Connect with us

Technology

BVB Japan Tour 2026: Record Reach, 70,000 Fan Contacts and Strong Commercial Momentum

Published

on

DORTMUND, Germany, Aug. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA (“BVB”) looks back on an exceptionally successful “BVB Japan Tour 2026.” After seven intensive days in Japan, BVB has set new benchmarks across all relevant key performance indicators — from fan engagement and media reach to commercial activation — impressively underscoring the strategic importance of the Japanese market for the club.

Over 70,000 Direct Fan Contacts

During the tour, more than 70,000 fans came into direct contact with Borussia Dortmund -whether at stadiums, public training sessions, the Fan Embassy, or partner meet-and-greets. The enormous response demonstrates the sustainably growing interest in the Bundesliga, and in BVB in particular, within the Japanese market.

Social media: 100 million reach, 300,000 new followers

BVB’s digital presence reached new heights during the tour, with a reach of over 100 million and 300,000 new followers across BVB’s relevant social media channels. Sentiment across all channels was consistently positive. These figures underscore the club’s growing global appeal and the effectiveness of its international communications strategy.

TV records in Japan and Germany

The match against FC Tokyo attracted around 160,000 unique users on the Japanese streaming service Abema TV – a figure that exceeded the platform’s previous highest Bundesliga viewership by 60 per cent. At the same time, an average of 50,000 unique users per match watched the games on the BVB live channels in Germany. In addition, 100 local media representatives were accredited for the match against FC Tokyo and reported live from the stadium – a strong indicator of the media interest in BVB in Japan.

14 commercial partners, 33 activations, PUMA kit launch and merchandise sales

Commercially, the tour was also a resounding success: 14 commercial partners were involved in the tour, resulting in a total of 33 activations – including the highly publicised PUMA kit launch for the new season. Thanks to the team’s presence in Japan, 10,000 jerseys were sold across all PUMA & BVB sales channels. The tour thus provided a unique platform for partner brands to showcase themselves to a high-profile Japanese audience.

Legends, meetings & fan club interest

Three BVB legends accompanied the tour and ensured special encounters with local fans. During 51 meetings and activations, discussions took place, relationships were strengthened and new partnerships were initiated. Particularly noteworthy: 10 written enquiries regarding the establishment of an official BVB fan club in Japan were received during the tour – a clear sign of the growing and increasingly organised BVB community in the country.

BVB also supported also the Bundesliga at its “Bundesliga Dream” event, which focused on BVB’s presence and successes in Japan over the past 10 years. The event was attended by 20 local and international media representatives, as well as over 80 guests from the worlds of politics, public authorities, sport and business.

World Premiere: World Street Series in Japan

As the third international host of the World Street Series, Japan made a particularly striking statement: the world’s largest projection mapping, covering 14,000 square metres, was realised as a spectacular event and picked up by more than 30 Japanese media outlets. Borussia Dortmund became the first non-Japanese brand to appear in this format — a statement of BVB’s international brand strength.

First Investor Relations Roadshow in Japan

On the occasion of the BVB Japan Tour 2026, an Investor Relations Roadshow was held in Tokyo for the first time, supported by Nomura, with dialogue conducted with “growth value” investors. The roadshow achieved its objective of positioning Borussia Dortmund as a transparent, capital-market-oriented entity in the awareness of relevant institutional investors in Japan.

Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA
Borussia Dortmund Geschäftsführungs-GmbH

Contact:
Dr. Robin Steden
Inhouse Counsel / Investor Relations
aktie@bvb.de 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bvb-japan-tour-2026-record-reach-70-000-fan-contacts-and-strong-commercial-momentum-302841323.html

SOURCE Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA

Continue Reading

Technology

IAB Tech Lab Introduces AAMP 3.0 to Standardize the RFP-to-Buy Process for Agentic Advertising

Published

on

By

OpenProposal Brings a Common Standard to a Historically Manual Stage of Media Buying, Connecting RFPs to Buy Commitments and will be in Public Comment until October 22, 2026

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, announced AAMP 3.0, the next major release of its Agentic Advertising Management Protocols framework, introducing a standardized way for buyers and sellers to move from an RFP through proposal evaluation and toward a buy commitment in agentic advertising.

