Avenue A | Razorfish and Pluck Agree to Develop New Social Media Offering

Avenue A | Razorfish, one of the world’s largest digital marketing companies, and Pluck Corp., a recognized leader in social media technology, today announced that the two companies have signed an agreement to develop and market the industry’s first offering to inject social media features like customer comments and user-generated content into mainstream digital advertisements.

The social advertising service, code-named AdLife, will make it possible for marketers to embed social media technology directly into Interactive Advertising Bureau-standard advertising units that are distributed wherever consumers live in the digital world. Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead for Avenue A | Razorfish, said, "It's clear that consumers want a stronger voice in the conversation with the marketer. When developed, AdLife will enable consumer participation and social influence inside the billions of impressions received by traditional digital ad units like banner ads." Singh explained that AdLife could apply to virtually any industry. For instance, a film studio might announce a new movie through a banner advertisement that enables consumers to review the movie by clicking on the ad, as well as reading feedback from other movie goers – without ever leaving the point of display for the advertisement.

The two companies indicated that the next steps in the development of AdLife are to conduct extensive beta testing with digital marketers prior to making the offering available.