Study Shows That Marketers See Huge Potential in Artificial Intelligence, but Hindered by Customer Data Challenges

April 27, 2018

Successful Activation of Customer Data for Use in Artificial Intelligence Correlates with Increased Revenue Performance

Blueshift, the leader in AI-powered cross-channel marketing, announced the results of a study, “Activating Customer Data for AI Powered Marketing,” conducted by independent research company TechValidate. The study shows that AI is top of mind for marketers with over 80 percent of them using some AI techniques today and almost two out of three (64 percent) looking to expand use of AI in the next twelve months. However, the effectiveness of AI depends on the customer data used to drive the AI algorithms and almost all respondents (92 percent) are struggling to either access, unify or analyze their customer data, hindering the effectiveness of their AI-driven marketing campaigns.

Also Read: Blueshift Brings AI-Powered Live Personalization to Websites and Mobile Apps

Study Highlights

– Survey of 200 marketing executives and practitioners from 198 companies reveals that artificial intelligence (AI) is top of mind for most marketers with 64% planning to increase their use of AI in the next 12 months.
– Eighty percent of marketers are using some AI techniques, but fewer than one in six is using advanced AI capabilities such as predictive affinities for segmentation or collaborative filtering for personalization.
– Marketers who control advanced access to data, bypassing IT, are two to three times more likely to deploy leading-edge AI techniques.
– Successful data activation and use of advanced AI techniques for marketing correlates with revenue success.
– However, 92% of marketers still struggle with access, unification or analysis of their customer data, hindering their AI efforts.

The use of AI in marketing remains rudimentary

Though more than 80 percent of marketers are using some form of AI, few have deployed advanced capabilities. Today’s AI use is largely focused on audience expansion and targeting using techniques like “lookalike expansion” — finding new audiences by targeting those with traits similar to existing audiences — on the large advertising networks. Only six percent of all respondents were using collaborative filtering (automated predictions about user interests) and predictive modeling techniques (forecasting outcomes) and only 16 percent used advanced segmentation technologies like predictive affinities on their own data to market more effectively and precisely to customers.

Also Read: Blueshift Launches Predictive Audience Syndication for Facebook

Marketer control and advanced access to data unlocks AI potential

Marketers who control their own data access, without having to go through IT, also activate and use more of their own data. Those who had such access and control were 60 percent more likely to be using a majority of their customer data in their AI-driven campaigns. These marketers were also two to three times more likely to use advanced AI techniques like collaborative filtering and predictive modeling. And companies in which marketers activate and use more than 75 percent of their customer data are 40 percent more likely to exceed revenue targets than those that had not.

Most marketers are still struggling with their customer data

Effectively using a company’s own customer data (first-party data) for AI-driven marketing campaigns is perhaps the biggest hurdle facing marketers. Almost all respondents (92 percent) in the study identified one or more of three factors — access, unification, or analysis — as a major challenge, resulting in a majority of marketers using less than 50 percent of their own customer data.

Vijay Chittoor

“This study was illuminating in many respects. While it showed that marketers are extremely interested in expanding their use of AI to increase their marketing performance, it also illustrated the degree to which marketers are missing the potential of using their own customer data to fulfill those aspirations.” He added, “Our advice to all marketers is to focus on the permission-based customer data they already have and put that data to work using AI,” said Vijay Chittoor, co-founder & CEO of Blueshift.

Also Read: Blueshift Receives Patent for AI-Powered Marketing

Top 5 Things to Know About Your B2B Prospects

Josh Mueller

April 27, 2018

Do you know where your prospects are? More importantly, do you know what they’re doing and what they want from you?

More automated and digital-first B2B purchasing processes are here to stay. As a result, data has never been more important for you – or for your future clients. Data-driven and digital tactics can facilitate top-of-the-funnel prospecting, help relationships grow and make the purchasing experience more seamless for everyone involved.

As data grows in importance for you and your prospects, so too do concerns about the privacy and regulation. But that’s not a reason to turn back – it’s more of a reason to get one step ahead and ensure you’re compliant before you’re running behind.

In this changing environment, stay on your front foot by knowing these five things about your prospects.

Prospects Have Gone Digital – and There’s No Turning Back

The nature of B2B customer relationships has fundamentally changed due to the prevalence of technological and digital integrations in the buying process. In fact, Gartner predicts that, by 2020, the customer will manage 85% of its relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human.

As traditional tactics such as outbound phone calls and emails become increasingly ineffective and customers delay interaction with salespeople, marketers are turning to approaches such as account-based marketing (ABM) to drive better alignment with the digital customer journey. Which brings us to the next point…

They’re Receptive to ABM

Account-based marketing broke into the mainstream over the past couple of years, and this year we’re well beyond the tipping point. In fact, 97% of B2B marketers believe that ABM has a higher ROI than other marketing initiatives.

ABM has significantly changed and improved the buying process for B2B customers and prospects. For marketers, shifting to an ABM strategy can help identify the biggest areas of growth in sales and marketing and keep the focus on winning new business. However, it takes a deep understanding of data and overall team cohesion; gaining deep account insights to support the creation of account-specific messaging is crucial. Sales intelligence solutions can help companies align sales and marketing teams around the right data points, which is critical for ABM success.

They Want Content and Communications Relevant to Them

Despite the data, technology, and resources available to marketers, only half of the customers surveyed for the 2017 State of Sales Acceleration Report feel their communications have improved in the last year. Real-time, connected data is the key to creating relevant and personalized content and communications. In addition, this highly targeted data approach helps grow customer relationships by connecting and aligning all market activities, from segmentation and targeting to content development, to nurturing and closing.

Using intelligent, data-driven and real-time insights lead to a more connected customer view and more targeted communications – and businesses are demanding this from their partners.

They Want a Frictionless Purchasing Experience

Creating a faster path from prospect to a profitable customer is possible through the use of data and analytics. Moving from traditional prospecting solutions to “sales acceleration” can guide interactions with prospects and customers across the full customer journey, delivering refined and connected information to create a more seamless experience for customers.

By connecting data across an organization, and feeding it into the daily workflows (like a CRM, for instance), the entire business gains a complete and shared view of the customer, meaning each department knows all actions the customer has taken with the business and can act accordingly, without overlap or duplication. This presents a more consistent and thoughtful experience for the customer.

Data Regulations Apply to Them, Too

With the rise of new regulations like GDPR around how companies access and utilize data, prospects are growing more concerned about their privacy and businesses are struggling with how to comply with these rules. Even in a B2B environment, there are steps that can be taken to ensure privacy regulations are being met. When working with a data provider, businesses should consider —

The data methodologies their data provider follows
The downstream collections their agencies follow
The way and where they store the data

Ensuring proper guidelines will give your customers confidence and an understanding that your business is taking the necessary steps to protect information and adhering to current regulations.

The B2B prospect is a complicated and sometimes elusive entity. Knowing your prospects better than your competitors can not only give you an advantage, but it can ensure optimal relationship building and a seamless purchasing experience for all involved. Leveraging the best data available and analyzing it with your prospects in mind will keep you ahead of the game – and ahead of your competition.

Also Read: Want to Boost Revenue? Start by Aligning Marketing and Sales

TechBytes with David Jones, Director, Product Marketing, Nuxeo

Sudipto Ghosh

April 27, 2018

David Jones
Director, Product Marketing, Nuxeo

Managing Content has been a challenge for all types of organizations. Managing content is an opportunity to help companies better leverage their information and to gain new insights into their business. We spoke to David Jones, Director, Product Marketing, Nuxeo, to understand how their content service platform could benefit companies handling large amounts of data and how their offering helps with GDPR compliance.

Html code here! Replace this with any non empty text and that's it.

Tell us about your role at Nuxeo and the team/technology you handle.

My role at Nuxeo is to lead the Content Services and Industry Product Marketing team. That covers both the product marketing for the Nuxeo content services platform and the related industry-specific focus that we have for verticals such as financial services and government.

What is the role of content services in digital transformation in B2B parlance?

Content services and more broadly Content Services Platforms (CSP) play a critical role in digital transformation. The fundamental part of digital transformation is the management and exploitation of digital content – that is exactly what a CSP does.

Think about the challenges that drive organizations towards digital transformation projects: disconnected information stores within the business, no single view of the customer/citizen/partner/supplier, outdated and slow manual processes. Content Services Platforms are built specifically to intelligently connect information silos throughout your business. They are designed to deliver context-based views of your information and processes to enable and streamline how you work with your key stakeholders – be they customers, citizens, partners or suppliers, and they do all of that in a digital manner – a manner that can lift an organization out of the drudgery of manual (and often still paper-based) processing.

How do you leverage content marketing tools to create relevant Product Recommendations and B2B connectivity?

