Networked Insights uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand what consumers are talking about in social media and to build individual-level interest profiles. These are used by agencies and brand marketers for analysis and audience targeting across Facebook, Twitter, and ad networks. The company just raised $30 million, bringing total funding to $80 million.
Business data compiler Dun & Bradstreet announced purchase of Avention, which distributes B2B company and contact data through lists, triggers, and integration with CRM and marketing automation systems.
We might as well finish out the day with still more news about B2C marketing automation. Bridg assembles unified customer data from Point of Sale, loyalty, and other systems at retailers and restaurants. It then applies predictive models to classify customers based on their behaviors, assigns customers to appropriate (human-created) campaigns, and creates highly personalized messages. Like Listrak, Bridg is expanding beyond email and SMS to deliver messages in display, mobile, and social channels.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.