While standards exist for many stages of digital media buying and execution, the process between an RFP and a buy commitment has historically been handled largely through human and manual workflows. As AI agents take on more responsibility for discovering, evaluating and planning media, that gap creates the need for a common way for buyer and seller agents to exchange and evaluate proposals before a transaction moves toward execution.

AAMP 3.0 addresses that gap through OpenProposal, a new specification that defines how sellers can represent advertising products and respond to buyer briefs in a standardized, agent-readable format. OpenProposal enables buying agents to discover and compare opportunities against a brief while giving sellers control over how their inventory and ad products are represented. The new specification will be in Public Comment until October 22, 2026, during which time it will be built into the Buyer and Seller Agent SDK reference implementations.

OpenProposal extends AAMP into the RFP and proposal stage while connecting to the IAB Tech Lab standards already used across media execution, including AdCOM, OpenDirect, and the Deals API. Together, these standards provide a common foundation for agentic workflows to move from discovery and planning through negotiation, buying, execution and reporting.

“As agents take on more of the work in media planning and buying,the industry needs a common framework for the RFP and proposal process,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab. “OpenProposal fills a major gap between a buyer’s brief and a buy commitment, giving buyer and seller agents a standardized way to exchange and evaluate opportunities. By connecting that process to the standards the industry already uses for execution, AAMP 3.0 creates a foundation for agentic workflows across the media buying lifecycle.”

From Discovery to Execution

OpenProposal creates a standard way for publishers to define advertising products and packages and to represent them in RFP responses. Buying agents can evaluate those proposals against a buyer’s brief, compare opportunities and assess suitability before moving toward a buy commitment. Once an opportunity moves forward, AAMP connects that proposal to the standards and infrastructure used for all types of transaction and execution.

AAMP 3.0 supports a media lifecycle that includes:

Publish: Sellers publish a catalog of public packages that can be browsed, while retaining some products for custom proposals.Discover: Buyer agents retrieve available public packages, enabling inventory discovery before a negotiation begins, or submit a full brief to get a custom proposal.Compare: Buyer agents evaluate and rank opportunities against a declared brief, creating the ability to process information from a broader set of publishers than would be practical through manual evaluation alone.Qualify: Agents evaluate availability and fit for the specific audience, flight and requirements of a media plan.Negotiate: When needed, buyer and seller agents can negotiate custom terms while maintaining a reference to the original published offer.Bind & Execute: Transactions can be executed using the existing standards and infrastructure of the digital advertising ecosystem.Report: Performance can flow back through existing reporting standards, allowing results to be evaluated against the original objectives and commitments of the plan.

AdCOM provides a common vocabulary throughout these stages, allowing the information represented at discovery to remain consistent as an opportunity moves through planning, negotiation, execution and reporting.

OpenProposal Makes Publisher Ad Products Agent-Readable

OpenProposal gives publishers a standardized way to make a broader range of ad products understandable to buying agents and to create proposals in response to buyer briefs. In the proposal, sellers can include information necessary for buyers to understand how the products can be bought, executed, measured and evaluated.

For buyers, this creates the ability to evaluate a much broader universe of potential media opportunities. Agentic technology can process and compare more information across more publishers than a human planner could reasonably evaluate alone, helping buying organizations build plans informed by a larger and more diverse consideration set.

OpenProposal maintains continuity with the digital advertising infrastructure already in the market. It complements OpenDirect, AdCOM, and the Deals API, using those established standards as opportunities move from planning into transaction and execution. Existing programmatic implementations of those standards can continue operating as they do today, without requiring DSPs, SSPs or other technologies to change their existing use cases.

In addition, the AAMP agent software development kits (SDKs) continue to further harden deterministic guardrails governing pricing, ad packages, orders and media buy details, increase trust in agent identities, and strengthen idempotency across transactions to help ensure consistent responses and data integrity as agents operate at greater speed and scale. In practical terms, idempotency means an instruction can be sent twice without happening twice; so when an agent retries a request it didn’t get an answer to, the result is confirmation of the original order rather than a duplicate.

Industry Support for an Agentic Media Ecosystem

As agencies, brands and publishers begin building agents into their planning and transaction workflows, industry participants are rallying around the need for common standards that allow those agents to communicate across companies and platforms. AAMP agents with OpenProposal are designed to create that shared foundation while allowing every participant to maintain control over its own technology, inventory, business rules and data.

