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OpenX Announces First of Its Kind Five Year Collaboration with Google Cloud That Will Form The Foundation of New Product and Technology Strategy
 Marketing Clouds

OpenX Announces First of Its Kind Five Year Collaboration with Google Cloud That Will Form The Foundation of New Product and Technology Strategy

Global Integration Will Deliver Greater Publisher Monetization and Improved Advertiser ROAS Through Superior Speed, Scalability and Reach Across OpenX Exchange

OpenX announced a first of its kind collaboration that will bring the entire OpenX exchange into the cloud with Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Through this deployment, OpenX will become the first ever major exchange to move all on-premises workloads fully into the cloud and become truly serverless. Work on integrating the five year technology collaboration began in 2018 with the companies expecting to complete the full transition to the cloud by the end of Q2, 2019.

This collaboration represents an evolutionary leap forward in how advertising exchanges operate today.  Every other scaled exchange utilizes physical server locations around the world to power their businesses.  These legacy systems hinder scalability as they must be close to the markets they power, hamper speed and inhibit rapid innovation due to the incredible maintenance costs and capital expenditures that must be diverted to sustain their lifecycle.  By joining DBM in utilizing GCP to power its global exchange, OpenX will deliver faster innovations into the market and far greater efficiency for both buyers and sellers. Specific benefits include:

Also Read: Thomas Cook Partners With Netcore’s Smartech to Boost Push Notification Delivery by 44 Percent, CTR by 63 Percent, and Campaign Revenues by 2.5X

  • Speed: The move into GCP will increase the speed that bids come into the OpenX exchange allowing publishers to see greater demand for their audiences before an auction closes driving increased revenue potential.
  • Scalability: Powered by GCP, the OpenX exchange will be infinitely scalable, allowing the company to support publishers as they experience traffic spikes without sacrificing monetization opportunities or latency.
  • Global Reach: OpenX’s complete cloud-based exchange will eliminate the dependency for on premises servers utilized by nearly every programmatic exchange today, allowing the company to enter new global markets almost instantaneously and scale specific locations based on their unique demands.
    • Future-proofing: Google Cloud runs on the latest generation of computing power and technology. While on premise servers get outdated quickly, OpenX will leverage the latest technology through GCP.
  • People Based Marketing: As OpenX focuses its product innovations and evolves its exchange to bring people-based marketing to the open web for the first time, the collaboration with GCP allows the company to build on its significant existing data asset, and eliminate any barriers or caps on the number of data points or unique identities utilized.

Also Read: LinkedIn Introduces Interest Targeting

“Marketing has evolved significantly over recent years, and the old way of operating is no longer sustainable,” said Tim Cadogan, CEO of OpenX.  “As we look at the programmatic market today, we see a sector that has experienced massive growth and adoption, but at the same time has stalled in its ability to deliver real innovation for marketers and publishers.  We believe it is time to take a completely fresh look at the market and place a major bet on building the infrastructure necessary to drive the next wave of innovation. This investment and our work with Google will provide OpenX the flexibility to surge into new markets, adapt our business and billing models, expand our product suite to address the opportunity of people based marketing and provide our partners the exceptional quality and support they have come to expect.”

“Both OpenX and Google Cloud are dedicated to helping customers achieve their goals with cutting-edge technology,” says Chris Klayko, Managing Director, Americas, Google Cloud. “This collaboration will allow for continued innovation leveraging both OpenX’s Exchange Platform and Google Cloud’s commitment to performance, collaboration, and big data optimization at scale.”

Prior to 2019, almost one quarter of the OpenX tech workforce was dedicated to maintaining legacy infrastructure. The transition to Google Cloud Platform will free resources to focus on new growth areas for the company, such as people based marketing, video and CTV. These fast growth areas have seen strong early results, with video now making up more than 1 in 10 dollars on the OpenX exchange.

