Consumers’ demand for convenience extended to financial services as well, FICO research found.  While 41% are more likely to open an account using digital channel, 25% will actually abandon the process if they have to use a non-digital channel to complete the process.  Concern about identity theft is so high that 75% will provide their bank with a biometric such as facial scan, fingerprint or voiceprint to secure their account.

You haven’t been terribly interested in funding announcements recently, Dear Reader. But surely you’re intrigued that marketing automation vendor ActiveCampaign just raised $240 million at a valuation of more than $3 billion. That’s close to 20x its $165 million annual recurring revenue, which is nearly double the $90 million it had one year before. Apparently marketing automation isn’t quite a commodity after all.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.