Networked Insights uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand what consumers are talking about in social media and to build individual-level interest profiles. These are used by agencies and brand marketers for analysis and audience targeting across Facebook, Twitter, and ad networks. The company just raised $30 million, bringing total funding to $80 million.

This study was not issued by Wunderman’s Department of the Obvious, although it could have been. Headline finding is that 79% of consumers ages 18-65 in the US say brands must actively demonstrate “they understand and care about me” before the consumers consider purchasing. No surprise there.  Still, if you’re looking to refresh that opening slide on Growing Customer Expectations, you can find some new stats in the report at www.wantedness.com.

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.