Recommended Read: Men Twice as Willing to Share Their Location With Strangers Than Women

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Comcast Collaborates with Industry Partners on Blockgraph Software to Jumpstart the Use of Secure Data Sharing for Advanced TV Advertising
 B2B Data, Data Management Platforms, News

Comcast Collaborates with Industry Partners on Blockgraph Software to Jumpstart the Use of Secure Data Sharing for Advanced TV Advertising

Newly Launched, Peer-To-Peer Platform Allows Participants to Protect and Control Their Data, While Benefitting from the Shared Insights of Entire User Network

Comcast Cable Advertising, a division of Comcast Corporation, launched the next phase of Blockgraph, an industry initiative designed to create a secure way to use data and share information. Comcast is now working with other industry partners on this initiative, including Viacom and Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales division of Charter Communications, Inc., in a collaborative effort that will facilitate the secure exchange of privacy-compliant audience insights for addressable advertising. Additional media companies and MVPDs participating will be named shortly.

“It’s imperative that the use of data prioritizes the privacy of consumers’ personal information”

Blockgraph is designed to become the “identity layer” for the TV industry, providing a platform on which media companies and publishers can offer marketers best-in-class data capabilities without disclosing identifiable user data to third parties – adding additional protections to user privacy.

Also Read: Online Marketing Agency, fishbat, Explains How Using Hashtags Can Grow Your Brand

At the core of the initiative is the Blockgraph platform, a blockchain-enabled software, incubated to date within Comcast’s FreeWheel group, which allows TV and media companies to control, connect, and safely activate their data at-scale. Comcast developed this software with the end goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data-driven TV marketing and advertising, resulting in better planning, targeting, execution and measurement across screens.

Blockgraph helps solve data activation challenges for all parties within the global TV advertising ecosystem, including sellers of media, buyers of media and, importantly, consumers of media. An inherent characteristic of the platform is consumer privacy, since each Blockgraph participant’s data stays in its own systems and the participant continues to protect the data and manage the privacy of its users, including respecting any user choices regarding the use of the data.

“Data is a valuable and sensitive asset for media companies and consumers so understandably, it must be protected,” said Jason Manningham, General Manager, Blockgraph. “At the same time, data is now the fuel powering media and advertising. The TV community needs to ensure that we can compete with the data capabilities of digital-first companies. We understand that providing a safe way to protect data while benefitting from collective insights is the path forward. And we believe Blockgraph offers that path.”

Today, stitching together data attributes between two parties, such as an advertiser and a media company, generally requires sending data to a centralized third-party provider. This provider does a bi-lateral blind match between the two parties, then sends back non-identifiable data segments that can be used for targeting or measurement. In contrast, Blockgraph is a peer-to-peer platform that allows all participants to perform blind matches directly with one another, secured through encryption technologies, non-identifiable data and blockchain protocols. In addition to greater security and control, Blockgraph allows participants to benefit from shared learnings of the network as additional attributes are matched against encrypted Blockgraph Identifiers.

Also Read: New Browser APP Makes Your Life Easier

Comcast is currently working with NBCUniversal to test Blockgraph’s capabilities with plans of incorporating it into its addressable offering in early 2019.

Comcast is also in talks with several other potential Blockgraph participants for future rollouts to escalate the initiative’s scale and backing. Key among these is Viacom, whose early involvement as a leading partner in providing feedback to help shape the product roadmap and structure of the Blockgraph initiative has been integral in elevating its impact and adoption.

“Viacom has long been committed to advancements in television advertising and industry collaboration to deliver better ads for clients and enhance the consumer experience,” said Kern Schireson, Executive Vice President, Chief Data Officer, Viacom. “We’re happy to partner with Comcast on Blockgraph’s technology and platform to facilitate the valuable exchange of data insights as a necessary catalyst to scale our collective capabilities.”

Spectrum Reach is another leading collaborator with early involvement helping to shape the initiative.

“It’s imperative that the use of data prioritizes the privacy of consumers’ personal information,” said David Kline, Executive Vice President, and President of Spectrum Reach. “Blockgraph’s technology offers enhanced security and privacy protections by allowing all players within the TV ecosystem to directly share insights derived from anonymized and aggregated information. We support this initiative believing it will help set the standard for secure information sharing in the years to come.”

