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It’s Time to Take the Lead: AmeriLife Introduces LeadStar Marketplace

AmeriLife

Today, AmeriLife Group, LLC (“AmeriLife”), in partnership with leading performance marketing and customer acquisition company Fluent, Inc. (“Fluent”) and insurtech leader Leadrilla, Inc. (“Leadrilla”), introduced LeadStar SM Marketplace, a proprietary, private leads platform created with and exclusively for its affiliated agents. With more lead options than any existing platform, and an intuitive, mobile-optimized design and feature set, agents can expect to go from qualified customer inquiries to closing on the same day. LeadStar Marketplace delivers exclusive, real-time leads as well as inbound and warm-transfer calls – directly to field agents – at the industry’s best prices. With the ability to customize lead volume and types against individual agents’ needs, LeadStar Marketplace empowers agents with unmatched flexibility, reliability and performance to accelerate their sales and grow their businesses. “When AmeriLife and its partners set out to build LeadStar Marketplace, we did so with one goal in mind: creating more opportunities for our agents,” said Scott R. Perry, chairman and CEO of AmeriLife. “Today’s announcement is about so much more than introducing a best-in-class leads platform – it’s about delivering more qualified prospects, a requirement for any agent in today’s highly competitive landscape. LeadStar Marketplace is that comprehensive, compliant and easy-to-use solution, and we’re excited to bring it to the market.” With LeadStar Marketplace, agents will benefit from: Sign-up to sales on the same day: With an intuitive, front-end design and mobile-optimized experience to take business anywhere, agents can expect to go from sign-up to selling within the same day, guaranteed. LeadStar Marketplace also has agents covered, providing technical support and sales tips with a dedicated support team and a rich library of on-demand training. Worry-free compliance: All lead sources in the LeadStar Marketplace are CMS, TCPA and consumer-protection compliance verified before they’re delivered to agents. As the system dynamically updates with regulatory changes, agents can be sure their leads will remain compliant. Combined with seamless and fully CMS-compliant inbound call recording and storage capabilities – at no additional cost – agents can focus on what they do best: serve their customers. Leads on agents’ schedules: LeadStar Marketplace is more than leads on demand – it’s leads when agents demand them. With flexible campaign management, agents can easily select dates, times and lead types to be delivered on their schedules, with the ability to pause and resume campaigns at the click of a button. And because LeadStar Marketplace provides exclusive, real-time data leads, agents won’t miss a beat as they connect with actively shopping customers. “Fluent leverages its best-in-class digital and call solutions to verify intent and match consumers with the health and life insurance products they’re in the market for today,” said Don Patrick, CEO of Fluent. “Through this partnership, we’ve created a marketplace that can easily elevate and streamline the sales process for agents and consumers alike, driving a quality solution for all.” “Leadrilla’s proprietary customer acquisition, routing and management software allows brands with distributed sales teams to gain full control and transparency into their sales performance,” said Koby Hastings, founder and CEO of Leadrilla. “The launch of LeadStar Marketplace is a game-changer for the industry, positions AmeriLife as a leader in insurance technology, and provides their agents with the tools they need to succeed.” “The demand for Medicare and life insurance solutions are growing rapidly, as are the questions many customers have about what coverage is right for them,” added William DeCourcy, senior vice president of Growth Marketing and Customer Acquisition for AmeriLife and product lead for LeadStar Marketplace. “LeadStar Marketplace was designed to seamlessly connect customers to our agents, quickly get their questions answered, and deliver the best coverage in near real-time to help them live longer, healthier lives.” For more information on LeadStar Marketplace and to request access, visit LeadStarHub.com/Marketplace. ### About AmeriLife AmeriLife’s strength is its mission: to provide insurance and retirement solutions to help people live longer, healthier lives. In doing so, AmeriLife has become recognized as the leader in developing, marketing, and distributing life and health insurance, annuities and retirement planning solutions to enhance the lives of pre-retirees and retirees across the United States. For more than 50 years, AmeriLife has partnered with top insurance carriers to provide value and quality to customers served through a distribution network of over 300,000 insurance agents and advisors and more than 100 marketing organizations and insurance agency locations nationwide. For more information, visit AmeriLife.com, and follow AmeriLife on Facebook and LinkedIn. About Fluent, Inc. Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLNT) is a global data-driven performance marketing company and trusted growth partner for leading brands. Experts in creating value for consumers, Fluent leverages its consumer database, digital media portfolio, and proprietary data science and technology to deliver outcome-based solutions for marketers. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in New York City. About Leadrilla, Inc. As an enterprise lead acquisition, routing and management platform for distributed sales teams across a variety of industries, Leadrilla provides the key to success for growth-oriented sales organizations. Leadrilla’s platform brings data-driven insights plainly into focus at each stage of the customer acquisition process, improving companywide performance at scale beginning with each individual agent. Founded in 2018, Leadrilla is a software company headquartered in Lexington, KY. For more information, visit Leadrilla.com or reach out to us at media@leadrilla.com. Contact Details AmeriLife Jeff Maldonado +1 321-297-1112 jmaldonado@amerilife.com Fluent, Inc. Media Relations marketing@fluentco.com Leadrilla, Inc. Media Relations media@leadrilla.com Company Website https://amerilife.com/

