Finally, Apple has extended Apple Pay with Apple Pay Later, its version of the increasingly popular installment billing option. It’s a sound strategic move, encouraging both consumers and retailers to give more business to Apple. But it’s worth doing for the product name alone.
Next, we have a $25 million Series B for CreativeX, whose “creative data platform” analyzes brand images and video for quality, consistency, diversity, and regulatory compliance. The actual metrics are objective items like aspect ratio, video length, and subtitles, so it’s more about meeting standards than fostering creative genius. Which is fine: you need both.
Marketers are taking a gloomy view of the impact of privacy changes, according to this Modern Marketing Association (MMA) survey. They expect cookie deprecation alone to reduce ROI by at least 22% and say Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has already reduced ROI by 17%. In response, well-prepared companies are accelerating their investment in first party data and 59% expect to invest in a CDP as part of the solution.
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.