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Gita Sitaramiah,
Star Tribune

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There will soon be one more reason to check your smartphone between pitches at Minnesota Twins games.

The Twins are introducing an app called ARound that will depict promotions and games to smartphone users at Target Field. The effort is believed to be the first use of augmented reality at a live sports venue.

Major League Baseball teams, including the Twins, have been upping the promotions and experiences in recent years as they face dwindling attention spans for the average three-hour games.

“We know the die-hard fans are buying their tickets and we know they’re bringing younger fans with them that are not necessarily following every pitch, every stat,” said Chris Iles, senior director of brand experience and innovation for the Twins.

“This is one of the latest iterations that we’re using to really attract that younger, more diverse fan and bring them into baseball,” he said.

Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it.

ARound, part of the New York-based Stagwell digital marketing company, uses 3-D spatial computing to localize content to individual users throughout the venue, enabling Target Field attendees to see the same real-time 3-D effects and participate in shared experiences.

Using the ARound app, fans point their smartphone at the field to open up a universe of multi-user augmented reality games such as BatterUp, Blockbuster, and Fishing Frenzy — all designed to be played by interfacing with the physical ballpark and fans in real time.

The Twins aren’t initially paying for the app. Both the Twins and ARound see potential for sponsorship and add-on opportunities to generate revenue.

“People are coming to the ballpark to feel closer to the game, to other fans, to the players, and what we’re doing is removing all the barriers where people can interact with fellow fans, with the produced experiences by the Twins, see the player become larger than life, see relevant statistics,” said Josh Beatty, founder and chief executive of ARound.

Initially, the app will be more geared to the casual fan. Future versions will be aimed at avid baseball enthusiasts.

Iles said what really intrigued him about the ARound app is that it creates a shared experience.

By

Torey Van Oot,
Axios

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Target Field will look a little different to some phone-toting fans at future games.

What’s new: The Twins recently debuted a first-of-its-kind partnership with an augmented reality (AR) platform that allows attendees to play games and unlock special content tied to what’s happening on the field.

Between the lines: The app is one of several of MLB-wide efforts to attract — and engage — a broader fanbase amid an ongoing slump in ticket sales.

• “We know the die-hard fans are buying their tickets and we know they’re bringing younger fans with them that are not necessarily following every pitch, every stat,” Chris Iles, senior director of brand experience and innovation for the Twins, told the Star Tribune.

How to play: Download the ARound app. Once you arrive, point your phone at the field and see what happens.

• You might encounter digital versions of traditional between-innings entertainment, such as mascot races, or the chance to jump in on a stadium-wide challenge to “throw” virtual baseballs at certain areas on the field.

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ARound’s Stadium-Level Technology Signals Opportunity for Sports Teams, Entertainment Venues and Brands to Transform the Fan Experience

MINNEAPOLIS and NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Minnesota Twins announced the public launch of ARound, a first-of-its-kind stadium-level shared augmented reality (AR) platform, at Target Field in Minneapolis. This first-ever experience in a live sports setting keeps audiences engaged by capturing their attention during game downtime through immersive, interactive and shared experiences with fellow fans across the venue.

ARound, part of Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), uses 3D spatial computing to localize content to individual users throughout the venue, enabling Target Field’s 40,000 attendees to see the same real-time 3D effects and participate in the same shared experiences. Using the ARound app, fans point their smartphone at the field to open up a universe of multi-user AR games such as Batter Up, Blockbuster, and Fishin’ Frenzy – all designed to be played by interfacing with the physical ballpark and fellow fans in real time.

“We’re excited to introduce our fans to this never-before-seen technology as we continue to evolve and enhance the Target Field experience,” said Minnesota Twins Senior Director, Brand Experience & Innovation Chris Iles. “Part multi-player video game, part augmented reality, with the ability for future expansion into an interactive next-gen stats platform, we believe what we’ve built with ARound will provide fans a next-level experience available only at Target Field.”

“Current AR platforms isolate users in singular experiences. ARound believes massive, multi-user AR enables a host of creative opportunities to redefine what it means to be part of a connected fan experience,” said ARound Founder and CEO Josh Beatty. “Be it a player, a mascot, a brand, a play or even another fan, ARound captures people’s attention and brings them closer to what’s right in front of them – during times they might otherwise be unengaged and on their phones – turning distraction to interaction and enhancing their overall experience.”

Fans can see and interact with real-time content led by action on the field, such as after homeruns, mascot races, or when the Twins take the field. During natural downtime, users can compete against their friends or fans in other sections to see who can knock down the most virtual blocks in the real-life outfield by throwing virtual baseballs or hot dogs at the structure.