October 13, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Employers turn to freelancers to fill tech skill shortages following global layoffs, reports Freelancer.com

FREELANCER.COM

Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, today released its quarterly Fast 50 Index for Q3 2022 which reveals insights into the fastest growing freelance projects and most in-demand skills. The index, which is based on data from 296,000 jobs posted on Freelancer.com between July 1 to September 30, 2022, reveals a major surge in tech-related jobs in Q3 when compared to Q2 2022 and Q3 2021. Android App Development (up 80.5%, from 1,082 to 1,954) ranked as the fastest growing project type in Q3 2022 when ranking the percentage growths from all 2,000 skills available on Freelancer.com. This was followed by AJAX (up 66.4%, from 1,059 to 1,763) and API (up 59.5%, from 1,587 to 2,532) jobs which are both skilled related to website and software development. The sudden surge in tech-related freelance jobs first observed in Freelancer’s Q2 2022 index, comes off the back of global tech layoffs and hiring freezes across the so-called ‘tech winter’, that started with a ‘crypto winter’, as informed by Freelancer.com in earlier Fast 50 reports. According to a tech layoff tally, more than 42,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector lost their jobs in 2022. Tech-related jobs dominated the rankings when comparing Q3 2022 to Q3 2021 year-on-year. Software Development jobs were the fastest growing skill (up 54.7%, from 1,587 to 2,442), while jobs for Coding ranked as the second highest growing skill (up 45.5%, from 1,004 to 1,461) and Backend Development came in third (up 37.7%, from 1,111 to 1,530). “The macroeconomic environment, tech winter and nosebleed inflation has led to an almost daily string of announcements of layoffs. The most similar event was the Global Financial Crisis where we saw three trends: businesses looking to cut costs and going online to hire freelancers, people looking for work online and a lot of startup businesses formed to bridge people through hard times. However this was mostly contained to the United States. We think that heading into 2023 we could see this all over again, but on a more global scale,” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer.com. These layoffs may also increase the amount of startups being founded, not only across the US but also in Europe, with skilled people being cut from bigger organizations, but with experience either building their own companies or working in highly successful startup environments, as described by Alan Poensgen, in his Fortune article of October 5, 2022. Fast 50 Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022 Analysis Employers look to freelancers to plug tech skill gaps Overvaluations and dropping stock prices have caused mass hiring freezes and layoffs across the tech companies globally in 2022. According to online tracker Layoffs.fyi, there have been 83,173 layoffs from 661 startups this year, as of October 2022. This is almost half of the total of 179,164 tech layoffs since the beginning of COVID-19. These layoffs, which accelerated in May 2022, have contributed to increases in tech-related jobs across the platform. While Android App Development dominated Q3 and was ranked as the fastest growing job on Freelancer.com, employers have been turning to the platform to support niche, highly specialized tech projects. AJAX, which is used to develop websites, and API, which allow software programs to communicate with each other also took second and third place, respectively. Niche skills in AngularJS, a toolset for building apps, and Codeigniter, a toolset for web development, equally rose by 22% in Q3. “Michael Milken said ‘the defining characteristic of the 21st century was the competition for intellectual capital’. There’s a chronic skill shortage in western nations, forcing businesses to go to the Internet to find talent. Freelancer.com has the largest online pool of talent in the world.” said Matt Barrie. Projects seeking experts in Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew by 27.6%, from 3,004 to 3,834 jobs in Q3, while Software Development continued its growth from Q2 with a 18% increase from 2,069 to 2,442 jobs in Q3. Artificial Intelligence jobs also grew by 15.9%, from 1,055 to 1,223. Marketing Trends - Marketers turn from SEM to SEO, YouTube & traditional This quarter, the data revealed shifting trends in marketing and advertising. Projects for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) fell by almost a third (30.4%) in Q3 - from 2,300 jobs to 1,600 from the previous quarter. On the other hand, digital marketing, traditional marketing and YouTube jobs spiked in interest. Most commonly, in Q3 employers are looking for support with SEO ranking. Blog Writing jobs, which are usually associated with businesses hiring freelancers to write SEO-friendly blog content, increased by 55% in Q3, from 1,058 to 1,642 projects. Digital Marketing also saw a 23.1% increase in Q3, jumping from 1,738 to 2,141 jobs. These