By: Brent Oakley, CEO & Co-Founder, VibenomicsBy: Brent Oakley, CEO & Co-Founder, VibenomicsThe good vibes have been overflowing lately at Vibenomics, and news like this deserves to be broadcast! We are so privileged to announce our recent recognition for two prestigious awards: TechPoint Mira Awards “Scale-Up of the Year” Finalist, and a 2020 Winner in the Small Employer Category for “Best Places to Work”, presented by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.
We are honored to be recognized as an outstanding company in Indiana alongside organizations like GEICO, Salesforce, Republic Airways, Conga, and Eli Lilly. It’s humbling and gratifying that premiere driving forces behind Indiana’s economic development have taken notice of the immense transformation and growth Vibenomics has experienced over the past year. It’s a true testament to the optimism that we – and the community – have for our future. Here are some highlights about our two recent honors:
TechPoint’s Mira Awards is the state’s largest and longest-running technology excellence and innovation recognition program celebrating ‘The Best of Tech in Indiana’. This year, 129 organizations advanced as nominees for awards to be announced in April. Award nominees were selected by 48 independent subject matter experts who will review presentations by company leadership in each category in preparation for the awards gala.
“Our 2020 Mira Awards theme—‘Be Bold.’—is both a reflection of the growth and successes that the nominees achieved over the past year, as well as a call-to-arms for the tech community as a whole to shed those last remaining remnants of timidness or apprehension,” said Mike Langellier, president and CEO of TechPoint.
“Think big, go turbo” is a Vibenomics core value that remains at the heart of our company vision and drives all aspects of our business. The perfect combination of winning partnerships, state-of-the-art technology, implementation of industry-disrupting strategy, notable year-over-year growth, and experienced leadership allows us to live out this value daily, and puts Vibenomics in the perfect position to be recognized as the “Scale-up of the Year”.
See the full list of Mira Award Nominees >>
Vibenomics is one of 125 Indiana companies selected as a “2020 Best Place to Work in Indiana” by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and is one of 38 first-time honorees. The list of winners was determined after a rigorous review of employer-reported details on talent and retention compared with confidential employee surveys. Vibenomics represents the “Small Companies (15-74 U.S. Employees)” category alongside 51 other state-wide honorees.
Kevin Brinegar – Indiana Chamber of Commerce President – says the Chamber continues “to be impressed with the quality of employers, their strong workplace cultures and best practices they have in place that both strengthen the company and the employer-employee relationship.”
See the full list of 2020 Best Places to Work in Indiana >>
On behalf of the “Vibe Tribe”, I’d like to send my most heartfelt thanks to both TechPoint and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for recognizing the great work happening here at Vibenomics. I’d also like to give a hearty congratulations to all of our fellow honorees, and look forward to our organizations achieving even greater feats in 2020 and beyond!
Vibenomics, provider of custom streaming radio stations for thousands of points of interest and the industry’s first audio out-of-home™ (OOH) programmatic advertising marketplace, has promoted Paul Brenner from Chief Strategy Officer to President and Chief Strategy Officer and expanded its sales team adding seasoned advertising industry veterans Josh Pyne and Brian Liebler. Mr. Brenner will own the overall vision and go-to-market strategy for Vibenomics’ audio out-of-home advertising.
“The market reception and growth trajectory of audio out-of-home advertising has been astounding, and there is no more capable leader than Paul Brenner to accelerate our momentum in this exciting space,” says Brent Oakley, CEO and Co-Founder of Vibenomics. “When Paul joined Vibenomics six months ago, it marked a clear turning point in our company’s evolution as a premiere destination for marketers who want to influence shoppers as they take those final footsteps on the path to purchase, and he has earned the full support of our entire team.”
To support the rapidly growing marketplace inventory and demand from national brands and agencies for Audio OOH™ advertising, the company has named Josh Pyne Vice President of Ad Sales, reporting to Mr. Brenner. Mr. Pyne assumes leadership of an existing team of category direct advertising account executives who work with Vibenomics Ad Market partner retailer category vendors. The company also hired New York-based Brian Liebler to be Director of National Ad Sales.