“Shared augmented reality is the next frontier that sports teams, brands and other organizations should adopt as they look for ways to engage their audiences,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “At Stagwell, we don’t just talk about the next frontiers of marketing and technology – we build them, and support founders through their growth.”

ARound was the winner of Stagwell’s annual “Shark Tank” innovation competition which invests in new product ideas proposed by the network’s 13,000+ employees. ARound is part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS tools built for the in-house marketer, spanning campaign ideation to activation and analysis. Products within the cloud include PRophet , a predictive AI platform for PR professionals; Koalifyed, an end-to-end influencer management platform; the Harris Brand Platform, delivering competitive brand intelligence; and more.

Journalists interested in covering the launch can access the press kit here.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

The Minnesota Twins are a Major League Baseball team competing in the Central Division of the American League. The franchise has been a staple of the Minnesota sports and philanthropy scene since moving to the state in 1961. In addition to two World Series titles (1987 and 1991), the Twins have won 12 Division Championships (1969, 1987, 1970, 1991, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2019 and 2020) and three American League pennants (1965, 1987 and 1991). Since 2010, the Twins have played their home games at the award-winning Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. In addition, the Minnesota Twins Community Fund donates more than $1 million annually to benefit youth baseball and softball across Twins Territory. For additional information on the Minnesota Twins, please visit: twinsbaseball.com.

Media Contacts: 
Minnesota Twins 
Matt Hodson 
MattHodson@twinsbaseball.com

ARound 
Sarah Arvizo 
pr@stagwellglobal.com

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A Blueprint for Creating Equitable Communities

Colle McVoy

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The urgency to create equitable communities where all people thrive continues, but most solutions have been slow to bring change. Especially in Minneapolis, which has one of the largest racial wealth gaps in the nation. But a pioneering movement in the city is building a vibrant community that supports business development, celebrates culture and nurtures belonging so Black people can thrive. Hear how this unique approach, fueled by creative, corporate and civic partners, is expected to transform Minneapolis’ reputation while providing a powerful blueprint for change across the country.

The Future of Deaf Representation in Entertainment 

National Research Group

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The popularity of the film “CODA” sparked a new conversation about representation of the Deaf community in entertainment – authenticity on screen, inclusivity among writers, producers, and actors, and accessibility within the industry at large. Deaf West Theatre, the most prominent nonprofit organization focusing on Deaf-centered storytelling, has partnered with National Research Group, a global insights and strategy firm, to find out how those in the Deaf community really feel about the current state of representation and accessibility in entertainment. This session will highlight findings from an in-depth research study; feature video from a roundtable of prominent Deaf actors, directors, writers, and more; and provide insights on how to move forward to build a more inclusive industry.

Snoop, Martha, and the New Blend of Wine Consumers 

Observatory

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Wine has a reputation for needing a mature palate to fully appreciate. But why, with older millennials turning 40, is wine’s popularity continuing to decline? How does the wine industry compete with spirits, craft beer and hard seltzers to reach a diverse and younger (over 21) audience? By partnering with pop culture icons Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart and leaning into trendier blends, 19 Crimes has reinvented the wine industry’s appeal to younger consumers. Snoop’s Cali Red achieved the number one single selling wine in pacesetter history and is bringing new consumers at an unparalleled rate. Join 19 Crimes, Observatory, and Snoop Dogg’s agent, Nick Adler, as they discuss how to attract new consumers despite radically changing consumers attitudes toward alcohol preferences.

Chief Digital Officers Transforming Health Care

YML

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Chief Digital Officers are responsible for increasing their team’s speed and agility, making an impact quickly, and shipping products more frequently. Does any of that scream health care to you? Well — maybe not historically, but this new crop of CDOs are changing the game. Hear from Rita Khan, CDO at Mayo Clinic, Prat Vemana, CDO at Kaiser Permanente, and Chris Waugh, Chief Innovation Officer at Sutter Health — all of whom are building the digital health experiences of more than 25M Americans. Interviewed by Ashish Toshniwal, Founder and CEO at YML, hear how these CDOs are shaping the future of patient-first experiences using cutting edge technology, design and product strategy.

72andSunny

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We’re in the midst of a ‘movement moment,’ a period of rapid change punctuated by incredible hardships and economic, social and political instability. All of this can take a serious toll on employee well-being and presents organizations with a host of challenges that have no easy solution. Join agency EDI Leaders as they discuss how they’ve responded to the crises we all face and how they’ve found ways to support employees through these polarizing times.

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The standard for professionalism has been dictated by a singular perspective for decades, so it’s no surprise that agencies and brands alike are struggling to evolve the corporate culture to suit a more diverse, inclusive workforce. Join us as we discuss where companies are falling short on their DEI promises and how we can rebuild the workplace of the future.

