Cision Invests in Social Media Start-Up PitchEngine

Alliance Will Bring PitchEngine’s Social Publish Capabilities to Cision Users

CHICAGO, September 8, 2011 – Cision, the leading provider of PR software, services and tools for the marketing and public relations industry, today announced a partnership with PitchEngine, the premier social media release platform. The partnership will integrate PitchEngine’s social publishing platform into Cision’s award-winning marketing and PR software solution.

PitchEngine is a social publishing tool that enables businesses and organizations to engage with the media, their customers and influencers through branded content that is optimized for both search and the social web. With PitchEngine, marketers can easily create and publish optimized content, such as company news, white papers, collateral, videos, photos, events and more.

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More than 45,000 brands have created thousands of pitches using PitchEngine, from the largest PR agencies and brands in the world to boutique firms and small businesses. PitchEngine is used by a diverse mix of in-house PR pros, agency reps and other communications professionals. It lets marketers move beyond traditional press release distribution to share their full array of branded content on the social web to help attract qualified web traffic, increase visibility, and generate leads and sales. PitchEngine has pioneered the concept of Social Content Optimization (SCO), which is proving to be crucial in the convergence of public relations and marketing.

“Creating content for a consumer audience requires a different approach than that of traditional press releases. Communicators need two things to power their stories: they must directly engage with the right communities, and they must tell their story creatively using superior, targeted branded content,” said Hans Gieskes, Cision Group President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our partnership with PitchEngine puts Cision at the forefront of social publishing and Social Content Optimization, and delivers tangible revenue-generating business benefits to users of our CisionPoint marketing and PR software.” Cision will take a minority stake in PitchEngine, to further strengthen the partnership.

“Working with Cision allows us to bring our leading social publishing platform to the best marketing and PR software platform. It’s a huge win for people seeking the easiest and most effective way of reaching and truly engaging all their important audiences,” said Jason Kintzler, founder and CEO of PitchEngine.

Through Cision’s alliance with PitchEngine, CisionPoint users will be able to distribute their news and branded content directly to the PitchEngine site, which receives millions of visits per year. This provides another method for Cision customers to tell their stories directly to consumers. The newly integrated connect wizard will be available to CisionPoint users in the fall.

CisionPoint – winner of the CODiE Award as 2011’s Best Marketing/PR Solution from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) – has been adopted by over 30,000 users in more than 20 countries since its launch in October 2007. CisionPoint is available in eight languages and used by 49 of the top 50 PR agencies, corporations, nonprofits, universities and solo practitioners.

About PitchEngine
PitchEngine is a social platform that enables businesses and organizations to get the word out using social and search optimization. Founded in 2009, PitchEngine serves more than 45,000 brands worldwide.

About Cision
Cision is a leading global media intelligence company, serving the complete workflow of today’s communications, social media and content marketing professionals. Offering the industry’s most comprehensive PR and social software, rich analytics and a Global Insights team, Cision enables clients to improve their marketing and strengthen data-driven decision making. Cision also represents the Gorkana Group, PRWeb, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and iContact brands. Headquartered in Chicago, Cision has over 100,000 customers worldwide and maintains offices in Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and China. For more information, visit www.cision.com or follow @Cision on Twitter.