Tag: Comparison Platform

Sydney, Australia – First-party data provider Audience360 has announced that it has entered a partnership with financial comparison site Mozo, allowing brands to engage audiences currently looking for personal finance and retail energy products with a purchase intent on Mozo.

This means that any advertiser seeking to reach Mozo audiences will be able to access the complete suite of Audience360 media buying tools. Audience360, which has first-party data partnerships with carsales.com.au, Webjet, and the AFL.com.au said the importance of transparent, premium first-party audience data has ‘never been greater’.

Furthermore, the partnership which delivers audience extension capabilities across the wider Internet, will allow brands to be able to target users beyond the Mozo website. The core editorial finance areas on Mozo are banking, insurance, loans, and utilities, and provide advertisers with a strong ‘intention to buy’ audience.

“We believe that by partnering with Audience360 we’ll give advertisers better reach of audiences and brands will have the benefit of connecting with people that have the intention to soon buy retail finance, energy, and other services,” said Neville Daniels, managing director for APAC at Mozo.

Mozo compares more than 1,800 products from more than 200 banking, insurance and energy providers to help Australians find a better deal each month via its comparison tools and calculators, and is a trusted source of financial rates and information with Australian consumers, the media and industry. 

Meanwhile, Jenny Parkes, managing director at Audience360, commented, “Mozo’s website users are ready to transact and are actively looking for products and services. We are seeing first party data rise to the fore in digital advertising, and we are thrilled that Mozo has joined our growing stable of publisher and vertical brands.”

Parkes added that branded audiences enable advertisers to reduce media wastage and target users with more precision, as digital ad campaigns are based on first party deterministic data.

Sydney, Australia – Comparison platform Finder has appointed former head of public relations and communications of its ANZ operations Bessie Hassan to now take the helm as the company’s global head of communications.

Aside from her previous role in Finder ANZ, Hassan has worked as a freelance journalist and public relations consultant, with bylines from various publications such as The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Marie Claire, and InStyle among others. She has also served as communications officer for the Randwick City Council and as vice president for New South Wales at the Public Relations Institute of Australia.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Hassan stated that in her new role, she will be responsible for establishing and leading an integrated communications strategy to grow Finder’s corporate footprint, thought leadership, and credibility across all of Finder’s markets. This will include external and internal communications, corporate social responsibility (CSR), public affairs, employer brand, and risk and reputation management. 

Hassan’s promotion comes after Finder’s recent acquisition of Singapore-born financial services platform GoBear to drive its growth in the Southeast Asia region, months after GoBear announced shutting down its operations.

“As Finder continues to grow, I will work closely with the founders and executive team to establish a brand presence in all its markets. Our goal is to help people make better financial decisions every day – by helping people save, invest and grow their wealth – and we believe we have a strong role to play in doing this in Southeast Asia,” Hassan shared with MARKETECH APAC.

In regards to her appointment, she said, “The last six years at Finder have been a blast and now I’m so excited to be sharing Finder’s mission with the rest of the world.”

Finder has yet to find a replacement to lead the communications branch for ANZ.

Sydney, Australia – Comparison platform Finder has acquired the financial content platform GoBear in order to drive its growth and presence in the Southeast Asia region.

It should be recalled that GoBear had announced last January this year that they will be ceasing operations due to constraints in funding to continue operating.

“Both Finder and GoBear believe in the importance of improving people’s financial health. We are happy to see that the GoBear brand will continue to live on and it will be exciting to see where Finder will bring it next,” said Jinnee Lim, chief strategy officer at GoBear.

Through the acquisition, GoBear’s trademark and digital assets including domains, website content and social channels in seven markets: Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia will be acquired. The GoBear brand will continue to operate via social media and email channels, however the website content will now form part of finder.com and its local services. 

Finder, which is founded by Frank Restuccia, Fred Schebesta and Jeremy Cabral, envisions that through the acquisition, they hope to serve 438 million unbanked consumers in the region, as there is a significant opportunity for growth as digital financial services is set to grow to a $60 billion industry by 2025, according to Bain and Company.

“Like Finder, GoBear has been committed to improving the financial wellbeing of its audience, with over 55 million people having visited its website since its launch in 2015 to make better-informed decisions. Finder’s mission is to help people all over the world make better financial decisions and we’re excited to ramp up our offering to the region through a recognised brand like GoBear,” Restuccia stated.

He added, “We see Finder as playing an important role in the financial ecosystem to help Asian consumers make decisions that are right for them when it comes to financial products and services.”