Ze Frank Joins Bazaarvoice Advisory Board

Video blogger and social network expert brings fresh insights and perspectives to Bazaarvoice's social commerce product roadmap

Austin, TX– July 10, 2007 –Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that video blog star Ze Frank has joined the company’s Advisory Board to help drive community participation around user-generated content. The creator of the enormously popular zefrank.com and video blog the show with zefrank, Ze has built an online following of viewers who contribute video clips, collaborate on scripts, and comment on posts. His insights and innovations as a programmer, performer, and web designer have resulted in Top 25 Web Celebrity designation by Forbes magazine and featured speaking engagements at the TED Conference, SXSW, Pop!Tech, Gel, and other top events around the world.

“Many of my projects are designed to engage viewers as participants,” said Ze. “I try to keep a sense of experimentation and play in everything I do. The Bazaarvoice team shares my enthusiasm for finding new ways to involve people online and for using innovative design and technology to create a user experience that gets people talking.” 

During the course of the show with zefrank, Ze rolled out several features, like Fabuloso Fridays, where he performed wiki-style scripts written by viewers, that helped solidify his position as one of the most successful online video creators. 

“Ze is an extremely funny and entertaining performer who takes user participation very seriously,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “He brings great ideas and a fresh perspective on community to our own social commerce efforts. His applied experience will enhance our solutions and benefit our clients, which include many of the largest brands in the world.”

Ze Frank studied neuroscience at Brown University and then worked as an art director for interactive design agency Dennis Interactive. In 2001, a party invitation featuring Ze’s funny dance moves became a huge viral video hit. Ze quit his day job to focus on zefrank.com, which earned a Webbie for Best Personal Web Site in 2004 and a Time Magazine Top 50 Site in 2005. In 2006, Ze launched the show with zefrank, a daily video blog that featured three- to five-minute segments on news and current events. The show with zefrank, which concluded its one-year run in March 2007, quickly grew into one of the most successful online video destinations and was named a Top 10 Video Blog for 2006 by Time Magazine.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ze as an advisory board member,” said Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice. “He understands viral marketing, word of mouth, and contagious media because he’s been a very successful practitioner himself. Ze is already adding value for our clients by feeding a pipeline of ideas, insights, and advice into our product planning process.”

About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice offers outsourced technology, services, analytics, and expertise to help companies enhance the online shopping experience with social commerce applications that drive sales. Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer deliver immediate success by minimizing implementation risk and maximizing the strategic impact of user-generated review content through complete customization, deep integration, community management, advanced analytics, search engine optimization, and syndication across the Web and to offline channels.

Bazaarvoice was named a Red Herring Top 100 company in 2006 and received the 2006 ClickZ Marketing Innovation of the Year award. Bazaarvoice currently serves over 90 eCommerce leaders including Bass Pro Shops, Dell, Macy’s, Overstock.com, PETCO, QVC, Sears, and ZipRealty. The company has headquarters in Austin, TX and offices in London, UK. For more information, please visit the company’s Web site at www.bazaarvoice.com or email .

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