Tracking consumer identities is also getting more complicated as marketers struggle to replace third-party cookies. Ad tech vendor PubMatic has hedged its bets by launching Identity Hub, which lets publishers support multiple identifiers for each ad impression. This means they can manage programmatic ad bids from different sources for the same inventory. Clever.
Quite a few companies use artificial intelligence to find optimal combinations of ad creative components. But IBM is still a powerful enough brand that its entry attracts attention. Advertising Accelerator with Watson finds optimal creative combinations for segments, not individuals, although it also finds new segments.
Consumers may already be using more privacy tech than we think. PreciseSecurity found that more than 30% of North Americans used the “dark Web” regularly in 2019. If you’re asking for a friend, the “dark Web” refers to portions of the Internet that are hidden from search engines and can be accessed without leaving a trace (or so we’re told). Reasons for using it include online anonymity, retrieving locally blocked content, and overcoming government censorship.
Just over one-third of marketers plan to either buy a new CDP (21%) or replace an existing one (13%) this year, according to this Optimove survey. Unfortunately, it doesn’t report how many have a CDP already in place, which would put the other values in perspective. It does seem that CDPs are a relatively low priority: they rank sixth on the list of new systems and eighth on the list of systems to replace.