BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/28/12 -- Skyword, the leading content production platform, today announced a strategic partnership with Digitas, a digitally led, integrated brand agency. Digitas will leverage Skyword's content marketing platform, a comprehensive services and technology offering, to help brands publish the breadth and depth of content required to reach and engage their customers. Digitas also plans to offer the Skyword Platform as part of its recently announced BrandLIVE™ ecosystem, a proprietary agency platform that creates relevance and value for brands every day.

Brands understand the power of generating content to connect with current and prospective customers. According to Forrester Research, the market for production and distribution of branded content in 2012 alone is estimated at $40.2 billion and expected to climb to $77 billion by 2016. However, brands have been mired with the challenges inherent in making all the necessary components come together in a holistic, successful way. Brands are confronting a cyclical challenge that includes understanding changing consumer interests and finding the content creators to address those interests. And in today's social-centric, search-driven landscape, brands must adopt a "newsroom mentality" to make these emotional, relevant connections on a daily, if not hourly, basis -- providing the information people want at the moment they seek it.

With the Skyword Platform, Digitas can offer brands access to its creative talent and inspiring ideas, but also the ability to create targeted relevant content that is designed to succeed in search and the social web -- the two primary ways people find information today. Launched in September 2012 and made widely available this quarter, Skyword for Agencies is the agency version of the Skyword Platform, designed to streamline and automate the entire content creation and publishing process for agencies managing multiple content programs.

"Today's social, always-on consumer is fueling the need for constant, relevant content -- and agencies are at the heart of this for brands big and small," said CEO and Founder Tom Gerace. "We're thrilled to be supporting Digitas with its clients' content marketing efforts agency-wide, including the BrandLIVE platform. Innovative digital agencies like Digitas understand that they must offer exceptional content marketing services without the overhead that can result from inefficiencies along the way -- from writer recruitment and management to optimizing, publishing and measurement."

"We strive to help our clients find the mutually beneficial intersection of consumer interest and brand purpose with the speed of a newsroom," said Stephanie Sarofian, SVP, Managing Director, Digitas North America. "We're pleased to be leveraging the Skyword Platform to build proactive and reactive content for our clients to keep their brands relevant each and every day."

About Digitas
Digitas, a digitally led, integrated global brand agency, builds brands for some of the foremost companies in the world. In 2012, Digitas was OMMA Magazine's Agency of the Year for the second consecutive year and The Drum's London integrated Agency of the Year. Digitas was also the winner of nine Cannes Lions in 2012. In addition, the agency received Agency of the Year honors from the Festival of Media, BtoB Magazine, and Les Agences de l'Année, France, and has been named to the Advertising Age Digital A-List, among its many awards.

Digitas also operates the brand content platform, The Third Act, producers of the first and most well-renowned event on digital content, The NewFront and Prodigious Worldwide, the world's only stand-alone, global digital productions company.

Digitas is a member of Publicis Groupe (listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange -- FR0000130577 -- and part of the CAC 40 index), the world's third largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries on five continents, Publicis Groupe offers local and international clients a complete range of advertising services. Web site: www.publicisgroupe.com

About Skyword http://www.skyword.com
Skyword is the leading comprehensive content production platform. The Skyword Platform enables brands, retailers, media companies and agencies to acquire and engage customers by efficiently producing quality content optimized for search and the social web. Skyword for Agencies is an offshoot of the Skyword Platform designed to meet the specific needs of marketing and advertising agencies that manage content programs for multiple clients. Quality content is essential for reaching and engaging consumers today, but the creation process is messy, inconsistent and immeasurable. The Skyword Platforms make it easy to produce, optimize and promote content at any scale to create meaningful, lasting relationships with customers. Skyword is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Investors include Allen & Company, Progress Ventures, Cox Media Group and American Public Media Group.

Connect with Skyword
Blog: http://www.skyword.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skyword
Twitter: @skyword @tomgerace
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/skyword-inc.
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116106239912491759886/posts

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