jobs range from hiring business consultants supporting social media strategies to SEO managers. Notably, Q3 also saw many employers turn to the platform to hire community managers, digital marketing campaign managers and social media managers. Traditional advertising also saw an increase in Q3. Flyer Design projects increased by more than a quarter (27.5%) from 1,658 to 2,114 jobs. A similar increase was also seen for projects relating to Covers and Packaging, which increased by 27.3% from 1,253 to 1,596 jobs. Many employers turn to the platform to crowdsource ideas for packaging labels and shipping boxes designs. When comparing Q3 2022 to 2021, advertisement design is up 15.7%, from 1.516 to 1,755 jobs. “With the onset of new digital marketing channels, businesses are learning that their strategies must diversify and move away from primary channels, such as SEM. Paid advertising alone is no longer the most viable alternative. What we are witnessing is demand for freelancers with skills in social media, short video platforms, earned & owned content, SEO and a whole spectrum of marketing strategies that before were in the realm of large corporates only,” said Hector Perez-Nieto, Marketing Director at Freelancer.com. Jobs seeking YouTube skills were the fifth fastest growing skill in Q3 2022 - growing by 32.3% from 1,138 to 1,505 jobs. Many of the jobs seeking YouTube skills are related to vertical videos and Shorts content. While there was a 10% increase in TikTok related skills and projects seeking TikTok content creators, employers seek YouTube and video editing skills three times more. Companies turn to freelancers for lead generation & customer support The layoffs aren’t just affecting tech roles, but also sales and customer services roles across businesses. Over the last quarter, there was a significant increase in demand for customer service, customer support and sales-related skills on the Freelancer platform. While virtual assistance jobs have always been a popular freelancing project type, Q3 2022 saw an increase in employers hiring virtual assistants. Jobs for Customer Support grew by 30.5% in Q3, from 1,531 to 1,998 jobs. This was also closely followed by Customer Service projects which rose by 27.4% from 1,370 to 1,746. Lead generation and cold calling was also a popular project type in Q3. Jobs to generate Leads jumped by a quarter (25.3%), from 1,387 to 1,738. Sales specific jobs also increased by 18.7% from 2,544 to 3,020 total projects. One boutique recruiting agency in the US successfully hired a freelancer to manage cold calling and follow ups for only US$38 per hour, with a maximum of 40 hours available for the freelancer per week. The platform is also used by mortgage brokers to source sales virtual assistants to call realtors for loan officers. Ethereum and NFT projects continue steep decline In Q2 2022, Freelancer reported a fall from grace for jobs relating to Bitcoin, Crypto and NFTs, which were once ranked as the fastest growing freelance jobs on the platform for 2021. It’s now Ethereum’s turns as Ethereum-related jobs plunged in Q3 2022. The fastest falling job types on the Freelancer platform in Q3 were Solidity, a programming language used to implement smart contracts for mostly Ethereum based platforms, and Smart Contracts were - declining by -56%, from 1,422 to 613 jobs, and -49%, from 1,442 to 726 jobs, respectively. NFTs jobs were slashed by half (49.5%) in Q3, dropping from 1,424 to only 718 in total. This trend was closely followed by jobs for Ethereum specifically, which fell by 39.9% from 1,173 jobs to only 705. Blockchain jobs also fell by 26.7%, from 3,216 in Q2 but continue to retain interest with 2,357 jobs reported in Q3. Business cards are back in business With corporate and networking events back in action, so are business cards. In Q3 2022, Business Card design spiked by almost one third (30%) from 1,861 to 2,427 jobs. This is the first time since the start of 2020 that projects for Business Cards have grown significantly. ##### Freelancer Fast 50 The Freelancer Fast 50 index is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 296,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer platform between 1st July to 30th September 2022. Fast 50 Quarterly Index – Q3 2022 Fast 50 - Q3 Year-on-Year Comparison ###### About Freelancer Twelve-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 60 million registered users have posted over 20 million projects and contests to date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Freelancer owns Escrow.com, the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet with over US$6 billion in transactions secured. Freelancer also owns Freightlancer & Loadshift, enterprise freight marketplaces with over 550 million kilometres of freight posted since inception. Freelancer Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quoted on OTCQX Best Market under the ticker FLNCF. Contact Details Freelancer.com Marko Zitko +61 404 574 830 mzitko@freelancer.com Freelancer.com Sebastian Siseles +1 415-801-2271 sebastian@freelancer.com

