CDP Institute

Verizon Media’s new Next-Gen Solutions use AI to help replace cookies, by applying machine learning to predict behavior of anonymous users based on real-time data such as location, device type and weather.  Verizon Media has a separate product, ConnectID, to target ads when a company does know user identity.

Why settle for replacing third party data with second- or first-party data when you can take it all the way to zero, asked no one ever.  But that hasn’t stopped Wyng from touting its zero-party data solutions, which get customers to intentionally share their data through quizzes, surveys, product finders, and such.  The company has just added two new components: a portal to let customers directly update their information and a zero-party-data-based recommendation engine.

We’re all about integration today, Dear Reader.  First: Merkle has integrated its Merkury identity resolution platform with Adobe Experience Platform, which includes Adobe’s Real Time CDP.  Adobe clients will be able to connect more identifiers and enhance customer profiles with Merkle data.

Next: Reltio, a cloud-based master data management system that we sometimes classify as a CDP, has made its multi-domain Enterprise 360 service available in Google Cloud Marketplace.  The company plans to add its Identity 360 and Connected Customer 360 services to the marketplace “in coming months”.   It keeps getting easier to find CDP building blocks on the cloud platforms.

Finally: customer data sharing platform InfoSum is adding Experian audience data to its pool of available sources.  InfoSum lets different companies combine their data into audiences without revealing individual identities.  The Experian data will create richer audience profiles.

If all this customer tracking makes you queasy, you’ll be happy to learn that GumGum just took a $75 million investment for its contextual advertising services.   The investment from Goldman Sachs brings GumGum’s total funding to $134 million.  Imagine how much they could raise if their name wasn’t silly.

Identity data vendor Stirista has launched a new identity graph, OMNA, that is updated with real-time transaction data to track consumers’ devices, locations, and IP addresses.   The data can be appended to a company’s own customer files or used to target advertising.  Stirista’s strength is connected TV and over-the-top TV information.

Retail-focused CDP vendor Bridg has been purchased by Cardlytics, which provides targeted ads within bank loyalty programs.   The announced price was an eyebrow-raising $350 million plus $100 to $300 million based on future performance.  In addition to its CDP, Bridg has a 235 million consumer database that can identify otherwise-anonymous in-store retail buyers.

Microsoft announced a deal to buy speech recognition expert Nuance for $19.7 billion, an impressive 13x revenue and 23% above the closing stock price on Friday.  Microsoft described the deal in terms of expanding its position in the healthcare industry, where Nuance is especially strong.  Marketers will note there are plenty of other applications for what Nuance does.

Bulk text messaging platform Community has raised $40 million from Salesforce Ventures, bringing total funding to $90 million.  Community enables celebrities and organizations to send messages to people who sign up for them.  What makes this special, I do not know.

At least 40% of consumers allowed iPhone apps to track them when presented with Apple’s new opt-in message, according to this AppsFlyer study of 13 million choices. AppsFlyer notes that most observers expected a much higher opt-out rate, but the results really shouldn’t surprise you: most studies show that about one-third of consumers never want to share data, one-third share it freely, and one-third are somewhere in the middle. See this one, for example.

Consumer panels offer coverage that identifiers like Unified ID cannot. That’s what NielsenIQ is offering in its new Omnishopper solution, which the company says offers “omni measurement” to understand consumers’ online and offline “omni-experience” across the “omnichannel” landscape. You won’t be surprised that the company’s goal is to be the “omni authority”. If you think NielsenIQ is part of global measurement company Nielsen Holdings, you’re forgotten that Nielsen sold the business to private equity company Advent International last November, in a deal that just closed last month. If you didn’t... Read More >