Posted on Thu, May 17, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (May 17, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, has announced record sales for the prior twelve months ending March, 2012. Total sales increased 43% compared to the previous 12-month period. Non-U.S. sales rose to 18% of the business overall, as Affinnova has aggressively expanded its operations in Europe, hiring staff in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
In January 2012, Affinnova launched Affinnova Concept Studio, a subscription-based web application that enables users to create and share concepts, engaging in the divergent collaboration that unlocks breakthrough innovation. Users collaborate to create an innovation space, an exhaustive universe of thousands or millions of potential concepts.
With the most recent results, Affinnova has a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate in excess of 40%. “Repeat customers are the key to our consistent growth,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affinnova. “We’re happy to reward their loyalty with Concept Studio, which offers faster turnaround time and institutional pricing. By deploying our optimization technology as Software-as-a-Service, we are rapidly scaling at the enterprise level.”
The Affinnova IDDEA
concept optimization platform evaluates ideas and designs in a survival-of-the-fittest process that identifies those with the highest market potential. Its evolutionary search algorithm uses consumer choice to quickly find the top concepts for new products, new advertising and new designs. In a recent study, optimized products
benchmarked by Affinnova were twice as likely to launch, twice as likely to be successful in market and earned almost triple the revenues in the product’s first two years in market as unoptimized U.S. CPG products.
Posted on Tue, May 15, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (May 3, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, today announced that its Concept Studio has been selected as a finalist in the Best Customer Engagement Driver category for the MITX Innovation Awards. Held annually by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, the MITX Innovation Awards celebrate the innovations powering the future of marketing and revolutionizing the way we work and play.
"The 2012 finalists represent some of the best innovators in the region, these forward-thinking companies are developing unique, new solutions to problems that are game changing," said MITX President Debi Kleiman. "We were so impressed by this group during a very competitive year, it was amazing to see the range and depth of new things being created here, and we're very proud to honor their great achievements."
Affinnova Concept Studio is a web application that helps companies drive better ideas to market faster. The technology enables marketing teams to create concepts by managing ideas in a shared visual workspace. Users can easily create an “innovation space” for a vast range of potential marketing concepts, including branding, positioning, messaging and packaging. The technology supports divergent collaboration, encouraging users to submit a wide variety of alternative ideas to find the ideas most likely to produce breakthroughs. Affinnova-optimized products are twice as likely to launch, twice as likely to be in market 2 years later and generate 2.6 times the revenue.
“Affinnova is leading the way in developing innovative solutions like Concept Studio,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affinnova. “It is an honor to be among the finalists for the MITX Innovation Awards, and a validation of both our technology and customer-focused approach.”
Affinnova will be recognized with the other finalists in the category of Best Customer Engagement Driver at the ceremony traditionally attended by over 350 of the region’s top interactive marketing and technology professionals. Winners will be announced at the ceremony in the Westin Copley Place on Tuesday, June 12th at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.mitxawards.org/innovation.
The 2012 MITX Awards couldn’t happen without the help of these amazing sponsors. Event Sponsors: Atom Group, Cassidy Turley FHO, DLA Piper. Creative Partner: Metropolis Creative.
Posted on Mon, May 14, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (May XX, 2012) –Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, announced today that Charu Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President, Affinnova Life Sciences, will make a presentation on “Repositioning for Product Success by Leveraging the Power of Your Brand” and co-present with Gaurav Kapoor, President, Disruptyx at the Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence & Research Group (PBIRG)’s Annual General Meeting. The event will be held May 20-23, 2012 in Chicago, IL.
The 2012 PBIRG Annual General Meeting provides a collaborative forum for professionals in the pharmaceutical industry to share new insight and developments on brand growth and leadership in today’s competitive environment. This year’s event will feature a pre-conference education series, two keynote speakers, various industry panel discussions and University Series workshops, and an agency fair for networking.
Who: Charu Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President, Affinnova Life Sciences and Gaurav Kapoor, President, Disruptyx
What: Repositioning for Product Success by Leveraging the Power of Your Brand
When: Monday, May 21, 2012; 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Where: Hyatt Regency in Chicago, IL
In her presentation, “Repositioning for Product Success by Leveraging the Power of Your Brand,” Chaturvedi will be joined by Gaurav Kapoor, President, Disruptyx to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing pharmaceutical professionals: How to improve upon an existing product in market without discarding the positive brand equity and association it currently holds. Chaturvedi will show how a cutting-edge approach utilizing evolutionary algorithms has created the ability (in real-time) to identify the most compelling and optimal combinations of existing and future messaging and positioning. The presenters will demonstrate through case studies how using evolutionary algorithms identified the most compelling positioning and messaging for multiple brands and the market results achieved.