October 13, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CHARGEFUZE BRINGS INNOVATIVE MOBILE CHARGING STATIONS TO WESTFIELD SHOPPING CENTERS IN THE U.S.

EMC

(LOS ANGELES – October 13th, 2022) –chargeFUZE will scale its innovative and autonomous out of home mobile phone charging stations into Westfield shopping centers in the US, the company announced today. The initiative is part of a thorough effort to ensure that Westfield guests have the best experience possible and can take advantage of all digital and tech forward initiatives on site. chargeFUZE’s portable charging network is being rolled out across Westfield’s US shopping centers, allowing guests to charge their devices while ‘on the go.’ ChargeFUZE’s innovative technology will enable Westfield visitors to remain untethered and to charge any device from the comfort of their person, while shopping, dining, and more. ChargeFUZE’s all-in-one portable chargers will be made available for rental via a quick QR code scan. When finished, guests can return the charger at their convenience to any of the chargeFUZE kiosk locations throughout the network. ChargeFUZE co-founder, Brandon Afari said, “We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to partner with a company like Westfield. Both our companies hold similar values in creating a meaningful brand and experience for our customers, and we are proud to align our objectives with theirs. In looking at all of our partners and locations, chargeFUZE is the perfect fit for Westfield, and we are looking forward to expanding across the US together.” ChargeFUZE co-founder Ryan Levy said, “Westfield is another large scale partnership that we are excited to announce and proud to be affiliated with. We are privileged to align with amazing corporate leaders across industry sectors, all of whom are a testament to the large scale need for chargeFUZE and its best in class technology platform. Our goal is to become the ubiquitous solution across all out of home experiences - and we are working hard on achieving this goal. We believe that in today’s digital world, individuals should always be enabled by their devices and we are excited to offer chargeFUZE to Westfield shoppers across the country.” chargeFUZE is already live at Westfield World Trade Center, Westfield Valley Fair, and Westfield San Francisco Centre, with installations continuing in most of Westfield’s US shopping centers throughout the year. Guests will be able to access chargeFUZE products via iOS and Android applications, or via a web application. ChargeFUZE is the largest and most innovative provider of high-speed, on-the-go mobile charging. It is making the experience of mobile charging ubiquitous by allowing users to rent a portable charger on the go from any of their kiosks. ChargeFUZE’s comprehensive network of autonomous kiosks enables users to charge their phones anywhere, and never miss a moment of the action, the event or their experience. When they’re done, users can easily return the portable charger at any chargeFUZE kiosk nationwide in over 25 states. They are currently powering guest experiences across sports, entertainment venues, music festivals, experiential retail, hospitality venues, casinos, hospitals, universities, restaurants, bars and many more. More information is available at chargefuze.com, contact@chargefuze.com LinkedIn or Instagram. Contact Details chargeFUZE contact@chargefuze.com

October 13, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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85% of Workers at World’s Best Workplaces Plan to Stay in the Job

Great Place To Work

In a year with unprecedented unrest in the global labor market, the best companies stood strong. Workers reevaluated their careers and lives. Employers around the world scrambled to hold on to their top talent. For companies that made the Fortune World’s Best Workplaces™ List in 2022, building trust-based relationships with employees led to higher rates of retention and productivity. For employees at these top 25 companies, on average: 88% said they “give extra” to their organization 87% said they would recommend their workplace to friends and family 85% said they want to work for their employer long-term “For companies with a global workforce, achieving a consistent experience for every employee is exponentially more difficult — and impressive,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work®. “Despite the many challenges facing global businesses in 2022, these companies have put the well-being of their people first. Their success is proof positive that when companies do right by their employees, no problem is too great to overcome,” he says. Who made the list Great Place To Work® identified the 25 winning workplaces by surveying nearly 4.5 million employees worldwide, representing the workplace experience of nearly 15 million workers. To be eligible, companies must have made a national Best Workplaces™ list in five or more countries, and have more than 5,000 global employees. These employers stood out for their commitment to employee well-being, flexible work, and equity for all workers. DHL Express took the top spot again in 2022, followed by Hilton at No. 2 and Cisco at No. 3. All three companies ranked in the top three on last year’s World’s Best Workplaces List. Millicom, Medtronic, Nestle and Bristol-Meyers Squibb are all new members of the list for 2022. FedEx also returned to the list for the first time since 2014 and Accenture returned to a spot on the list for the first time since 2011. The top 25 companies for 2022 are: DHL Express Hilton Cisco Salesforce Millicom AbbVie Deloitte Hilti Group SC Johnson Stryker Teleperformance Medtronic EY VRIO: DIRECTV & SKY SAP SE Scotiabank Accenture Nestle Cadence Mercado Libre FedEx Concentrix Sopra Steria Adobe Bristol-Meyers Squibb What separates the World’s Best? Fifteen percent more of employees at the World’s Best Workplaces said their company offered “special and unique” benefits, compared to other surveyed companies. Popular among the offerings for the top 25 were mental health programs, such as Cisco (No. 3 on the list) and its mindfulness-based Mind Set program that builds resiliency, boosts mental stamina, unlocks creative thinking and helps individuals manage change. Flexibility was also a key component of employee experiences, even for companies that can’t readily offer remote/hybrid work. Hilton (No. 2) stressed its efforts to help workers with advanced scheduling and flexible options, including call centers where team members can set their own hours and opt-in to be paid on a daily basis. Equity was another key trait of many of the companies on the list in 2022, with leaders like DHL Express (No. 1) reporting heavy investments in diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging for a global workforce. In a survey, 94% of DHL Express employees said they believe the company promotes diversity and an inclusive environment. Visuals available: World’s Best Workplaces About the Fortune World’s Best Workplaces Great Place To Work® identified the 25 winning workplaces by surveying nearly 4.5 million employees worldwide, representing the workplace experience of nearly 15 million workers. To be eligible, companies must have made a national Best Workplaces™ list in five or more countries, and have more than 5,000 global employees. Company rankings are derived from 60 employee experience questions within Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey. Read the full methodology to learn more. To get on this list next year, start here. About Great Place To Work Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, it has surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Its employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything it does is driven by its mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work for all. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Contact Details Kim Peters +1 415-844-2574 kpeters@greatplacetowork.com

