Launchmetrics Acquires Visual Box

 Launchmetrics, the owner of GPS Radar, has just announced that it has purchased the acclaimed media monitoring and intelligence company Visual Box.

Here is the press release announcing the acquisition.

NEW YORK (23 May 2017) – Launchmetrics, the premier technology provider for the Fashion, Luxury & Cosmetic Industries, announces the acquisition of global media monitoring & intelligence company, Visual Box. The news breaks simultaneously with the debut of the company’s newest product launch, Discover and rollout of upgrades to its exclusive, members-only community, GPS Radar.

Visual Box was founded in 2000 in Italy and is considered to be the leader in international fashion, beauty and lifestyle media monitoring and analysis services; monitoring over 1,800 titles – from daily newspapers to niche bi-annual books, totaling an average 5,000 pages analyzed a day for a staggering 1,825,000 pages annually. In addition to the extensive media monitoring services, the purchase will give Launchmetrics access to the company’s vast and fully searchable fashion media database, including editorial coverage and advertising data as well as the ability to build comprehensive benchmarking programs to measure ROI for 300,000 brands worldwide.

“The acquisition supports both companies’ mission to utilize new technologies to better support the way our clients work in the Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetics industries,” said Michael Jais, CEO of Launchmetrics. “This will allow us to be the first player to measure cross-channel performance with the vision of providing the industry a consistent earned media value to more effectively understand the interaction between brands and influencers.”

“Visual Box and Launchmetrics share a similar culture and vision for the future of the industry,” said Paolo Valota, CEO and co-founder of Visual Box. “The combination will create a uniquely comprehensive platform to give marketers an end-to-end solution like no other. We’re thrilled to call Launchmetrics home and believe this will be a great move for our clients, team and partners.”

Paolo Valota will take on the role of Senior Vice President, Monitoring for Launchmetrics.

The homepage of the Visual Box website.

Product Launch: Discover

Launchmetrics releases its inaugural product since the merger between Fashion GPS & Augure. Discover will provide the industry with the first-ever targeted reporting and measurement for Fashion, Luxury & Cosmetics industries to help monitor the intersection between brands and influencers. This new platform consolidates coverage on print, social and online in one place and gives companies a comprehensive view of the ROI of PR & Marketing activities.

From competitor benchmarking data to influencer monitoring, Discover tracks mentions from 100,000 of the industry’s top voices as well as 1.8K Print titles, 500K Blogs + 10K online outlets, including all pictures in image slideshows. Additionally, clients can track their campaigns on social media with reporting on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The new platform will allow companies to easily analyze the impact of their campaigns and events with key insights into their performance in the media and with influencers.
“Today the industry is using four to five different tools to measure their coverage and success in social, print, online and more,” said Jais. “With the launch of Discover we will be the first technology and data provider to give clients access to this information in one platform and easily understand the ROI from their campaigns as well as influence in the industry.”

GPS Radar Upgrades

Brands from around the world can, create a virtual press room where they are able to upload their latest news, press releases, fashion images and events. The community currently has over 40,000 top-tier members including journalists, bloggers, buyers, stylists and more, receiving 200K images viewed daily as well as 100K product images downloaded each season.

Search & Create

GPS Radar’s Galleries enables users to download images from to create digital mood boards to prepare upcoming stories and fashion shoots or easily request samples they want to use directly through the GPS Radar platform. All images are tagged and searchable to reduce the time needed to find the image or sample you’re looking for.

News & Events

Brands can post their upcoming events and sync to their Launchmetrics’Events platforms to allow users to easily RSVP to their shows & parties. Additionally, they can now upload articles and press releases onto GPS Radar to keep the media up to speed on all of their latest company news.

About Launchmetrics

Launchmetrics provides the technology, data insights, and tools for influencer identification that fashion companies need to accelerate their business and build lasting exposure. Nearly 1,700 brands such as Dior, Fendi, NET-A-PORTER, Topshop and ASOS use Launchmetrics to manage critical stages of their launch plan — from influencer identification to sample management, and everything in between. Launchmetrics’ GPS Radar platform brings together over 40,000 designers, editors, buyers and influencers worldwide in a perpetually evolving digital community.

Launchmetrics was created in 2016 with the merger of Augure, a global powerhouse in Influencer Marketing and Fashion GPS, the premier technology provider for the Fashion industry since 2006.

Press Contact:

Alexa Kopel

kopel@kcdworldwide.com

Jessica Michault

Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.