Posted on Thu, May 10, 2012
10th annual Stevie® Awards will be presented on June 20 in New York City and September 17 in San Francisco
WALTHAM, MA, USA (May 10, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, was named a Finalist today in three categories of The 2012 American Business Awards, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award winner in the program. One of 3,000 companies nominated, Affinnova was named a finalist in three categories: Most Innovative Company of the Year, Business Innovation of the Year, and New Product or Service of the Year.
“We are honored to be named a finalist in three categories of The American Business Awards. This recognition further validates both our technology and our approach to innovation.”
Waleed Al-Atraqchi
Chief Executive Officer
Affinnova
The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.
For the first time, The American Business Awards will be presented at two awards events: the ABA's traditional banquet on Monday, June 20 in New York, and a new tech awards event on Monday, September 17 in San Francisco.
Named finalist for “Most Innovative Company of the Year (Up to 2,500 Employees)”, Affinnova provides software and services that enable marketers to develop better-performing products, advertising and designs. Global Fortune 500 companies and their partners who use Affinnova for optimizing new products experience higher launch rates, greater in-market success rates and faster time to market due to Affinnova’s optimization performance.
Affinnova Concept Studio was named a finalist in two categories: “Business Innovation of the Year” and “New Product or Service of the Year – Software – Marketing/Public Relations Solution”. Concept Studio is a web-based application created specifically to help innovation teams collaboratively develop innovation spaces with thousands or even millions of ideas. Such divergent collaboration unlocks breakthrough innovation.
“We are honored to be named a finalist in three categories of The American Business Awards,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affinnova. “This recognition further validates both our technology and our approach to innovation.”
Finalists were chosen by more than 140 business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April and May. More than 150 members of 10 specialized judging committees will determine Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to take place May 14 - 25.
Details about The American Business Awards and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/aba.
About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.
Sponsors and partners of The 2012 American Business Awards include American Support, Business TalkRadio Network, Callidus Software, Citrix Online, Dynamic Research Corporation, iolo technologies, John Hancock Funds, LifeLock, PetRays, Primus Telecommunications Group, SoftPro, and VerticalResponse.
Posted on Wed, Apr 25, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (April 24, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in
innovation software and services, has been named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner, Inc., a leading technology analyst firm. Companies are selected as a "Cool Vendor" for being innovative, impactful and intriguing. Affinnova’s selection was included in the
Cool Vendors in Consumer Dynamics, 2012 report by Gartner, Inc., published April 17, 2012.
“We believe being named a ‘Cool Vendor’ by Gartner is wonderful confirmation of our new software offering, Affinnova Concept Studio, and the results our customers are seeing from evolutionary optimization. We’re pleased that Gartner recognizes that our technology is innovative, enabling teams to create concepts together online for the first time, and impactful, doubling innovation success rates.”
Waleed Al-Atraqchi
Chief Executive Officer
Affinnova
According to the report, “Tight budgets and tighter time frames make getting the next "killer" product to market, with the right packaging and messaging, exceedingly challenging. Many times there is no room for a second chance. The window of opportunity, especially in the consumer tech space, opens and closes too fast to launch alternative products quickly enough.”
Gartner defines “Cool Vendors” such as Affinnova as companies that are: 1) innovative, enabling users to do things they couldn't before; 2) impactful, producing business results; and 3) intriguing, having caught Gartner's interest.
About Gartner's Cool Vendors Selection Process
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Posted on Mon, Mar 12, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (March 6, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, announced today that Charu Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President, Affinnova Life Sciences, will make a presentation on collaborative innovation and co-present an international case study at the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group (PMRG)’s 2012 Annual National Conference. The event will be held March 25-27, 2012 in Orlando, FL.
PMRG’s 2012 Annual National Conference provides a dynamic and collaborative forum for professionals involved in research supporting the marketing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices and related products. This year’s conference will explore innovation, modernization and enhancements in healthcare marketing research. An anticipated 500 attendees, including manufacturers and research consultants, are expected to attend this forward-looking event.