“Traditional audio, OOH, and retail media are in the midst of a digital renaissance along parallel paths that converge at Vibenomics, putting us in a unique position that resonates with a range of media buying disciplines tapping into a variety of budget sources,” says Mr. Brenner. “Josh Pyne has the right leadership experience scaling emerging media channels to seize upon this transformative opportunity. He is well on his way to building a world-class ad sales organization with the addition of respected industry veteran Brian Liebler who gives us a crucial local presence on the ground in New York.”
Before joining Vibenomics, Mr. Pyne oversaw global channel partnerships with data-driven marketing agencies and consultancies for 2 years as part of Equifax’s Enterprise Alliances organization. Earlier in his 15-year career, Mr. Pyne gained both agency and publisher side experience defining go-to-market strategy and providing executive-level sales leadership throughout the emergence of digital, mobile, and programmatic advertising. Roles included VP of Strategic Partnerships for ChaCha, VP of Account Strategy at LEAPamp, and VP, Engagement Strategy for Caperion. Mr. Pyne holds an MBA from the University of Indianapolis and a BS from Georgetown College where he played football. He is also currently a Partner at Bluegrass Snack Co, giving him unique insight on retail media from the perspective of a category vendor.
Previously, Mr. Liebler served as Vice President of Sales, US at Launchmetrics and before that, was Vice President of Advertising Sales at Whisper. He was also Vice President of Advertising Sales & Business Development at ooVoo, and over two decades, held positions of various seniority at ChaCha, Alloy Media + Marketing (now Defy Media), Y2M: Youth Media + Marketing (acquired by Viacom’s mtvU now Cheddar), XOS Digital, and CO-ED Magazine/COED Media Group (acquired by bluTonic). Mr. Liebler holds an M.B.A. in marketing from Seton Hall University.
Vibenomics, Inc. is a location-based Audio Out-of-Home™ advertising and experience company that powers custom radio stations for retailers, giving brands the ability to talk to shoppers directly at the point of sale. With its powerful cloud-based technology, licensed background music library, data integration capabilities, full-service team of audio experience experts, and network of professional voice talent available on-demand, the company provides the right revenue-enhancing vibe for over 100 advertisers in more than 4000 locations across 48 states, reaching over 150 million people.
Delivered through flexible plug-and-play mobile tablet devices, Vibenomics dynamically broadcasts hyper-targeted, in-stream audio advertisements and curated playlists within any combination of locations across its swiftly growing national footprint, unlocking a powerful new shopper marketing channel for reaching consumers during the critical final footsteps along the path to purchase. Through a first-of-its kind partner program, retailers can receive a portion of revenue for all advertisements sold by Vibenomics that play within their locations, giving them the ability to monetize their private airwaves and transform a legacy expense into a new profit center.
Founded in 2016 in Indianapolis as Fuzic, the company rebranded to Vibenomics in 2017 and is backed by $7.6 million in investments. Vibenomics was named a 2020 Best Place to Work by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and is a finalist for “Scale-Up of the Year” in the 2020 TechPoint MIRA Awards, the biggest tech awards program in Indiana.
Vibenomics, provider of custom streaming radio stations for retailers, today announced the launch of a Convenience Store Audio Out-of-Home™ Advertising Marketplace that will generate new revenue for participating stores and help shopper marketers target customers in-store with a new form of retail media. The Marketplace launches with 4000 convenience retail locations in the U.S. across 48 states and by year’s end, will grow to more than 9000 stores.
The C-Store Audio OOH™ Ad Market provides a share of revenue to convenience stores for each campaign that runs in their locations while relieving the cost of selling and managing ads, which is handled entirely by Vibenomics, giving c-store operators the ability to generate profit and an opportunity to offset the traditional cost of business music licensing.
“What had been a cost center for providing background music feeds, can now be a new revenue stream for convenience stores, with material effect on c-store margins,” says Brent Oakley, CEO and Co-founder of Vibenomics. “Convenience store operators appreciate the unique partner program we have developed that enables them to transform the legacy music providers into a new revenue generating engine for their business, and a disruptive new marketing tool for their vendor categories.”