Content marketing is key when promoting Content Services Platforms. By definition, a platform is something that can be built on, and often-times the foundation for a completely unique solution for any given enterprise. As such, there are always multiple stakeholders, all at various stages of education and awareness about what a CSP can do, what benefits it can provide, and how it can relate to their specific business challenges.

The multi-tiered, multi-pronged approach characterized by content marketing suits this perfectly, allowing various types of content assets to be deployed, engaging people at the particular stage of the buyer journey that they are at, any allowing nurture to take place at multiple levels throughout.

In addition, the content that we are creating to “fuel the funnel” is also resonating with the multiple B2B personalities we sell and market to. Consultants, value-added resellers, even competitors are using our thought leadership content as resources that they can share and pass on.

How is ECM helping businesses prepare for GDPR?

GDPR is all about managing and protecting personal information. In my opinion, far too much time and effort has focused on the security part of this conversation – beefing up firewalls, ensuring only the right people have access to the information, etc. While this is a very important part of the puzzle – it is only a part of that puzzle. Managing information is again exactly what CSPs do, which make them an ideal solution for addressing GDPR requirements.

One of the major challenges within organizations is the inability to get a single view of the customer – or to connect the disparate data and content sources within the business together. This is ultimately a failing that GDPR will highlight – rapidly. One of the key parts of GDPR is the right for any individual to request all of the information that an organization holds on him or her. This is called a subject access request (or SAR). Can you imagine how difficult answering that request is going to be if the information systems within an organization are not connected in a coherent and manageable way? By using a CSP to both connect and structure the multiple repositories within a business, not only are you identifying all of the places where personal information is stored, but you can also provide a very simple and easy to use interface on top of that to manage SARs. But without a connected information infrastructure – good luck!

Which marketing technologies fascinate you the most?

I love technology, so any new gadget or gizmo attracts my attention, but from a marketing perspective I think augmented reality (AR) holds so much potential. As someone who simply gobbles up information on anything, having instant access to related information on a TV that I’m looking at in a store, or the caloric value of a pizza I’m about to buy is intriguing. But the real intrigue comes when I think about how clever marketing could be deployed. “Would you like an HDMI cable with that TV sir,” or, “We offer a low cal pepperoni option too, sir.” The options are mind-boggling. And despite my B2C examples, B2B is equally ripe for picking, in my opinion.

What is the one message that you want to share with other Product Marketers in the tech industry?

For me, the biggest thing that I have learned throughout my business career is that despite being called “product” marketers, the last thing we should be talking about most of the time is product. People are interested in hearing stories, ideas, thoughts, even jokes sometimes – but rarely are they interested in products. Until, that is, they are interested in the product. At which point you need to make sure that everything you’ve been waxing lyrical about in the non-product commentary, is something you can actually deliver on!

Thanks for chatting with us, David.
Stay tuned for more insights on marketing technologies. To participate in our Tech Bytes program, email us at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com

Interview with Lilian Leong, COO, 9GAG

Sudipto Ghosh

April 27, 2018

Interview with Lilian Leong, COO of 9GAG

[vc_wp_text]“If you look at the trends in content marketing, it’s been the same, unchanging yet ever-changing. What works one minute might not work in the next.”

[/vc_wp_text]

[easy-profiles profile_twitter=”https://twitter.com/lilleoxx” profile_linkedin=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianleong/”]

Tell us about your role at 9GAG and how you got here? What galvanized you to join a viral entertainment content marketing platform?

I joined 9GAG in August 2016 as the Chief Operating Officer.

I spent the first part of my career across different advertising operations (media, creative, promotions, events, direct marketing and digital). I was planning my next move to be to a bigger brand so I could drive bigger impact. The goal then was to join the Government Secretariat (which sounds sublime, I know lol).

I met Ray (CEO of 9GAG) at a speaking event in the winter of 2014. He shared with me his incredible journey of building his audience base of 150-million people (it was then 100 million) with his 30 teammates. This one to 5 million staff-to-audience ratio was simply mind-boggling! We had great conversations, and later he invited me to join the company. I spent nine months pondering this offer as it was a complete change for my career. Eventually, I said yes. The rest is history.

Joining a startup means you have to run it like it’s your own company. My focus is to scale up the operation, from people to machine, users to partners, reputation to monetization.

How is the content marketing industry different from when you first started at 9GAG?

If you look at the trends in content marketing, it’s been the same, unchanging yet ever-changing. What works one minute might not work in the next minute. 9GAG has 95M social followers, including 44M on Instagram, and is the 6^th largest Instagram brand in the world and 2^nd largest video creator in US. There’s one thing that we continue to do: Source the best, most entertaining content and creators for our users. We believe entertaining content always travels and engages.

Tell us about your ‘Ideal Customer’ profile? How do you keep millennial population engaged to viral content?

We strive to be the best international community that makes the world happier. 70% of our users are Gen Z and another 20% are millennials. 9GAGGERs are those highly engaged young people who seek humor and fun on the internet.

What role do mobile platforms play in your global audience reach?

Mobile contributes to over 80% of our reach.

What are your predictions on the State of video content and Live Streaming engagements?

In the end, entertaining content will always travel and engage.

How do you ensure brand safety and mitigation of fake news at 9GAG?

I don’t think any publishers can make any guarantees about brand safety and fake news. Giant global players like YouTube and Facebook have their own challenges despite their huge workforce and resources. Apart from leveraging our team and our machines, we are very responsive to our users’ feedback in these areas and are committed to making necessary changes.

What marketing and sales automation tools do you use?

I am focusing on a few that are most relevant to my daily work. Salesforce for sales management, Survey Monkey for users’ responses, Crowdtangle for social tracking, Looker for audience and usage monitoring.

Which startups in martech and adtech industries are you keenly following?

Slack. It’s also interesting to see how other companies, big or small, are joining the enterprise messaging game.

Tell us about the most interesting Digital Marketing campaign at 9GAG? Who was your audience and how did you measure the success of that campaign?

We launched a UGC funny video contest called “9GAG FUN-OFF” in September of last year. In 80 days, we garnered 18K video submissions, 740M video views and 44M engagements. We found the submissions from US, Europe, and Asia were well-balanced. It’s a celebrating and inclusive sign that entertainment isn’t necessarily driven only by the US, but globally. Through this exercise, we also came to identify a lot of up and coming creators who deserve to be known and valued.
FUN-OFF Season 2 is coming back this quarter. We look forward to helping more creators gain fame and fortune.

How do you prepare for an AI-centric ecosystem as a business leader?

AI is such a hot topic that I know it won’t be a surprise if I tell you how much we put AI at the core of our ecosystem. However, as much as I believe AI will drive efficiency and precision, we can’t lose sight of the “why.” 9GAG is a content platform. Behind the data and content, we are interacting with people and arousing their reactions. We have to see through the data and identify what’s working and what’s not. Data can never summarize people’s reactions.

How do you inspire your people to work with technology at 9GAG?

It would be a catastrophe if it were up to me to inspire my team to work with technology at 9GAG. In fact, it’s me who has to catch up with them.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

Google search engine. I’ve learnt to make it my BFF. From work to leisure I google everything, from working partners, candidates, trending topics, crime cases, stock prices, scholars, actors, travel routes, recipes … you name it. I don’t believe the younger generations are born to be more technically capable than I am. It’s just their second nature and so they are better at searching for information online.

What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?

Every morning I spend around 30 minutes categorizing my daily tasks: urgent tasks and important tasks. Doing this will set my work priority: Get on the important tasks first. Move on the urgent ones more slowly.
Important tasks are not the easiest – therefore they certainly deserve my freshest mind.
Urgent tasks are generally handy, but it doesn’t mean they need to be resolved urgently. Hastiness can cloud your judgment and lead you to make the wrong decisions.

What are you currently reading? (What do you read, and how do you consume information?)

I have just started reading “How Not to Die” by Michael Gregor, MD. A Christmas gift from Vincent, our programmatic lead. He handed it to me with a sense of urgency. I don’t think I can procrastinate.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“Learn, unlearn, re-learn.” The notion of forgetting or stopping how to learn is the biggest hindrance to mankind.

Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read:
Marne Levine – COO, Instagram

Thank you, Lilian! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.

[vc_tta_tabs][vc_tta_section title=”About Lilian” tab_id=”1501785390157-b58e162d-0ae25a4b-c27aca64-108e51b0-80edaf37-bd3d357a-6c46d712-3b685f5f-77f5″]

Lilian is a branding veteran turned media tech executive. Woman in Tech.

A change agent at heart, she has expertise in direct marketing, promotion, public relations, advertising creative and media planning. She spearheaded changes during her agency days: setting up a digital offering for Leo Burnett, rolled up social media, social CRM and integrated digital offering for IPG Mediabrands.

In 2016, she took a big leap from corp to startup, joining 9GAG as COO.