Also Read: New Anti-Counterfeiting Platform Secures Up To 99% of All Sorts of Fraud for Consumer Brands

“Blockgraph is another example of the industry coming together to adopt new standards and technologies that will allow us to compete more effectively as a medium, while simultaneously delivering more value to our advertising clients,” said Paola Colombo, General Manager Adtech & Business Development at Pubitalia, the advertising unit of Mediaset, Italy’s leading commercial broadcaster. “Since Blockgraph is a peer-to-peer network, the greater the adoption by the TV industry, the greater the potential depth and scale of its data insights. We look forward to working together with our partners on this collaborative effort.”

“Comcast has invested in building the Blockgraph technology, but we do not want this to remain solely a Comcast-led initiative. We are inviting the entire TV industry to participate in Blockgraph so that it becomes a true industry undertaking,” said Marcien Jenckes, President, Comcast Cable Advertising. “When scaled, non-personably identifiable data becomes available to all, the focus shifts to what a provider is able to do with that data and how it can be used to drive outcomes. We believe that when advanced data capabilities are paired with TV and premium video’s awareness and engagement advantages, results will be difficult to beat.”

Recommended Read: Micro-Influencers, Journalism’s Comeback and Live Video Top Trends for Public Relations in 2019

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Take Your Data with You! ReadyCloud CRM’s Magento 1 & 2 Integrations Make Switching Effortless
 B2B Data, CRM, News

Take Your Data with You! ReadyCloud CRM’s Magento 1 & 2 Integrations Make Switching Effortless

The ecommerce suite built for customer retention and growth, ReadyCloud CRM, has just announced all-new integrations for Adobe’s Magento 1 and 2 platforms. An orders-based CRM, ReadyCloud creates instant customer profiles from cross-channel data, including Amazon and eBay, to give users a 360-degree view of the customer journey.

But that’s not all ReadyCloud CRM can do. For online retailers looking to switch platforms, data loss has always been a pain point. But if they plug ReadyCloud CRM into their existing platform before they switch to Magento 1 or 2, they’ll be able to take all their data with them.

Also Read: Gladson Rebrands to Syndigo, Announces Content Experience Hub

“Order data is the heart of any business and ReadyCloud CRM works fast to import your existing online store’s order history,” explains Michael Lazar, an Executive at ReadyCloud CRM. “E-retailers are no longer tethered to their store. If you want to move, then move. The sync is easy and automated, and the results are amazing!”

Also Read: Instapage Becomes First to Offer Automated 1:1 Ad-To-Page Personalization

ReadyCloud’s robust feature set give’s retailers everything they need to succeed in ecommerce. From integrated tasks and team management to detailed reporting, event calendar, customer-focused notes, tagging and sorting features, and so much more. Premium plugins like ReadyShipper X add a powerful, hybrid-cloud shipping solution, while others, like ReadyReturns, add “Prime-like” returns to any online store.

“ReadyCloud is an invaluable tool for Magento developers and ISPs who host Magento sites. It makes onboarding customers who were previously on different platforms a breeze,” Lazar says. “If you ask around, preserving order and shipping history was always the hard part. ReadyCloud is great at it.”

Recommended Read: Lightricks, the Company Behind Facetune, Launches Swish, a New App That Will Boost Your Business

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67 Percent of Communications and Marketing Executives See Positive Reputational Impact When CEOs Take a Stand on Societal Issues
 Social Media Marketing

67 Percent of Communications and Marketing Executives See Positive Reputational Impact When CEOs Take a Stand on Societal Issues

53 Percent of Communications and Marketing Executives Report Spending Time Dedicated to CEO Activism, According to New Weber Shandwick Study

Two-thirds of communications and marketing executives (67 percent) in the US, UK and China whose CEOs have spoken out on hotly debated current issues believe that CEO activism reaps reputational rewards. According to CEO Activism: Inside Comms and Marketing, a survey commissioned by global communications and marketing solutions firm Weber Shandwick with KRC Research, only seven percent of those whose CEOs have spoken out say the impact was negative. Seventy-two percent of those reporting a positive impact say the benefits were long-term.

