CDP Institute

There might be some ire in acquire but this is getting tired. We’ll just report that B2B data enrichment vendor FullContact is buying Contacts+, a mobile contact management app with millions of users. FullContact mostly feeds it data into other systems through APIs but it does have its own mobile app, so this will expand its user base.

Assembling unified data for customer success management is a core use case for Customer Data Platforms. That’s why you should care that Bolstra has just raised $1.5 million for its B2B customer success platform. It’s the company’s second “seed” round, following a $1.5 million raise last February. Bolstra tracks customers through their lifecycles, recommends actions, and provides structured workflows for those actions. It builds a complete view of each customer but doesn’t share it as easily as a true CDP.

It may be even less clear why you should care that marketing data and services giant Acxiom has reorganized itself into separate data and services units.

Coincidentally, we have a survey from data vendor Experian, which last year spun off its own marketing services business as Cheetah Digital.

Marketing Evolution offers an advanced attribution methodology that uses individual-level data to recommend an optimal media mix. It’s complicated but worth exploring. They just raised $20.6 million, bring total investment to date to $24.6 million.

Another funding announcement: Toulouse-based IntuiLab has raised a $3.7 million Series A. IntuiLab provides tools to create and deploy touch-screen-based digital experiences without any programming. This is location-based marketing without location tracking, which could become more important if privacy rules actually limit marketers’ ability to track individuals.

Just-launched Accretive Media offers another version of marketing through public screens.

Berlin-based location data company uberall has raised a $25 million Series B, bringing its total to just under $30 million. Uberall helps companies distribute accurate information about physical locations to online directories, maps, social networks and navigation services.

Data about store locations is most important to local marketers. A report from BIA/Kelsey finds that franchise marketers, which are mostly local businesses, concentrate their spending on locally-targeted media including direct mail, Facebook ads, Internet Yellow Pages, and community sponsorships. Most use their own marketing software and services but they still want the franchise parent to provide training in digital marketing.

Analyzing data about customer location is quite different from publishing information about store locations. A study from Retail Systems Research finds untapped opportunity in customer location analytics, but also that retailers underestimate consumer privacy concerns. Lots of good insights.

Yesterday’s newsletter looked at marketers who treat consumers poorly. Today, let’s look at marketers getting poor treatment from ad channels. Start with research from image analysis vendor GumGum, which found that 67% of brands have seen at least one brand-unsafe ad placement. Actual consequences are limited: 47% had seen social media criticisms but just 2.3% had lost more than $100,000 in revenue. Nevertheless, nearly half (48%) said they’d adopted a technology to avoid these problems in the past year, bringing the total using such technology to 86%.

More broadly, a study by the TRUTH media agency found 79% of ad buyers are concerned about the level of transparency in programmatic advertising, with 37% citing ad fraud and 23% citing brand safety as specific issues. On the bright side: 70% said they were taking action to improve their confidence.