[/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”About 9GAG” tab_id=”1501785390320-2d44fa50-740c5a4b-c27aca64-108e51b0-80edaf37-bd3d357a-6c46d712-3b685f5f-77f5″]

9GAG_Logo
9GAG is the global cross-platform entertainment media network. It is a place for fun, conversation, and engagement. Founded in 2008, 9GAG’s mission is to make the world happier. 9GAG has a total of 150 million global audience with 36 million followers on Facebook, 41 million on Instagram and 12 million on Twitter. Being #1 ranked global social media platform in entertainment & gaming, #1 ranked US’s cross-platform video creators, we distribute 2.2 billion social video views on a monthly basis (source: tubular labs). 9GAG.com is #6 most followed brand on Instagram and is a top 200 website globally. 9GAG is backed by: Freestyle Capital, True Ventures, First Round Capital, Greycroft Partners, 500 Startups, Y Combinator and a group of great angel investors in the United States. eg Anthony Soohoo, Benjamin Ling, BoxGroup, Gary Vaynerchuk, James Hong, Kevin Rose, Karl Jacob, Lowercase Capital, Maneesh Arora, Naval Ravikant, Othman Laraki, Philip Kaplan, Rich Chen, Rich Lefurgy, Scott and Cyan Banister, Tim Ferriss.

[/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_tabs]

[mnky_heading title=”MarTech Interview Series” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fmartechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com%2Fcategory%2Fmts-insights%2Finterviews%2F|||”]

The MTS Martech Interview Series is a fun Q&A style chat which we really enjoy doing with martech leaders. With inspiration from Lifehacker’s How I work interviews, the MarTech Series Interviews follows a two part format On Marketing Technology, and This Is How I Work. The format was chosen because when we decided to start an interview series with the biggest and brightest minds in martech – we wanted to get insight into two areas … one – their ideas on marketing tech and two – insights into the philosophy and methods that make these leaders tick.

Traackr Raises $9 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Influencer Marketing Technology for Global Brands

PRNewswire

April 27, 2018

Traackr Raises $9m in Series B Funding to Fuel Influencer Marketing Technology for Global Brands

Workhorse Capital and Brandtech group You & Mr Jones Both Invest, Underscoring the Importance of Influencers in Modern Marketing

Traackr, the influencer relationship management platform, announced it has raised $9 million in Series B funding led by Workhorse Capital, with participation from You & Mr Jones and existing investors.

In 2017, 86 percent of marketers reported using influencer marketing, but measuring the ROI of influencer programs was the top challenge facing marketers. Traackr’s data-driven software solution enables global brands to scale influencer programs by consolidating discovery, management and performance analytics all in one system. Through targeted searches and customizable analytics, marketers are able to identify and partner with more relevant influencers to win the hearts and minds of their customers.

“Influencer marketing has become so important today but most businesses are still not approaching it at an enterprise level. That’s what we deliver with Traackr, a technology platform and system of record that allows major global brands to manage, expand, validate and scale their influencer marketing and ultimately deliver a better ROI,” said Pierre-Loïc Assayag, founder and CEO of Traackr.

Also Read: How NOT to Handle a Collaboration Request When it Comes to Influencer Marketing

Global brands such as Microsoft, L’Oreal, SAP, Travelocity, Honda and the Coca-Cola Company already use Traackr to structure and grow their influencer marketing programs across departments and geographies.

“Influencer marketing is one of the key pillars of our digital transformation to build ‘love brands.’ It requires agility and real-time data. The influencer landscape is transforming every day – like the rise of fake followers and inauthentic profiles – which can make analyzing influencer marketing effectiveness increasingly difficult. We trust Traackr’s solution, as their platform provides the real-time intelligence we need to activate beauty influencers who resonate the most with our fans,” said Marc Duquesnoy, Social Media Performance Director, Global CDO Team, L’OREAL Group.

Traackr will use this round to fuel sales, marketing and customer success across the globe, with over 80 percent of current revenue coming from Fortune 1000 companies/industries. Increasing the depth of data and range of platforms covered will also be a priority for Traackr’s product and engineering teams.

“We’re excited about our company building a partnership with the Traackr team. We are drawn to rapidly growing and fiscally disciplined SaaS businesses like Traackr that solve fundamental problems for their customers. We embrace the opportunity to roll up our sleeves, supporting the Traackr team in pursuit of their goals,” said Dave McLean, co-founder and General Partner at Workhorse Capital.

Strategic partner You & Mr Jones, a brandtech group, adds Traackr to its roster of visionary technology company investments – such as the Amplify, Pinterest, Niantic (creator of Pokemon Go), MOFILM, Gyfcat and Zappar – revolutionizing how brands connect with people.

Also Read: TV May Affect the Brain But Influencer MarketingAffects the Heart

“We’re very big believers in people-powered marketing and in particular the power of influencer marketing. Traackr is unique as they have built a fantastic SaaS platform that makes the discovery, management and measurement of influencer relationships seamless while using data to help quantify the impact of those relationships across the customer journey. They are a great fit with the other influencer businesses in our portfolio, and we’re excited to be part of their journey, ” said David Jones, founder and CEO of You & Mr Jones.

To date, Traackr has raised a total of $14.4 million, including financing from original investors.

“We are very fortunate to have found the team at Workhorse Capital, who understand our customer-focused approach, recognize that we’ve achieved a great deal in a short period of time-and recognize the team’s ability to grow the business exponentially, on a global scale. With the addition of You and Mr Jones as strategic investors, who truly understand the seismic shifts technology is driving in the world of marketing, we feel that we have a group able to take the business to substantial new heights,” said Robbie Vann-Adibé, chairman of the board, Traackr.

Also Read: Influencer Marketing is the Fastest-Growing Online Customer Acquisition Strategy

EverString and Terminus Integrate to Help Sales and Marketing Teams Easily Execute Account-Based Marketing Programs

PRNewswire

April 27, 2018

EverString, the leading marketing and sales intelligence software company, and Terminus, the leader of the account-based marketing movement, announced a fully functional integration of their platforms. The integration allows B2B marketers to identify and segment target accounts within EverString and then engage those accounts by adding them to an account-based advertising campaign on the Terminus ABM platform. Marketers can measure account engagement using Terminus’ account-based web analytics.

EverString and Terminus Integrate to Help Sales and Marketing Teams Easily Execute Best-in-Class Account-Based Marketing Programs

The integration follows the recent launch of EverString’s Data Platform, designed to give B2B sales, marketing, operations, and advanced analytics teams detailed company intelligence, the ability to move with greater speed, and the confidence to land more and more valuable deals. Using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and a proprietary Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) system, the result is data that is living, up-to-date, and actionable.

Also Read: Terminus Joins the LinkedIn Marketing Partner Program with Launch of Account-Based Marketing Integration

J.J. Kardwell According to JJ Kardwell, CEO and co-founder of EverString, “This integration makes launching an account-based marketing campaign as simple as clicking a few buttons. EverString informs customers which accounts are the best fit and also in-market. Through the integration with Terminus, customers can immediately take action to engage those accounts with digital account-based advertising. It’s a roadmap for sales and marketing, telling them where they should start and what actions they should take to initiate contact.”

“The two most difficult parts of account-based marketing are determining which accounts to target and how to best engage them. This integration tackles those two issues directly by identifying the best accounts for your business and then making engagement through advertising a snap,” said Matt Amundson, vice president of marketing at EverString.

“Utilizing data to dynamically prioritize target accounts for sales and marketing is critical to the success of an ABM strategy. This integration makes it easy to leverage fit, intent, and engagement data to segment accounts for highly targeted account-based advertising and sales outreach. Ultimately, this integration will help marketers save hours of time, more efficiently utilize budget, and deliver better-performing ABM campaigns,” said Peter Herbert, CMO at Terminus.

The integration is free for customers of both companies.

Webinar Engagement Delivers Business Impact, Says ON24 Report

PRNewswire

April 27, 2018

ON24 Announces Winners of Virtualized Event Awards Honoring the Best Transformations to Digital

2018 Webinar Benchmarks Report Provides Groundbreaking Insights Into Maximizing Engagement

With more than 66% of buyers saying they prefer webinars to other content formats, businesses are leveraging the power of webinars now more than ever. ON24, the leading engagement platform, released its 2018 Webinar Benchmarks Report, providing an unprecedented look into how today’s marketers are innovatively using the platform and effectively interacting with prospective customers.

The report is based on the analysis of nearly 20,000 webinars that had more than 100 attendees and took place on the ON24 platform in 2017. It includes insights and standards for comparative measurement, promotional best practices for webinars, average conversion rates, a high-level look at 2017’s top performing webinars, and more.

Also Read: Interview with Sharat Sharan, President, Co-Founder & CEO at ON24

The report found that the average webinar attendee watched for 56 minutes, a remarkable amount of time to hold someone’s attention in today’s always-on, distraction-heavy work environment.