67 Percent of Communications and Marketing Executives See Positive Reputational Impact When CEOs Take a Stand on Societal Issues

“As expectations grow for business leaders to speak out on political and social issues, companies must anticipate which issues affect their businesses and challenge their values, and be prepared to address them,” said Andy Polansky, CEO of Weber Shandwick. “Our latest study among those responsible for corporate communications and marketing provides an inside look at how companies are faring in an era where CEO activism is quickly becoming the new norm and earning competitive reputational advantage.”

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CEO Activism is Part of the Corporate Agenda

The survey shows that half of communications and marketing executives (53 percent) report their companies spend time discussing whether their CEO should speak out. An even greater amount, 59 percent, report an increase in time spent discussing it compared to years past. Twenty-three percent are spending the same amount of time and 18 percent are spending less time.

With considerable internal discussion on CEOs taking a stand, two-thirds of communications and marketing executives report their CEO is prepared to respond to hotly debated current issues: 26 percent report their CEOs are “very” prepared and 40 percent report they are “somewhat” prepared. One-third (35 percent) say the CEO is not prepared or they do not know enough to say. Among those who know whether their CEO is prepared to respond, 41 percent say their CEO is better prepared than they were one year ago. Only four percent report their CEO is less prepared.

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CEO Activism Can Have a Positive, Long-Term Impact on Corporate Reputation

As headlined, CEO activism reaps reputational rewards. According to communications and marketing executives whose CEOs have spoken out on issues, the impact was more likely to have had a positive impact on company reputation (67 percent) than a negative impact (seven percent). Among those who report a positive impact, 72 percent report that the impact was long-term. Even communications and marketing executives whose CEO has been publicly silent see potential positive reputational impact: Half of those whose CEO has not spoken out on an issue (51 percent) say their company’s reputation would have a moderate to big advantage if their CEO were to do so.

Favorability High Among Communications and Marketing Executives

Communications and marketing executives have strong enthusiasm for CEO activism at their own organizations. Six in 10 (62 percent) would have a more favorable opinion of their CEO if he or she spoke out on a hotly debated current issue. Favorability is even stronger among those whose CEO has spoken out, suggesting that communications and marketing executives perceive a real benefit of CEOs speaking out after having experienced it. Nearly four in 10 communications and marketing professionals (38 percent) have had their own CEO speak out on an issue, and among this segment, 78 percent are favorable of their own CEO taking a position.

Also Read: Data Privacy Day 2019 Reminds Businesses and Consumers About the Value of Personal Data and the Need to Protect It

CEO Activism Also Carries Potential Risk

Seven in 10 communications and marketing professionals (73 percent) think there is a moderate to big risk to company reputation if a CEO speaks out. They consider the top perceived risk to be criticism in social media (59 percent), followed by criticism from customers (55 percent) and criticism from employees (49 percent). Interestingly, perceived risk is lower among those whose CEO has spoken out (68 percent) than those whose CEO has not (77 percent), suggesting experience with CEO activism helps to alleviate concerns, hence the need to prepare.

“Communications and marketing departments are not shying away from CEO activism,” said Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist of Weber Shandwick. “Our research reveals that communications and marketing professionals are placing activism squarely on their C-level agendas and recognize that having business leaders be vocal on issues can strengthen a company’s reputation for the long-term. They are subsequently making sure that their leaders prepare for the inevitable.”

Also Read: Anaplan Named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Performance Management

A Guide to CEO Activism through a Communications and Marketing Lens

CEO activism is increasingly gaining importance on the corporate agenda. Based on our findings from this research, Weber Shandwick recommends that CEOs and their companies consider the following guidelines when preparing for activism and deciding whether they should engage in current issues.

