Social media firm growing in Minneapolis
Social shopper media firm Collective Bias may have been founded in Walmart’s home town of Bentonville, Ar., but the firm has big plans to help suppliers to Target achieve their social media objectives.
Collective Bias established a presence in Minneapolis last year and more recently tapped Kristen Brown to lead the firm’s growth efforts. Brown spent five years with NPD in the company’s Minneapolis office where she served asretail insights director. She is also a best-selling author and motivational coach.
Collective Bias, founded in 2009 in Bentonville, (more on that later) is best known for building, maintaining and nurturing a network of 1,300 influential bloggers who collectively comprise the firm’s Social Fabric community. Brands and retailers are able to access the Social Fabric community which is segmented by 300 different interest types to influence shopper behavior in a way that is authentic and highly measurable.
The approach has worked well and Collective Bias now employs nearly 100 people with offices in
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and United Kingdom as well as the Minneapolis and Bentonville locations.
"Our service is simple - social shopper media, or the use of social influencers to weave products into real-life stories to create millions of impressions, drive organic search engine optimization and ultimately sales for brands and retailers," said Amy Callahan, co-founder and COO of Collective Bias. "This includes programs that focus on new product launches and seasonal promotions. Other products include social shopper insights and social asset management. While all of our products help meet specific goals for our advertisers, there is one thing they all have in common - all include real social content connected to a retailer."
As for the Bentonville connection, given the intense rivalry between Walmart and Target, the firm’s Bentonville origins inevitably come up during conversations with prospective clients, according to Brown. However, the headquarter’s location is quickly became a non issue when brands saw the results that could be achieved through social shopper media and the firm’s client roster expanded to include retailers such as Walgreen and its Duane Reade subsidiary.