Martin & Bayley Inc. (DBA Huck’s), operator of 123 large-format convenience store locations across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, has beta tested the Vibenomics Audio Out-of-Home™ Advertising Marketplace resulting in significant sales lift and return on ad spend for its vendor category advertisers, including a 21% increase in sales for an energy drink product.
“At Huck’s, we are constantly looking to enhance the customer experience in each of our stores, while raising the bottom line,” says Jon Bunch, Director of Marketing Business Development for Huck’s. “Our category partners are excited by the new Huck’s Radio audio OOH advertising ability, and my team is pumped to be moving more product and creating a new profit center all while enhancing the in-store experience, thanks to Vibenomics.”
To better quantify the Audio OOH™ opportunity, Vibenomics leveraged location intelligence from SafeGraph alongside US census block insights to analyze visitor behavior and demographic characteristics across more than 150,000 individual points of interest in the convenience store industry. The results of this analysis are available to download as an infographic titled ‘Profile of a Convenience Store Shopper’. When compared to industry averages, the Vibenomics C-Store Audio OOH™ Ad Marketplace locations had:
The technology that powers Vibenomics enables brands to target the precise audience profile, behaviors, and locations that maximize conversions. Advertisers can choose to provide their own creative assets, or rely on Vibenomics’ full-service sonic branding studio to produce custom audio spots as a value-add, for campaigns ranging from general use national spots to highly personalized hyper-local or retailer co-branded media strategies.
“With the innovation and explosive growth happening in convenience, this retail sector has emerged as a natural fit for Vibenomics that enables our audio out-of-home advertising to reach the majority of US consumers during those critical final footsteps along the path to purchase for a diverse range of product categories,” concludes Mr. Oakley.
Vibenomics, Inc. is a location-based Audio Out-of-Home™ advertising and experience company that powers custom radio stations for retailers, giving brands the ability to talk to shoppers directly at the point of sale. With its powerful cloud-based technology, licensed background music library, data integration capabilities, full-service team of audio experience experts, and network of professional voice talent available on-demand, the company provides the right revenue-enhancing vibe for over 100 advertisers in more than 4000 locations across 48 states, reaching over 150 million people.
Delivered through flexible plug-and-play mobile tablet devices, Vibenomics dynamically broadcasts hyper-targeted, in-stream audio advertisements and curated playlists within any combination of locations across its swiftly growing national footprint, unlocking a powerful new shopper marketing channel for reaching consumers during the critical final footsteps along the path to purchase. Through a first-of-its kind partner program, retailers can receive a portion of revenue for all advertisements sold by Vibenomics that play within their locations, giving them the ability to monetize their private airwaves and transform a legacy expense into a new profit center.
Founded in 2016 in Indianapolis as Fuzic, the company rebranded to Vibenomics in 2017 and is backed by $7.6 million in investments.
Vibenomics, provider of place-based audio experience solutions and the industry’s first audio out-of-home (OOH) programmatic advertising marketplace, today announced it has closed $5 million in new funding. The Seed Plus round included current investor High Alpha, with participation from new partners Elevate Ventures and The Ricker Family, previous owners of Ricker’s convenience store chain (acquired by Giant Eagle), an inaugural customer of Vibenomics’ Audio Experience Solution.
Through its cloud-based technology and managed services, Vibenomics enables location-based businesses and connected cities to create and control their background musical vibe to enhance sales and enrich the customer experience. The company recently launched an audio out-of-home (OOH) advertising marketplace enabling brands to reach a national audience of nearly 150 million consumers or target any combination of 4000 individual locations. Brands as well as Vibenomics ad marketplace locations reported consistently positive results, with one retail chain partner achieving 42% sales lift and $1.9 million incremental revenue for an entertainment category advertiser.
“The new funding will be used primarily to expand the advertising marketplace by increasing the number of participating locations and building out the ad sales team,” says Brent Oakley, founder and CEO of Vibenomics. “We will focus on real-time custom branded and curated content, dynamic music and programmatic advertising across strategic marketing verticals and categories.”
