B2C marketing automation is an established category but new entrants can still find a place if they offer something different.  Cordial eliminates conventional email and mobile campaigns by automatically picking the best time to contact each customer and running self-optimizing content tests to pick the best content.  It builds a unified customer database and reacts to new events in real time. The company just raised $6 million, bringing their total funding to $8 million.

A survey by personalization vendor Monetate found that just 6% of respondents have deployed advanced personalization, compared with 56% who are working on it, 28% who are just starting out, and 10% who aren’t doing anything.

Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation.  The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.