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Interactive entertainment marketers form trade body; Microsoft’s Moore to chair
MUMBAI: A new non-profit trade organization, the Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers (AEIM), has been formed in the US.
The intiative has been spurred by the response garnered by MI6: Marketing Interactive ‘06, the special conference that addresses the challenges facing marketers in the interactive entertainment sector. The inaugural MI6 Conference and Awards Show will be be held on 27–28 June in San Francisco.
Peter Moore, corporate vice president, Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft Corp., has been named to chair the new organization.
Jim Chabin, president and CEO of Promax/BDA, is the MI6/AEIM president/CEO while Dale Hopkins, the COO of G4, is MI6 chairman.
Said Moore, “The AEIM will serve to enhance the professional value of video game marketers and will seek to build strong partnerships between the gaming, entertainment, technology, distribution and retail sectors of this business.”
Looking to increase the effectiveness of interactive marketers by spearheading idea sharing within the sector and encouraging communication with marketers in other entertainment areas, AEIM will provide education and training opportunities for marketers. Moving forward, AEIM will assume full responsibility for organizing subsequent MI conferences and developing additional means for contributing to members‘ professional development and education.
AEIM will also be overseeing the Senet-Muse annual marketing and promotion awards program. AEIM will Operate in collaboration with Promax/BDA and will be housed in the Promax/BDA offices in Los Angeles.
Among the future objectives for AEIM are the development of an online community for educating, inspiring and facilitating idea sharing among its fledgling members; regional seminars and workshops, as well as networking opportunities, and, eventually, a certification program.
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Canva acquires animation and AI startups Cavalry and MangoAI
The deals strengthen Canva’s push into enterprise and AI-led design workflows
AUSTRALIA: Global visual communication platform Canva has stepped up its acquisition drive, buying UK-based 2D animation platform Cavalry and US-based AI startup MangoAI to deepen its AI-powered creative stack.
Cavalry, whose tools are used by brands including Amazon, Meta, Google and Netflix, will strengthen Canva’s motion design capabilities. The deal builds on Canva’s 2024 acquisition of Affinity, which has crossed four million downloads since launch. With Cavalry, Canva now counts seven Europe-based acquisitions, underscoring its global expansion strategy.
MangoAI, an early-stage startup focused on video advertising optimisation, will integrate its reinforcement learning systems into Canva AI. The move aims to enable brands to generate personalised marketing content in real time, cutting production cycles while improving campaign performance. MangoAI co-founder Vinith Misra will join Canva as reinforcement learning lead in its research lab.
Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said the acquisitions reflect the company’s ambition to make professional-grade creative tools more accessible without sidelining human creativity. The goal, he said, is to bring everything from vector to motion design into a single, integrated suite.
The company now reports 265 million active users, including 31 million paid subscribers, and $4 billion in annualised revenue, up 36 per cent year on year. The latest buys further position Canva against rivals such as Adobe and Apple’s Creator Studio as it pushes deeper into enterprise workflows.
Canva head of pro design marketing Liam Fisher, said AI is intended to act as a creative assistant rather than a replacement, reinforcing the primacy of craft and individual design judgement.
