CDP Institute

Finally, we have an announcement from B2B publishing company SourceMedia that they’ve launched a set of data-driven products based on “an advanced data science and machine learning utility known as a Customer Data Platform (CDP).”

If you’re thinking it’s easier to buy one suite than to integrate separate tools, consider this: Deloitte Digital just announced DigitalMix, a “series of pre-defined and pre-integrated solutions that mix together leading cloud and on-premise platforms in the digital domain”.

Adobe made a slew of announcements at its Summit 2017 conference, including a “Experience Cloud” as a master label for its Marketing, Advertising, and Analytics Clouds. Not much talk of direct integration among those components, though.  Adobe did discuss connecting them to its Sensei artificial intelligence platform and Creative Cloud. There was one bit of data-related news: Adobe is working with several other vendors to create a standard marketing data model.  This would simplify future integrations.

All-encompassing suites are one way to approach martech.

Last Friday’s newsletter cited an Adweek article about global consultancies buying ad agencies. Here’s the other side of that coin: an Adweek piece on ad agencies building out their consultancy practices. The grand point being, that technology and marketing are becoming indistinguishably intertwined. You probably knew that.

Even as agencies expand into consulting, they’re being challenged to do a better job at their core business of buying media.

Enough about agencies. Here’s a nice survey about what marketers are up to. OnBrand Magazine surveyed 562 global brand managers and found their biggest challenges are proving ROI (34%) and collaboration between departments (14%); identifying necessary technology came in dead last at 2%, even behind “other”. Although 43% consider themselves early adopters of technology, just 35% planned to actually invest in 360 degree video, virtual reality, chatbots, or other advanced technologies this year. Hmm.

Spongecell creates dynamically personalized Web ads, which means it can insert content based on the viewer’s location, interests, past purchases, or whatever other data is available.

BrightLine creates interactive TV ads, allowing viewers with an Internet-connected TV to do things like pick content, play games, find local stores, enter contests, view product catalogs, and place orders. They’ve just partnered with Sizmek to enable distribution of BrightLine-created ads across computers and mobile devices. In other words, they’re bringing Web-like interaction to the Web. That may sound like coals-to-New Castle but it does let marketers get more use from their advanced creative.

As advertising involves more technology (see above), it’s no wonder that tech experts are playing a larger role in the industry. Here’s a very interesting piece from Ad Week on investments in ad agencies by giant tech firms like Accenture and IBM. Did you know that Accenture already has 36,000 design and creative professionals worldwide?  If you’re wondering what this means for marketing technology and CDPs, here are some additional thoughts.

Email marketing vendor Campaign Monitor yesterday announced its purchase of Customer Data Platform vendor Tagga. It’s interesting on several levels: one of the few CDP acquisitions so far (surely more to follow); illustrates recognition of the need for more powerful data handling than conventional email systems provide; shows point solution vendors expanding footprint to compete with broader platforms/clouds/suites (also shown by recent Marketo/Infor deal). Beta integration due by end of 2017.

Customer Data Platform vendor Signal announced a partnership with cross-device identity platform Tapad. The deal will help Signal clients associate multiple devices with customer profiles. Tapad has been licensing its identity graph since 2015 so nothing too new here.  But it’s still evidence that cross-device is becoming a standard way to create more complete customer profiles.