[January 13, 2015]

Marketing Technology Veteran and Oracle SVP Reggie Bradford Joins Persado Board of Directors

Persado, inventor of a powerful new platform technology that generates the most persuasive language for communications designed to drive action, today announced that it has added Reggie Bradford to its Board of Directors, and that Bradford has invested in the company. A three-time successful technology entrepreneur, Bradford is currently SVP of Product Development at Oracle (News - Alert), which acquired Vitrue, the popular social media publishing platform he founded.

"As digital marketing becomes more automated and campaigns become more data-based, a central element of the work of marketing clouds has remained largely in the domain of conjecture and intuition, and that is in the writing of marketing messages themselves," said Bradford. "Persado's persuasion automation technology changes all that, providing a scientific basis for the automated generation of marketing language. Persado eliminates the guesswork of copywriting."

Persuasion automation leverages a field of computer science called natural language generation, a branch of natural language processing concerned with language creation. The software uses semantic algorithms to engineer the optimal pitch for any given persuasive communication, such as the emails, landing pages, mobile messages, push notifications and social media messages used in cross-channel digital marketing campaigns.

"Reggie showed at Vitrue how brands could harness social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google (News - Alert)+ and YouTube to drive engagement an revenue, and he understands the critical role that persuasive language plays in those communications," said Persado CEO and Co-founder Alex Vratskides. "Persuasion automation reinvents how marketing language is written, providing a rational means of determining which emotions, descriptions and formatting elements are used. Persado will greatly benefit from Reggie's unique insight into the challenges and opportunities that today's digital marketers face."

Bradford will assist Persado with go to market strategy as demand for persuasive language technology increases across all online marketing channels. A successful serial entrepreneur, Bradford has built market leading companies in three different industries with collective exits that delivered $5 billion in shareholder value. Currently SVP of Product Development at Oracle, Bradford founded and served as CEO of Vitrue, a social media publishing platform acquired by Oracle in 2012. Prior to Vitrue, Bradford was President and board member at TANDBERG Television, acquired by Ericsson (News - Alert) Group; CEO of N2 Broadband, acquired by TANDBERG Television; and CMO of WebMD, which went public in 2005. Over the course of his career, Bradford has received numerous industry awards acknowledging his success as an entrepreneur and internet visionary, including Business Insider's 2014 Most Influential People in Cloud Computing; Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Distinguished Entrepreneur Award 2013; and Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012.

About Persado, Inc.

Persado's platform generates the most persuasive language for communications designed to drive action. The software uses semantic algorithms to map emotions and generate language for marketing communications such as emails, landing pages, mobile, push notifications and social media. By breaking down marketing language into emotional, descriptive, and formatting components, Persado's software linguistically engineers the optimal language, replacing the guesswork of copywriting.

Using Persado, leading brands such as American Express, Citi, Esurance, E*TRADE, LivingSocial, Neiman Marcus, Verizon Wireless (News - Alert), and Vodafone are realizing tens of millions of dollars in incremental revenue compared to campaigns written traditionally, using copywriters. Winner of the DMA's 2014 Innovation Award for Digital Technology, Persado is backed by Bain Capital Ventures. The company is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Athens, London, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro. For more information, see www.persado.com.

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