“The data-driven marketer is more and more turning to webinars in order to facilitate true engagement. There are simply no other marketing tools that generate real-time data from customers, while also holding their attention for nearly an hour. Webinars have become the indispensable tool for marketers,” says Mark Bornstein, VP of Content Marketing at ON24.

The 2018 Webinar Benchmarks Report shows marketers across industries increasingly using interactive features — from video to polling to real-time Q&A — to collect vital data, develop real connections, and convert prospects into qualified leads and customers. The most popular tool to drive audience interaction is ON24’s questions and answers widget, used in 82 percent of all webinars. Resource lists (67 percent) and surveys (32 percent) were the second and third most utilized tools, respectively.

Also Read: Dreamforce Techbytes with Joe Hyland, Chief Marketing Officer, ON24

The findings provide a window into the best ways to reach prospective customers and webinar attendees. For example, the report found that:

Marketers are using video more than ever: The use of video in 2017 increased 4 percent, and is now featured in nearly one-fourth of all webinars (22 percent).
On-demand viewers are rising: 35 percent of all attendees watched webinars only on-demand, or after they had taken place, an increase of 2 percent over 2016.
Midweek and midday is the best time to drive viewers: The best time to host a webinar was on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, with these days combined for 79 percent of all webinar attendees. The best time of day to maximize attendees was 11 am PST / 2 pm EST.

The report found the webinars that increased their audience engagement the most were marketing, continuing education, and internal education webinars. “The bottom line for all types of webinars is that audiences are more engaged now than ever,” says Bornstein.

In 2017 alone, ON24 reached more than 13 million viewers, and those individuals spent more than a billion minutes engaging with 12 million polls,1.3 million surveys, 1.5 million questions, and 17 million resource downloads.

Also Read: ON24 Holds Virtual Summit to Redefine Engagement for the Modern Buyer

Codewise Named One of 50 Most Valuable Brands of 2018 by The Silicon Review

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Codewise, the industry’s first provider of an AI-powered ad exchange, DSP, and online ad measurement and optimization platforms for digital marketers, announced today that it was named one of the 50 Most Valuable Brands of The Year 2018 by The Silicon Review.

Published annually by The Silicon Review magazine, the list of the 50 Most Valuable Brands includes high-growth companies that are changing the technology industry by introducing breakthrough products and services. Ranked 14th on the list, Codewise is the technology pioneer that developed the first AI-powered ad exchange, DSP, and online ad measurement and optimization platforms available to digital marketers today. Because of the exponentially growing popularity of its products around the world, Codewise was named among the fastest-growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times in 2017 and 2018.

Robert Gryn

“I am excited to see that Codewise has been recognized as one of the most valuable brands of 2018 by The Silicon Review magazine. Our team’s relentless efforts to develop industry-leading ad exchange, measurement, and optimization platforms enabled us to become one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe and globally, and I am proud to see that this fact is now being acknowledged by influential publications around the world. Every member of the Codewise team contributed to this remarkable achievement, and we will continue to innovate and develop groundbreaking products and technologies to achieve even greater heights in the near future,” said Robert Gryn, CEO, and owner of Codewise.

Also Read: AI-Powered Ad Exchange Codewise Appoints John Malatesta as President

Dr. John Malatesta

“Being recognized by the Financial Times among the FT 1000 fastest growing companies in Europe in both 2017 and 2018 and now as one of the most valuable brands of 2018 by The Silicon Review demonstrates once again that growing profitably by 16,900 percent since our first year of operations, and by an average of 290 percent annually, is not a coincidence but the outcome of reverse engineering the entire company around the needs of our customers. Our team leverages constant customer input to drive unabated product innovation and customer success excellence, ensuring a tight match between clients’ expectations and product values. Our unconditional dedication to this blueprint naturally leads to customer adoption and satisfaction and results in exponential revenue growth,” said Dr. John Malatesta, President and Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer at Codewise.

Also Read: Codewise’s Voluum Tracker is Industry’s First AI-Powered Ad Traffic And Offers Match Optimization

IFTTT Mounts $24 Million Funding Led By Salesforce Ventures to Build a More Connected World

Sudipto Ghosh

April 26, 2018

IFTTT Mounts $24 Million Funding Led By Salesforce Ventures to Build a More Connected World

IFTTT Platform Customers Have the Opportunity to Integrate with over 600 Devices and Apps

IFTTT, a leading applet creation platform, has announced $24 million in funding led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from IBM, Chamberlain Group, and Fenox Venture Capital. The company is focused on building a more connected world. The new capital will enable IFTTT to hire top talent to take on industry-changing initiatives and expand its platform.

Currently, IFTTT helps app developers to build Applets, and embed them directly into their app or website for consumers.

At the time of this announcement, John Somorjai, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Salesforce Ventures, Salesforce, said, “IFTTT is at the forefront of establishing a more connected ecosystem for devices and services. It’s a prime example of the amazing innovation and commitment to customer success that we look for in our portfolio companies.”

IFTTT is the only platform where consumers, developers, startups, and enterprises are collaborating to build a more connected world. As a result, IFTTT platform customers have the opportunity to integrate with over 600 devices and apps, ranging from smart home to connected cars to social media services, opening up important connections across industries.

A More Connected World, A Better World…

Companies recognize the potential of a more connected world, offering their clients personalized experiences and increasing business efficiency. With its new capital and investors, IFTTT will reach more industries and expand its role as the leading developer platform for the connected world.

Bret Greenstein, Vice President, Watson Internet of Things, IBM, said, “IBM and IFTTT are working together to realize the potential of today’s connected world. By bringing together IBM’s Watson IoT Platform and Watson Assistant Solutions with consumer-facing services, we can help clients to create powerful and open solutions for their users that work with everything in the Internet of Things.”

Bret added, “Our work together is an important step to enable true interoperability between devices as IoT becomes pervasive across business and society alike.”

IFTTT has grown to more than 14 million consumers, more than 600 published services, and 75 million Applets turned on since its launch. With more than 5,000 active developers building services and more than 140,000 building new Applets on the IFTTT Platform, the company is positioned as an essential tool for a more connected world.

IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets, said, “Every business is undergoing a dramatic transformation into a digital service. We are on a mission to bring trust and compatibility to a future in which everything around us becomes a new app and another login. We could not be more excited to partner with our new investors, our passionate users, and every business working hard to become a service.”

Applets bring services together to create new experiences for consumers. Consumers can create Applets of their own or turn on existing Applets from their favorite products and brands.

Founded in 2010, IFTTT has raised $63 million in funding from top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Chamberlain Group, Fenox Venture Capital, IBM, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, NEA, Norwest Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and SV Angel.

Oracle Data Cloud Scoops Grapeshot; Adds New Dimension of Context in Brand Safety

Sudipto Ghosh

April 26, 2018

Oracle Adds New Dimension of Context to Its Data Cloud with Grapeshot's Acquisition

The Acquisition of Grapeshot Will Dramatically Expand Oracle Data Cloud’s Ability to Improve Marketing Outcomes for Their Partners Worldwide

Continuing their efforts to strengthen brand safety technology, Oracle has now acquired Grapeshot. On 24 April 2018, the leading marketing technology provider announced that they signed an agreement to acquire Grapeshot. Grapeshot is an industry-recognized leader in providing brand safety and pre-bid contextual solutions.

Every month, over 38 billion programmatic ad impressions are enhanced using Grapeshot’s Contextual Intelligence Platform in dozens of languages, and this number has grown well over 100% year over year.

Oracle would be acquiring Grapeshot’s Contextual Intelligence Platform. This platform enables the rapid creation of highly-customized segments that allows marketers and their agencies to confidently —

Avoid unsafe content that will damage brand equity, and close the loop via Moat Measurement
Extend global audience reach by targeting the most relevant context, including late-breaking news and trending themes, to complement Oracle Data Cloud’s custom audience segments

The acquisition of Grapeshot will dramatically expand Oracle Data Cloud’s ability to improve marketing outcomes for our partners worldwide by adding the important dimension of Context to Oracle Data Cloud’s expertise in Audiences and Measurement.

Eric Roza

At the time of this announcement, Eric Roza, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Data Cloud, issued a letter to their customers and partners. In the letter, Eric mentioned that every month, 38+ billion programmatic ad impressions are enhanced using Grapeshot’s Contextual Intelligence Platform in dozens of languages, and this number has grown well over 100% year over year.

Eric added, “I am thrilled to welcome the Grapeshot team to Oracle and would like to personally thank John Snyder, Grapeshot’s CEO and Co-Founder, for agreeing to serve in an advisory role through the transition.”

Oracle is currently reviewing the existing Grapeshot product roadmap and will be providing guidance to customers in accordance with Oracle’s standard product communication policies.

