Bazaarvoice Announces Ja Rule as Guest Speaker on SXSW Panel

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 16, 2017 -- Bazaarvoice, Inc. (Nasdaq:BV) announced today that recording artist, actor and entrepreneur Ja Rule will participate on one of three official SXSW panels at the #BVatSXSW event on Mar. 11, 2017, at Sellers Underground in Austin, Texas.

Beyond his career in entertainment, Ja Rule’s most recent business venture is co-founding Fyre Media, an on-demand talent booking service for influential celebrities, artists and athletes. Ja Rule’s experience in entertainment, promotions and entrepreneurship will bring a unique perspective to the Bazaarvoice panel Is Authenticity in Advertising Possible?, a discussion about how brands and agencies can connect to their target audiences in an authentic way.

During this panel, Ja Rule will join other leaders in the digital advertising industry, including Richard Guest, president of global advertising agency Tribal Worldwide, and Jennifer Dalipi, senior director – global media consumer beauty at leading cosmetics manufacturer COTY.

Bazaarvoice will host two additional panels that explore other trends and issues that affect today’s marketers and advertisers. The Moral Code of Pay-to-Play Marketing will focus on how brands can incentivize and activate influencers to help tell their stories effectively and responsibly. Speakers include:

• Yuyu Chen, brand reporter at Digiday
• Liz Giel, group planning director at Carmichael Lynch
• Darcy Reifenberger, global product director at BzzAgent

The second panel titled, Contemporary Curation: How Imagery Shapes a Brand, will examine how compelling visual content can strengthen your brand’s identity and foster emotional connections with consumers. It will feature:

• Art Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Texas
• Oen Michael Hammonds, lead facilitator at IBM Design Studio

“The underlying themes of our #BVatSXSW panels focus on brand storytelling, creative content, and authentic consumer connections,” said Gene Austin, chief executive officer and president at Bazaarvoice. “We look forward to hearing how industry leaders from marketing, advertising, tech and design can help brands stay relevant in today’s noisy marketplace.”

To see the full schedule of events and register for #BVatSXSW, visit www.bazaarvoice.com/sxsw.

About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice helps brands and retailers find and reach consumers, and win them with the content they trust. Each month in the Bazaarvoice Network, more than one-half billion consumers view and share authentic consumer-generated content (CGC), including ratings and reviews as well as curated visual content, across 5,000 brand and retail websites. This visibility into shopper behavior allows Bazaarvoice to capture unique first-party data and insights that fuel our targeted advertising and personalization solutions.

Founded in 2005, Bazaarvoice is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices across North America and Europe. For more information, visit www.bazaarvoice.com.