October 13, 2022 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Joanne Chan Named Asia-Pacific Regional Vice President of The Public Relations Global Network

Public Relations Global Network

The Public Relations Global Network Executive Committee announced today the appointment of Joanne Chan, President and Founder of LBS Communications based in Hong Kong. Chan will replace Andy See Teong Leng of Perspective Strategies in Malaysia as the Asia-Pacific Regional Vice President of PRGN, one of the largest global networks of independent public relations and communications agencies. PRGN made the announcement at its Asia Summit Conference and Fall Member Meeting in Singapore, where member agency owners gathered to exchange knowledge and views on challenges and opportunities for the global communications market. “For over 20 years, Joanne Chen has been a pioneer and an innovator in the PR industry,” said PRGN President David Fuscus who is also President and CEO of Xenophon Strategies, Inc. in Washington D.C.,. “Now she brings her considerable skills to the Public Relations Global Network as the leader of PRGN’s Asia-Pacific region as a member of PRGN’s Executive Committee. I can’t wait to see where she will take us as we develop our capabilities in this vital global region.” Chan is Founder and Managing Director of LBS Communications Consulting Limited, a financial communications firm helping clients in the power and utilities, telecommunications and IT, retail and consumer, metal and resources, education and training and hospitality and travel industries. LBS Communications was founded in 2012, with teams based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. To create bigger impact for public companies, Chan established Sustainability Investor Relations as a business arm of LBS to promote the ESG value for public companies and address investors’ concerns on ESG risks of public companies. In her new role, Chan will work with PRGN member agencies operating in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore to enhance communication, improve coordination and drive momentum on the regional level. She will assist in public relations thought leadership, global business development, and member engagement and recruitment to benefit member agencies and PRGN’s clients around the world. Andy See Teong Leng stepped down from the role of APAC RVP of PRGN as he also currently serves as President-Elect of PRGN and would start to focus on his term as president of the global agency network starting in May 2023. Chan has been participating in the investor relations and financial communications industry for two decades. Prior to her PR career, she was working as a journalist for six years where she developed the sense of business analysis and the interest in assisting companies identify investment and promotional angles for fundraising and corporate promotion purpose. She advocates sustainability in business and believes it is a major driver for generating economic growth in the coming century. “A lot of countries in APAC have been maneuvering through Covid in the past three years to regain their strengths and stamina in economic development”, said Chan. “I am so honored to be able to stand close together with our APAC team at this juncture to ride on the recovery trend to more business opportunities, and amplify our professional knowledge and expertise in public relations to help grow bigger and bring positive impact to the community and the earth.” PRGN is an international network with 52 agency members in 34 countries in North & South America, Europe, The Middle East, Australia and Asia. PRGN member agencies are independent, local, owner-operated public relations and marketing communications firms that share expertise and resources, while providing broad-based comprehensive communications strategies to clients worldwide.Founded in 1992 by a group of visionary public relations leaders, with approximately 1,000 professionals in 61 locations, PRGN is one of the world’s largest international public relations networks. Companies or organizations interested in the services of PRGN’s local agency network can visit the Agency Directory or contact PRGN’s executive director Gábor Jelinek at gabor.jelinek@prgn.com for more information.Independent agencies interested in joining the network can visit the member recruitment section of the PRGN website for more information or email its membership chair, David Wills, Senior Vice President of Media Profile at david.wills@mediaprofile.com Contact Details Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) Gabor Jelinek +36 30 162 8910 gabor.jelinek@prgn.com Company Website https://prgn.com

October 13, 2022 06:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

With New Study, Assembly Asks Marketers: “Do you really know Gen Z?”

