ELUXE – Dealuxe online shopping changes name to eLUXE

As we reported earlier today, Duke McKenzie has been appointed as the new CEO of eLUXE, and will be taking over for its founder Joanna Track who has done a good job at creating the fashion based site.   The company has also announced it has secured $2.1 million in funding from a number of  early stage investors. These include Silicon Valley’s Just Business, Ontario’s Courtney Ventures Inc., and Silicon Alley entrepreneur and executive Mike Keriakos. The new funding will be used to help further expand eLUXE’s retail and media business.

 “eLUXE is a leader in the online retail industry and I am excited to help guide our continued growth,” says McKenzie. “Retail and media have evolved, in fact they are converging. Consumers now expect content to be readable, watchable and shoppable— and eLUXE is on the forefront of fulfilling this expectation.“

eLUXE quickly grew to a popular destination for women across Canada, which makes this change of management an odd one as the company continues to grow. Duke has been a board member for eLUXE since early 2012 and will now take the reigns as CEO.    Previously he was Senior Vice President of Sales at Mediative, Co-Founder & President of UpTrend Media (which was later sold to Mediative), and prior to that Senior Sales Manager at AOL Canada.

According to eLUXE, Joanna will continue to be involved in the company as she joins the board of directors and will be advising on strategic initiatives.

“This acquisition is an important step for us in building out the most robust offering in the market for brands and companies to support their entire social marketing cycle, from the data they want, to the insights they need leading to conversions they crave. MyTwatch’s award winning proprietary listening technology and semantic analysis – currently utilized by numerous clients, round out our strengths in creating, distributing and measuring social media marketing programs. With the capability to execute in 6 languages, their platform will become a key aspect in our effort to attract customers globally,” explained Paul Allard, CEO of Parta.

MyTwatch was founded by two internet and marketing experts, Philippe Gablain and Edith Nuss, capitalizing more than 25 years of e-marketing and internet services experience. The company has developed an innovative social media crawler capable of gathering large volumes of data across anything digital (all social media platform, forums, blogs etc.) and through semantic analysis, can determine important critical outcomes such as topic identification, influence and lead generation.

Owen is the Executive Director of Guru Digital Arts College and brings 15 years of experience in the digital media industry. He also served as the Multimedia Development Coordinator for Alberta Learning’s LearnAlberta.ca project, a repository of digital learning objects for the K-12 sector.

Wade Muri, from WadeCo Ventures was elected VP North, where he will be working in Edmonton. Jas Panesar from Damaag Consulting will also be joining the Edmonton division as a board member. Peter Bishop from ZGM Collaborative Marketing, Jamie Clark from Business Instincts Group and Tyler Shandro from Robots and Pencils were elected as board members for the Calgary division.

The new board members join existing members Arleigh Vasconcellos as Vice President South, Joon Chan as Treasurer, Meredith MacDonald as Governance Chair, and Kevin Dhal, Ryan Bonnell, Chelsea Klukas and Chad Smith as directors. Former President Michelle Sklar will remain on to serve as Past President.

“Marketers need to wipe the mom slate clean and recognize the diversity of the mom target. Our research shows that Millennial Moms are more digitally connected than older moms and spend a great deal of time on their social networks,” says Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick. “These women are armed with information and are inherently influential both online and offline. Their digital connectedness gives them a much different perspective of motherhood and brands need to learn how to better engage them in this new social era.”

Vital Social Statistics of Millennial Moms

Key Insights of Millennial Moms

Our research reveals insights about this younger segment of moms that highlight opportunities for marketers and communicators to tap into:

• Millennial Moms are highly connected. Millennial Moms have more social networks than moms overall (3.4 accounts vs. 2.6 accounts, respectively). Millennial Moms spend 17.4 hours per week on these sites, nearly four hours more than the average mom.
• Millennial Moms are highly influential. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Millennial Moms say they are sought out more often than other friends for advice on a wide range of topics. They are more likely than moms overall to provide recommendations online and to be asked by others for their opinions on products. In an average month, Millennial Moms “like” or recommend products or services online 10.4 times while the average mom does so 7.7 times.
• Millennial Moms share more information about products and services.  At least nine in 10 Millennial Moms share information about apparel, retail stores and groceries/food and beverages (in-person, online or both). Compared to moms overall, Millennial Moms are better sharers of information for several categories, including: goods for the home, websites or social networking sites, products or services for digital devices, financial investments and life insurance coverage.
• Millennial Moms value life management assistance. About one-quarter (26 percent) of Millennial Moms would be interested in paying $50 per month to have someone help manage their lives and one in five (20 percent) would be willing to pay $150. The main reason for their willingness to pay for life management outsourcing is lack of time/busy schedule.

