Walmart isn’t selling a CDP yet. But they did just buy Polymorph Labs, which will help their advertising clients to target Walmart shoppers. You did know that Walmart sells ads, right? It’s part of their “Anything Amazon Does We Can Do Better” program.
Ad agency giant Publicis announced a $4 billion purchase of data-driven marketing agency Epsilon from Alliance Data. The deal illustrates the transformation of mass media into addressable advertising. Attentive readers will recall that Alliance announced Epsilon was on the block last November and that Publicis-competitor IPG announced its purchase of Epsilon-competitor Acxiom for $2.3 billion last July.
This survey from ad blocking platform eyeo offers another contradiction: 80% of UK online users recognize the importance of advertising to free internet services but 81% still think it’s fair to use ad blocking software. The study reports 22% are actually using an ad blocker. While 71% of ad blocking users are trying to avoid ads, a hefty 49% aim to enhance privacy/security.
Netherlands-based retention management platform Retail Rocket just raised a $24 Million Series A, and immediately spent some of it to buy Sailplay, a New York-based marketing automation vendor that will grow its U.S. presence. Retail Rocket builds unified customer profiles in a module it charmingly calls Data Warehouse, and has other modules for AI-driven personalization, segmentation, and campaign management. The company has more than 1,000 global clients across Europe and South America.