Martha Parties On
We might be in a downturn, recession, and facing difficult economic times, but it seems that we’re still ready to party. According to VentureBeat, Martha Stewart’s media network, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, last week threw $2.8M toward Pingg, an invitation and event management software company.
The company integrates a variety of social media capabilities, including distributing invitations via social networks and sending out invitations to various locations (email, mobile device and Facebook) in one single swoop. Pingg also allows users to create real invitations that it will print and mail out. Or send out via text. With the new partnership, Pingg will run Martha’s content (which includes a variety of digital properties) and also add its capabilities to MarthaStewart.com
evite is probably the most well-known company in this space, but other event-focused tools have definitely tried to make a name for themselves by conceptualizing slicker sites and increased social media cross-functionality. Over the years, evite has proven to be a solid tool for me–from birthday dinners to parties, holiday gatherings, happy hours and even small movie nights, it’s delivered no-fail results. I like the little reminders it sends, telling me not to forget I’m scheduled to make an appearance somewhere the next day. And I particularly enjoy logging in to my own invites and seeing how many times people have viewed my evite (stalkers beware, I am aware!). The idea of having prettier pictures and also bringing in an aspect of integration between my digital universe and the one I actually live in, kind of sounds fun. And we could use a little more fun these days.