SMG Expands Experience Management Capabilities with Acquisition of Bulbshare

October 24, 2024

Service Management Group (SMG), a customer, employee, and brand experience management partner to more than 500 brands, announced today its acquisition of Bulbshare, an AI-powered platform that connects companies with customers to gather real-time insights and feedback. This strategic move enables SMG to further elevate its industry-leading experience management capabilities while supporting Bulbshare’s continued growth.

Founded in 2017, London-based Bulbshare empowers leading consumer brands like Nestlé, Proctor & Gamble and LEGO to tap into the collective wisdom of global customer communities, driving smarter decision-making across product development, marketing and innovation. Unlike traditional market research methods, Bulbshare’s platform leverages advanced AI capabilities from OpenAI and Microsoft to rapidly analyze vast, real-time data from engaged communities. These capabilities deliver transformational impact to traditional brand experience (BX) management, by enabling customer communities to actively collaborate and co-create within key brand, product and market initiatives.

SMG powers transformative customer experiences by driving actionable insights that help turn customer feedback into financial gains. With unmatched expertise at the intersection of data science and customer experience optimization, SMG strives to improve every customer interaction. It provides frontline teams with targeted actions to deliver improvements—amplified by the industry’s only software with a service (SwaS) strategic consultancy—to accelerate customer experience (CX) impact and ROI.

The acquisition enables SMG to offer clients a single source for one of the best of CX and BX management—enablement of continuous optimization of customer experience in combination with customer-driven collaboration and co-creation that fuels innovation and growth.

“The combination of SMG and Bulbshare creates a uniquely powerful, holistic experience management model for customer and brand experience management,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, SMG’s Chief Executive Officer. “Together, we will empower our clients with portfolio solutions that drive continuous improvement, breakthrough business outcomes, and deeper, more loyal customer relationships.”

Through the acquisition, SMG gains access to Bulbshare’s notable client roster of leading consumer brands, expanding its reach into consumer-packaged goods (CPG) markets. Bulbshare’s success with always-on, custom-built communities offers significant opportunities for enhanced customer engagement and innovation.

“We’re excited and energized about the opportunities that lie ahead,” said Matt Hay, Founder and CEO of Bulbshare. “By joining forces with SMG, we are entering a new era where customer experience is driven by participation and co-creation. Together, our CX and BX solutions will deliver unparalleled value to our clients, while our EX offerings will foster stronger employee relationships, contributing to our collective growth and success.”

As part of SMG, Bulbshare will benefit from SMG’s decades of experience and deep customer relationships. While both teams will continue delivering their unique offerings, they will collaborate on future product developments and expanded client benefits.

Berkowitz will lead the combined company, majority-owned by growth-oriented private equity firms Brentwood Associates and LLR Partners, as CEO. Hay will join SMG’s Executive Leadership Team as Senior Vice President of Innovation and General Manager of Bulbshare.

About Service Management Group
SMG is a leading experience management (XM) provider, accelerating value by changing how brands act on customer + employee insights. With a rich 30-year history rooted in The Service Profit Chain, SMG is the industry’s only software with a service (SwaS) provider—uniquely pairing an enterprise platform with professional services to help brands generate new revenue, grow existing revenue, reduce churn + detractors, and drive operational efficiencies. To learn more about our customer, employee, and brand experience management solutions, visit www.smg.com/.

About Bulbshare
Bulbshare brings the world’s biggest brands closer to their customers – delivering consumer insight, customer content and product innovation faster than ever with the power of AI. By building always-on global customer communities, Bulbshare puts consumer voice at the heart of brands, enabling more successful products and services with better market fit. Bulbshare’s global communities drive 1000s of real-time responses every day in over 50 markets worldwide – all analyzed in seconds with leading-edge AI technology. From product heatmapping to virtual workshops to AI-driven data analysis, the Bulbshare platform is changing the face of consumer insight and revolutionizing how brands develop, market and launch their products.

This press release was issued by Service Management Group and Bulbshare, and its content has not been altered or edited by LLR. LLR believes this information to be accurate and current as of the date of publication but cannot guarantee its accuracy. Any quotes contained in this press release reflect the view of the speaker only and are not attributable to LLR. LLR disclaims any duty to update this press release, or any content contained therein based on future developments.