“By providing full agentic coverage for all existing IAB Tech Lab standards, while at the same time standardizing agent authentication and authorization protocols, AAMP 3.0 delivers a transaction-ready framework that will aid our industry’s movement from proof-of-concept tests towards the wide-spread use of AI Agents in media transactions.” added Michael Palmer, Global Vice President, Emerging Technologies at WPP Media.

“Agentic planning gives us the opportunity to evaluate a much broader range of media opportunities and information when we build a plan,” added Mike Treon, Head of CTV Strategy at PMG. “What’s new in AAMP 3.0 is that the reasoning travels with the proposal. A seller can tell us not just what a package costs, but why they believe it fits the brief — the audience rationale, the formats, the terms behind the price. That context is what our planning models need, and now it arrives in a form they can actually read.”

The global IAB Network is also getting involved. “IAB Australia has opened expressions of interest for a seller-side pilot using the AAMP reference implementations available today,” said Jonas Jaanimagi, Technology Lead, IAB Australia. “We’ve been running those implementations in a lab for months and contributing feedback upstream. Our role now is to help Australian publishers test discovery, proposal and approval workflows in a sandbox before any live spend is involved, and to turn that practical experience into useful evidence for the industry.”

AAMP 3.0 represents the next stage in IAB Tech Lab’s work to apply agentic capabilities to the proven standards that underpin digital advertising. By standardizing the RFP-to-buy commitment process and connecting it with established standards for transaction, execution and reporting, AAMP 3.0 helps create a common foundation for agentic media buying without requiring the industry to rebuild the infrastructure it relies on today.

To review the OpenProposal specification, supporting technical resources, and to provide feedback, via Public Comment until October 22, 2026. please visit: iabtechlab.com/AAMPv3.

About IAB Technology Laboratory
Established in 2014, the IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that engages a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, brands, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on solutions for brand safety and ad fraud; identity, data, and consumer privacy; cross-channel programmatic effectiveness and ad measurement; and the impact of LLMs and AI agents on advertising. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, Trusted Server, and the Agentic Roadmap initiative for agentic advertising. Board members and companies are listed at https://iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/tech-lab-leadership/. For more information, please visit https://iabtechlab.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iab-tech-lab-introduces-aamp-3-0-to-standardize-the-rfp-to-buy-process-for-agentic-advertising-302885337.html

SOURCE IAB Tech Lab

Continue Reading

Technology

EcoFlow launches new 8kWh battery to simplify high-capacity home energy installations

Published

on

By

Higher-capacity battery gives installers greater flexibility with fewer modules, as EcoFlow also announces expansion into C&I energy storage with new Alps system

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EcoFlow is expanding its professional home energy portfolio with the launch of a new 8kWh residential battery, designed to give installers a simpler way to build higher-capacity home energy storage systems.

Unveiled at Solar & Storage Live Birmingham 2026, the new battery increases the amount of storage available within each individual module, enabling installers to reach larger system capacities with fewer battery units.

As household electricity demand grows through technologies including EVs, heat pumps, and electric heating and cooking, residential storage systems are increasingly being expected to support larger and more complex loads.

EcoFlow’s new 8kWh battery is designed to give installers greater flexibility to meet those requirements, without increasing system complexity at the same rate as capacity.

The launch forms part of a significant expansion of EcoFlow’s professional energy portfolio at Solar & Storage Live, where the company will also announce its move into commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage with EcoFlow Alps, a new modular DC-coupled system offering 60–261kWh of storage within a single system.

More capacity, fewer modules, simpler installations

For installers, increasing system capacity can mean increasing the number of individual battery modules required. EcoFlow’s new 8kWh battery changes that equation by providing greater capacity within each individual unit.

This enables installers to design higher-capacity residential systems using fewer modules, reducing the number of individual units that need to be specified, positioned, connected, and commissioned.

The larger format also provides greater flexibility when designing systems around different homes and energy requirements. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, installers can more closely match storage capacity to a property’s solar generation, electricity consumption, and future energy needs.

That is becoming increasingly important as home electrification accelerates. EV charging, heat pumps, solar PV, battery storage, and dynamic electricity tariffs are changing household load profiles and the role residential energy storage is expected to play.

The new 8kWh battery expands EcoFlow’s residential offering to provide installers with another option for customers requiring greater storage capacity, while maintaining a straightforward, scalable system architecture.

