Inmar to Acquire Collective Bias

Winston-Salem, NC-based technology company Inmar has inked an agreement to acquire Collective Bias through its Carolina Promotions Services subsidiary.

A specialist in shopper-focused influencer marketing, Collective Bias employs propriety technology to harness consumer recommendations and endorsements across websites and social media.

The company's Shopper Social Media platform helps brands and retailers scale their efforts by tapping into influencers connected to key audiences, as determined by advanced analytics and behavior tracking. Its Social Fabric community is comprised of 8,000 socially vocal consumers rewarded for engaging, discussing and reviewing products and services to focus shopper conversations.

Committed to measurable engagement, Collective Bias boasts generating two billion impressions in 2015 alone, a monthly blog reach of more than 80 million, a social reach exceeding 200 million followers and engagement that is almost seven times longer than the time consumers spend looking at digital display ads. 

In a media release announcing the deal, the company said that its ability to scale and harness the voice of the shopper and Inmar's connection to hundreds of millions of point-of-purchase transactions will let marketers see data-driven connections between the power of consumer recommendation and in-store sales.

"As shopper buying behavior continues to evolve, particularly among the coveted Millennial market, smart brands must look beyond more traditional marketing efforts and meet shoppers where they are — which is increasingly on social platforms," Inmar chief executive officer David Mounts said in the release. "With this acquisition, we gain an impressive technology platform, social measurement data, and an elite community of influencers."

Collective Bias was founded in 2009 and is headquartered near Walmart in Bentonville, AR, often working with the retail giant. It will retain its name and operate as its own entity. President Bill Sussman will take on additional responsibilities as senior vice president at Inmar, reporting directly to Mounts.

"Inmar's vast experience in technology-enabling marketing services and data sciences will enable our next phase of growth and innovation," Sussman said in the release. "Combining our social engagement data with Inmar's retail promotion and POS data will ... give us the ability to provide a holistic solution for corporate brand and media buying agencies.

Inmar was founded in 1980 and has some 4,000 employees. The company explains its services this way, "If you've ever redeemed a coupon, filled a prescription or returned a product, odds are that Inmar has touched that transaction in some way."