Who: Charu Chaturvedi, Senior Vice President, Affinnova Life Sciences and Jeff Gustaitis, Director of Cardiovascular Marketing Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
What: Fuelling Collaborative Innovation on a Global Scale – An International Case Study
When: March 27, 2012; 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Where: JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, FL
In her presentation, "Fuelling Collaborative Innovation on a Global Scale", Chaturvedi will be joined by Jeff Gustaitis, Director of Cardiovascular Marketing Research at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Chaturvedi will discuss how the need to create competitive differentiation – all on a global scale – requires a new way of looking at how companies understand and anticipate the needs of multiple stakeholders who play a role in a product's commercial success. This session will discuss how market researchers can bring truly collaborative, game-changing innovation to the market research process to drive actionable insights in an organization. Boehringher-Ingelheim will present a case study that will demonstrate how these new approaches were utilized and effectively overcame internal and external collaboration challenges to deliver clear and actionable results.
Posted on Thu, Mar 01, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (March 1, 2012) – A recent study by Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in innovation software and services, quantified the boost that products identified through concept optimization technology can expect in market. Affinnova reviewed launches of consumer-packaged goods from 2003 to 2008 and compared the launches of those that used concept-optimization to those that did not. Optimized products were twice as likely to launch, twice as likely to be successful in market and earned almost triple the revenues in the product’s first two years in market.
“The success of concept optimization technology is powering our clients’ growth. We’re confident our new solutions – including Affinnova Concept Studio, our Software-as-a-Service offering for concept collaboration – will boost their growth even higher.”
Waleed Al-Atraqchi
Chief Executive Officer
Affinnova
The study covered 73 consumer products launched over a five-year period and found:
- Products that used innovation software for concept optimization had a launch rate of 55%, compared to an industry average of 27%
- Of those products that did launch, 44% of optimized products achieved significant sales through the first 24 months on market, compared to a 25% success rate for the others
- Optimized products earned an average of $23.7 million in revenues during the first 24 months, compared with average revenues of $9.0 million for non-optimized products
Innovation software using concept optimization provides a superior alternative to conventional innovation processes for developing products, advertising and design. Optimization allows for a wider assessment of every aspect of a product’s concept, including branding, positioning, features, packaging and more. Optimized concepts are three times more likely to beat the leading competitor than non-optimized products, according to earlier research on optimization performance.
Affinnova’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Waleed Al-Atraqchi, said, “The success of concept optimization technology is powering our clients’ growth. We’re confident our new solutions – including Affinnova Concept Studio, our Software-as-a-Service offering for concept collaboration – will boost their growth even higher.”
Posted on Thu, Jan 26, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (January 26, 2012) – Today - at the Online Research Methods conference in London - Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in marketing
innovation software and services, introduced Affinnova
Concept Studio, a web-based application that accelerates concept collaboration and development for new products, designs and ad campaigns.
Concept Studio helps marketing teams create concepts by capturing and managing ideas in a shared visual workspace. The application allows users to easily create an “innovation space” for a vast range of potential marketing concepts, including branding, positioning, imagery, benefits, messaging and packaging.
Concept Studio supports divergent collaboration, encouraging users to submit a wide variety of alternative ideas. While many innovation systems prematurely drive teams towards consensus, the Affinnova innovation platform leverages the divergent ideas that are more likely to produce genuine breakthroughs. Users can share concepts in real time to cast a wide net for ideas, even inviting outside vendors, such as advertising agencies or consultants, to collaborate.
“Our challenge was to bring a program to market that leveraged our strengths and also broadened our proposition across key segments. By working with Concept Studio, we were able to effectively identify the optimal product and messaging attributes needed to accomplish that goal.”
Tony Perlak
Senior Vice President, Marketing
Nutrisystem
Concept Studio is the new front end to the Affinnova innovation platform and is seamlessly compatible with Affinnova’s evolutionary optimization. Rather than select a few concepts to test, the marketing team can get consumer reaction to concepts from throughout the innovation space, using this feedback to rapidly find the top concepts with the greatest appeal. Evolutionary optimization triples the likelihood of outscoring the leading competitor.
Nutrisystem, Inc., the leading home delivery weight loss program, was one of the first to utilize Concept Studio to optimize messaging for a new program. “Our challenge was to bring a program to market that leveraged our strengths and also broadened our proposition across key segments,” said Tony Perlak, Senior Vice President, Marketing for Nutrisystem. “By working with Concept Studio, we were able to effectively identify the optimal product and messaging attributes needed to accomplish that goal.”
