Passenger Co-founder and Chief Innovation + Marketing Officer, Justin Cooper, leads a panel discussion stacked with industry experts to discuss, "Customer Collaboration: Focus on What Matters and Forget the Rest"

iMedia Brand Summit
September 16th, 2008
2:30pm
@ Loews Coronado Bay Resort
4000 Coronado Bay Road
Coronado, California 92118
Tel: +1 619 424 4000

Your customers are talking about their experiences with your brand every day, but you’re not a part of the conversation. Unless you have a means of engaging with this invaluable community and capturing that knowledge, this insightful perspective will go unnoticed. Learn first-hand how to foster an ongoing dialogue with your customers that can transform the way your organization conceives ideas, designs, refines, and markets its products and services. By positioning your company to incorporate the collective intelligence of your customers into your business, you will enhance brand equity and stay one step ahead of the rapidly evolving marketplace.

In this panel, attendees will learn from leading brands and industry experts as they discuss the transformational nature of the customer collaboration experience, including:

- How to infuse the voice of the customer into your business processes
- How to identify the emerging needs of your customers
- How to empower key customers to fuel passion for your brand

Summit Overview:

Now in its seventh year, iMedia Brand Summit’s primary goal is to bring together brand marketing executives with peers and solution providers to share ideas and tackle hard issues surrounding the integration and application of interactive media in their overall marketing mix. iMedia’s Brand Summits deliver a dynamic combination of session content featuring top-level speakers and numerous opportunities for networking between marketers and solution providers in an exclusive, by invitation-only environment.

Innovator in On-Demand Customer Collaboration Cites Team’s Thoughtful, Creative Approach, Unmatched Responsiveness as Key Factors

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 5, 2008 ” The Bateman Group, an independent technology-focused public relations agency, today announced that Passenger, the leader in on-demand Customer Collaboration, has selected the firm to serve as PR agency of record, effectively immediately. The Bateman Group triumphed after a competitive review of several qualified PR agencies based in the San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles markets.

The comprehensive service offering from the Bateman Group will map to Passenger’s corporate communications, product awareness and thought leadership objectives. Programs include: day-to-day strategic counsel; ongoing message refinement; writing services; analyst relations; speaker placement; awards pursuits; business, trade and vertical media outreach; blogger relations; and social networking. Tyler Perry and Bill Bourdon, both managing directors at the Bateman Group, will co-lead the Passenger account team from New York City and San Francisco, respectively.

“The Bateman Group not only won our business, they truly earned it,” said Justin Cooper, co-founder and chief innovation + marketing officer, Passenger. “They earned it by being more perceptive, thoughtful, responsive and detail-oriented than the competition throughout the entire review process. The Bateman team clearly has the right combination of experience, initiative and creativity we need to take Passenger to undisputed leadership in this market ” and, more importantly, keep us there.”

Based in Los Angeles, Passenger helps companies infuse the voice of the customer into their businesses to continuously inspire innovation and meaningful change. With its intuitive platform of social networking, collaboration and analytics, Passenger works with companies like ABC, Chrysler, Coca-Cola and Fox to build and manage private online communities to make more informed business decisions; innovate more rapidly; and design better products and services. The company recently closed a Series C financing round led by StarVest Partners with participation from existing investors Steamboat Ventures and Shelter Capital.

“Passenger is quite literally changing the way companies connect with their various stakeholders across social, geographic and organizational boundaries,” said Fred Bateman, CEO and founder, Bateman Group. “We feel this is one of those rare opportunities ” the right company with right technology at the right time in the market. Passenger is destined to become the definitive brand in their category and we’re looking forward to the ride.”