How to Surf the AI Wave to Empower Digital Platforms

Abhinandan Ghosh

April 26, 2018

How to Surf The AI Wave to Empower Digital Platforms

The more we dig into AI, the crazier it gets. The business value it brings remains unfathomable despite the convincing rate of its adoption across various industrial domains and social segments. Digital platforms are a classic example of how rampant AI-adoption in business could impact overall productivity. In 2018, marketers leveraging AI-powered platforms still search for an ROI calculator that could answer if the connected automation did indeed guarantee growth or success.

However, most marketers would like to state that AI is a driver, if not the engine. With new developments in AI every day, there’s something valuable for every marketer that could forever change the way digital platforms deliver! Numbers suggest that organizations are yet to invent that secret ingredient that assures a perfect AI-driven recipe.

Only 15% of enterprises have adopted AI but 31% have it on their agenda for the coming 12 months (Adobe)
72% of business leaders consider AI as a competitive advantage (PwC)
47% of digitally-advanced organizations have a defined AI strategy (Adobe)

To determine the exact direction where AI-powered digital platforms are heading is hard. But it’s possible to establish some foundational principles which will shape the success of such digital platforms. Emphasis must be laid on the current AI tools, high-quality data, and simple UI for digital platforms to thrive.

Let’s zero-in on the three pillars. These can help organizations and marketers to make the most of AI-powered digital platforms.

Training isn’t Mandatory

Marketers and software developers need to understand that UX is a priority for digital platforms. Hence, digital platforms that are designed for instinctual usage will stand out. Platforms full of complexities don’t make the cut anymore. The reason is simple – end users don’t like to be taught too much about how they should use a platform. A good practice for marketers here is to be in the user’s shoes and think how they like to use a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP). Surely no marketer has the time to train himself and his team for months on how to use a MAP.

The crux here is to automate the prosaic so that efforts can be directed at important tasks. Marketers today use multiple digital platforms and mastering them all is a big ask. When the UX is simple and ready-to-use, the adoption of your platform will be higher.

Data on Top

A common pitfall in creating an AI-driven digital platform is focusing too much on what the algorithms and not data. Algorithms matter but the very essence of AI systems is the primary data you feed to them. If the quality of data is not spot-on or the quantity is not adequate, machines won’t learn it right. When machines don’t learn well, the entire purpose of AI stands defeated. In turn, the UX you deliver won’t be intuitive or smart enough.

“There’s a convergence taking place in managing data, giving AI an opportunity to go to work and enable businesses to make better, faster decisions within the SaaS product itself.”
John Reese, SVP of Marketing, Mavenlink

Data quality remains the pinnacle of a successful digital platform. The quality is a factor of the type of data involved. Irrespective of that, to achieve optimum data quality, there’re two components you can ill-afford to miss:

Firstly, your data capturing method needs to be embedded in the source at both levels – marketing engine and the platform itself
Secondly, data collection from the above should be perpetual and without chasms

Ensuring the above keeps your AI features in sync with the latest, updated data insights. That’s when those algorithms work like magic. While this can escalate costs to begin with, data analytics proves to be an ROI enabler in the long run. Here’s why:

Marketers expect their data analytics spending to increase from 5.8% to 17.3% of their marketing budgets (The CMO Survey)

Why Take it ‘Out of the Box’ When it’s in the Box

Pondering too much over things to come can make you lose sense of the present. Unlock the full potential of the existing AI tools for your digital platform. These tools are advanced and powerful enough. Thus, trying to create your own AI tools from the scratch can turn out like meandering in the dark and hoping for light. Also, the efforts and skill-base the exercise requires is tremendous and can make you deviate from your actual goal – the platform.

There’s no shortage of enterprise AI tools on offer which can be deployed within your networks. These tools cater to all the requirements of yours and the end users of your digital platform.

From institutional tech powerhouses –

From modern crusaders –

How to Surf the AI Wave

Stick to the basics mentioned for your AI-driven digital platform as they are fundamental to your platform’s success. Probing too much on what lies under the AI’s hood could be misleading. The present-day AI applications and capabilities can blend with numerous digital platforms. The type of platform is a choice of yours based on your business needs. Determine the platform type first and then adopt the appropriate AI, not vice-versa.

Make the voyage of your digital platform a serene one for your end users. Deliver the best UX possible, keep data at the helm, and trust the existing AI tools. At the same time, remain flexible about what lies next in the upcoming wave of AI.

Salesforce Powers Marriott International’s Global Customer Recognition Platform

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Marriott International Launches Global Customer Recognition Platform Powered by Salesforce, Providing Personalization at Scale Across All Consumer Touchpoints

The Platform Unifies Marriott’S Global Guest Services Across 30 Brands And 6,500 Properties To Provide A Connected, Personal And Anticipatory Guest Experience

Marriott International, Inc., the global leader in hospitality, and Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today announced the global rollout of Marriott’s new customer recognition platform. Powered by Salesforce, the platform enables Marriott to conduct one, continuous interaction with members of its loyalty programs across guest channels including call centers, on-property, web and mobile, on a global scale.

Brian King

“Marriott’s vision is to be the world’s favorite travel company. The best way to reach that goal is to employ a best-in-breed, global customer recognition platform that connects our guests at every possible touchpoint to our team of expert hospitality professionals who strive to delight our guests every stay. Our partnership with Salesforce is essential to creating a frictionless experience for our guests so they can spend more time pursuing the things that make them passionate about travel,” said Brian King, Global Digital & Sales Officer at Marriott International.

Also Read: Salesforce to Invest $2.2 Billion in its French Business Over Five Years

Combining Marriott’s next generation hospitality with Salesforce’s innovative customer service technology, Service Cloud, the platform provides Marriott associates with an accurate, 360-degree view of each guests’ profile, as well as relevant, volunteered information that enables associates to provide truly personalized service at every touchpoint. Now all conversations, regardless of which channel they start from, continue from interaction to interaction across leading messaging platforms, Marriott mobile apps, websites, call-centers and beyond. For instance, members of Marriott’s loyalty programs can, weeks before they check in, use Apple Business Chat to connect and chat with an associate in Marriott’s Customer Engagement Center to make a special request for their stay. Then, a day before they check in, easily amend the request using the Mobile Requests functionality in the Marriott Mobile app. When they arrive to check in, the front desk associate will let them know the request has been fulfilled.

Also Read: Salesforce to Power Personalized Customer Engagement for Arcos Dorados

Taimur Khan

“There’s no such thing as a ‘typical’ guest or traveler—everyone has unique needs, motivations and expected outcomes, and they want their travel partner to deliver a personalized experience. Marriott is redefining expectations across the traveler journey by using Salesforce to empower its guests with connected and personalized service, on the channel of their choice, from the moment they start planning their trip.,” said Taimur Khan, Salesforce GM and Vice President of Travel, Transportation and Hospitality.

Also Read: Salesforce-MuleSoft Deal: The Dynamic Shift in Marketing Cloud Equation

Marketo Partner Digital Pi To Acquire Digital Marketing Agency RevEngine Marketing

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Digital Pi To Acquire RevEngine Marketing

Digital Pi, Inc. announced that it is acquiring Boston-based RevEngine Marketing, a full-service marketing consulting agency that specializes in Marketo. The move positions Digital Pi to meet the rapidly growing global demand for the company’s high-quality Marketo consulting services.

“RevEngine Marketing, led by its founder, Jeff Coveney, is an outstanding business and cultural fit to Digital Pi. We’ve known Jeff and his team for years and have always been impressed with their thought leadership, Marketo expertise, company culture, and reputation in our space. Our businesses are very synergistic regarding how we approach and manage client engagements and provide strategic marketing services. The addition of Jeff and his team to ours will allow us to expand our client base geographically and vertically, as well as enhance our service offerings and industry leadership,” said Ryan Vong, President and CEO.

RevEngine Marketing provides clients a full suite of marketing advisory and consulting services, with focus on best practices in marketing automation. RevEngine Marketing will become a division of Digital Pi. Jeff Coveney will serve as Executive Vice President and lead all marketing efforts of the combined company, reporting to Ryan Vong, CEO.

Also Read: Digital Pi Named a Services Partner of the Year by Marketo

“Combining RevEngine’s expertise and resources with those of Digital Pi enables us to help more Marketo customers get even more value from their Marketo investment. RevEngine and Digital Pi have been working closely together for some time, and I look forward to an exciting future working together as one team,” said Coveney.

The acquisition is expected to close on April 30, 2018. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Digital Pi is a Marketo Platinum Services Partner that helps companies get sustainable, quantifiable business ROI from the Marketo Engagement Platform. The Digital Pi Gold Standard framework helps Marketo customers establish a solid foundation to scale their marketing quickly and efficiently. Additionally, Digital Pi’s Omega software is the first performance management application for Marketo to help customers optimize end-to-end performance. RevEngine Marketing is a digital marketing agency that helps clients scale their brands with measurable and repeatable marketing using Marketo.

