Emplifi to provide enterprise brands with a unified CX platform that addresses critical customer experience gaps.
The combined company of Astute Solutions and Socialbakers have merged into a new brand, Emplifi.
This is meant to give organisations the tools they need to connect social media marketing, customer care, and social commerce to address critical customer experience gaps, the company said in their statement.
The launch of Emplifi brings together over 20 years of experience, global operations, and a customer base of 7,000 top global brands, the Audax backed Customer Experience (CX) platform announced on 1 June.
Socialbakers has a long history in Asia, working with brands such as ASUS, Australian Football League, Shopee, Toyota Astra Motors, TuneTalk, and vivo.
“Our brand ‘Emplifi’ reflects our mission to help our customers better empathise with their customers and amplify their brand experiences – wherever they might be,” says Mark Zablan, CEO, Emplifi. “Customer expectations are shifting fast and brands need to be able to respond quickly with powerful, empathetic experiences. As customers turn to more social and digital means to connect, communicate and transact, Emplifi is well positioned to help brands succeed today and scale for new channels tomorrow.”
The explosion of Social Commerce in Asia
According to Emplifi, social commerce in particular has exploded in Asia– social media orders in Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam more than doubled in the first half of 2020. According to Bain & co, social commerce accounted for 44 percent (USD47.96 bil) of Southeast Asia’s USD109 billion ecommerce revenue last year.
Social media videos have emerged as a key channel for product discovery. Almost 8 in 10 Southeast Asians watch videos on social media while 66 percent have created or interacted with videos on these platforms. This has led to a rise in live-stream shopping in the region. According to iKala, the share of retailers who used live-selling techniques increased nearly 13 percent to 67 percent between the first and second quarter of 2020.
Brands have taken notice and are doubling their social media ad spend. In Q1 2021, marketers spent 60 percent more on Facebook and Instagram advertising globally as compared to the same period last year. The growth in ad spend has led to an increase in ad costs. In Southeast Asia, ad costs grew by as much as 66 percent year-on-year.
“Customer experience is the key to successfully competing in the modern digital market. One of the key outcomes from 2020 was that it exposed the real lack of digital transformation for so many companies when it comes to the customer experience” said Alan Webber, VP for Customer Experience Solutions at IDC. “The brands that will be successful and thrive in the next-normal will be the organisations that are able to implement next generation customer experience technologies and tools that allow them to connect and engage through differentiated experiences with their customers in ways that build trust, loyalty, and long-term engagement.” As a unified CX platform, Emplifi said it enters the market with an impressive customer base made up of brands such as McDonalds, Delta Air Lines and Ford Motor Company.
