Industry-specific platforms are a hot item right now. Turns out there’s (at least) one for pizzerias, called Slice. It combines a Web site, search optimization, marketing automation, point of sale integration, online ordering, delivery management, and supply ordering. They just raised a $43 million Series C, bringing total funding to $73 million.
Remember when retailers competed to give the most enticing personal experience, and not on being least likely to cause a deadly disease? In-store wireless network provider Datavalet just released a reminder of those simpler times: a system that tracks visitors through a wi-fi network, builds profiles by ingesting purchase and behavior data, and executes rule-based marketing campaigns in real time. It can also connect to external marketing campaign systems and messaging apps.
Merkle, another marketing services agency, has issued its latest quarterly Customer Engagement Report. Two-thirds (67%) said privacy regulations would have a positive impact on marketing and 54% said the regulations would make them more aggressive in using first party data. Just over one-third (37%) already do personalization with first party data only while 41% use it along with third party data.
A U.S. district court judge has ruled that Google acted to create illegal monopolies in online advertising technology in a way that blocked competition and allowed higher ad prices to be charged. Google will appeal; meantime, the government will decide what to ask the court to do to remedy the monopoly. Google also faces a new U.K. antitrust lawsuit over its dominance of search.