Also Read: Marketo’s New Accelerate Partners Help Marketers Intelligently Engage Through Every Stage of Buyer’s Journey

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud Selected by 24 Hour Fitness to Transform Customer Engagement

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Microsoft Corp. and Adobe announced an agreement with 24 Hour Fitness, one of the nation’s largest privately owned and operated fitness chains, to deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud across its network of more than 420 clubs nationwide. This will enable 24 Hour Fitness to dramatically enhance its ability to offer more personalized and unified digital experiences for members throughout every touch point in their fitness journey. With technology integrations across Microsoft business applications and Adobe Experience Cloud, 24 Hour Fitness is investing in a combined cloud platform to engage its members and prospects with highly personalized experiences.

“We have an opportunity to establish a new bar across the industry by delivering personalized digital interactions to our members that are available 24 hours a day, at home, on the road or in the gym. It’s not an easy feat to achieve this with nearly 4 million members. Adobe is empowering us to create mass consumer personalization that scales, all utilizing the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. In doing so, we are better positioned to serve our members the workouts and health and fitness guidance they truly want and need,” said Frank Napolitano, president, 24 Hour Fitness.

microsoft_ADOBE 24 Hour Fitness is undertaking a journey to digitally transform its operations by combining functional departments to provide a single view of members and guests, messaging, and performance. Integrated cloud solutions from Adobe and Microsoft will help 24 Hour Fitness with scale, security and outreach along with AI and machine learnings to streamline its business and connect more deliberately to its members.

Tom Lapcevic

“Adobe and Microsoft are at the center of how we bring in relevant data, draw intelligent insights, and then how we act upon those insights across all our channels holistically. Our mission is to help people improve their lives every day through fitness, both inside and outside our clubs. So, whether it be email communications with a member, a mobile push notification or an SMS communication, we make sure that all our channels are in sync with what the needs of that individual are. It’s about giving every one of our members and guests a better and more personalized experience — and ultimately the results they desire,” said Tom Lapcevic, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, 24 Hour Fitness.

Also Read: The Art and Science of Retargeting for Marketers in 2018

24 Hour Fitness already leverages Adobe Campaign for email, SMS and mobile push messaging, and Adobe Target for personalization across channels. Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales will enable 24 Hour Fitness to leverage sales data for member and guest insights, providing a single view of the customer that can be used to personalize experiences. For example, 24 Hour Fitness can customize offers, such as personal training recommendations based on loyalty, interests and geography. In addition, the 24 Hour Fitness 24GO custom coaching platform, powered by Adobe Experience Manager for content management and delivery, combined with Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides custom workouts, at-home programming, progress and goal tracking, and class schedules — all within a single dashboard. As well, the monthly digital magazine 24Life offers experts to help you think, eat, move and recover better.

Dave Welch

“24 Hour Fitness is at the forefront of delivering exceptional personalized customer experiences across new customer acquisition all the way through delivering ongoing member services. Together with Adobe, we’re dedicated to empowering digital transformation with 24 Hour Fitness and are proud to join them in their efforts to develop amazing experiences that can revolutionize their industry and further engage their members,” said Alysa Taylor, general manager, Microsoft Business Applications & Industry Group.

“Delivering personalization at scale is the holy grail when it comes to how fitness companies engage with members,” said Dave Welch, vice president, Microsoft Solutions, Adobe.

Also Read: Tips on Selecting the Right Martech Tools to Prove Sustainable ROI

Are You Late on GDPR: Don’t Press the Panic Button Yet!

Sudipto Ghosh

April 26, 2018

Are You Late on GDPR: Don't Press the Panic Button Yet!

For Marketers, GDPR Will Enable Opportunities to Turn Consumers into Members. More High-Quality Data Means More Personalized and Effective Content and Ads Across the Board

The first quarter of the year is already over, and the doors are closing quickly on the companies that do not have a clear strategy to handle GDPR. With marketers scurrying to stay on course with their marketing technologies and data management strategies, is it too late to hop on the GDPR bus? In case you are unprepared or feel that you may have just missed the bus, the gut feeling would be to hit the panic button straight away! Wait, not yet! That’s exactly what most global-level business executives that we interviewed in the past six months felt.

Tim Mahlman

This time, we sat down with Tim Mahlman, President, Head of Advertiser and Publisher Strategy at Oath. Tim explained how marketers can actually make the most of the disruptions brought about by GDPR. In addition to his views on GDPR, Tim also spoke on Mobile Advertising, and the shifting trends in mobile content marketing.

Seize the GDPR Moment!

GDPR Facilitates a Better Experience for Consumers by Giving Them Greater Control over What Data

Tim explained that General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance was a key focus for the quarter – and understandably so for most companies. Tim explained, “The EU’s GDPR is poised to spur an evolution in the way the digital media and advertising ecosystem delivers data rights to consumers on a global scale. Overall, GDPR facilitates a better experience for consumers by giving them greater control over what data is collected, stored and activated by businesses.”

He added, “For marketers, GDPR will enable opportunities to turn consumers into members. More high-quality data means more personalized and effective content and ads across the board. It will also dramatically increase the quality and integrity of data available for marketers. While it’s still early days, in the long-term, GDPR could deliver real value. (My company, Oath, has prepared for GDPR and we’re approaching it in a few ways.)”

We Need Mobile Ad Format Innovation

How Can Brands Break Through on Mobile?

Tim said, “This was a question I’ve heard repeatedly over the past three months from both advertisers and partners. Mobile is the consumer’s first screen. People spend five hours on it every single day. But, there is an exploding competition for attention there. The key is ad format innovation.”

The unprecedented level of interactivity and engagement they deliver is uniquely appealing to consumers and advertisers alike. Demand is surging. This will force even more innovation.

He added that video and AR are part of this next wave. Tim said, “We’ve recently rolled out new mobile ad formats for testing in select international markets, including an AR unit and a full-screen native ad unit. Our competitors also spent the quarter talking about innovation. Better data — like location, for example — to power and personalize these formats will also be key. The future of mobile advertising will be won with these types of experiences.”

Mobile App Growth Is Slowing

Consumers Have Almost Maxed out the Amount of Time and Energy They Can Devote to Their Smartphones

Tim stated, “Flurry recently looked at mobile app growth in EMEA. According to the data, mobile app session growth has slowed considerably worldwide. In 2017, the UK and France both saw year-over-year declines of 4%, while Germany saw 1% growth. This compares to the 6% year-over-year global growth for the same period.”

Further, Tim explained how consumers have almost maxed out the amount of time and energy they can devote to their smartphones, and we’re seeing them shift and prioritize their time on devices and across apps.

For Tim, this was a key theme in Q1 and it speaks to the need for more innovative distribution channels for app publishers. It also underscores the value of quality mobile ad inventory as app growth slows, overall.

Tim reasoned that “quality has been a challenge due to low-end mobile ad networks.”

He added, “Still, the decline isn’t necessarily a bad sign. Mobile buying has ballooned. Shopping on mobile in the UK, France, and Germany saw high double-digit growth last year. Consumers are increasingly comfortable making purchases on their phones. The adoption of digital wallet services like Apple Pay has only helped accelerate that. This represents an enormous opportunity for mobile advertisers.”

As m-commerce (Mobile eCommerce) has increased, ad experiences that captivate consumers and compel them to buy are more important than ever. Again, this ties back to innovation. The potential ROI is incredible as behavior shifts.

Thank you, Tim, for chatting with us.

The Role of the Datanista on the Customer Journey: How to Harness Psychic Prowess for Competitive Advantage

Debbie Qaqish

April 26, 2018

I once heard an honest marketer say he would rather stand in a cold shower tearing up $100 bills than work with data. This sentiment is widely shared across the B2B marketing universe; however, the data tsunami is crashing over our heads. You have no choice except to embrace data as your friend and job enabler or perish.

Nowhere is data more important than when mapping, understanding and optimizing the customer journey. When I talk about the customer journey, I am referring to the entire customer lifecycle as depicted in the TPG ONE™ model. The left side of the model illustrates a customer acquisition practice and the right side of the model represents a customer expansion practice. Holistically, they represent the entire customer life cycle.

I’ve worked with hundreds of marketing organizations, and can look at their relationship to data and tell you how successful they are in operationalizing a true customer journey initiative. There are four types of “Datanistas,” each of which can characterize by the quality of their data, their campaign impact and customer insight impact. The four Datanista types are:

The Blissfully Ignorant
The Data Bug
The Triple D: Data Driven Decision Maker
The Psychic

The Blissfully Ignorant (BI) Datanista

This is the marketer with the quote about tearing up $100 dollar bills in the shower. As an old school marketer, this type of Datanista avoids data at all costs and believes marketing is a creative art, not a scientific one. The BI Datanista has no concept of the customer journey, which is reflected in the state of data, campaign structure and available customer insights.