EcoFlow expands into C&I energy storage with Alps

Alongside its residential announcements, EcoFlow will use Solar & Storage Live to mark another major expansion of its professional energy business: its move into commercial and industrial energy storage.

EcoFlow Alps is a modular, all-in-one DC-coupled C&I energy storage system, designed to bring flexibility and simplified deployment to larger-scale energy projects.

A single system can be configured from 29.9kW to 80kW of power and 60kWh to 261kWh of storage, allowing installers to configure capacity according to individual project requirements.

Its modular architecture supports configurations of three to 13 battery packs, with 20kWh per pack. The batteries feature a plug-and-play stacking design, while the inverters also support stacking to create an integrated all-in-one system.

Individual battery towers can provide up to 120kWh of capacity, while IP66 protection supports both indoor and outdoor applications.

EcoFlow will also offer a pre-built tower service, helping reduce the amount of assembly required on site and streamline deployment for installers.

The DC-coupled architecture is designed to reduce unnecessary energy conversion within solar and storage applications, with EcoFlow reporting DC-coupled conversion efficiency improvements of more than 2%.

The introduction of Alps extends EcoFlow’s energy portfolio beyond the home and into larger commercial applications, as businesses increasingly look towards solar and storage to support energy resilience, increase solar self-consumption, and manage electricity costs.

Intelligent energy management with OASIS 3

Hardware is only one part of the changing energy landscape. EcoFlow will also showcase OASIS 3, its latest intelligent home energy management technology.

OASIS 3 is designed to coordinate different elements of the household energy ecosystem, helping optimise solar generation, battery storage, household consumption, and electricity tariffs.

As dynamic and time-of-use tariffs become more prevalent, intelligent energy management can help households make greater use of low-cost electricity while reducing grid consumption during more expensive periods.

For installers, this represents an evolution from specifying individual solar and storage products towards creating integrated energy systems that can respond intelligently to how a household generates and consumes power.

A growing professional energy portfolio

The launches at Solar & Storage Live reflect EcoFlow’s continued expansion from portable energy into residential solar and storage, intelligent home energy management, and now commercial and industrial energy storage.

Craig Bilboe, Head of Residential, UK at EcoFlow, said: “The energy storage market is evolving incredibly quickly, and that is changing what installers need from manufacturers. Customers want more capacity, greater flexibility, and smarter control, but installers also need systems that remain practical to specify and install.

“Our new 8kWh battery is about making higher-capacity residential storage simpler. More capacity within each module gives installers greater flexibility when designing systems for increasingly electrified homes, without simply adding more and more individual battery units.

“At the same time, Alps represents an exciting new chapter for EcoFlow. We’ve built a significant residential energy portfolio, and we’re now bringing that experience into C&I with a modular platform capable of supporting much larger energy requirements.”

Meet EcoFlow at Solar & Storage Live

Installers visiting Solar & Storage Live Birmingham 2026 will be among the first to see EcoFlow’s new 8kWh residential battery and Alps C&I energy storage system, alongside OCEAN 2, OASIS 3, and technologies from across EcoFlow’s wider energy ecosystem.

The EcoFlow team will be available throughout the event to discuss residential and C&I applications, system configuration, installation, commissioning, and the company’s growing presence within the UK professional energy market.

Visit EcoFlow at Stand G28, Hall 20 at Solar & Storage Live Birmingham, 22-24 September.

EcoFlow is a global pioneer in eco-friendly energy solutions, driving the transition toward smarter, cleaner and more independent power. Founded in 2017, EcoFlow is No. 1 in smart home energy storage solutions, empowering millions of users to take control of their energy at home and beyond. With operational headquarters in Seattle, Düsseldorf, Tokyo and Birmingham, U.K., and a business and data center in Singapore, EcoFlow operates as a global ecosystem spanning research, operations, and manufacturing. Its innovative technologies serve over 6 million users across 140 markets and redefine how the world takes control of its energy.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ecoflow-launches-new-8kwh-battery-to-simplify-high-capacity-home-energy-installations-302884548.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Adobe and Jet2 Partner to Deliver Agentic AI-Powered Personalised Experiences to Millions of Jet2 Holidaymakers

