Mass Relevance adds ex-VivaKi CEO to board

Mass Relevance said Monday that Jack Klues has joined its advisory board. Most recently, Klues was the founding CEO and chairman of VivaKi. Based in Austin, Texas, Mass Relevance is a provider of social media solutions for brands. It is backed by Austin Ventures and Battery Ventures.

PRESS RELEASE

AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwired – Sep 23, 2013) – Mass Relevance, the technology leader in enabling social experiences, today announced that award-winning advertising executive and innovator Jack Klues has joined the Mass Relevance Advisory Board. A renowned advertising veteran, Klues has built a storied career helping the world’s largest consumer brands achieve share of voice and marketing leadership through innovative marketing plans. He has played a pivotal role in shaping the digital media landscape, most recently as the founding CEO and Chairman of VivaKi, and brings a rich background in developing and leading new business models. He joins as Mass Relevance continues to innovate new strategies and capabilities to help brands engage consumers and build audiences through social experiences that span paid, owned and earned media.
“Mass Relevance is the kind of technology company that acts as a powerful bridge, today and in the future, to connect paid, owned and earned media,” said Klues. “As the ad industry moves towards organizing around this model, Mass Relevance offers a tremendous way to increase reach and the quality of the brand experience by leveraging social conversations that are immediate, vibrant and aligned with the essence of the brand.”
The Mass Relevance platform aggregates, filters and displays real-time social content from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube to create engaging and interactive social experiences for any digital surface. Brands such as Campbell’s, GE, Walgreens, Target and others use the Mass Relevance platform to involve their audience and drive a greater ROI for every dollar they spend in advertising. Through Mass Relevance, clients can easily add social experiences across their advertising and marketing programs to drive engagement, extend reach and generate exponentially more earned media in the form of Tweets, photos, Facebook posts and more. Client examples include:
Sprint: http://sports.sprint.com/snow/mountain/unlimited
Victoria’s Secret: http://vsallaccess.victoriassecret.com/swim/swim-buzz/
“More than anyone, Jack understands the nuances of paid, owned and earned media for both brands and media owners,” said Mass Relevance CEO and Co-Founder, Sam Decker. “Mass Relevance offers a powerful way to monetize digital experiences and drive more participation and engagement across all three areas, and his guidance will be essential as we continue to unveil new ways for companies to strengthen their brand by connecting to the best social content.”
The Mass Relevance appointment is the first that Klues has accepted since his retirement from VivaKi. As Chairman and CEO of VivaKi, Klues conceived, launched and led the future-focused digital communications operations for Publicis, the third largest marketing communications holding company in the world. In this role, he led a global network that accelerated the digital capabilities of the Publicis network, empowering the Groupe to ultimately derive 37% of its revenue from digital activities. He was responsible for $70 billion in global ad spend on behalf of global clients such as P&G, General Motors, Kraft and Samsung, among others.
Prior to VivaKi, Klues served in numerous executive and leadership roles at Publicis Groupe, including chairman of Publicis Groupe Media, overseeing the expansion of Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia, two of the world’s most powerful media services companies representing $50 billion in global ad spend. Prior to this, he served as Chairman and CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, leading the network to a market leading position and securing recognition by both Adweek and Advertising Age as “Media Agency of the Year.”
Earlier in his career, Klues founded and led Starcom Worldwide, in which he reinvented the media department of Leo Burnett as a global, standalone media services agency with global billings of $7.3 billion. In this role, he pioneered the dedicated planning unit GM Planworks to serve General Motors and the largest new business win in advertising history.
About Mass Relevance
Based in Austin, Texas, Mass Relevance helps brands, media and agencies get more from their social media efforts by building social experiences into their marketing strategy. More than 300 major brands, sports teams, publishers and broadcasters trust the Mass Relevance SaaS platform to create real-time consumer engagement by aggregating, filtering, and re-displaying content from any social network to any digital property. Mass Relevance was the first Twitter certified partner licensed to re-syndicate content for television, and currently also integrates content from Facebook, Instagram, GetGlue, Google+ and YouTube. In the past two and a half years, Mass Relevance has delivered more than 30 billion pieces of social content to multiple digital surfaces to support iconic events like the Super Bowl and Academy Awards, launches such as The Avengers and Madonna MDNA, and television phenoms American Idol, X-Factor, 80 Plates and The Voice. Mass Relevance has also partnered with world-class brands such as Pepsi, Campbell’s, GE, Target, Walgreens and Microsoft.
The company is privately held with venture capital funding. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.massrelevance.com.