CDP Institute

Connectors between CDPs and cloud databases are becoming too common to mention.  But how would you know they’re common if we don’t mention them?  So I’ll slip in this news that Lytics has integrated its reverse ETL tool Cloud Connect with the Databricks cloud database.

You can think of Shopify as a sort of anti-Amazon, in the sense of helping merchants compete with the ecommerce giant.  This implies helping with more than just order processing.  Along those lines, they just added Audiences, which lets merchants send customer lists to Meta and Google to help find new customers through look-alike modeling.

Embattled measurement giant Nielsen has swatted back at competitors with the U.S. launch of Nielsen ONE Ads, its long-awaited tool to report on deduplicated audiences across linear TV, connected TV, desktop and mobile.  Reports include live metrics for digital campaigns, data from Nielsen panels, and direct publisher integrations.  Future extensions will include results measurement, based on customer behavior data, and content metrics.

Let’s continue looking at story lines for 2023.  We’ll start with digital transformation.  This CMO Council report paints a mixed picture: 89% of respondents think digital transformation is achieving good results but less than 12% see their enterprise leaders as highly strategic and adept at deploying new technologies.

The new year will surely see a continued focus on improving customer experience. This Intercom survey reinforces the fundamental point that consumers will walk away from companies that treat them poorly. This Vonage survey confirms that result and gives nerdly fascinating detail on consumer contact preferences by age, region, channel, and purpose.

Another continuing story is marketers’ quest for better media measurement, in particular for connected TV and other video channels.  Along those lines, smart TV audience measurement vendor VideoAmp has just announced a deal to measure cross-screen campaign results for Warner Brothers Discovery.

Let’s look at some of the story lines we expect to track this year.  One will be increasingly successful attacks on the once-invincible Tech Lords at Google, Meta, and Amazon.  This ProPublic report offers new ammunition, finding that Google Display Network is exceptionally lax in blocking placements on sites that host fraud, porn, disinformation, and other bad things.

Another unfolding drama is the struggle for success by social commerce – that is, buying through social media platforms rather than traditional ecommerce sites.  Marketers are excited but consumers are skeptical.  This GoodFirms report takes an optimistic view but still finds that 89% of social commerce buyers had a problem of some sort.

The tech world will see a continued shift towards self-service by business users, both in data access and application development.  It’s a rare convergence of interest between business users, who want more control over their fate, and IT staff, who want to focus on other things.  This Forrester report for Airtable highlights the problems, finding that large organizations use an average of 367 software apps and systems, and knowledge workers spend 30% of their time looking for data.

Welcome to 2023, Dear Reader.  This eMarketer study highlights the end of some trends that seemed eternal: Google is losing search share and Amazon’s share of ecommerce growth has stalled.  The action is shifting to retail media and connected TV.  Adjust your expectations accordingly.

B2B data provider Madison Logic is starting the year with a new parent: private equity firm BC Partner last week bought a majority stake from previous owner Clarion Capital Partners for a reported $750 million.  Clarion bought Madison Logic in 2016 for an undisclosed amount.

Digital asset management vendor Bynder also swapped parents last month.  Private equity investor Thomas H. Lee Partners bought a majority stake in the company, including the portion owned by Insight Partners.  The deal is said to value Bynder at $600 million.