  • Start talking about activism internally, if you have not already. Vet now. Publicly responding to hot-button issues may not be the right decision for every company all the time, but it is something that warrants discussion. Weigh the pros and cons of having a CEO speak out on a particular issue. With companies increasing the amount of time spent discussing this dynamic, other companies are at a competitive disadvantage if they leave CEO activism off the table entirely.
  • Recognize the reputational advantage. Communications and marketing executives acknowledge there are risks associated with CEO activism, but for the majority of those whose CEOs have taken a stance on an issue, the reputational advantages were strong. Be aware that perceived risk of activism declines among those whose CEO has spoken out and consider how your company might benefit from the CEO expressing a public opinion, particularly if aligned with the company’s corporate values and principles.
  • Make sure the CEO and other top leaders know which issues they need to prepare for.Companies need to be prepared to respond to issues whether they preemptively decide to speak out or not. We have witnessed the media as well as consumer groups asking companies for the leaders’ stances on particular issues, and a “no comment” can be easily open for misinterpretation from a company’s point of view. Organizations should have a plan in place in the event stakeholders demand a perspective.
  • Shape your response around employee expectations and company values.Companies need to be firmly tapped into the pulse of employee sentiment on societal issues before they make a move that may not be in line with employee attitudes and expectations.
  • Understand that the wide reach of CEO activism is not just limited to the US.While much of the public focus on CEO activism revolves around emerging issues in the US, companies around the world are faced with deciding whether their leaders should respond. Our research shows that there is increased planning and preparation in China and the UK, in addition to the US.

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Oracle Eloqua Innovations Accelerate Lead Generation and Increase Conversion Rates
 Marketing Clouds

Oracle Eloqua Innovations Accelerate Lead Generation and Increase Conversion Rates

New Content Creation, Sales Tools and Auditing Capabilities Help Marketers Increase Efficiency and Creativity

Recently, to help marketers accelerate lead generation and increase conversion rates, Oracle had announced a series of updates to Oracle Eloqua. The latest innovations within Oracle Eloqua help marketers communicate with their prospects and customers as efficiently and easily as possible by introducing new content creation, sales tools, and auditing capabilities.

“In order to drive sales and strengthen brand and customer loyalty, B2B marketers increasingly have to deliver irresistible, consistent and connected experiences to customers wherever they are and however they choose to engage,” said Pierre Custeau, VP, product management, Oracle Eloqua.

Read More: Interview with Shashi Seth, Sr. Vice President, Oracle Marketing Cloud

Pierre added, “To help our customers meet these increasing expectations, we are focused on delivering innovations within Eloqua that bring efficiency and creativity to the way marketers work. With the addition of powerful new content creation, sales tools and auditing capabilities, we are continuing to set the industry standard for marketing automation.”

Part of Oracle Marketing Cloud, Eloqua is a B2B marketing automation platform that helps marketing teams nurture prospects through email marketing and cross-channel marketing.

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The new enhancements to Oracle Eloqua enable customers to:

Quickly and Efficiently Create Compelling and Creative Landing Pages

A new Eloqua Landing Page Editor enables marketers to build out-of-the-box landing pages without touching code and provides an enhanced guided experience with more interactive elements to further increase efficiency and spark creativity. With the new landing page editor, marketers can natively build responsive landing pages featuring image carousels with rotating images and add video backgrounds to create more engaging content without needing technical expertise or outside agency support.

Streamline and Optimize the Sales Process

New Eloqua Sales Tools for Microsoft Outlook enables sales teams to access rich buyer insights, relevant content and track emails sent to prospects without having to leave their email platform of choice. The new integration with Microsoft Outlook also provides a seamless and consistent experience for sales teams that work across a range of platforms and devices by enabling users to easily access Eloqua Engage and Eloqua Profiler.

