CDP Institute

Next we have news that programmatic ad platform Simpli.fi is adding more precise audience targeting to its localized ad campaigns. Users can define audiences using over 500 demographic variables on 126 million households and then target audience members when they appear near specified locations.

Targeting on demographics and location both raise privacy concerns, at least for some people. InfoSum has just launched a privacy-safe planning tool that lets marketers match their own data against media audiences without exposing personal identities. Everybody wins: marketers can find which audiences best fit their needs; publishers can sell more advertising; and consumers run less risk of having personal data exposed.

Sorry the newsletter is so late today, Dear Reader. It’s a long story involving electrical connectors, eggnog, and a moose. But you wouldn’t be interested. Instead, we have the third acquisition of an AI-based predictive tool by a CDP vendor in the past week. This time it’s Netcore, a messaging platform with a CDP inside, purchasing Boxx.ai, a personalization and recommendation engine. Definitely a trend going on here.

We also have an acquisition by identity management vendor Infutor. Target is data compiler Dunn Data Company, which will add more information on consumers to Infutor’s database. Third party data is not going away, privacy rules notwithstanding.

How accurate is that third party data you’re so worried about losing? This study by several academics applied three tests to data accuracy and found profiles more accurate than random guesses, but not by much – and probably not enough to compensate for the higher ad costs charged for such data.

Lots of personalization industry news today, Dear Reader. Retail-oriented analytical CDP Manthan and recommendation engine RichRelevance have announced a “path to consolidating” pending regulatory approvals. The firms will start joint sales and marketing right away. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because analytical CDP Amperity bought recommendation engine Custora just yesterday.

Sales content recommendation vendor Seismic also has a new partner: it is buying content management vendor Percolate. The deal will make it easier for marketers and sales teams to deliver consistent, personalized content across all channels and all stages of the customer journey. As one should.

Rokt is yet another company that delivers personalized content, in its case by recommending next best offers on ecommerce Web sites. They haven’t bought anything or been bought, but they did raise a $48 million Series C to help grow by themselves. Total funding is now $82 million.

CDP Amperity has purchased Custora, a retail predictive analytics and campaign management system. Custora also assembles customer profiles so it might have qualified as a CDP by itself. It’s a rare acquisition by a CDP vendor and extends Amperity’s scope into “campaign CDP” territory.

Integrated sales and marketing system HubSpot has purchased data synching vendor PieSync. The deal will make it easier for HubSpot to share contact data with its growing partner ecosystem. PieSync doesn’t create a persistent database so the deal doesn’t make HubSpot a CDP – although, as with Salesforce’s purchase of the MuleSoft integration platform, it may be a step in that direction.

We have a couple of other, small martech acquisitions today: opportunity manager Costello by sales engagement platform SalesLoft and procurement management system Scout RFP by administration platform Workday. But we won’t mention them. Instead, here’s completion of a $430 million acquisition by pharm industry services company Veeva. Target is Crossix, which compiles medical and other data on more than 300 million people in the U.S. and uses it to measure and optimize marketing campaigns to consumers and health professionals.

There are two classic CDP use cases: updating retargeting lists based on subsequent behavior and showing a complete profile to call center agents. So it’s worth noting that call center vendor Sharpen Technologies has added an option to ingest, combine, and present data from all sources. Regardless of whether it qualifies as a true CDP, it shows operational vendors trying to solve a problem that CDP addresses.