AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bazaarvoice, Inc. (Nasdaq:BV), a leading social software company, has appointed Ari Paparo to the position of Senior Vice President of Media Products. In this newly-created role, Paparo will report to Stephen Collins, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Financial Officer, and will be responsible for driving the growth and development of Bazaarvoice's data, media, and advertising products.
"eCommerce companies are quickly evolving to pursue opportunities for greater site monetization by leveraging their data, content, and shopper audience. Brands are increasingly looking for methods to influence consumers in the late consideration stage while they are shopping online. Bazaarvoice is committed to innovating on behalf of our clients in these areas because doing so is essential for their future growth and profitability," said Mr. Collins. "Ari has a tremendous track record of visionary product development and growth in online advertising and related technologies, and we expect him to have a huge impact on our ability to grow our business through product innovation."
Mr. Paparo joins Bazaarvoice to supplement and leverage last year's acquisition of media advertising network Longboard Media. Longboard is a leader in helping to monetize eCommerce sites' traffic through premium advertising and sponsorships.
"Longboard is a great platform and a great team. We're bringing Ari on board not only to build innovative new media products but also to integrate our SaaS platform, social content, and market data to build a high-value, complete solutions to the retail market," said Mr. Collins.
Mr. Paparo is a six-year veteran of Google and DoubleClick, where he was the Director of Product Management at Google's DoubleClick business. Ari is well known in the online advertising community for his authorship of the VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) specification for online video and his development of an online gross ratings point (GRP) model for Nielsen. He is a frequent contributor to AdAge.com and other industry publications as well as a speaker at advertising industry conferences.
Immediately prior to Bazaarvoice, Mr. Paparo was the Senior Vice President of Product Management for AppNexus, where he launched the digital advertising industry's first apps marketplace and helped the company grow more than 400 percent in 18 months.
"There's a huge opportunity to empower eCommerce merchants and brands in the digital world," said Paparo. "Bazaarvoice has access to a unique set of content: the authentic voices of consumers as they interact on eCommerce sites. Unlocking the data behind this word of mouth content and the consumer relationships these companies have can produce great benefits to everyone involved."
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice, a leading social software company, assists clients in bringing the voice of the customer to the center of business strategy. With over 2,000 clients globally, including over half of the Internet Retailer 500, over 20 percent of the Fortune 500 and over one-third of the Fortune 100, Bazaarvoice helps clients to leverage social data derived from online word of mouth content to increase sales, acquire new customers, improve marketing effectiveness, enhance consumer engagement across channels, increase success of new product launches, improve existing products and services, effectively scale customer support, decrease product returns and enable retailers to launch and manage on-site advertising solutions and site monetization strategies. This online word of mouth content can be syndicated across Bazaarvoice's global network of client websites, shopper media sites and mobile devices, making the user-generated content that digital consumers trust accessible at multiple points of purchase. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Bazaarvoice has offices in Amsterdam, London, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Stockholm and Sydney. For more information, visit www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarvoice.com/blog, and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.
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