Must Read: Interview with Jeff Ray, CEO, Brightcove

Enhance Security, Tracking and Auditing

A new comprehensive logging and auditing procedure for all major accounts and objects further enhances the security and tracking capabilities within Eloqua. The new auditing capabilities ensure any sensitive data within Eloqua is protected against unauthorized usage or retrieval and enable users to obtain insights about login history, detailed audit insights and enhanced audit reporting that includes the ability to export audit logs for up to 25 months in CSV and XLS format.

Oracle Marketing Cloud is part of Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Cloud Suite, an integrated suite of applications that empower organizations to take a smarter approach to customer experience management and business transformation initiatives. By providing a trusted business platform that connects data, experiences and outcomes, Oracle CX Cloud Suite helps customers reduce IT complexity, deliver innovative customer experiences, and achieve predictable and tangible business results.

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RRD Launches Cloud Direct by RRD to Help Omnichannel Marketers Integrate Online and Offline Personalization
 Marketing Clouds

RRD Launches Cloud Direct by RRD to Help Omnichannel Marketers Integrate Online and Offline Personalization

Available within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Cloud Direct by RRD Drives Multichannel Campaigns by Integrating Digital and Direct Mail to Improve Targeting and Reach

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a leading global provider of multichannel solutions for marketing and business communications, announced the launch of Cloud Direct by RRD, a trigger-based direct marketing application — housed within Salesforce Marketing Cloud — that improves targeting and extends the Marketing Cloud platform by fully integrating digital and direct mail channels.

“Modern marketing is not about taking sides between channels, but using data to get on the side of the customer”

Available within Journey Builder, Marketing Cloud’s cross-channel customer engagement solution, Cloud Direct by RRD, allows businesses to connect customer interactions across email, mobile, advertising, and the web. Cloud Direct by RRD leverages Marketing Cloud to drive customer engagement and response through the most meaningful communications channel.

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“Modern marketing is not about taking sides between channels, but using data to get on the side of the customer,” said Doug Ryan, President, RRD Marketing Solutions. “Our goal is to help our clients thoughtfully connect with their customers through the channels that will maximize their marketing spend. Cloud Direct by RRD does just that by extending our capabilities to integrate and optimize both digital and print communications. We’re excited to bring this innovative new capability to move closer to true omnichannel marketing.”

Also Read: Prediction Series 2019: Interview with Yaniv Reznik, Head of Customer Engagement Products, LogMeIn

Here is a small sample of real-world marketing solutions where Cloud Direct by RRD shines brightest:

  • Sending a personalized direct mail offer to high value customers
  • Triggering a direct mail piece when a subscriber email bounces
  • Sending a direct mail piece to promote engagement when a customer has not opened or clicked via digital channels
  • Providing a reacquisition incentive via direct mail that is triggered if a customer unsubscribes
  • Sending a personalized direct mail offer that leverages browse and cart abandonment data

Salesforce, Marketing Cloud and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

Recommended Read: Interview with Babak Hedayati, CEO and Co-Founder, TapClicks

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S4M Granted Continuation of Its MRC Accreditation
 Mobile

S4M Granted Continuation of Its MRC Accreditation

S4M, a leading drive-to-store technology provider, announces the renewal of its Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for HTML5 mobile web and in-application display and rich media Served Impressions, Clicks, and post-click metrics for Installs, Opens and Landings. To this day, S4M remains the only vendor accredited by the MRC for mobile post-click metrics.

 

S4M

The Media Rating Council is a non-profit industry association established in 1963 in the United-States.  Its goal is to ensure that measurement services are valid, reliable and effective. Vendors and services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose all methodological aspects of their service to their customers, comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research as well as other applicable industry measurement guidelines, and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures.

Also Read: New Study Shows Content Marketing Adoption Trending Upward for 2019

“The online advertising market has often been accused of a lack of transparency, so it falls to its vendors to enlist a reliable third party to validate and guarantee their campaign results,” says Christophe Collet, CEO and Founder of S4M. “For a company like S4M, our initial MRC accreditation in 2016 meant months of audits and several hundred hours of work. A time-intensive-and intricate process, particularly for our Product team. This is why we are once again proud to say that we are the only market player worldwide able to bring this level of guarantee to the brands and agencies we work with.”

