CDP Institute

Google Cloud has released Retail Search, a managed service that provides on-site search functions for retail websites.  Google says it will do a better job than other search functions of understanding customer intent and returning appropriate product suggestions.  It’s part of Google’s Product Discovery Solutions for Retail suite.

Comscore’s cookieless audience solution is adding the ability to use clients’ own customer data as a basis for targeting. Working with Experian, InfoSum, and LiveRamp, Comscore will ingest client’s customer profiles, identify content consumed by those profiles, and then buy ads near similar content. It’s a flavor of look-alike targeting that’s based on content similarity not personal profiles.

OpenText has made at least 44 acquisitions over the years, spreading beyond content management into everything from security to analytics to, digital experience.  You won’t be surprised that they needed a CDP to tie it all together.  Rather than yet another acquisition, they built their own, just launched as Experience CDP.  It’s not clear whether it meets the CDP Institute definition of a CDP, but it might.

Experience tracking and management company Medallia has reached an agreement for software investor Thoma Bravo to take them private in a deal valued at $6.4 billion.  That’s about 12x revenue and 29% premium over the average stock price before rumors pushed it up.  There’s a 40 day waiting period to see if they get a better offer, if you’d like to put in a bid.

Just in case you need reminding: today’s consumers really do care about data privacy.  This global survey by FleishmanHillard found that 68% expect companies to demonstrate data protection practices beyond the regulatory minimum, and 56% are less likely to do business with companies that use personal data for company benefit.  The good-ish news is that 45% are willing to share data in return for greater convenience and personalization.  

Usermind is an experience orchestration platform that also qualifies as a CDP.  They were just bought by Qualtrics, which captures and responds to feedback from customers, prospects, and employees.  It’s the first CDP acquisition since April, if you’ve lost track.

Content recommendation vendor Taboola has purchased ecommerce product recommendation vendor Connexity (formerly Shopzilla) for around $800 million. Both firms embed their suggestions in publisher websites. You may recall that Taboola went public via a SPAC a few weeks ago.

Maybe you’re rather make your own ecommerce product recommendations.  Personalization engine Qubit is on the case, with a new system that bases its recommendations on “deep learning”, which they assure us is much, much better than mere “machine learning”.  No word on whether there’s a dial that goes to 11.

Here’s a sign of the times: Salesforce has confirmed it is no longer selling its Audience Studio DMP, which started as its $700 million Krux acquisition in 2016.  Current users will be supported but the company expects third-party audiences to be loaded into its CDP in the future, and first-party audiences to be pushed to Facebook, Google, Amazon and other closed ad platforms via Advertising Studio.

How often do you find yourself saying, I wish I had more apps to talk to?  Apparently, often enough that the folks at Native Voice have just raised $14 million for an app that listens for you to call other apps, and wakes them when summoned.  It’s a dream come true, if your dream happens to be The Brave Little Toaster.

Privacy-focused browser Brave has also been listening to consumers, with their permission of course.  They found that 70% of survey respondents find it creepy when they see online ads related to previous Web searches, and 81% would reward brands that gave them more control over how many ads they see.  Brave also ran a test that found ads served in an opt-in environment had a positive impact, but I didn’t see results compared with ads in a conventional environment.  

I could fill this whole issue with news about Out of Home (OOH) advertising, but won’t.  (You’re welcome.)  However, I will report that OOH supply side platform Place Exchange has just left its home at OOH publisher Intersection, packing its bindle with $20 million in venture funding.  I’ll also sneak in that CUENDE is launching its satellite-image-based traffic measurement system in the U.S., and that Comscore has just signed the GSTV (Gas Station TV) fuel pump network for its own place-based audience measurement product.