Cross-device identity aggregator Tapad has repositioned itself as a general-purpose customer identity system. While they’re at it, they’ve launched what they call a Customer Data Platform. This does ingest first-party personally identifiable information, which is a core CDP requirement. But the real focus seems to be connecting with third party data in the Tapad device graph and using this to drive ad campaigns. At best, those are peripheral CDP use cases. At worse, they add still more confusion to the distinction between CDPs and DMPs.

Master data management vendor Semarchy also found that IT rather than business users are primarily responsible for data governance. Customer data was the most common focus for master data projects, but more had goals related to customer service, experience, and loyalty (29.8%) than sales and marketing (25.5%). Other factoids: 40% of respondents take longer than six months to implement a new domain such as customer data and fewer than 20% update their master data at least daily.

It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying.  IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).  Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.