Also Read: Apttus Recognized as Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled B2B Digital Commerce Platforms

Indeed, this accreditation by a trusted third party provides advertisers and media agencies who use the FUSIO by S4M platform with assurances that they are only buying ad metrics which comply with the MRC’s strict standards, as well as with measurement guidelines put forth by the MRC in collaboration with both the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association). S4M’s MRC accreditation goes beyond the traditional mobile campaign performance metrics such as impressions and clicks to validate the measurement of installs, opens and landings. This accreditation was granted for measurements based on S4M’s proprietary technology for HTML5 ad formats.

Recommended Read: WebEngage’s EngageMint Opens New Avenues in Retention Marketing

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 Identity Management

Paper or Digital? Keep Me Posted North America Launches to Protect the Consumer’s Right to Choose

Keep Me Posted (KMP) announced the launch of its campaign in North America. KMP is a global advocacy campaign working for the right of every consumer to choose, free of charge, how they receive important information from their service providers – on paper or electronically.

Overseen by Two Sides North America, the KMP North America campaign will focus on educating and challenging corporations that are removing consumer choice and charging fees for paper. The campaign will coordinate with KMP global campaigns already launched in several European countries and Australia.

KMP has also partnered with the Coalition for Paper Options, Consumer Action, Haven Neighborhood Services, Montana Organizing Project, National Consumers League, and The National Grange to form a coalition to protect the consumer’s right to choose between paper and digital communications.

Millions of North American consumers are currently disenfranchised by increased digitization and need to receive bills and statements on paper due to reasons such as: lack of internet access, digital abilities, and growing security concerns with online fraud.  Others prefer paper for convenience and practical reasons.

Also Read: Ogury Appoints Cédric Carbone as CTO

Results of a 2017 Toluna consumer survey conducted in the US indicated that 90% agree that they should have the right to choose how they receive communications (printed or electronic) from financial organizations and service providers. 83% agree they should not be charged more for choosing a paper bill or statement.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center in 2018, 50% of American senior citizens, 76% of those who have not completed high school and 55% of those living in households with an annual income under $30,000 did not have broadband internet at home. These numbers have increased since 2013 because of the cost of internet access.

In Canada, approximately 18% of households do not have access to fixed broadband Internet access services at the CRTC target speeds and 64.4% of families in the lowest income quintile (the 20% lowest earners) used the internet at home compared to a national average of 86.9% (CRTC, 2016 and 2017).

Also Read: Hootsuite Celebrates 10 Years of Industry-Leading Innovation and Customer Success

“Keep Me Posted will be building a coalition of supporters (consumer groups, physical and mental health charities, trade unions and industry) to promote the adoption of the Keep Me Posted pledge from service providers,” states Phil Riebel, Director, Keep Me Posted North America. “By presenting the facts about consumer needs and preferences related to paper-based communications, our coalition will work with service providers to ensure consumers are not forced to go digital.”

“The majority of adult Americans prefer to receive at least some of their bills and statements in paper format and believe that paper format should continue to be provided to those who want it, at no extra cost,” states Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities for Consumer Action. “The Keep Me Posted campaign is a much-needed effort to educate consumers and generate support for giving consumers the right to choose the way they want to communicate with service providers.”

Recommended Read: Interview with Jerrid Grimm, Co-Founder, Pressboard

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METRO Leverages Zilliant IQ Platform in Turkey
 B2B Data, News

METRO Leverages Zilliant IQ Platform in Turkey

Actionable Intelligence for Smarter B2B Foodservice Decisions

Zilliant, a multi-tenant SaaS company that helps B2B enterprises turn data into actionable intelligence to accelerate profitable growth, announced that METRO, a leading international specialist in food wholesale and retail, will implement and utilize the Zilliant Price IQ platform in Turkey.