“Collaboration to develop breakthrough innovation has always been challenging, and failing to overcome those challenges often results in incremental innovation. Concept Studio facilitates the best practices that produce breakthrough innovation,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affinnova. “By linking Concept Studio with our proven evolutionary optimization technology, we have created a seamless process that will allow our customers to innovate with higher success rates, in shorter time frames and at lower cost.”
Posted on Thu, Jan 19, 2012
WALTHAM, MA, USA (January 19, 2012) – Facing rising food costs and softening industry traffic, Sbarro, the world’s leading Italian quick service restaurant, turned to Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in marketing innovation software and services, to help strategically optimize its menu pricing. Understanding that traditional point-of-sale tracking data would not provide enough guidance, Sbarro used Affinnova’s technology to perform a holistic review of its pricing strategy.
Using Affinnova Price Advantage to directly engage Sbarro guests, Affinnova tested six price variations across 45 menu items. Guests responded to realistic pricing scenarios, and their reactions were tracked as price increases and reductions were applied throughout the test. Affinnova also tracked how individual guests switched from item to item when faced with changes to the pricing and menu offering. Altogether, thousands of variations were tested and evaluated.
“Affinnova has one of the most advanced methodologies and analytics that I have seen in the industry. Their use of forward-looking data to understand how our guests trade in and out of individual menu items based on price changes means we can be surgically precise in how we re-engineer our menu for optimal profit and traffic.”
Mark Censoprano
Cheif Marketing Officer
Sbarro
Data was aggregated to develop price curves for individual menu items. In addition, Affinnova built a price simulator that Sbarro senior executives can continue to use to model guest reaction to pricing changes. Finally, a customized contribution index analysis enabled Sbarro to prioritize the role each individual menu item could play in their strategy.
According to Sbarro’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mark Censoprano, “Affinnova has one of the most advanced methodologies and analytics that I have seen in the industry. Their use of forward-looking data to understand how our guests trade in and out of individual menu items based on price changes means we can be surgically precise in how we re-engineer our menu for optimal profit and traffic.”
Price Advantage can also account for competitive and category demand shifts and produces single-product and cross-product price sensitivity analysis and simulated market scenarios. This provides pricing recommendations based on current consumer sensibilities.
“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to work with Sbarro on such a strategic initiative,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, president of Affinnova. “We’re committed to providing our clients forward-looking solutions, powered by technology, that help them understand the market of today so that they can reshape it tomorrow.”
For more information, please see the Sbarro/Affinnova case study.
Posted on Wed, Jan 04, 2012
Sarita Bhagwat, Innovation Expert, Named to Lead Expansion
WALTHAM, MA, USA (January 4, 2012) – Affinnova, Inc., the global leader in marketing innovation software and services, has announced that it is expanding its reach in the financial services industry and is appointing Sarita Bhagwat to direct the company’s Financial Services practice. Bhagwat will focus on delivering Affinnova’s evolutionary optimization and innovation services specifically tailored for financial companies. “Consumer opinion of banks, credit card providers and wealth management companies has undergone an immense transformation since 2008,” said Bhagwat. “Given regulatory changes and low confidence, it is more critical than ever for financial institutions to provide services, products and advertising that bring clarity and comfort to consumers. Affinnova can help identify and optimize features and messages that are most likely to succeed in the market.” The company has immediate openings for additional research directors and client services managers.
“The challenges facing financial services firms have heightened the need to innovate and optimize, and to do so quickly. We have helped leading financial services companies bring new services and messages to market faster and with more immediate impact. Sarita’s experience and leadership will allow us to deliver even stronger results for our clients in the financial services industry.”
Waleed Al-Atraqchi
President & Chief Executive Officer
Affinnova
Bhagwat has over 15 years of market research and consulting experience, with particular expertise in innovation and product development, product line strategies and market assessment. Besides speaking at industry events, she writes for the Affinnova blog, “Innovation Evolved”. Prior to joining Affinnova, she was Head of Innovation and Product Development for the Financial Services Sector for TNS Custom Research and had led the Financial Services Sector for TNS in India. Prior to TNS, Bhagwat was a Principal Consultant at Abt Associates.
“The challenges facing financial services firms have heightened the need to innovate and optimize, and to do so quickly,” said Waleed Al-Atraqchi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affinnova. “We have helped leading financial services companies bring new services and messages to market faster and with more immediate impact. Sarita’s experience and leadership will allow us to deliver even stronger results for our clients in the financial services industry.”
