CDP Institute

Build vs buy is not the focus of this Antavo report on customer loyalty systems, but what caught my eye was a 49% satisfaction rate for respondents using a home-built loyalty system compared with 63% for those using a purchased system.  No-code fans will also appreciate that 44% say they’re currently very dependent on their IT team, 76% want to reduce that dependence, and 70% want no-code rule set-up.  Plus lots here on loyalty program trends and impact.

If you’re really obsessed with tech debates, enjoy this RapidAPI report that finds use of APIs is on the rise.    Otherwise, you’re probably more interested that Airship found consumers are more open to receiving brand communications if they’re given control over what they’re sent, how often, and over which channels.  You won’t be surprised that the most common reason people opt to receive brand messages is to save money, or that location- and behavior-based offers are the least important.

We have a sudden blizzard of responsible advertising news today, Dear Reader. Must be the holiday spirit. For starters, privacy vendor OneTrust has purchased Planently, which helps companies to calculate, reduce, and report on their carbon impact.  Before you snort “humbug” take a look at surveys from Dentsu and Volta  which both find that consumers really care about the environment impact of companies they do business with.

On the brand safety front, supply side platform Pubmatic is the latest firm to apply website trustworthiness ratings from NewsGuard. Buyers will be able to set a “misinformation floor” on the quality of sites they purchase.  Meanwhile, data quality rating service Neutronian has certified the cookie-free status of DoubleVerify, which itself helps companies monitor ad viewability and brand safety. Neutronian also announced the first release of its NQI Transparency Ratings Report, which rates the transparency and data quality of 150 top marketing data providers.

If you’re struggling to make sense of all this, MMA Global just released a brand safety and suitability guide which is designed to help. You might also check out this DoubleVerify survey that shows publishers see brand safety and contextual targeting as high-priority ad sales tools.

Lytics has launched Cloud Connect, which lets users create SQL queries to extract an audience from a cloud database and send it to an ad network.  They describe it as a “freemium” product but don’t get too excited: the free version connects just one warehouse to one ad network.

Cloud contact center vendor Genesys announced a $580 million funding round, its first since a $900 million raise in 2016.  The deal was led by Salesforce Ventures, which is rather interesting when you think about it.  The deal values Genesys at $21 billion.

Email security vendor Mimecast has a deal to be purchased by private equity firm Permira for $5.8 billion.  The price is a relatively modest 12x revenue, which is in line with the deal that Thoma Bravo set for Mimecast competitor Proofpoint in April.  Of course, those low values are exactly what private equity investors find appealing.

We’re doing all good news today, Dear Reader.  Mitto has lots of cheery information about the value of a “complete omnichannel strategy”, which correlates with higher revenue growth, more loyal customers, more customer experience investment, and probably a cure for baldness.  They do find most companies are still struggling to reach that blessed state, but we won’t dwell on negative thoughts.

This Adweek report sponsored by Viant starts on the sad note that 73% of consumers feel they see too many ads.  But things pick up when 65% say they feel good – including 27% who feel very good – when they see ads that feel personalized to their specific needs.  Then it gets better: 63% pay more attention to personalized messages.

I saved the best for last: social media isn’t destroying society after all!  Ipsos MORI did find that “nuanced” belief in conspiracy theories is more widespread than you ever imagined, which I’ll admit is upsetting.  But they also report that TV news and tabloid newspapers are equally responsible for spreading them (at least in the UK).  So go ahead and buy all the Facebook ads you want.

Like the determined optimist who tells his boss the factory is on fire by reporting they’ll soon be able to update their equipment, let’s find some silver linings in a batch of gloomy surveys today, Dear Reader.  We’ll start with this Fivetran report, which finds that 85% of data leaders say their company has lost money by basing decisions on bad data, and 66% believe their C-suite can’t tell when that happens.  The bright side is there’s lots of room for improvement.