IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that Steve Harvey World Group (SHWG), a media conglomerate led by entertainer, author, entrepreneur and humanitarian Steve Harvey, will launch a new digital experience, including a website and mobile app, built on the IBM Cloud. This experience is expected to provide a deeper level of engagement for the hundreds of millions of fans who tune into the Steve Harvey television and radio shows, read his books and follow him on social media.
“The digital experience on IBM Cloud will expand the Steve Harvey brand beyond Harvey’s entertainment career to highlight his thought leadership, business expertise, commitment to partners and involvement in the community,” said Sunny Duncan, Chief Executive Staff Officer, SHWG. “The website and mobile app will enable SHWG to directly engage the Steve Harvey fan base with targeted content, such as behind the scenes clips and product announcements.”
Augusta Hitech, a software engineering firm and IBM Business Partner, is working with SHWG to develop the technology and launch the new digital experience on the IBM Cloud. The new fan experience is designed to leverage IBM Cloud’s infrastructure as a service, content delivery network and microservices, including API Connect, Analytics and Mobile Foundation, to create a central hub that aggregates Steve Harvey’s companies. This hub will provide business intelligence through data-driven insights to help identify new revenue opportunities and unique partnerships for SHWG.
“IBM Cloud is our first recommendation for clients looking for security, hybrid cloud infrastructure and global scalability,” said Sean Caputo, vice president of product and strategy, Augusta Hitech. “The cloud platform allows us to deliver products to market faster due to its vast catalog of development tools and APIs, and the IBM Cloud infrastructure provides an enterprise-level architecture that delivers the velocity of data required for a digital fan experience. Due to the IBM Cloud’s simplicity and ease of use, we are able to rapidly deploy the Steve Harvey World Group’s digital strategy.”
This collaboration was spearheaded by SHWG’s new chief digital strategist, Amilya Antonetti.
“This new digital experience, coupled with smart engagement and a newly centralized database, will give SHWG complete ownership of the digital experience so that we can enhance it in real time, which is key in today’s experience and expectation economies,” said Antonetti. “We will use data intelligence from the IBM Cloud to help guide our marketing and business decisions as we seek strong brand partnerships, grow each of our business initiatives and continue to enhance the fan experience.”
“IBM’s ability to deliver real-time data driven insights can help drive deeper fan engagement by helping brands discover what fans want and deliver it in a way that builds loyalty,” said Peter Guglielmino, chief technology officer, IBM Media & Entertainment. “We’ve empowered our business partner Augusta with a global, scalable cloud platform that is designed for data, enabling them to rapidly develop a digital experience that will benefit both the Steve Harvey World Group and hundreds of millions of Steve Harvey fans.”
The SHWG website on IBM Cloud will launch September 5, with a mobile app to follow shortly after.
