from ad tech firm Adchemy, as to incorporate their 'machine learning' based advertising platform.[14][15] In January 2014 they acquired Clicksquared, a Boston-based company that created 'The Hub', a SaaS-based, cross-channel campaign management platform.[16] In late 2015 they acquired the customer relationship management division of eBay's Enterprise operation, in a deal which sources near the company said was worth US$80-90 million. CEO Steinberg said that the deal "gets us a long way toward becoming the largest customer lifecycle management platform." [17] In August 2016 they announced that they purchased the marketing automation solution[buzzword] 'Acxiom Impact' from marketing technology and services company Acxiom, in a deal which sources near the company said was worth more than US$50 million.[18] In October 2016, Zeta Global hired Jarrod Yahes as CFO. Yahes is a former senior finance executive at EXL Service Holdings, who previously served as the CFO of Jackson Hewitt.[19] In April 2017, Zeta appointed Donald Steele as the company’s first-ever CRO.[20] In April 2017, the company raised $140 Million in a large late-stage equity and debt funding round, with funds coming from GPI Capital and Franklin Square Capital Partners. Forbes reported that sources close to the company said this raised the company's valuation to US$1.3 Billion.[21] In 2017 both Steinberg and Sculley said that they were considering an IPO for the company in the future, but that this would depend on the state of the market.[22] On December 5, 2017, Zeta Global acquired Disqus. The news of the acquisition was announced in a blog post by Disqus.[23] Products[edit] As of 2017, the company had a database of permission based profiles of approximately 350 million people. Using big data analysis, they identify who companies should sell to, contact those people, and manage existing customers.[24] While the company originally focused on email marketing, more recently it has expanded into the customer lifecycle management market.[25] Zeta has three main product offerings - ZetaCRM, ZetaZX, and ZetaACT. Activities and Events[edit] On January 30, 2014, Zeta Interactive hosted a forum on changes in advertising and marketing over the years, using Apple's 1984 commercial as a benchmark. Sculley shared the panel with advertising executive David Sable, Global CEO of Young & Rubicam; Jessica Gelman, Vice President of Customer Marketing & Strategy; The Kraft Group—the owners of the New England Patriots; and Hooman Radfar, Chairman and Co-Founder of marketing firm AddThis.[26] Awards[edit] In 2014, Forbes listed Zeta Interactive as a "Most Promising Company", and in 2015 the magazine put Zeta Interactive on its list of “Top 100 Analytics Startups of 2015.[27][28] Zeta was included in Gartner Inc.’s annual “Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management" in 2014 and 2015, and in 2017 was ranked as "Visionary" in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs.[10]