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NEW YORK, (August 16, 2022) – Stagwell’s (NASDAQ: STGW) PRophet, the first-ever AI-driven PR pitch platform built by and for PR professionals that predicts media interest and sentiment before you pitch, today announced the hiring of Charlie Tulip as Enterprise Account Executive and Kendra Lewellyn as the company’s Digital Marketing Manager, both moves that seek to further meet customer demand for the  growing AI platform.

Tulip, PRophet’s latest addition to its sales team, brings over 20 years of B2B sales experience. No stranger to the technology space, Tulip has worked with a number of hugely successful, high growth software startups, and will bring his expertise to increase PRophet’s growing number of enterprise customers.

“A rising number of PR execs are seeing and realizing the value AI can bring to a media relations team’s productivity and performance,” said Andrew Meranus, EVP of Sales for PRophet. “Charlie’s addition comes at a perfect time of growth for the PRophet team and of the customers we serve, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future he’ll help us achieve with new enterprise accounts.”

Lewellyn, who comes to PRophet with a decade of digital marketing and design experience, will drive the the company’s global marketing strategy across all of its digital platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, SEM, SEO and email campaigns. Additionally, Lewellyn will be a key player in boosting subscriptions to PRophet’s innovative software via its monthly ‘pay-as-you-go’ subscription offering, which makes the platform easily accessible to PR professionals while avoiding long-term payment commitments. Lewellyn joins PRophet after five years as the Digital Marketing Manager at software solutions company Pedigree Technologies. In that role, she led on digital marketing strategy and designed, managed, and maintained the company’s websites, blog SEO/SEM, and PPC advertising programs, while also advancing the company’s social media presence.

“Kendra will be key to driving demand for our monthly users, ultimately landing and expanding them into enterprise customers,” said Aaron Kwittken, PRophet founder and CEO. “Her content creation, digital marketing, design and PR experience make her a perfect for for this role. We’re thrilled to welcome Kendra to our team and eager to collaborate with her.”

In addition, PRophet has hired its first Business Development Representative, Ian Brand. Brand will support PRophet’s overall sales efforts and will advise on business strategy and planning. Before joining PRophet, Brand served as an account manager at Insight Media Labs (IML), a company specializing in digital advertising for local television stations and agencies.

Both agency and brand representatives interested in learning how PRophet can dramatically improve performance of their media relations efforts, can contact PRophet at sales@prprophet.ai to learn about subscription options and to request a demo. For more information on PRophet, visit www.prprophet.ai.

About PRophet

PRophet is the first-ever A.I.-driven data-as-a-service (DaaS) platform designed by and for the PR community that samples past stories to better predict future media interest, sentiment, and spread through natural language processing and machine learning. PRophet is a product within the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS tools built for the in-house marketer, spanning campaign ideation to activation and analysis. PRophet is owned by Stagwell, and was founded by marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken alongside former political strategist, technologist, and author Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO of Stagwell. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai.

About Stagwell

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

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Media Contact

Adam Wise

KWT Global

awise@kwtglobal.com

By

By YML 

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Twitter recently announced the launch of its new privacy policy with an innovative online game called “Twitter Data Dash,” conceived and directed by YML, and designed by Momo Pixel. The interactive, 8-bit style game was built to educate and engage Twitter’s global audience of 330M users around the importance of one’s privacy on the platform.

YML’s innovative approach has so far earned press from The Washington Post, The Verge, TechCrunch, Adweek, and an array of other publications.

“Few topics are as relevant today as privacy for both businesses and consumers alike, which is why we leapt at the opportunity to partner with Twitter and disrupt the category,” shared Ashish Toshniwal, YML’s CEO and co-founder.

When Twitter first reached out to us, Twitter’s Privacy and Design team was underway rethinking and rewriting their privacy policy so it presented itself to people as something other than a massive, relentless sledgehammer of text. They began by thoughtfully breaking it down. Structurally. Visually. Linguistically crafting in a way that no longer required you to acquire a Harvard law degree to understand.

Twitter brought in YML to deliver product innovation, and in less than three months, “Twitter Data Dash” was born, built, and launched.

“We quickly gravitated toward the idea of turning privacy — something people go out of their way to avoid — into something you’d be genuinely excited to look at, interact with, and share,” added Craig Kind, the YML Creative Director who led the project.

Formatted for mobile and browser, we spearheaded “Twitter Data Dash” from definition right through to final artwork, development and design. A feat that included both customizing in-game artwork and regionalizing the experience for 9 major languages.

The game itself brings the Twitterverse to life in 8-bit style. From a building in the form of a hashtag to a boat under water with a mast featuring the Twitter bird icon to stylized Internet trolls, we dove deep into the nuance and culture of Twitter and reflected it in “Twitter Data Dash.”

