Hootsuite acquires conversational AI leader Heyday for $60m
The global leader in social media management, Hootsuite, has announced it has acquired Montreal-based, AI-powered customer messaging platform, Heyday for CA $60 million.
Discussing the acquisition, CEO of Hootsuite, Tom Keiser said: “Social is the new interface of commerce and customer care. Modern-day brands have to manage a multitude of daily interactions and conversations at scale—which is impossible to do without AI automation. With the acquisition of Heyday, Hootsuite will now give AI capabilities to marketing, sales and support teams globally so they can deliver exceptional experiences at scale.”
Heyday’s conversational platform enables brands to deliver personalised customer experiences through 1:1 messaging conversations. Its enterprise-grade customer messaging platform integrates seamlessly with e-commerce platforms.
Currently, Heyday works with leading brands such as Lacoste, Decathlon, Cirque du Soleil, Danone, Rudsak and Jack & Jones to deliver more personalised and rewarding customer experiences via chat and video.
“We created Heyday’s conversational platform to make buying from a brand as easy as messaging a friend,” said Steve Desjarlais, CEO and Co-Founder of Heyday. “Together with Hootsuite, we will bridge the gap between physical and digital brand experiences by leveraging social and messaging channels as the anchor and golden thread of the customer journey.”
Improving Hootsuite’s services with AI applications
As the global leader in social media management with the largest customer base in the industry, Hootsuite will now be able to allow brands to fully leverage conversational AI to create a better customer experience.
This acquisition comes at a time where Hootsuite’s services are in much higher demand. The adoption and use of social media has increased dramatically since the start of the pandemic.
In its Digital 2021 report, Hootsuite found that over 4.2 billion active social media users are spending on average two hours and twenty-five minutes a day on social media.
Combining these findings with a study by Edison Research which found that 39% of social media users expect a reply from companies within sixty minutes, yet the average response time is five hours, Hootsuite recognised the need to incorporate AI with its platform.
Through Hootsuite’s combination of automation and AI, for the first time brands can now respond intelligently, with personalised responses at scale in real-time.
Building on its acquisition of Sparkcentral earlier this year, Hootsuite’s acquisition of Heyday will improve its services through AI applications.
The acquisition of Heyday provides brands with the tools to foster more meaningful customer relationships through all stages of the buying journey.
