CDP Institute

A shared customer database – that is, a Customer Data Platform – is in place at 15% of B2B firms that responded to a recent survey by MarTech Advisor.

Private investment firm Centerbridge Partners has purchased enterprise data management vendor Syncsort, which itself purchased data quality and identity management vendor Trillium in late 2016. The $1.26 billion transaction also includes disaster recovery expert Vision Solutions, which will be merged into Syncsort. Both firms had been owned by the Clearlake investment group. This continues the pattern of private investors buying and consolidating martech-related firms. Maybe this is the way the boom ends.

Freemium software has traditionally been used to promote simple products with mass appeal.

Voice recognition isn’t new, but it’s much more important now that devices like Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri are capturing consumer intent.  (See this blog post for a deeper analysis.)  So it’s worth noting that Adobe Analytics can now extract information from speech captured on voice-enabled devices.  This will make it easier for companies other than the device owners to use data from those interactions, assuming the outsiders are granted access to what’s said.

Virtual reality is even cooler than voice recognition but it’s harder to collect payments. So you’ll be pleased (or horrified) to learn that payment processor Payscout has found a way for people to use their Visa cards within a VR environment. You can wander the virtual aisles and test out the virtual products and then pay with real money without removing your headset. How great is that?

Here’s another modern miracle: ScopeMedia has launched ScopeStyle, a “visual fashion discovery platform” that not only searches the Web for products similar to a photo you upload, but also finds complementary items to complete the outfit based on your style preferences. If you think about what’s required, it’s an awesomely impressive achievement for artificial intelligence. On the other hand, many of us have parents, friends, or spouses who offer similar critiques for free.

Well, here’s a blast from the past: Marquis was one of many PC-based MCIF (Marketing Customer Information File) systems launched in the mid-1990s.

Speaking of old school: predictive ecommerce vendor Windsor Circle, which specializes in customer retention and upsell, announced it is now using split tests and reporting on revenue lift as an alternative to attribution for measuring the value of marketing efforts. They seem to feel this is new, although it was part of Marquis and other MCIFs in 1990s and a direct marketing best practice for decades before that.

Here’s another merger: marketing analytics vendor Singular has closed its deal with mobile app attribution vendor Apsalar.  Singular combines data from all sources with an emphasis on tracking ad campaigns.  It can create customer segments, deliver them to external delivery systems, and analyze results.  We haven’t considered them a Customer Data Platform but maybe we should.  Apsalar does similar tasks for mobile app marketers.  The companies will operate under the Singular name.

Competitive promotion tracker Market Track has acquired InfoScout, which captures sales information by scanning store receipts from a consumer panel. The combined firm will be able to connect marketing programs with sales results. John Wannamaker would be so happy. Market Track itself was purchased in April by Vista Equity Partners, whose other martech holdings include Marketo, Lithium, and Xactly.

More on measurement: Nielsen has unleashed the Nielsen Connected System, which combines Nielsen’s own point of sale, consumer panels, ecommerce, food, and media data with information from partners and clients. The consolidated data will be used in analytical and execution applications from Nielsen and exposed to partners through APIs and connectors. The focus is on fast moving consumer goods and retail.

And again: purchase data aggregator IRI has launched the IRI Personalization Suite, which combines IRI’s own point of sale, panel, credit card, and location data with information from more than 250 million shopper loyalty cards.  The data can be used for planning, advertising audience creation, media optimization, and results measurement.  It’s a cloud-based game-changer!