Assembly

Gen Z Decoded, an all-new study packed with first-hand insights about Generation Z, curated over the course of the past year, is out from global media agency Assembly. Unlike previous studies that seek to understand this evolving and influential group as one whole audience, Assembly prompts brands and marketers to consider this: Gen Z is a series of journeys, each individual and nuanced, dependent on the experiences of Zs in their particular stage of life. Available for download here. The study taps into learnings from Assembly client campaigns [Supercuts, Diesel, and Converse], first-party research powered by Appinio across six markets (UK, US, France, Germany, China, Korea), and additional expert insights curated from Assembly’s Europe Strategy & Insights team. It additionally includes 8 essential principles for brands to build meaningful relationships with Gen Z, as well as a foundational growth plan following the agency’s “Find, Change, Grow” methodology. “As they look to discover themselves, Gen Z is going on an internal journey, often staying fluid and flexible with their own identity,” said Jennifer Brown, Strategy Manager, Europe at Assembly. “They’re in an ever-changing state of discovery across different life stages, so a one-size-fits-all approach from brands isn’t going to work.” The study identifies one of Gen Z’s 6 primary characteristics as “ shapeshifters ”, with 78% of Gen Z believing that people should be able to define their own identity instead of being labelled by society. The fluidity in their identities also extends to their relationships with brands, with 55% of Gen Z stating that they aren’t loyal to any brands. Other key characteristics that distinguish Gen Z: Globally Connected: Gen Z have experienced connectivity unlike any other generation before them. 77% of Gen Z say they have never met an online friend in person, further emphasizing the emergence of digital-only relationships Passionate Disruptors: While they aren’t the first generation with grand ambitions to change the world, Gen Z is the generation that has been armed with the Internet to help them do so. 70% of Gen Z believe they can take part in a social movement through social media Entrepreneurs: By 2025, Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce, though they’re not necessarily only interested in conventional career paths. 42% of Gen Z say they have a “side hustle” and express wanting to disrupt the way jobs work in the future, many envisioning themselves to be their own bosses Purposeful: While living much of their lives on the internet, Gen Z are also intentional about how and where they are spending their time online, and with who. 27% of Gen Z spend less time on platforms with ads, and 55% of Gen Z in the 18-25 age group are experiencing social media fatigue Vulnerable: Despite their confidence and tenacity, Gen Z put enormous pressure on themselves to carry through on their values; and also despite being so digitally connected, 79% of Gen Z express feeling lonely. “Our advice to brands is: go on the journey with Gen Z and don’t stop learning. It’s all about continuous testing, learning, and adapting, because Gen Z will continue to evolve, so brands should do the same,” said Kristie Naha-Biswas, Head of Strategy & Planning, Europe at Assembly. Access Assembly's Gen Z Decoded here. ABOUT ASSEMBLY: Assembly is the modern global omnichannel media agency, bringing data, talent, and technology together to find the change that fuels growth for the best brands on the planet. Our approach connects big, bold brand stories with integrated, global media capabilities that deliver performance and drive large-scale business growth. Our work is powered by our proprietary, in-house technology solution, STAGE, and led by our global talent base of over 1,600 people around the world. We’re purpose-driven at our core and pioneers in social and environmental impact in the agency world. Assembly is a proud member of Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing. www.assemblyglobal.com ABOUT THE REPORT: Gen Z Decoded for Brand Growth is the culmination of research and real-life experience, looking at the evolution of Gen Z behavior over the past year. This large-scale report is part of a series of thought leadership, roundtables, and research insights about Gen Z, coming exclusively from global media agency, Assembly. Assembly Custom Research Powered by Appinio: Appinio is a global market research platform that enables companies worldwide to get thousands of opinions from specific target groups in just a few minutes. Assembly surveyed a Gen Z audience size of 1,500 across the UK, US, France, Germany, China, and Korea. https://www.appinio.com Contact Details Sara Pollack, VP of Marketing +1 917-438-4922 sara.pollack@assemblyglobal.com Company Website https://www.assemblyglobal.com/

October 12, 2022 05:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Empower Kids to Prevent Racially Motivated Bullying

YourUpdateTV

All kids connected with bullying—those who experience it, engage in it, and even witness it—can suffer long-term mental health consequences. Recently, VP of Education, Research, and Impact at Committee for Children & Mom of 2, Dr. Tia Kim, participated in a satellite media tour campaign to talk about racially motivated bullying and ways to empower kids to activate their upstander power. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/WKlo9vIaKdk It's back-to-school season and it's never too early to start talking to kids about racially motivated bullying and empower them to recognize, report, and refuse it so they are set up to make responsible decisions and thrive. Committee for Children is launching its fifth annual Captain Compassion campaign during National Bullying Prevention Month to teach kids how to prevent bullying in all forms, with a special emphasis on behavior motivated by racial bias. Developed by Committee for Children in 2018, Captain Compassion is an anti-bullying superhero who teaches upstanders how to recognize, report, and refuse bullying through a series of engaging, age-appropriate comic strips. One out of five students report being bullied during the school year. In 2019, of the students who reported being bullied, race was the most frequently reported characteristic referred to by hate-related words. To help address this issue, this year’s Captain Compassion comics focus on a school community that’s struggling with the social-emotional effects of racially motivated bullying. With the help of Captain Compassion and her trusty sidekick Kid Kinder®, the entire school community learns how to stand up against bullying to create safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments where children of all backgrounds can thrive. Drawn from Committee for Children’s decades of work in the field of bullying prevention, the Captain Compassion campaign presents free, award-winning comics that provide families, teachers, and caregivers with powerful, research-backed tips to empower their children and communities to stand up to bullying. The Captain Compassion site also includes resources like a Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle for kids, informative videos, downloadable posters, and more. To learn more about Captain Compassion and bullying prevention, visit CaptainCompassion.org each week this October to read brand-new comics and solve the Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle with the children in your life. To learn more about social-emotional learning and Committee for Children, visit cfchildren.org Tia Kim, PhD Bio: Vice President of Education, Research, and Impact Dr. Tia Kim is a developmental psychologist, a parent-child relationship expert, and a mom of two. She believes in a strong family foundation, open lines of communication, and the critical role that parent-child relationships play in children’s safety and well-being. With her experience as a parent, education research scientist, and psychologist, Dr. Kim aims to provide families with simple, research-based tips and insights to help them start conversations about bullying prevention. Dr. Kim began her career in academia but later decided she wanted to see her research in action helping children and youth. Today, she leads Committee for Children’s team of research scientists to develop and evaluate the quality, effectiveness, and impact of the organization’s social-emotional learning programs and family engagement work, including this year’s bullying prevention campaign, Captain Compassion. Dr. Kim received her doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and completed three years of post-doctoral training at the National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. Before joining Committee for Children, she served as an assistant professor in human development and family studies at Penn State Brandywine. About Committee for Children: Committee for Children is a global nonprofit that has championed the safety and well-being of children through bullying prevention, child protection, and social-emotional learning (SEL) for more than 40 years. With a history of action and influence, we’re known as a leader in social-emotional education and a force in advocacy, research, and innovation in the field. We take a comprehensive approach to SEL, promoting social-emotional well-being from birth to early adulthood—supporting not just classrooms, but entire communities. As our programs transform the lives of more than 24.4 million children per year, we rise to meet societal challenges to ensure children everywhere can thrive. Learn more at cfchildren.org. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

