Monday Marketing News: Wishpond, AfterPay, Awards, and more!

Today we feature a round-up of some big events and recent industry happenings.

• Is Wishpond the next Shopify?
• The Influence Agency Launches The Influence Awards
• AfterPay Announces new General Manager of North America
• New Facebook ads updates: Ads in Instagram Reels + VR Ads
• Kijiji and Kijiji Autos partners with InfoSum.

Read more below!

Is Wishpond the next Shopify?

Wishpond Technologies Ltd. is a fast-growing digital marketing technology company with ambitious growth aspirations to be the next Shopify. The company currently has 3,000+ paying customers, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Recently, Wishpond announced its first full quarter financial results since going public with a record 74% year-over-year revenue growth!

In continuation of this trend, Financial analysts are projecting 75%+ growth for Wishpond in 2021.

Shopify empowers entrepreneurs with all the e-commerce tools they need to run their business online; while Wishpond empowers entrepreneurs with all the digital marketing tools they need to grow their business. Both companies are committed to empowering entrepreneurs to achieve success online.

Wishpond’s cost-effective tools have been very effective with small businesses that don’t have large budgets or the time and expertise to market themselves online. We look forward to seeing where this trajectory takes them!

The Influence Agency Launches The Influence Awards

The Influence Agency, an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Toronto, recently announced its first-ever content creator awards called The Influence Awards! It’s an exclusive digital award that celebrates the work of content creators across North America within multiple categories including beauty, changemaker, gaming, up and coming, and more.

Nominations are currently open until July 9, after which the final 10 nominees for each category will be chosen by a panel of industry judges from TikTok, Linkedin, RBC, Later, Pride Toronto, and more. Following the category nominees' announcements, voting will commence on August 31, 2021, and The Influence Awards’ first official winners will be chosen by the public in Fall 2021.

Read the full release here.

Afterpay Announces New General Manager of North America

Afterpay, the leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments, has announced that it has appointed Zahir Khoja as General Manager of North America. Zahir will be responsible for key functions of the North American business including sales, client relationships, business growth and partnerships, as the company continues its rapid market expansion. Previously, Zahir served as the executive vice president of global merchant solutions and partnerships at Mastercard.

Zahir joins Afterpay with more than 20 years of global experience leading businesses including building high-performing sales teams. He most recently held tenure at Mastercard in a global capacity, where he was responsible for developing and executing solutions that enabled new growth opportunities for the business and its partners.

Afterpay also recently announced its new North American headquarters to accommodate its growing employee base in the region, which has more than doubled in size over the last year. The company also recently announced that it is the presenting sponsor of New York Fashion Week: The Shows this September.

Facebook Ads updates: Instagram Reels + VR Ads

Facebook Canada to share an update on two new ad placements available for advertisers, including Instagram Reels ads and ads in VR.

Instagram Reels Ads: Since launching Reels, Facebook has been inspired by the creativity from businesses and creators who use it as a global stage to entertain their communities.

The Reels ads will be full screen and vertical, similar to ads in Stories, and will appear in between individual Reels. As with regular Reels content, Reels ads will loop and can be up to 30 seconds. People can comment, like, view, save, share and skip Reels ads. Just like all ads on Instagram, we will also provide people with controls on the ads they see. If people see an ad they don't like, they can tap the ... menu on the post to “Hide” or “Report” an ad.

Ads in VR: Last month, Facebook announced a new test of ads in the Oculus mobile app to showcase VR applications by our developer community. Now, they have unveiled the next phase of that exploration: a small test of in-headset ads that will be rolling out over the coming weeks.

The Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) is bringing more people into VR, advancing the consumer experience, and making progress on our longer-term augmented reality initiatives. For now, this is a test with three apps— once they see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and the community, they’ll provide more details on when ads may become more broadly available.

Kijiji and Kijiji Autos partners with InfoSum.

Today, Kijiji and Kijiji Autos have announced their partnership with one of the world’s leading data collaboration platforms, InfoSum. The partnership with InfoSum will enable Kijiji and advertising partners to access the full potential of their data by enabling privacy-first collaboration.

For the first time, with the support of InfoSum, brands will be able to securely match their customer data with Kijiji’s addressable audiences to create omnichannel marketing and customer experiences.

This partnership, along with others to come, represents Kijiji’s efforts to enable brands and advertisers the ability to target Canadian shoppers and car shoppers on Kijiji and Kijiji Autos and build lookalike audiences – without the need for third party cookies.

Compiled by Emma Whiten, Editor of Marketing News Canada