Published

on

By

Jet2 will use Adobe CX Enterprise with agentic AI technology to give millions of customers more personalised holiday inspiration, offers and supportAdobe tools will help Jet2 teams deliver more personalisation and consistent, relevant holiday content at speed, supporting Jet2’s award-winning customer service The new Jet2 x Adobe Customer Experience Lab will bring Adobe Forward Deployed Engineers and Jet2 teams together to rapidly develop and build new AI-powered services, giving customers new ways to plan, book and enjoy their holidays

LONDON, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Adobe — the global technology leader that unleashes creativity, productivity and customer experiences through innovative tools and platforms — and Jet2, the UK’s largest tour operator and third largest airline, have today announced a multi-year strategic partnership set to redefine the holiday experience for millions of customers. The partnership brings together Jet2’s award-winning VIP customer experience and its 10 million myJet2 customers, with Adobe’s industry-leading Customer Experience Orchestration technology, to help deliver more personalised, conversational experiences as a major part of the Jet2 experience.

At the heart of the partnership is Adobe CX Enterprise Coworker, which uses agentic AI to help Jet2 colleagues rapidly deliver on-brand personalised experiences to customers at scale across applications. Adobe technology will enable Jet2 to make offers and recommendations relevant to each holidaymaker based on their travel preferences and booking habits.

Jet2 customers will benefit from more relevant destination ideas, whether it is family-friendly resort recommendations or city break ideas for those wanting to explore, as well as personally curated daily itinerary suggestions for customers when they are on their well-deserved holidays.

Building on Jet2’s award-winning customer-first approach, which has seen the company repeatedly recognised for delivering industry-leading customer service and experience, Adobe will give Jet2 a unified view of each myJet2 customer and help deliver intelligent, personalised offers and messages across supported channels, at the right moment during each customer’s holiday journey.

Jet2 will be able to create on-brand holiday content faster and more consistently using Adobe’s content supply chain tools. With Adobe Firefly Foundry, which enables custom AI models informed by Jet2’s brand assets and approved content, and Adobe Brand Intelligence, which maintains and validates brand standards across workflows, Jet2 will be even better positioned to respond quickly to customer demand, travel trends and changing preferences. Adobe will also help Jet2 optimise its content for large language models, as holidaymakers increasingly go to AI-search to research their trips.

The Jet2 x Adobe Customer Experience Lab:

A pioneering new Jet2 x Adobe Customer Experience Lab will also bring Adobe Forward Deployed Engineers together with Jet2’s digital, customer and technology teams. Working side by side, combining Jet2’s deep understanding of its customers and their holidays with Adobe CX Enterprise and agentic technology, the teams will be able to rapidly test, build and scale new AI-powered services, such as smarter ways to match customers with holidays that best suit their preferences and travel history.

David Hills, Chief Customer Officer at Jet2 said: “At Jet2, our customers are at the heart of everything we do. Customers know they will always receive a VIP experience when they holiday with us, reflected in our industry-leading customer satisfaction scores, which are significantly ahead of the market. Working with Adobe will enable us to serve our customers even better, using the power of AI to make every interaction more personal, more relevant, more timely and always helpful – strengthening what makes Jet2 different and bringing us even closer to customers.”

Nathan Hancock, Vice President and Managing Director, UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa at Adobe, said: “Jet2 has built one of the most trusted customer communities in UK travel and our partnership is about building on that foundation. Every day, customers expect more relevance and faster responses, whether that’s a recommendation, a personal offer, or a change to their plans. Together, Adobe and Jet2 are creating something that will transform travel experiences.”

About Adobe

Adobe’s mission is to empower everyone to create by building innovative platforms and tools that unleash creativity, productivity and personalized customer experiences. For more visit www.adobe.com.

About Jet2

Jet2 is a leading leisure travel business comprising Jet2holidays, the UK’s leading provider of ATOL-protected package holidays to destinations across the Mediterranean, North Africa, Canary Islands and European leisure cities, and Jet2.com, the UK’s third largest airline by number of passengers flown, which specialises in scheduled holiday flights.

Jet2 operates from 14 UK airport bases at Belfast International, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool John Lennon, London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle.

For more information visit www.jet2.com and www.jet2holidays.com  

© 2026 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/adobe-and-jet2-partner-to-deliver-agentic-ai-powered-personalised-experiences-to-millions-of-jet2-holidaymakers-302885750.html

Continue Reading

Trending