3 Key Tips For Targeting Millennial Moms

• Recognize the potential of Millennial Moms as influencers in all sectors. In the United States, Millennial Moms are 9 million women strong. Companies of all types should ensure they are leveraging the opportunities of an influential and interested demographic that they may have traditionally overlooked.
• Do not lump all moms into one market segment. Not all Millennial Moms are in two-parent families with dual-incomes. Many Millennial Moms may have difficulty identifying with images of the traditional two-parent family. Marketers and communicators need to develop campaigns that focus on the mother-child relationship and the independent identity that some Millennial Moms have built for themselves.
• Develop products – including digital ones like apps – that  help make Millennial Moms’ lives simpler. They are looking for less complexity in their lives. Whether or not they are willing to pay a premium for simplicity should be determined through additional research, but our findings suggest that Millennial Moms see value in life-managing resources.

The interactive execution turns the NYTimes.com homepage into strips of content that sequentially slide out of the users’ screen upon click of the big box media placement to make way for a branded media player. The media player then offers users a selection of interactive videos showcasing Microsoft Office 365 demonstrations and product features.

Microsoft’s Office 365 campaign is running on NYTimes.com’s homepage starting June 17th 2013.

Kirstine kicked off the event by showing how Twitter has evolved as a product since its inception and talking to the audience about some of the bigger deals that Twitter has done mainly in the US.  She also touched on the two recent Canadian deals that the Twitter team as signed with Shaw Media and the Twitter Amplify program, as well the deal with Bell Media for research.

Next up was a moderated panel withBruce Neve, CEO Starcom MediaVest Canada + Jamie Edwards, CEO at Mediacom Canada sitting in to share some points on the opportunity they see from Twitter Canada:

• “Twitter is social glue”
• “Twitter helps amplify conversations”
• You have to create equity and value for consumers
• People create content around things such as events
• “If I get another LCB burger invite I’m turning off my Facebook”

Overall the room was excited to see Twitter arrive in Canada with a physical presence, of course by that we mean someone actually located in Canada to run Canada.

Lancôme will present a modern twist on the curation of photographic work by some of Canada’s top beauty, fashion & lifestyle bloggers in a virtual gallery installation, which can only been seen with a smartphone at David Pecaut Square during the Luminato Festival.

“Our aim was to offer a fun and engaging digital experience to festivalgoers. Our collaboration with Cundari (and LBAM and CrowdOptic) allowed us to create a unique project that beautifully integrates the Lancôme brand into the artistic nature of Luminato,” said Alexandra Tanner, E-Business and Interactive Marketing Manager, Lancôme Canada.

In order to view the photo gallery, festivalgoers will be invited to download the “Lancôme Virtual Gallery” mobile app from iPhone or Android devices. They can then scan the area with their smartphones and an augmented reality experience will appear, bringing the gallery images to life.

“While the initial plan was to use mobile technology to create an engaging experience that built on the Lancôme brand, we felt there was an innovative opportunity to create a world’s first experience,” says Adrian Capobianco, Managing Director of Digital for Cundari.

These images will be virtually placed in three-dimensional space to create the shape of a rose, the emblem of the Lancôme brand. While the Virtual Gallery viewers pan their surroundings to uncover the 20 virtual images around them, sophisticated mobile software will track  the anonymous interactions, motions, movements and compass directions that will form the World’s first human heat map logo.

Colleen Gauthier joined has as Manager, New Business Development. Colleen has more than 13 years’ experience in business development, sales, product marketing, corporate communications, and management.  Colleen’s extensive background in the higher education, non-profit and publishing industries is expected to serve ST well as the agency focuses on building its reach as a multi-disciplinary social marketing agency, with enviable creative and strategic assets in the areas of advertising, social media, digital and direct marketing.

Mike Prentice has been hired as an Account Director. Mike is a client services specialist who brings to ST a uniquely diverse professional background in account management, strategic planning, business development and fundraising. Previously he has worked at agencies such as DDB Canada and RAPP Canada, Mike brings a depth of experience in direct response, digital marketing, traditional mass advertising and integrated campaign planning.    Prior to his agency career, Mike spent ten years honing his marketing and management skills at a number of not-for-profit organizations, including a position as the Director of Development for Free The Children.

George Berdoussis has been added as an Account Manager. George comes to Stephen Thomas Ltd with previous brand marketing experience working for agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Grip Limited. His account experience includes working for such major brands as Tim Hortons, Stella Artois and MADD Canada, doig TV, radio, digital, DM, print, OOH and POP marketing.

The last addition is Sheidell Magalong, who has been hired as an Account Coordinator. Sheidell is a recent graduate of the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto.