CDP Institute

Experian has purchased identity resolution vendor Tapad, one of the few remaining companies building cross-device identity graphs. New privacy laws have stressed Tapad’s business but also made compliant graphs more valuable to customer data companies like Experian.

More ID news: Nielsen has revealed its own cookieless ID system, based on the increasingly-popular Unified ID 2.0 framework being developed by Trade Desk. Unified ID 2.0 relies on hashed and encrypted email addresses. Also: Neustar is leveraging its cookie-free cross channel ID system, Fabrik, for a marketing analytics solution that combines marketing mix models and multi-touch attribution.

Meanwhile, this Rackspace survey finds there is no radical shift towards building rather than buying software, even though no code/low code technologies are widely adopted. But they also find that companies are focusing their building on customer-facing systems that create unique competitive advantages. Especially interesting, companies cite the same reasons in the same order for both building and buying: ease of use/implementation, competitive advantage, customization, and cost savings.

DataQ never made my list of CDPs, although they call themselves one and may actually qualify. It’s pretty much moot now, since they were just purchased by ecommerce marketing agency Power Digital, which will use them to support its own customers. We can still cite them as another an independent CDP acquired during the pandemic.

You’ve probably had your fill of online events this year, but somebody is still watching. This Intrado study shows that webcasts and virtual events grew hugely during 2020, with live (as opposed to on-demand) viewing of webcasts growing from 35% in 2019 to 58% in 2020, and completion growing from 29% to 67%. There were also big increases in virtual events with booths, webcasts within events, and gamification of events. Lots of suggestions here if you’re interested.

Integrate is also looking at marketing events, but with an eye to the future. Their survey found that nearly 60% of respondents won’t attend in-person event unless safety precautions are in place 29% will wait until there’s a vaccine. Still, most folks remain optimistic: 80% expect there will be at least some in-person events in 2021, including hybrid events that mix in-person and virtual experiences.

Klaviyo also pulls together customer data from all sources and uses the result for insights and personalized communications. The describe themselves as a “customer data and marketing platform”, which seems to include being a CDP. They’ve just raised a $200 million Series C, bringing total funding to $358.5 million.

Reltio is yet another company straddling the border of CDP-land. Their roots are in master data management (MDM) but their “connected data platform” can handle transaction and interaction data as well as the identifiers at the core of traditional MDM. They’ve just offered a six-month free subscription and $100,000 in services to qualified prospects who are interested in switching from an on-premises MDM tool to Reltio’s SaaS system.

Ecommerce messaging vendor Wunderkind (formerly BounceX) has purchased SmarterHQ, which assembles customer data and runs personalized marketing campaigns. SmarterHQ describes itself as “built on a sophisticated CDP infrastructure” but doesn’t easily share its profiles like a true CDP. Even so, the deal another example of delivery-oriented vendor acquiring a company that provides CDP-type capabilities.

Data aggregator and CDP vendor Zeotap has added $18.5 million to its Series C funding, bringing the Series C to $60.5 million and total funding to $81 million. Zeotap is among the many vendors offering a universal identifier to help replace third-party cookies.

Did someone mention replacing third-party cookies? Advertiser Perceptions found that companies are most likely to look for identity solutions based on first -party data (65%), compared with second-party data (51%) and third-party data (31%). A touchingly optimistic 58% expected that the industry would work together to create a universal identifier to replace third-party cookies.

If you’re less confident than most that the ad industry will agree on a universal ID, bear in mind that just 14% of ad professionals told ID Comms that advertisers have a good understanding of how adtech platforms contribute value. Only 31% believe advertisers are using adtech effectively. Of course, they were describing the industry in general and not their personal level of understanding, which most would probably rate much higher.