Returning from la-la land, digital testing platform Optimizely has raised a $50 million Series D, bringing total funding to $200 million. Good to know there’s still some interest in reality-based decisions.
Current real time bidding processes for online ads grossly violate the European Union’s privacy rules, says a report from the UK’s Information Commissioner, who is in charge of such things. She cites both General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PERC). Enforcement actions haven’t followed but the message is clear.
Clear Channel Outdoor has more than 450,000 outdoor displays worldwide. At least some of those track nearby mobile devices, which lets the company profile ad audiences, measure campaign impact, and cross-target ads. The company is now letting advertisers upload their own customer data to its system to allow even richer analysis. Plenty of individual-level data here although it’s technically anonymous.
Netherlands-based retention management platform Retail Rocket just raised a $24 Million Series A, and immediately spent some of it to buy Sailplay, a New York-based marketing automation vendor that will grow its U.S. presence. Retail Rocket builds unified customer profiles in a module it charmingly calls Data Warehouse, and has other modules for AI-driven personalization, segmentation, and campaign management. The company has more than 1,000 global clients across Europe and South America.