October 12, 2022 02:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Video

D2C is Revolutionizing Customer Relationships: Who is Taking Advantage?

QYOU Media

The advent of video streaming and ecommerce has shed light on the huge success businesses can enjoy with a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model. But how are businesses using D2C to cut out the middleman? This article discusses the issue with reference to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) and QYOU Media (TSXV: QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF). QYOU Media (TSXV: QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF) operates as a media company. The business produces and distributes content created by social media influencers, artists and digital content creators on television networks, satellite television, over-the-top media and mobile platforms. On the back of the successful launch of its fifth Indian TV channel through its Q India brand, QYOU Media has released its first D2C app. Q Play is free to download on the Google Play Store for smart TVs or smartphones. The Q India targets India’s massive youth population and currently reaches over 125 million viewers weekly. It’s now aiming for 200 million in three to six months. QYOU Media has rapidly built its audience by focusing on collaboration with India’s coolest and most popular social media stars. These influencers have huge followings and a bank of pre-existing content, allowing Q brand channels to quickly build high-quality programming with a massive audience. CEO and Co-Founder Curt Marvis, commented: “In less than 2 years we have grown the audience for Q India branded content from single digit millions weekly to over 125 million today. This is a major accomplishment that is driving much of our product development in 2022 and beyond.” “We call it our “loudspeaker” and we fully intend to use it to deepen our engagement directly with our followers. This also increases our ability to deliver the right kinds of content, brand offerings and ultimately deliver what they want while ultimately monetizing our audience as effectively as possible.” With the company having recently reported record revenues of CA$6.9m, an increase of 163%, and the launch of several channels targeting young Indians, QYOU Media’s new D2C app could spur further growth. Apple Inc ( NASDAQ: AAPL ) designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories. The company offers payment, digital content, cloud and advertising services. Customers are primarily in consumer, small & mid-sized business, education, enterprise and government markets worldwide. Apple Inc is one of the most recognisable D2C businesses. The company’s products are available to consumers through its website and its distinctive brick and mortar stores, which are a major part of its brand identity. Indeed, its App Store also allows the business to manage digital sales of its software to users of iPads, iPhones and Macs. These D2C shopfronts have been enormously successful for the company. It stated in January 2022 that the App Store alone had generated $260bn for developers and that 2021 had been a record year for the platform. The ownership of this apparatus gives the business a significant amount of control. For example, the business revealed in September that it is hiking App Store prices in Europe and Asia to combat the impact of some international currencies’ current weakness against the US dollar. For some platforms such a move might be a disaster, but the popularity of Apple Inc’s products indicates that this might be a change that consumers simply have to swallow. But this stranglehold could break in future, particularly as the cost-of-living crisis begins to bite. Indeed, Apple Inc has already backed down from plans to increase production of its recently launched iPhone 14 in the wake of unexpectedly low demand. Nike Inc ( NYSE: NKE ) designs, develops and markets athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products for men, women and children. The company sells its products to retail stores, through its own stores, subsidiaries and distributors. Nike Inc has really thrown itself into the task of removing the middleman by embracing D2C tactics. The company’s fourth quarter earnings, which were released in late June, showed that revenue from direct sales to consumers grew by 7% to $4.8bn during the period as its digital offering showed particular strength. This led Matt Friend, Executive VP and CEO, to comment: "Two years into executing our Consumer Direct Acceleration, we are better positioned than ever to drive long-term growth while serving consumers directly at scale." Nike Inc first announced intentions to improve its relationship with customers back in 2017, citing a need to be “more aggressive in the digital marketplace” and focus on the constantly changing needs of customers. Despite the apparent success of its direct offering, the company is facing challenges, as dealing directly with customers has not allowed the business to escape supply chain issues. Indeed, the end of September saw Nike Inc’s share price drop sharply after it emerged that shipping difficulties left the business unable to shift large quantities of its merchandise before demand fell. Shopify ( NASDAQ: SHOP ) provides a cloud-based commerce platform. The company offers a platform for merchants to create an omni-channel experience that helps showcase the merchant's brand. While not itself a D2C proposition, Shopify is reaping the benefits of the rise in popularity of the business model. That’s because the company aims to give merchants the power to run their own ecommerce stores, essentially powering other businesses’ D2C offerings. Indeed, Shopify is championing the idea that businesses must expand beyond the D2C model to a connect to consumer, or C2C, model. The business says merchants must seek to form genuine connections with customers and is tailoring many of its new tools for this purpose. Whether this kind of experience is the future of ecommerce remains unclear, but Shopify’s offering is clearly resonating to some extent. The business’ most recent earnings update, which covered the three months ended 30 June 2022, saw revenue climb by 16% to $1.3bn as merchant solutions revenue rose by 18%. However, the business has faced some difficulties recently. These include the business cutting 10% of its workforce at the end of July as CEO Tobi Lutke cautioned that the company’s expansion plans had not been successful. ValueTheMarkets.com News Commentary IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER PAID ADVERTISEMENT This communication is a paid advertisement. ValueTheMarkets is a trading name of Digitonic Ltd, and its owners, directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents and assigns (collectively the Publisher) is often paid by one or more of the profiled companies or a third party to disseminate these types of communications. In this case, the Publisher has been compensated by QYOU Media to conduct investor awareness advertising and marketing and has paid the Publisher the equivalent of one hundred and ninety thousand US dollars to produce and disseminate this and other similar articles and certain related banner advertisements. This compensation should be viewed as a major conflict with the Publisher's ability to provide unbiased information or opinion. 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October 12, 2022 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Fullintel Appoints James Rubec as Head of Product