“The nature of audio has changed dramatically in recent years, but Vibenomics has tapped into a very real desire by national and local brands to reach captive, on-the-go consumers in the places where they shop, work, travel, and play,” says Vibenomics Chairman, Scott McCorkle. “Background audio has proven ability to directly impact purchase decisions and trigger impulse buys in-store. Vibenomics has significant growth potential, and is making impressive progress in both its technology and go-to-market strategy.”
Before the company was renamed Vibenomics in 2017, it raised $280,000 from friends and family and $3 million in Seed funding as Fuzic LLC. As Vibenomics, Inc. it has now raised an additional $5 million in venture and private investment funding as part of this latest Seed Plus round, bringing total investments to $8,280,000. Vibenomics plans to raise Series A institutional funding in 2020.
High Alpha is a leading venture studio focused on building next-generation enterprise cloud companies through a new model for entrepreneurship that unites company building and venture capital. The High Alpha team partners with entrepreneurs, investors and large corporations to conceive, launch and scale new software companies.
Vibenomics, Inc. is a technology company that enables location-based businesses and connected cities to create and control their background musical vibe to enhance sales and enrich the customer experience. Through curated playlists and professionally voiced promotional announcements, the company provides the right revenue-enhancing vibe for over 4000 locations in 45 states, and gives over 100 brands the ability to speak directly to nearly 150 million consumers right at the point-of-sale through its Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace.
Fully managed online, Vibenomics is easy to use for businesses or connected cities with a single location, yet powerful enough for larger, multi-site organizations. Clients work with Vibenomics Audio Experience Managers who control music, messaging, and advertising to customize the vibe in each location. Professional voice talent produces location-based messages that can be ready for play within hours of client requests.
Founded in 2016 in Indianapolis as Fuzic, the company rebranded to Vibenomics in 2017. Vibenomics was a finalist for “scale-up of the year” in the 2018 Mira Awards, the biggest tech awards program in Indiana.
Triton Digital®, the global technology and services leader to the digital audio and podcast industry, announced today that Vibenomics, a cloud-based managed service provider of audio experience solutions to location-based businesses and connected cities, has selected Triton Digital to help monetize the new Vibenomics Audio Out-of-Home (AOOH) Advertising Marketplace. The Marketplace enables brands to reach a national audience of nearly 150 million unique consumers or target any combination of 4,000 individual locations (soon to double in size).
Through this partnership, Vibenomics will use Triton’s sophisticated ad server, Tap, to dynamically insert engaging and relevant audio ads into its streaming background audio experience solution licensed by multi-site organizations such as retailers, restaurants, public spaces, amusement parks and attractions, enabling brands to reach their target audiences directly at the point-of-sale. To support their goals of connecting advertisers to consumers where they shop, explore, and spend, Vibenomics will leverage Triton’s programmatic audio marketplace and SSP to make its audio out-of-home inventory available to programmatic buyers through both open and private marketplace deals.
“Vibenomics has built an innovative new audio marketing channel that is driving sales results for advertisers while enhancing the customer experience for location-based businesses and public spaces,” said John Rosso, President of Market Development at Triton Digital. “We are pleased to provide them with the technology and support they need to take that to the next level through the power and efficacy of dynamically inserted audio ads.”
“Triton Digital shares our passion for innovation, and our commitment to helping clients leverage the power of digital audio to create highly engaging and relevant experiences wherever they may be,” said Paul Brenner, Chief Strategy Officer at Vibenomics. “We are thrilled to be utilizing Triton’s leading programmatic ad tech and talented team to further enhance our place-based streaming audio offering and grow our business.”
Triton Digital® is the global technology and services leader to the digital audio and podcast industry. Operating in more than 40 countries, Triton provides innovative technology that enables broadcasters, podcasters, and online music services to build their audience, maximize their revenue, and streamline their day-to-day operations. In addition, Triton powers the global online audio industry with Webcast Metrics®, the leading online audio measurement service and Podcast Metrics, one of the first IAB certified podcast measurement services in the industry. With unparalleled integrity, excellence, teamwork, and accountability, Triton remains committed to connecting audio, audience, and advertisers to continuously fuel the growth of the global online industry. Triton Digital is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ: SSP). For more information, visit www.TritonDigital.com.
