CDP Institute

Just 3% of the respondents to this Piano survey said their company can seamlessly exchange data across departments, and only 9% are able to share data effectively.  Data silos are the biggest obstacle to sharing (56%), and organizational issues are the biggest reason that silos exist.  The good news here is that 54% already use third party tools for data management, so there’s hope that they’ll be able to improve things faster than if they relied on in-house development.

Respondents to this CompTIA survey are actually quite positive, expecting higher tech budgets and less anti-technology backlash in 2022.  What caught my eye was that 30% said marketing tech budgets are too low – more than any other department.  That’s great because it means they’ll be more open to your request for an increase, right?

The integrated cloud communications market is relevant here because it increasingly overlaps with marketing systems. So you should probably care at least a little that cloud-based communications platform 8×8 has agreed to pay $250 million for Fuze, which offers roughly similar products.

Here’s a de-acquisition story just to mix things up: the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Meta, owner of Facebook, to reverse last year’s purchase of animated GIF distributor Giphy.  The Authority felt the deal reduced potential competition for ad sales and could let Facebook/Meta reduce other competitors’ access to Giphy GIFs or demand more data from them.  It’s one more sign that regulators everywhere are turning on Meta/Facebook after years of neglect.

Regulators are still mostly ignoring bias in Artificial Intelligence, although we hear scattered rumblings. This report from RELX raises the alarm: 65% of executives say their current AI systems are biased. For added background, check out this 71-page introduction to the topic from the IAB.

Digital experience platform Optimizely is further expanding its scope with a deal to buy Welcome, which provides content management, digital asset management, and marketing resource management.  You may recall that Optimizely itself was purchased in September 2020 by Episerver, which then adopted the Optimizely name.  And who could forget that they bought the Zaius CDP in March 2021?

Cross-channel marketing platform and CDP vendor Cordial has expanded its data management capabilities.  Major enhancements enable business users to integrate new data sources without IT support, extend data retention options, and build custom predictive models and marketing automation triggers.

Self-service is in style.  Citizen API builders can now use a no-code interface to add new data sources to the Celebrus CDP.  Celebrus has also added more precise tracking of how users interact with content, enabling more accurate machine learning models for decisions and measurement.

As the festive season ramps up, perhaps we should think of corporate acquisitions as a B2B self-gift.  In that light, a pair of private equity firms have treated themselves to SALESmanago, a Poland-based but globally-sold CDP and marketing automation platform.  They claim 2,500 clients, which are mostly small businesses but include some big enterprises.  Price is undisclosed but over $100 million.

Agency holding company WPP has bought itself Cloud Commerce Group, which handles order processing, shipping, and other back-office functions for ecommerce platforms and marketplaces. It integrates with ecommerce systems like Magento and Shopify, marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy, and shippers like UPS and Fedex.   Agency companies like WPP didn’t used to own a lot of technology but that is changing.  Cloud Commerce will join WPP’s Wunderman Thompson Commerce group.

MeritB2B has its roots in B2B marketing lists but they too have expanded into technology and services.  They just acquired True Influence, which collects B2B buyer intent signals and provides related account-based marketing and demand generation services.

We haven’t written much about the tribulations of Nielsen’s core media measurement business, which would make a fine soap opera of its own.  The latest plot twist has an “Empire strikes back” vibe, with Nielsen announcing plans to convert its much-maligned TV audience measurements into something fashionably cross-platform and people based.  Stay tuned.