CDP Institute

Let’s finish with an announcement from AutoHook, which helps drive traffic to auto dealers. They’ve given other systems free API access to their offer and redemption data, in a not-so-subtle attempt to promote its use. They position this as “first official step towards unifying quality data to improve sales attribution metrics and validate marketing initiatives for both dealers and manufacturers”. More measurement.

Hull.io, a CDP start-up based in Paris, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding. Unlike most CDPs, Hull sells mostly to smaller B2B companies and focuses on connecting with Software-as-a-Service systems. The company was founded in 2013 and has more than 1,000 clients. CDP for SMB and B2B? Two more insights.

Final stop is Fishbowl, a CDP for restaurants. It draws from reservations, online orders, point of sale, email, loyalty, online ordering, and other systems to build a unified database and execute marketing campaigns. Buyer was Symphony Technology Group. Private equity companies have been the main purchasers of marketing technology ventures recently, in contrast to the recent past when small firms went public or were bought by larger vendors. Something to do with a glut of marketing technology products, I suspect. Insight number five. My work here is done.

We’re doing financial news about specialized CDPs today.

Yesterday’s big news, at least in some circles, was networking tech giant Cisco’s agreement to pay $3.7 billion for application analytics vendor AppDynamics, just a day before AppDynamics’ scheduled initial public stock offering.

Button does work with the type of apps that run on your phone.

Since we’re talking tech today, let’s finish with Accenture’s Technology Vision 2017 report.

What's up with the Internet of Things, you almost surely didn’t ask yourself this morning.

On the bright side: your voice-activated thermostat will understand you even if your spouse does not. Home technology researcher Parks Associates reports that 51% of broadband households are willing to share their thermostat data to get energy discounts, and slightly fewer would share data from clothes dryers and lighting. So if you’re keeping the house warm and dark while you wash your clothes in the nude, the power company will know about it. What could go wrong?

Actually, lots could go wrong. And chances are it will: a study from Ponemon Institute found that most organizations are ill-prepared for threats to security from mobile and IoT devices, even though they recognize the dangers. Sixty percent of respondents thought their company had already had a security incident because of an insecure mobile app.  Just 30% said they have budgeted enough to protect against them. They also said that IoT devices are even less secure than mobile apps. Have a great day!

Time Inc.-owned Viant, which manages device-based advertising profiles for 1.2 billion users, has signed an agreement to purchase Adelphic, a cross-channel programmatic ad platform. The combination will make it easier for ad buyers to reach consumers within the Viant universe. Viant sees the deal as providing an open Web alternative to advertising within “walled gardens” such as Facebook, where the garden owner controls ad delivery, pricing and data.

Let’s just stick with ad targeting today.