Vibenomics, Inc. is a technology company that enables location-based businesses and connected cities to create and control their background musical vibe to enhance sales and enrich the customer experience. Through curated playlists and professional voice announcements, the company provides the right revenue-enhancing vibe for over 4000 locations in 45 states and gives over 100 brands the ability to speak directly to more than 150 million consumers right at the point-of-sale through its Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace.
Fully managed online, Vibenomics is easy to use for businesses or connected cities with a single location, yet powerful enough for larger, multi-site organizations. Clients work with Vibenomics Audio Experience Managers who control music, messaging, and advertising to customize the vibe in each location. Professional voice talent produces location-based messages that can be ready for play within hours of client requests.
Founded in 2016 in Indianapolis as Fuzic, the company rebranded to Vibenomics in 2017 and is backed by $7.6 million in investments from High Alpha, Allos Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners among others.
The Vibenomics team is thrilled to announce that, along with our awesome partners Lassus Handy Dandy and Downtown Indy, Inc., we have qualified as finalists for MediaPost’s 2019 Digital OOH Awards! This awards program honors “the most creative, innovative and effective communications in digital out of home media” with recognition given to organizations leading the way in out-of-home advertising innovation.
Qualifying in the venue or location-based category of honorees, we are honored to be recognized alongside respected global brands like Nissan, United Airlines, Netflix, and Adidas. Read more about our award submissions and how two of our co-nominated partners are capitalizing on the power of the Vibenomics Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace:
(more…)Since our launch in 2017, Vibenomics has helped thousands of location-based businesses and connected cities create and control the right audio “vibe” in their environments driving enhanced sales and enriching visitor experiences. In the process, we have created a national footprint that we know will be much sought after by both audio and out-of-home (OOH) advertisers. Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Vibenomics Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace, offering advertisers access to 150 million on-the-go consumers in the places where they shop, work, travel, and play.
To shepherd the official launch of our Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace, Vibenomics has brought on visionary broadcast and technology veteran Paul Brenner, a former President of NextRadio/TagStation and SVP of Emmis Communications, to serve as Chief Strategy Officer.
Prior to developing our new Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace, the Vibenomics team spent two years focused on building a location-based audio experience solution that’s easy to use for a single site, yet powerful enough to handle the most complex demands of multi-site organizations. The result was a complete solution for managing audio experiences that combines cloud technology with full-service audio programming and content production capabilities. Our audio experience offering has quickly scaled to over 4,000 environments, reaching over 150 million unique visitors annually with just the right mix of licensed background music, professionally recorded voice messaging, and live announcements.
The right music and announcements enable retailers, chains, and connected cities to create differentiated experiences that engage audiences in memorable, non-intrusive ways when and where other mediums cannot. That’s the power of Vibenomics: enabling locations to dynamically control their vibe ensuring an environment conducive to building brand loyalty and driving higher sales.
The appeal of audio out-of-home advertising as part of the shopper marketing mix has already attracted over 100 local and national advertisers who participated in an 8-month beta testing program with targeted ads running in retail stores, attractions, and public spaces such as Royal Farms, Ricker’s (acquired by GetGo), Georgia Street in Downtown Indianapolis, The Waterpark at Monon Center, and Grand Park Sports Complex. Participating advertisers include Monster Energy, Live Nation, General Mills, Body Armor, Pepsi, Purdue University, and Red Bull. Brand advertisers as well as our advertising marketplace locations reported consistently positive results, with a retail chain partner achieving 42% sales lift and $1.9 million incremental revenue for an entertainment category advertiser.
“How and where audio is consumed is changing rapidly with the emergence of podcasting, streaming services, and smart speakers, but inventory has been limited. Vibenomics is enabling brands to make the most of the emerging digital audio ecosystem by unlocking a whole new placement option that serves both the audio and OOH advertiser markets. We will build up our Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace with real-time custom branded and curated content, dynamic music and programmatic advertising across all marketing verticals and categories.”
