SINGAPORE — impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform driving partnerships for more than 2,000 brands, today announced the acquisition of Pressboard, the premier analytics and reporting platform for branded content. This acquisition empowers publishers to jumpstart and scale their content partnership opportunities. This is aligned with impact.com’s mission to enable more robust partnership opportunities between publishers and brands to drive efficiency, revenue, and further accelerate the growth of the partnership economy.
In the fast-evolving advertising industry, publishers are continuously confronted with unique challenges as traditional advertising is in rapid decline, consumers’ use of ad-blockers is on the rise, and consumers increasingly taking no action when encountering advertisements. This evolution led to an approximate US$20 billion valuation for the branded content market in 2021, with 88% of publishers driving much of their revenue from this source, second to display advertising.
In Asia trust in advertising is on a decline, with 25% of consumers taking no action when encountering a banner advertisement; the number rising to 33% when encountering a mobile advertisement. Inaction quickly turns into dislike if a brand continues to target these distrusting consumers. As the digital landscape evolves, so must publishers’ ability to adapt to the changing behaviors of today’s modern consumers.
“impact.com’s acquisition of Pressboard aligns with our mission to revolutionize and power the partnership economy. To succeed in this highly competitive landscape, publishers, brands, and agencies must be equipped with best-in-class technology to drive profitable revenue,” said David A. Yovanno, CEO of impact.com. “The future of commerce is content-driven, and this acquisition allows for more publishers to meet the demands of today’s digital consumers with authentic experiences that deliver real results.”
Antoine Gross, General Manager, Southeast Asia & India, impact.com added, “The Southeast Asian advertising landscape is seeing critical changes at a rapid pace, including the rise of adblocker installations, and the elimination of third-party cookies. With these factors coming in at full force, brands need to explore alternative avenues of reaching consumers via trusted channels and this is where publishers and content creators come in. This acquisition will enable publishers in Southeast Asia to access Pressboard’s best-in-class analytics and reporting capabilities to gain a deeper understanding of the performance of their content partnerships.”
Pressboard provides a comprehensive suite of tools to measure sponsored content, eCommerce, and social media programs. Through powerful integration capabilities, Pressboard provides content creators with granular insights in one single dashboard. From reporting automation to campaign execution and analysis, Pressboard enables content studios to run more efficiently than ever before to unleash maximum earning potential.
“We are thrilled to combine forces with impact.com and continue to build the tools that allow publishers to partner with their advertisers and create powerful and engaging branded content programs for their audiences,” said Jerrid Grimm, Co-founder of Pressboard. “Pressboard, combined with impact.com, is uniquely positioned to help our partners capitalize on this enormous market opportunity. Together we will help publishers maximize profitability by generating meaningful connections with consumers.”
With this acquisition, Pressboard joins Trackonomics to create a robust and holistic publisher solution to power and scale their sponsored and commerce content programs.
“At Hearst, and across the publishing industry, branded content is the product that’s the most talked about. We recognized this trend early on and created Hearst StoryStudio, which continues to set new revenue records each year,” said Alison Pfaff, President at Hearst StoryStudio. “This is a smart acquisition by impact.com as publishers will continue to look for opportunities to create authentic content that resonates with consumers and, in turn, move away from more traditional advertising tactics that make consumers turn a blind eye.”
