CDP Institute

In the latest evolution of its One Platform solution, NBCUniversal has launched One Platform Total Audience. The new technology will use AI and predictive analytics to create a single media plan across live and streaming TV targeting a brand’s chosen audience segment. It will combine NBCUniversal’s first-party data with advertisers’ data sets to support targeting at scale.  No cookies here, folks.

Games are emerging as an alternative ad channel in the no-cookie universe. Retail giant Walmart is partnering with 3D experience platform Unity to give Unity developers the opportunity to incorporate Walmart commerce APIs into games, virtual environments and apps. Players will be enabled to make purchases of physical goods without leaving the game.

Panel-based measurement of TV viewing is Nielsen’s bread and butter.  Samba TV is pulling a seat to the table by combining audience data from tens of millions of opted-in televisions with HyphaMetrics’ measurements of content, ad consumption and brand sponsorship across all devices through its opt-in panel. The combined dataset will be available to brands, agencies and publishers to provide insights at household and individual levels.

Fitness center chain Planet Fitness has announced the launch of a multi-channel media network that will allow advertisers to connect with PF members in-club and across a range of digital destinations. In-club media will help advertisers reach members on screens located throughout PF premises, while digital audiences will be made available across channels such as CTV and social media through a partnership with LiveRamp. Planet Fitness has around 18 million members, skewing towards the valuable Gen X and Millennial segments.

Instacart announced at CES that it will begin piloting ads on its AI-powered Caper Carts, physical shopping carts that scan items as the consumer adds them. Initially, the ads will be seen on carts at Good Food Holdings stores such as Bristol Farms, with General Mills, Dreyer’s and Del Monte Foods among the first advertisers. It’s certainly a way to meet a shopper in the moment.

The 2024 Advertising Outlook report from omnichannel ad platform Mediaocean sees a wave of optimism greeting in the new year with advertisers planning to increase spend across a range of channels, notably social media, digital display/video and CTV. While performance-driven paid media remains the most important investment for advertisers, a focus on brand advertising has steadily grown since 2022. The survey respondents included more than 1,000 Mediaocean customers, primarily marketers and agencies.

Fully 99% of enterprise marketers agree that their understanding of customer behavior and preferences has been somewhat or significantly improved through AI use, according to a new report from customer engagement platform MessageGears and B2B research service Ascend2. AI is a game-changer when it comes to personalization — targeted campaigns, emails and product recommendations — as well as customer service (150 marketers from 500-plus person companies were surveyed). If anything is holding the enterprise back it’s uncertainty about expertise and training.

LiftEngine, a consumer data services agency, has announced a new partnership with customer data platform Klaviyo. LiftEngine will offer Klaviyo customers access to its Launchpad solution, appending demographic and vertical-specific data to Klaviyo profiles. It will also help its own customers migrate to also help its clients migrate to Klaviyo’s new CDP platform.

Fullthrottle.ai, a first-party data provider for brands and agencies, has launched SafeMatch, a household-level identity resolution solution. SafeMatch will ingest transaction data and connect it with household customer profiles in a privacy-compliant manner. It will also help connect site visits with sales, thus offering attribution insights.

After several delays, Google has finally begun to deprecate third-party cookies in its widely used Chrome browser. The initial step, taken on January 4, was to offer a randomly chosen 1% of Chrome users (some 30 million people) the opportunity to opt out of being tracked. Full deprecation of cookies is still set for later this year.

Relay42, the intelligent journey orchestration platform, has announced a program to help digital marketers adapt their marketing strategies to the deprecation of third-party cookies (the announcement was deliberately timed to coincide with Google’s first phase-out steps). The program will involve integration with Google Privacy Sandbox, enhanced first-party data activation, and strategic advice for cookieless solutions. The expert advice will include counseling on the use of data clean rooms, identity graphs and other technologies.

Global information and insights company TransUnion has announced enhancements to the AI-driven identity graph that supports the solutions in its TruAudience marketing portfolio. TransUnion says that it has measurably improved the accuracy of identity resolution and has added new demographic attributes. Identity resolution is seen by many marketers as a viable alternative to cookie-based tracking.