Ad agency giant Publicis announced a $4 billion purchase of data-driven marketing agency Epsilon from Alliance Data. The deal illustrates the transformation of mass media into addressable advertising. Attentive readers will recall that Alliance announced Epsilon was on the block last November and that Publicis-competitor IPG announced its purchase of Epsilon-competitor Acxiom for $2.3 billion last July.

This survey from ad blocking platform eyeo offers another contradiction: 80% of UK online users recognize the importance of advertising to free internet services but 81% still think it’s fair to use ad blocking software. The study reports 22% are actually using an ad blocker. While 71% of ad blocking users are trying to avoid ads, a hefty 49% aim to enhance privacy/security.

Bombora has launched Visitor Insights, a consent-based website tag that tracks the topics a device has consumed.   It infers intent, job function, management level, and other information that B2B publishers can use for ad targeting and personalization.  This Bombora report shows intent trends by industry: for example, media and advertising users show 70% more interest in Customer Data Platforms than they did last year.