— Paul Brenner, Chief Strategy Officer
Our customers, as well as the broader audio and OOH advertising ecosystems, all echo the same message about the potential for our new audio out-of-home offering. Here’s what our Executive Chairman Scott McCorkle had to say about this important new direction for Vibenomics:
“The OOH market is expected to grow from $8 billion to $11.5 billion through 2022, and we are already taking market share from others by offering more efficiency and better results. The Vibenomics Audio Out-of-Home Advertising Marketplace is proving very attractive to national advertisers. They want to reach the unique audience we have created and amplify the voice of their brands in an entirely new way – right at the point of sale – when it matters most.”
— Scott McCorkle, Executive Chairman, Vibenomics
The Out of Home Advertising Association of America reports that the out-of-home (OOH) industry is experiencing growth not seen in more than a decade. Revenue grew 7.7% to nearly $2.7 billion for the second quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, marking the sector’s highest quarterly growth since 2007. For the first half of the year, revenue was up 7%. The strong quarterly growth occurred across all four major OOH channels: billboards, street furniture, transit and place-based. Moreover, nearly 70% of the top 100 advertisers in the space increased their spend in the second quarter compared to the same timeframe last year, while 25% more than doubled their OOH investment.
For more about Vibenomics, you can read our story here.
Lee Marcum, CEO of Jack’s Donuts, was recently featured as a guest on the Hard Stop Podcast where he discussed the tangible ROI realized across all his locations since rolling out “Jack’s Donuts Radio” through Vibenomics Audio Experience Software (AES) and the Vibenomics Ad Market.
The Vibenomics & Jack’s Donuts partnership began in 2017 when both organizations were in important growth phases of their businesses – Jack’s Donuts with only four locations (now with over 20!). At that time, Marcum didn’t realize that private radio networks with promotional messages – like what was heard in “Big Box” stores would be an option that was available to him as a small business owner.
When rolling out Vibenomics, Marcum and his team utilized the software for the promotion of their active deals. They found that during high traffic periods – typically Saturday and Sunday mornings – they had long lines, causing their retail associates to miss out on opportunities to upsell daily specials or promote initiatives like fundraising and catering with their captive in-store audience waiting to order.
Promotional in-store audio marketing messages were the perfect solution. Now, the speaker system in each Jack’s Donuts location is not just for background music, evolving into an entirely new in-store marketing channel that elevates the customer experience, and drives higher transaction amounts. The icing on the cake donut: with audio messaging inventory Jack’s Donuts doesn’t use for self-promotion, they’ve opted in to enable outside advertisers to speak to their customer base, generating additional revenue for Jack’s Donuts through a Vibenomics Ad Market partner revenue share program.
“[Vibenomics] is putting more money in our pockets than the thousands of dollars that we were spending on traditional advertising” – Lee Marcum, CEO
Outside of achieving measurable financial returns, Marcum notes that the biggest difference from their previous audio provider is Vibenomics’ fresh and innovative approach to advertising. Click below to listen to the full interview.
As we approach a new year, we took a moment to look back on the work that was put in over the last twelve months that helped to make Vibenomics better each day. It’s been a year of growth, change, new faces, and big wins. We’ve broken down some of the accomplishments that we are celebrating from 2018…
At the start of the year, Vibenomics expanded its service offerings to include a platform for advertisers to reach a unique group of people through our Vibenomics Ad Market. This allows customers with Vibenomics music and messaging in their space to open up some of the available “air time” in their locations to businesses that wish to advertise to their customers while creating an additional revenue stream. Not only did this provide a great learning experience for our team, but it also allowed us to work directly with national brands such as Live Nation, Metro by T-Mobile, and Faygo.
Between our annual chili cook-off in the office and our first company retreat, February was all about the love we have for our Vibe Tribe. While the title of “Chili Cookoff Champ” stayed in the Product Development department, everyone was a winner after our Vibenomics team retreat. The team gathered at an offsite location for the day to establish goals, provide reports about departmental initiatives, fine-tune our core values, and share in the special culture that we have at Vibenomics. Some friendly competition in duckpin bowling closed out a successful day.