Fullintel, LLC

Fullintel, a leading media monitoring and analysis services company specializing in human curation combined with powerful predictive intelligence, is pleased to announce it has appointed James Rubec its new Head of Product. A former senior director of product management and director of content and licensing management at Cision and Cision Canada, Rubec is an industry leader with a history of thought leadership and innovative data storytelling around how media influences the world around us. Rubec has used data to predict elections, uncover societal trends, and improve internal business processes. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Financial Post, Yahoo Finance, Variety Magazine, and the CBC. Helping communicators understand the media landscape and capitalize on opportunities Rubec has now joined Fullintel to collaborate with clients to identify opportunities and use cases for PredictiveAI™, Fullintel’s human-in-the-loop machine learning solution designed to predict the virality of media stories and social posts. “My goal is to help PR professionals tell more effective stories and help organizations take advantage of the predictive tooling that Fullintel has developed,” says Rubec. “By better understanding the landscape through PredictiveAI™, communicators can identify an issue before it becomes a crisis or better identify stories that should be amplified to make them powerful promotional tools. We’re taking PR past gut instinct and into data science.” He’ll be focused on expanding the product roadmap for PredictiveAI™, to make it an even more agile and flexible tool as part of the Fullintel Hub, Fullintel’s real-time media monitoring platform. A history of using data to improve products and processes Rubec got his start as a reporter in Ottawa, Ontario and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, working as a PR professional in Toronto before transitioning to the media intelligence space nearly a decade ago. Since then he’s primarily focused on building tools and processes to help organizations move faster, engage the media more efficiently, and better understand their industries. “James has shown he’s a leader who can motivate action through data,” said Fullintel President Andrew Koeck. “He’ll work closely with our clients to evolve our software offerings and build a product roadmap to leverage our real-time monitoring and analysis tools, to provide insights and data never before available from any vendor.” Rubec’s addition builds on Fullintel’s growing momentum in the PR measurement industry, culminating in the company winning Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards at the 2021 AMEC Awards for media measurement. His hiring follows Fullintel’s hiring of Angela Dwyer as Head of Insights, and the company’s shortlisting for five 2022 AMEC Awards for outstanding media measurement. Fullintel combines best-in-class technology with expert content curation to deliver the most relevant, cost optimized media monitoring, daily news briefs, and media analysis possible. Our analysts curate print, online, social media, broadcast, and influencer opinions in real time – compiled by technology, supplemented and verified by humans. Where technology alone fails, your dedicated analyst has you covered. Fullintel has offices in Cambridge, Mass., Ottawa, Ont., and Nagercoil, India. Contact Details Samuel Chen +1 339-970-8005 schen@fullintel.com Company Website https://fullintel.com/

October 12, 2022 10:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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