The data state in this type of marketing organization is disorganized, dysfunctional, siloed, dirty and ignored. These data conditions impact campaign performance in a big way. The BI Datanista is all about traditional email campaigns revolving around what the company wants to say and providing a constant disruption to the prospect’s workspace. Most campaigns are not directed anywhere on the TPG ONE model, although some affect the left side. These campaigns are mostly reactive and one-offs. In addition, the only campaign measurement is “We got one out the door, and wow, doesn’t that font style pop!”

Because of the state of the data, even if the BI Datanista wanted to be customer focused, it would not be possible. As a result, no customer insights are generated from marketing. What a missed opportunity as marketing sits on a ton of customer data. Moving on to the next Datanista type.

Also Read: The Right Time for the Millennial Marketer

The Data Bug (DB) Datanista

“OMG – who knew data could actually help us do our job better?” is a typical comment from the DB Datanista. The data state, campaign approach and customer insight gets very interesting with this type of marketer. In this stage, the use of data to make campaign and program decisions is basic, but improving quickly. Digital body language data such as opens, click-throughs, number of pages visited on the website, etc., now become part of the dataset. Data cleaning, enrichment and ongoing hygiene are becoming a common practice. This data focus allows the DB Datanista to begin tracking and measuring campaign performance. She introduces testing, optimization, triggers, and personalization. Campaign metrics are moving towards revenue and ROI as they encompass the number of leads generated and the lead conversion rate. Sadly, the majority of campaign work still occurs on the left side of the TPG ONE model.

This interest and use of basic data in campaign optimization allows the DB Datanista to begin to accumulate an understanding of the customer in a unique way and valuable for the organization. The DB Datanista is beginning to recognize the value in the reams of customer data at her fingertips and to begin to consider both sides of the TPG ONE model as appropriate stomping grounds.

Also Read: How Marketing Ops Runs Marketing Like a Business

The 3D Datanista: Data Driven Decision Maker

“Who knew data was power?” is a typical comment from the 3D Datanista. The 3D Datanista is a true data scientist who eats, breathes and lives data typically as a part of a dedicated marketing operations team. The state of data is constantly evolving and data silos are beginning to break down, allowing for tantalizing glimpses into the entire customer lifecycle. Data governance for marketing is in place and data normalization is standardized. Good data flow exists between marketing automation and other marketing platforms, as well as with CRM.

As a result of this data competency, the 3D Datanista’s impact on campaigns and the customer journey is measurable and important. In this environment, campaigns are data-driven to deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right person and in the right channel. This data environment enables more sophisticated engagements such as ABM and the use of AI. Campaign performance and impact in terms of contribution to pipeline and closed business is measurable, specific, transparent and believable. In addition, campaigns occur on the left and right side of the TPG ONE model as the holistic customer journey is revealed. The 3D Datanista advocates for a holistic, cross-company approach to customer intimacy that is centrally managed.

Also Read: How Marketing Operations Affects Marketing Accountability

The Psychic Datanista

“I have a seat and a voice at the table” is a typical comment heard from the Psychic Datanista. Key characteristics of the data state include networked data sources, strong data governance and normalization across the set of data networks and ongoing data optimization. Data is seen as the lifeblood for marketing success and customer data is seen as the lifeblood for company success. This advanced data ecosystem allows marketing to further mature the campaign practices to now include multi-channel and ABM in a predictive model of performance and financial results. In this type of marketing organization, marketing owns the customer journey and is responsible for mining and analyzing data to create and share actionable customer intelligence in almost real time. The Psychic Datanista predicts results and works with every part of the company that is customer facing.

Conclusion

For the B2B marketer, leading the pivot to customer intimacy as a competitive strategy is real AND really hard to operationalize. Data – having it, using it, mining it, sharing it and optimizing it – is your #1 competitive advantage and predictor of customer journey success. Look at the state and health of your data ecosystem and determine how you can use data to become a 3D or a Psychic Datanista.

Also Read: Core Organizational Ingredients of the Ever-Expanding Marketing Operations Function

Pegasystems Named a Leader in Customer Case Management in 2018 CRM Service Awards

MTS Staff Writer

April 26, 2018

Pega Empowers Organizations To Quickly Close Gaps In GDPR Risk Readiness

Pegasystems Inc., the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced it has been named a leader in customer case management in CRM Magazine’s 2018 CRM Service Awards. This is the second consecutive year CRM Magazine has recognized Pega after naming the company as the “one to watch” in the same category in 2017.

The 2018 CRM Service Awards honored Pega based on customer satisfaction, depth of functionality, company direction, and cost. Judges recognized Pega for its strong business process and case management capabilities that orchestrate real-time, end-to-end customer journeys. Additionally, judges noted Pega’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictive analytics and next-best action capabilities make Pega a leader in process-oriented CRM, ensuring consistent customer journeys across channels.

Also Read: Pegasystems Introduces Pega GDPR Accelerator To Help Companies Fast Track Regulatory Readiness

Pega’s end-to-end suite of customer engagement applications for marketing, sales, and customer service is powered by Pega® Customer Decision Hub, its real-time artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Built on Pega® Platform, the industry-leading application development platform, Pega’s CRM solutions enable clients to anticipate customers’ changing needs and provide personalized, AI-driven recommendations throughout the customer journey.

The CRM Service Awards are issued by CRM Magazine, a leading resource covering the customer relationship management industry. In its 15^th year, the CRM Service Awards honor innovation and success in customer service, recognizing vendors using AI, automation, and other new technologies to effectively manage customers.

Don Schuerman

“With more ways to interact with customers than ever before, one core principle remains the same: interactions need to be relevant, personal, and offer value to the customer. This award recognizes how Pega continues to evolve the CRM industry with its AI-based case management capabilities so organizations can orchestrate automated, end-to-end journeys across channels and optimize customer engagement,“ said Don Schuerman, CTO and vice president, product marketing, Pegasystems.

Also Read: Pega Launches First AI-Powered Sales Coach to Teach Smarter Selling

AppsFlyer Appoints Guy Flechter as Data Protection Officer

MTS Staff Writer

April 26, 2018

AppsFlyer Appoints Guy Flechter as Data Protection Officer

AppsFlyer, the global leader in mobile attribution and marketing analytics, appointed Guy Flechter as its Data Protection Officer. In this new role, he will lead the company’s continued commitment to high standards of data security and privacy. The appointment follows the recent hiring of Flechter as Chief Information Security Officer.

As Data Protection Officer, Flechter will lead an expanded data security team that will enforce data protection laws and practices for ongoing diligent compliance with the requirements of European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and relevant data protection laws and regulations across AppsFlyer’s solutions and teams.

Also Read: GDPR: Take a Long, Hard Look at Yourselves in 2018

Flechter has more than 15 years of experience in information security and data privacy. Previously, he served as Team Lead in the Information Security Team at LivePerson, where he kept the organization aligned with the most up-to-date and relevant industry standards, as well as spearheaded the security operations team.

“We put clients’ needs at the center of everything we do, and, as a data processor under the new GDPR guidelines, we will assist them in every way possible to become compliant by the time enforcement begins. Guy will continue to lead our information security efforts, and assist our clients with understanding the role we play as data processor, help implement best practices under the new GDPR guidelines, as well as lead AppsFlyer’s GDPR compliance moving forward,” said Oren Kaniel, CEO and co-founder of AppsFlyer.

Also Read: TechBytes with Reshef Mann, CTO and Co-Founder, AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer has comprehensive data privacy features to support its clients with their ongoing GDPR readiness, including the ability for end-users to opt-out of data collection, processing data on servers within the EU and anonymizing personal data that is processed through AppsFlyer. AppsFlyer is SOC 2, TRUSTe and EU-US Privacy Shield Framework compliant.

“I have been protecting data and privacy, which I view as a fundamental human right, for over 15 years. As both an Information Security officer, and as an end user who values privacy protection, I expect GDPR to benefit both businesses and consumers, providing more transparency and enhancing trust across our industry,” said Flechter.

Also Read: GDPR Compliance Isn’t the End of the World for Your B2B Marketing

Lattice Engines Launches the First Customer Data Platform for Account-Based Marketing

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Lattice Engines launches the first Customer Data Platform for Account-Based Marketing

Lattice Atlas Uses AI To Scale ABM Across All Accounts Using Both First And Third Party Data

Lattice Engines, the leading provider of AI-enabled ABM solutions, has launched its next-generation platform called Lattice Atlas. The platform helps customers connect their data across all internal and external sources, create a single view of the customer journey, and centralize audience creation and measurement across all channels.

Marketing organizations struggle to scale their Account-Based Marketing (ABM) programs because each application they deploy has its own data, segmentation, activation and measurement modules. This has led to a fractured buyer journey because banner ads, social ads, emails and sales calls communicate different messages, which creates confusion. Lattice Atlas solves this problem directly by integrating all the application data into a single place and providing the ability to manage this data, segment on it, and activate it through open APIs.