March brought the move into our much-anticipated new office space. While it was just down the road from the original office, our new office in the Braden Building allows for greater collaboration with an open concept layout, a variety of breakout rooms, large kitchen, and an open door policy with the Leadership Team. Our beautiful view of the city of Fishers also provides a reminder of how lucky we are to be part of the growing tech scene in Indianapolis. Additionally, being our own moving crew brought the team together again as well set-up furniture, organized our materials, and made North Street feel like home. Thanks to Keyhole Marketing for this great post about our new office space!
After settling into our new space, it was time to show it off! Local business leaders, City of Fishers officials, friends of Vibenomics and many more joined our team for an evening benefiting the Fishers Youth Assistance Summer Lunch Program. Thanks to the generosity of the attendees, we reached our goal of $30,000 in support of the program.
To continue the excitement of April, we were nominated for two Mira Awards — Tech Service of the Year and Scale-Up of the Year. We enjoyed having the opportunity to join entrepreneurial companies from across the state to celebrate the growth of the technology industry in Indiana. The Mira Awards, hosted by Techpoint, were a great time for us to reflect on the progress that the company had made in just a little over a year since it was founded.
Known as the most exciting month of the year in Indiana, the excitement of music and messaging captured the attention of the Indianapolis International Airport in May. Our Audio Experience Software now sends passengers off on a good note and welcomes millions of visitors every year, allowing airport officials to revolutionize the customer experience that they provide. Our partnership with the Indianapolis International Airport gained attention from the Indianapolis Business Journal and Inside Indiana Business, as well.
June provided our team with plenty of new opportunities. To begin the month, our CEO, Brent Oakley, headed to Texas to moderate a panel at the Interactive Customer Experience Summit about the value of in-store audio and be a booth exhibitor.
Following the return from Texas, Vibenomics welcomed three new employees to the company via local talent pipeline programs. The Product Development team added IUPUI Computer Science student, Gabriela Justice, to their team as part of the Techpoint Xtern summer internship program. In addition, Vibenomics became a host company for Orr Fellowship and added two recent graduates to the Finance and Marketing departments for a two-year placement.
We closed out the month by inviting our investors into the office for our semi-annual report. We shared updates on our upcoming software release, the partnership with the airport, and other exciting news from the first half of the year over breakfast from our favorite local cafe. Reid Goldsmith, Senior Director of IT for the Indianapolis Airport Authority, was also in attendance to speak on their success with using Vibenomics.
The Vibenomics team donned their purple and hit the streets of Fishers to be a participant in the inaugural Spark! Fishers parade celebrating the Fourth of July. Our team had a great time building the float and interacting with community members along the parade route. We brought along our Director of Programming to make live audio announcements throughout the parade, too!
August provided us with several opportunities to stay closely engaged with our community. We began to host Fishers Code & Coffee, a weekly morning meetup for tech enthusiasts to gather and network over coffee. We enjoy having the opportunity to welcome many talented minds into our office each week!
Additionally, we were the media sponsor for two large-scale Indianapolis events, Motorcycles on Meridian and Indy LaborFest, participated in Techpoint Sales Bootcamp interview day, and CEO Brent Oakley was featured on the Gut+Science podcast!
This month, we capitalized on the success we saw with our Parks & Recreation customers and had the opportunity to be an exhibitor at the National Recreation & Parks Association conference. We joined thousands of park professionals in Downtown Indianapolis to talk about how they could use music and messaging to enhance the experience in their space with many productive conversations and ideas for future growth.
Our Sales Team hit the road and headed to Las Vegas for a trip to our largest tradeshow to date, the National Association of Convenience Stores Expo. Convenience store owners were excited about the opportunities that the Vibenomics Audio Experience Software could provide them to speak directly with their customers without the addition of visual distractions and our team had the chance to form relationships with c-store networks across the nation at meals, events, and meetings during their stay in Las Vegas. To see more about this trip, check out the hashtag #GoodVibesinVegas on Twitter and Instagram!
Shortly after the sales team returned, we celebrated the “first birthday” of our rebrand to Vibenomics. We recognized a year of growth and change with birthday cake, a pinata, and — of course — plenty of purple!