“We believe that Zilliant is the right partner to support our ambitious growth plans,” said METRO Cash & Carry Foodservice Director Deniz Alkaḉ. “They are uniquely positioned to deliver optimized pricing guidance in both our Cash & Carry and Foodservice Delivery (FSD) businesses.”

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METRO had investigated multiple software companies in the marketplace and concluded that Zilliant Price IQ was the only solution able to simultaneously address both shelf and FSD pricing optimization. Using a thorough business diagnostic process, Zilliant uncovered significant pricing opportunities by leveraging AI and advanced analytics, therefore solidifying METRO’s decision to engage in a long-term partnership with Zilliant.

Also Read: Trustpilot Launches ‘Review Insights’ Providing Smarter Intelligence from Customer Feedback

“We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with the METRO group,” said Zilliant President & CEO Greg Peters. “Zilliant is uniquely positioned among price optimization and prescriptive sales solution vendors to deliver a single solution and instance that can enable B2B companies to accelerate profitable growth with AI-driven actionable insights that result in smarter commercial decisions throughout the company.”

Recommended Read: POST Launches POST Video, Empowering Partners to Create Turnkey Video from Audio Content

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 AI/ML, Marketing Clouds, Mobile Marketing, Sales Intelligence

2018’s Cyber Monday Breaks All Records, Reports Adobe

Adobe Leverages Their Powerful Analytics Engine to Conclude Record Sales of $7.9 Billion on Cyber Monday for the Year 2018

Adobe Analytics released a consolidated report to share facts pertaining to Cyber Monday and the holiday week that went by on Monday. Here is a snapshot of the report-

  • $7.9 billion spent on Cyber Monday alone – 19.7 percent increment YoY
  • $3.7 billion spent on Thanksgiving Day – 28.7 percent growth YoY
  • $6.2 billion spent on Black Friday – 23.6 percent rise YoY
  • $6.4 billion spent on November 24, 25 – Biggest shopping weekend in the USA
  • $58.5 billion spent in November (till the twenty-sixth) – 19.9 percent growth YoY
  • $1 billion spent by shoppers on an average, every day – 1 to 26 November till 1900 hours ET
  • Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store (BOPIS) saw a whopping fifty percent increase YoY
  • Brick & Mortar stores saw 28 percent higher conversions – thanks to the blending of online and offline shopping

Also Read: 20 CMOs to Follow on Twitter

Adobe also compiled a report specific to mobile phone shopping revenues-

  • $2.1 billion in revenues from smartphones for Cyber Monday (up from $1.4 billion in 2017) – 48.1 percent growth YoY
  • Smartphone’s traffic share (when compared to the personal computer) grew by 16 percent overall
  • 4 % site visits from smartphone – 7.8 percent tablets & 43.6 percent smartphones
  • Smartphones generated 34% of revenues – 7 percent tablets & 26.3 percent smartphones

This is America’s first Cyber Monday where more than 50 percent of site visits have happened via a smartphone.

The Most-Sold Products

  • Nintendo Switch
  • Little Live Pets
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • LG TVs
  • Drones (DJI, Air Hogs, Sky Viper)
  • Dell laptops
  • FurReal Pets
  • Amazon Echo devices

Also Read: Shutterstock Partners with Greenlight Getting Exclusive Access to Rights-Bound Content

“Cyber Monday sales topped $7.9 billion according to Adobe Analytics data, making it the single largest shopping day in US history,” said John Copeland, Head of Marketing and Customer Insights at Adobe. “Sales coming from smartphones hit an all-time high of $2 billion and we saw a significant spike in the ‘Buy Online, Pickup In-Store’ trend.”

Adobe should be complimented on the way they have detailed the report. These extremely deep-dived statistics are only possible due to Adobe’s Sensei – Adobe’s technology powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Sensei extracts data from a trillion data points that flow into Adobe’s analytics engine and Magento’s Commerce Cloud — parts of the Adobe Experience Cloud. Adobe’s acquisition of Magento has added major capabilities for Adobe in their digital transformation endeavors.

Here are some statistics about Adobe’s Analytics Engine:

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