Also Read: MarTech RADAR 2018: Top 150 B2B Technology Companies You Should Follow

“Informatica knows that creating an interactive and personalized buyer’s journey is critical for the success of account-centric programs. We’d seen previous success with Lattice’s other solutions and knew that the Lattice Atlas Platform would complement their best-in-class AI-based scoring engine to create automated, engaging campaigns across all of our target accounts. Our vision is to use Lattice as the AI brain that powers all next-best-action decisions,” said Steven Shapiro, VP of Digital and the Buyer’s Journey at Informatica.

“The features you need in a Customer Data Platform (CDP) will depend on your business, existing systems, and intended use. There are a few key considerations when evaluating CDP solutions for executing ABM programs, including a unification of all data sources, segment creation, campaign execution and predictions. A CDP connects existing systems to create a unified customer view that makes ABM possible. In a world that never stops changing, the power and flexibility of a CDP will help marketers deliver on the promise of ABM,” said David Raab, founder of the CDP Institute.

Also Read: Will AI Really Be The Death Of Human Intelligence?

The new release features the following key capabilities–

Unified Customer Data

Ability to easily ingest and aggregate all first-party data (e.g. CRM, marketing automation, web visitor logs, transaction history, product usage data, etc.) about your customers
Automatically append over 20,000 3rd party data elements from the Lattice Data Cloud – including firmographics, 3rd party intent, technographics, etc. – providing the marketers with a complete view of the customer journey
The first ever ABM Identity Graph – using its patent-pending AI-based Adaptive Match algorithm, Atlas automatically maps and organizes customer data hierarchically by account, buying center and contact.

AI-Driven Audience Creation

Configurable AI models to predict how likely a buyer is to convert, how much they’ll spend and when they’ll buy
Similarity-based models to find the next set of attractive targets
Next best action models based on past conversion history

Omnichannel Activation and Personalization

Atlas features native, pre-built apps for Marketo, Salesforce and Eloqua and REST APIs so that customers can publish and activate these audiences across all execution channels

Enterprise-Grade Governance

Manage compliance with regulations such as GDPR by automatically removing data about customers and prospects that have opted out from all campaigns or selectively for specific campaigns
Marketers can manage their brand reputation by assigning engagement thresholds and removing targets that are experiencing “marketing fatigue”

“The holy grail of B2B marketing is creating 1-to-1 experiences across the entire buyer’s journey. This is why the B2B world is so interested in ABM these days. In order to craft personalized experiences at scale, our customers need a data foundation to better understand their target audiences, and an execution platform to engage those audiences in meaningful ways. With Lattice Atlas, we now enable companies to engage their buyers with 1-to-1 omnichannel experiences, making B2B marketing as personalized as B2C marketing,” said Shashi Upadhyay, CEO at Lattice Engines.

The Lattice Atlas platform is currently in private beta and will be available publicly by the end of 2018.

Also Read: Three Components of a Data-Driven, Future-Focused Customer Engagement Strategy

Conviva Measures Explosive Growth in Streaming Video on the Internet

PRNewswire

April 26, 2018

Conviva Measures Explosive Growth in Streaming Video on the Internet

Apple TV Viewership Up 709% in Q1 2018 Compared to Q1 2017, While Android Pulls Ahead of iOS in Mobile Viewing

Conviva, elevating the way OTT businesses use data-driven intelligence with its Video AI Platform, has released its quarterly measurement report on the state of OTT and the streaming video market, covering both the quantity and quality of streaming viewership. The report finds that, compared to this time last year, the audience for video delivered over the internet is experiencing astronomical growth across movies, episodic TV shows, live linear television and live sports.

In an annual census of billions of premium video publisher apps, Conviva found viewing hours of internet-delivered video across mobile, connected TVs and desktop screens grew by 114% in the first quarter of 2018 over the same period last year, with the total viewing hours reaching nearly five billion.

“Because the complexity and viewership of our customers’ services are growing so fast, they can no longer rely on a sample-set of thousands when they are dealing with billions. Things have changed quite a bit since Nielsen assembled a panel of viewers to analyze television. Conviva’s all-screen census measurement approach provides a unique perspective for understanding the dynamic landscape of viewership, content consumption and user experience across internet streaming services,” said Dr. Hui Zhang, Co-founder & CEO of Conviva.

The data captured covers quantities like number of streams played, viewing hours, devices and regions, as well as quality metrics like video start time, buffering time and bit rate. These metrics are the key KPIs for the world’s largest OTT publishers looking to deliver perfect streaming experiences for their viewers.

In this first quarterly report, Conviva found that although viewers worldwide are flocking to internet streaming, North America has experienced the largest increase – with a 174% growth in viewing hours. This shows North American viewers continue to lead the transition from traditional TV to next-generation streaming services.

More and more content is being consumed on mobile devices and internet-connected TVs, as witnessed by the year-over-year growth of in-app viewing versus browser-based viewing. The report supports what Conviva is calling the appification of TV, and found that app-based plays grew four times faster than browser-based viewing on personal computers. The number of viewing hours via apps grew 136% since last year.

Also Read: Five Video Marketing Blogs You Should Read

One of the many complexities of delivering video over the internet is the wide range of devices consumers use to stream. In the first quarter of 2018, Conviva found that Apple TV saw 709% growth in viewing hours over the first quarter of 2017, based on the dynamic nature of the market and Conviva’s customer base, outpacing all other devices by almost two times. During the same period, while total viewing hours on Roku devices saw a rise of 87%, its overall share of total viewing hours dropped by 3%. Viewership on mobile devices also evolved in the first quarter of 2018, with viewing hours on Android growing two-and-a-half times faster than on iOS devices.

In addition to examining the quantity of hours spent viewing internet-streamed video, Conviva also analyzes the quality of viewer experience. The company looked at bit rates and video start times over the first quarter of 2018, and found these metrics continue to improve as publishers further build out their internet delivery ecosystems.

Also Read: SXSW: Mobile Video, YouTube, Facebook – 3 Data-Driven Takeaways

The biggest improvement seen in Q1 2018 over Q1 2017 was the drop in the number of videos failing to start, bringing the global percentage to 2.34%, less than half of what it was in Q1 2017. Viewers in Asia saw the most improvement in the area, while viewers in North America saw about the same rate of video start failures as last year. Conviva also examined bit rate, which determines picture quality on various viewing devices. The bit rate in Q1 2018 reached nearly four megabits per second on average across all devices, which is a 29% improvement over the same period last year.

Overall, the state of the OTT market and the quality of streaming video on the internet continues to improve, and Conviva’s continuous measurement all-screen census provides a bird’s eye view to this dynamic and ever-expanding next-generation-of-TV market. Conviva will be publishing both quarterly and annual reports on the state of the global OTT video streaming market across both quantity and quality of viewership.

Also Read: B2B Buying Disconnect: Are You Targeting the Right Set of Customers?

1...4,2644,2654,266...4,423 Page 4,265 of 4,423

Study Shows That Marketers See Huge Potential in Artificial Intelligence, but Hindered by Customer Data Challenges

Interview with Lilian Leong, COO, 9GAG

Traackr Raises $9 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Influencer Marketing Technology for Global Brands

EverString and Terminus Integrate to Help Sales and Marketing Teams Easily Execute Account-Based Marketing Programs

Webinar Engagement Delivers Business Impact, Says ON24 Report

Codewise Named One of 50 Most Valuable Brands of 2018 by The Silicon Review

IFTTT Mounts $24 Million Funding Led By Salesforce Ventures to Build a More Connected World

A More Connected World, A Better World…

Oracle Data Cloud Scoops Grapeshot; Adds New Dimension of Context in Brand Safety

How to Surf the AI Wave to Empower Digital Platforms

Training isn’t Mandatory

Data on Top

Why Take it ‘Out of the Box’ When it’s in the Box

How to Surf the AI Wave

Salesforce Powers Marriott International’s Global Customer Recognition Platform

Marketo Partner Digital Pi To Acquire Digital Marketing Agency RevEngine Marketing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud Selected by 24 Hour Fitness to Transform Customer Engagement

The Role of the Datanista on the Customer Journey: How to Harness Psychic Prowess for Competitive Advantage

The Blissfully Ignorant (BI) Datanista

The Data Bug (DB) Datanista

The 3D Datanista: Data Driven Decision Maker

The Psychic Datanista

Conclusion

Pegasystems Named a Leader in Customer Case Management in 2018 CRM Service Awards

Lattice Engines Launches the First Customer Data Platform for Account-Based Marketing

Unified Customer Data

AI-Driven Audience Creation

Omnichannel Activation and Personalization

Enterprise-Grade Governance

Conviva Measures Explosive Growth in Streaming Video on the Internet

About Us

Quick Links

Visit our Other Sites

Follow Us

Interested in our Customized Editorial Services? Please fill your details and we'll get in touch with you!