The Vibenomics team got into the holiday spirit early and had our annual gathering for employees and friends to celebrate another year coming to a close. This year’s party featured a “Lumberjack Bash” theme that filled the room with plenty of plaid attire. We participated in a white elephant gift exchange, “Office Guess Who” game with employees’ childhood photos, and — as always — plenty of audio messages with our Director of Programming on the microphone as the evening’s emcee. Our Brand Manager even won an award for the design created for our party favors!
To close out the year, the Vibenomics Leadership Team spent a day offsite at the company’s first leadership retreat. After a day full of brainstorming and hard work, the team returned to the office with plenty of ideas to set us up for even greater success in the new year.
After a year full of many “firsts”, we close out 2018 with a sense of gratitude for challenges that taught lessons in persistence and creativity, milestones that allowed us to reflect on how far we’ve come, and the ambitious team that we get to build the business with every day. Vibenomics is ready for you, 2019!
Regardless of the industry, one thing that business owners can be certain of is the only constant is change. Address or hour changes, product launches or enhancements, businesses are constantly moving and adjusting to stay competitive.
When Fuzic launched, there was no misconception about eventually having to face some of those challenges head on. Recently, one such challenge the business has been working through relates to trademark issues with the name. Fuzic has managed to create a strong brand around that name in a short amount of time. However, rather than spend time on legal issues, Fuzic has chosen to take the brand in a new direction, free and clear of trademark issues, freeing up time to focus on providing customers the best possible experience.
This new brand direction came after extensive customer conversations in which we gathered feedback about how customers are using Fuzic, and how they would like to use Fuzic. Based on that valued feedback, we’re rebranding to become Vibenomics, effective immediately.
Vibenomics reflects the evolution in the way our customers view this technology. The platform has become something much more than just a vehicle for music and messaging. Customers can look to Vibenomics as a way to control their store’s vibe while driving the economics of their physical space. There are 4 main ways customers can control their brand’s vibe by using in-store audio to influence the overall business.
1. Branding a business
Branding is everything. It is the reason for this rebrand and it’s also the reason why businesses spend immense amounts of time and money on determining their brand identity. Carefree and laid back? Edgy and modern? Whatever the brand vibe owners are looking to create, in-store audio can directly impact it. The right music and tone of announcements not only helps create—but also serves to reinforce—the precise vibe a store is looking to achieve. What a shopper or guest hears over the speakers can be one of the most powerful tools available when creating the right vibe for a business at the right time.
2. Educating and entertaining customers
There has been study after study done proving out the impact in-store audio can have on a store’s customers—from giving them a wonderful soundtrack to hum along to while shopping to making sure they are aware of the special offers and updates available. And how about impact on the bottom line? A shopper could walk by multiple signs telling them about the latest discount offer or new product. But a single announcement could be just the push they need to make them aware of the offer and then convince them to make the purchase. This isn’t just true in theory, either. VisionCritical found that 76% of small retailers believe they positively influence the behavior of customers through music.
3. Educating and entertaining employees
Just like shoppers, employees are just as—if not more—impacted by in-store music and announcements. Think about it. Employees are there for hours and hours each week. In-store audio can serve as an important way to boost the morale, attitude, and productivity of the staff.
A DSJ research study found that 77% of of managers/business owners agreed that allowing staff to listen to music enhances productivity. These workers are at the front lines of customer interaction and service. Likely, the employees themselves fit the vibe and the target demographic of the store. Playing music that is fun and appealing to them will keep them happy, ultimately benefiting the customer as well.
4. Driving the economics of the business
Investing in Vibenomics means investing in technology that will drive the economics of the business in a positive direction. When it comes down to it, using music to control the flow of traffic and using in-store announcements to keep customers informed and happy can have a marked impact on continuously driving the economics of the business. While controlling everything is impossible, controlling the vibe of the space through audio is one thing that can be managed to drive real economic impact.
Rebranding to Vibenomics is the best way to reflect the changes and impacts businesses can expect to achieve by using this technology. The exceptional customer service won’t change, but there will now be a heightened focus on what customers need and services to better support their goals, such as the drivers described above. Savvy businesses are combining powerful marketing tactics to create a vibe that can drive real economics with strong marketing messaging and the right music powered by a full marketing technology platform. Ready to learn more or want to see Vibenomics in action?
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