We have a cluster of in-store marketing items today. UPshow lets places like bars, health clubs and restaurants push ads and interactive content to TVs and customer smartphones. They’ve just raised a $6 million Series A.
Fewer than twenty of the hundred-plus firms calling themselves CDPs are worthy of the name, according to a report from Winterberry Group. Alas, they don’t say which twenty. They do criticize CDP Institute positions without having spoken to us. And they “don’t see a long-term opportunity for a standalone CDP”. See this blog post for the Institute’s reply.
Percolate and Contentful both streamline the mechanics of content creation, but StoryFit just raised $1.75 million to shape the stories themselves. Near as I can tell, the AI-based system acts as a sort of anti-creative director, suggesting changes to script and book ideas that would make them more like past stories that were popular. Sadly, they failed to name it robo-hack.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.