Salesforce merges Buddy Media and Radian6 to form Marketing Cloud

Both the Buddy Media brand, acquired in August, and Radian6, acquired last year, have been absorbed and renamed Salesforce Marketing Cloud.  

Michael Lazerow, founder of Buddy Media, has been appointed CMO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud while Ken Mandel, formerly managing director of Buddy Media Asia-Pacific, will retain his title in the new entity. 

This was announced yesterday at cloud computing event, Dreamforce. 

The new offering aims to unify social listening, content, engagement, advertising, workflow, automation and measurement on one platform. 

“Marketing is undergoing its biggest shift in decades, as brands move from traditional strategies to connecting with customers and fans globally through social media,” said Lazerow. The Marketing Cloud, he added, aims to help brands take advantage of this shift. 

Salesforce customer Ford Motor Company said that the marketing cloud will aid it in scaling social media across employees, dealers and customers.

"We also need a unified view of social to make analysis that comes out of it available to product development, advertising or product marketing," said Scott Monty, Ford's communications manager, global digital and multimedia. "Ford doesn't have a standalone social media strategy—we have a business strategy supported by social media.” 

Unilever, which used to work with Buddy Media, has also transitioned to working with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Salesforce seems to have the edge on Google, which is still in the process of acquiring Buddy Media rival Wildfire. Google may have an even more ambitious offering in mind, combining social media management with display and search.