The game pays meticulous detail to accessibility, globalization, and characters with diverse backgrounds. That narrative was woven into the foundation of the game when we partnered with Momo Pixel, a visionary 8-bit artist, game developer, and designer whose work has already changed the industry, using the medium to comment on the black female experience in “Hair Nah”.

Momo Pixel, the artist who designed the game, shared, “Games are a great way to facilitate learning, so when Twitter and YML approached me with the opportunity to build a video game that can help make their privacy policy easier to understand, it was a no-brainer — I absolutely said yes!”

“Twitter Data Dash” is hosted on a website built by YML’s engineering team, which facilitated the technical architecture across YML, Twitter and Momo Pixel over the three month project. YML consistently ran usability and testing, QA, responded to daily changes of the experience, and ensured the experience was consistently fast and reliable across platforms.

Twitter’s business objective — our goal— was to design an experience that tackled a massive global problem in a way nobody ever had before. Launched less than a month ago, the game—and the subject of privacy—have been featured in countless major publications worldwide, and played by millions of people around the globe. Game over. Job done.

See more YML work here. Or get in touch to discuss your next project.

Originally released on

Originally released on

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Beth Sidhu
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202-423-4414

New Partnership Gives Harris Poll Clients Access to PRophet’s AI-Driven PR Software to Inform Survey Design and Maximize Press Coverage of Research Results

NEW YORK – June 15, 2022 – PRophet, the first-ever AI-driven PR pitch platform built by and for PR professionals that predicts media interest and sentiment, today announced a partnership with leading global market research and consulting firm, The Harris Poll, that will maximize results for Harris clients and provide access to PRophet’s innovative platform. Both firms sit within Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing.

Through this partnership, Harris Poll clients will receive access to the innovative PRophet software platform to test the “mediability” of their research before conducting survey field work, to confirm the data they seek will in fact be of interest to journalists. Upon survey completion, Harris clients can then use PRophet’s machine learning and natural language processing technology to test the news angle of their poll to identify the journalists most likely to cover their story and predict how positively they’d write about the results.

“For nearly two years, PRophet’s focus has remained exclusively on improving the earned media performance of PR professionals. We do this by making teams smarter and more performative, slashing countless hours that brands and agency teams spend on mindless tasks such as media list building and patchwork PR pitch guessing games,” said Aaron Kwittken, founder and CEO, PRophet. “We are thrilled to now bring our predictive technology to support the construction and execution of the critical research completed by those same brands and agencies in conjunction with the highly acclaimed, global research leader, The Harris Poll.”

Clients of The Harris Poll will receive and maintain access to the PRophet platform through completion of the marketing efforts around the poll’s results.  Clients will then have the option to extend their access to the platform via PRophet’s monthly pay-as-you-go subscription or through an enterprise subscription available to brands and agencies.

“PRophet is a first-class PR performance platform that will help our clients optimize the design of their thought leadership surveys and improve internal media strategies that lead to even greater performance of their PR campaigns,” said Erica Parker, Managing Director of the Media Communications Research Practice at The Harris Poll. “Journalist interest will always be an essential part of every thought leadership project, as it bridges the critical gap between content owner and visibility among critical stakeholders, including the public. Our partnership with PRophet will lead to even more compelling surveys for our clients while helping them perfect their media outreach.”

PRophet is part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a suite of technology products that support in-house marketing transformation for modern businesses. To learn more about PRophet, please visit www.prprophet.ai or email sales@prprophet.ai to schedule a demo. Learn how Harris’ Media Communications Research Practice can help you own and tell your story in our constantly evolving media landscape at theharrispoll.com/solutions/harris-custom-research. For more information on the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, reach out to hello@stagwellglobal.com.

About PRophet

PRophet is the first-ever A.I.-driven data-as-a-service (DaaS) platform designed by and for the PR community. The platform helps earned media professionals use data to land more media placements by analyzing past stories to predict future media interest and sentiment using natural language processing and machine learning. Founded by PR and marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken, and launched in 2020, PRophet is part the Stagwell Marketing Cloud. It’s available to agencies, brands and individuals through an enterprise license or a monthly pay-as-you-go plan. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai.

About The Harris Poll

The Harris Poll is one of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., tracking public opinion, motivations, and social sentiment since 1963. The Media Communications Research Practice supports the full scope of clients’ data-driven communications strategy, including paid, earned, social and owned media. Whether the goal is to own and tell their own story through thought leadership research, to measure what the public thinks or knows through public opinion polling, or to influence the policy and legislative agenda by taking a public affairs lens, our consultants guide the research and analysis process, from discovering a unique space a client can own through supporting the full range of outreach activities.

About Stagwell Inc.
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 12,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

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Originally released on

Originally released on