CDP Institute

A Sitecore survey of IT executives in 12 countries in the GCC, the Levant, and Egypt showed the impact of the pandemic on customer behavior. Ninety-one percent of consumers in MENA become digital converts; and 83% of organizations in MENA advanced their marketing stack more in 2020 than they had in the three years prior.

Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) has announced it is turning to Google Cloud as part of plans to leverage data, machine learning, and AI to personalise the customer journey.

The majority of Australians are concerned about data privacy, with 50 per cent stating companies are requesting too much personal information, according to new research by Toluna, a leading consumer intelligence platform.

Perth Airport is implementing a range of digital technologies to simplify the customer experience when passing through its facilities, while also helping the operator to better understand the breadth of customer interactions.

Despite its small size, Chile’s e-commerce indicators are impressive. With the highest banking, Internet and smartphone penetration in the region, Chileans are better prepared than any other Latin Americans to adopt e-commerce. Chileans’ online spend is disproportionately high for their small population of 18 million; in 2016, per capita e-commerce spend in Chile was $222 compared to $120 in Brazil and $138 in Argentina.

Stagwell is expanding its creative, content, media and marketing communications capabilities throughout Latin America with a new partnership between Stagwell agency Allison+Partners and Latin American heritage agency Grupo Garnier. The partnership will see Grupo Garnier rebranding offices in eight markets as Allison+Partners, including in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico.

Cairo based Pravica, a communication platform using Blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security through decentralised identity, has announced an investment (amount undisclosed) from CV VC (Crypto Valley Venture Capital).

South African startup Abela is supporting the informal economy with the same autonomy and security that banks offer to the formal economy via a QR code-enabled system. Launched in August 2020, Abela started as a QR code-enabled payment platform offering users without a bank account the ability to receive tips and payments digitally. Since then, it has broadened its approach to include the entire informal economy.

India’s bus market is a US$20 billion opportunity, almost twice the size of cabs. The startup was operating about 1,900 buses before the pandemic hit last year. Now the startup is operating 2,500 buses and has signed up several thousand more. As part of the new financing round, the startup said it will use US$10 million of the proceeds to buy back stock options to reward its current and former employees as well as some early angel investors.

Licious, a Bangalore-based startup that sells fresh meat and seafood online, said it has raised US$52 million in a new financing round and become the first direct-to-consumer startup to attain the unicorn status in the world’s second-largest internet market. Licious has grown over 500% in the past one year with over 2 million unique customers.

Ad tech and martech companies are using humorous brand creative to talk about a future beyond third-party cookies.

The rapid growth in ecommerce during the pandemic has heightened the need for real-time insights to accommodate fast-changing customer behaviour.