CDP Institute

Maybe CMOs would be more successful if they spent less time answering surveys. Here’s one more, this time by partner marketing specialist WorkSpan. They found that just 11% of marketers are confident their budget is spent effectively. Perhaps hoping to save marketers some time, WorkSpan reported results in a press release without publishing the report itself. And, I was just kidding about CMO surveys: 68% of study respondents held non-CMO titles.

Since this is our last newsletter of the year, let’s lead with what we consider by far the major marketing story of 2018: the shattering of Facebook’s reputation as its true practices and impact became known. CNET published a nice summary of Facebook’s troubles  but that the company could face a billion dollar GDPR fine for data breaches has been less reported – and shows just how much the world has changed.

But lets’ not end on a negative note. This think piece from IBM Watson marketing lists several 2019 marketing trends, including a central role for marketing data. The report is marred by regrettable word mash-ups: you can safely bet that no one will adopt “martecheter” to describe tech-savvy marketers or “consulgences” for consulting-oriented ad agencies.

For a still broader view, Accenture Interactive’s Fjord innovation consultancy predicts all sorts of reversals as people turn away from digital overload and seek tech-enabled authenticity. Many deep things to ponder as you ring in the New Year. Best wishes from the CDP Institute.

Did you know there’s Marketing Accountability Standards Board? Me neither. Judging from the density of this paper Forbes CMO paper done in conjunction with them, they’re more accountants than marketers. I mean, 46 footnotes? They did include some digestible bits, including that companies with better marketing accountability achieve 5% better returns on marketing investments and over 7% higher growth. Lots more here to read the kids during that long ride to Grandma’s.

It looks like I’ll be publishing all week after all, Dear Reader. There’s just enough legitimate news to make it worthwhile. For example, AdTheorent has a new tool that uses AI to generate the best display ad for each individual, combining creative elements such as product shots, logos, colors, backgrounds, messaging and calls-to-action in real time. AdTheorent was already using predictive analytics to decide which consumers to serve ads and when.

And here’s a $101 million Series C funding from data science platform Dataiku, which serves data scientists and business users alike. A lot of what Dataiku does is actually data preparation – making it either a CDP client or partial competitor. The round is by far Dataiku’s largest; it had raised just under $46 million previously.

Why not make some news of your own? You could win a Marketing Technology Award at a post New York City ceremony next March hosted by the ubiquitous Scott Brinker. The project is run by ClickZ and Search Engine Watch. Entry is free – look here for details.

Did you know the OASIS standards group is working on a Customer Data Platform standard?  Me neither.  Work began in 2015 under the name Context Server, which became CDP in October 2018. Results are being implemented in the Apache open source Unomi project. See this ApacheCon slide show for an update and visit the OASIS site for more information.

Speaking of open source, Microsoft has launched a Web analytics product, Clarity, with an open source library for Web page instrumentation. The new product will let site owners replay visitor Web sessions, competing with tools like FullStory and VWO. It’s just starting a beta program.

Session replay makes some people worry about privacy, but if you really to raise some hackles, offer to identify otherwise-anonymous Web site visitors.

As expected, there’s no news worthy of your attention today, Dear Reader. But I’ll offer some interesting surveys. Here’s one on connected devices from network technology provider TNS. They found that most (62%) of U.S. adults think such devices boost the quality of life, even thought even more (72%) fell that location data creates privacy and security risks. You won’t be surprised that 25-34 year olds are the most enthusiastic.