The wave of tech industry layoffs rolled closer to CDP-land with news of a 10% reduction in staff at Salesforce. The company blamed over-hiring in anticipation of growth that is no longer anticipated. CDP vendors have largely avoided public layoffs, although we do hear scattered tales of unannounced reductions.
Third-party cookies may be vanishing, but other third-party data is more available than ever. Consumer purchase data compiler IRI reinforced the point with separate deals to (a) provide Meta with brand- and product-level sales data to measure results of Facebook and Instagram ads and (b) offer 1,500 IRI-built individual-level audience segments to TV ad buyers through Experian.
Dentsu-owned Merkle is selling its Response Management Group (RMG), which offers direct response data capture, customer care, and fulfillment, primarily to non-profit and government clients. The 600-person RMG was part of Merkle’s original business, which has now evolved into a 14,000-employee tech-based customer experience agency. Buyer is Moore, a 5,000-person specialist in fund-raising marketing and production.
Incrmntal has released its Explorer platform, which uses “causal AI” to estimate the incremental impact of advertising investments. What’s magic is the incremental measurements happen without marketers needing to set up incremental impact tests. The system can also suggest the best place to spend your next ad dollar.