New York, NY (May 14, 2013) – eXelate, the smart data and analytics company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide, and Drawbridge, the pioneering cross-device advertising leader, have announced a collaboration between the two companies to extend eXelate’s 8000+ audience segments (purchase intent, demographics, behavioral propensities) to mobile devices through Drawbridge’s cross device platform. This partnership expands Drawbridge’s segment availability from 800 to over 8000, while expanding eXelate’s ability to target smartphones and tablets.

eXelate’s smart data pool of 700 million unique users has become the industry gold standard for accurate, actionable and agile audience targeting data. Today’s announcement extends eXelate’s audience targeting capabilities to all smartphones and tablets, further strengthening eXelate’s multi-platform reach and actionability.

Drawbridge’s proprietary technology has paired over 600 million mobile devices – both tablets and smartphones – with desktop cookies, enabling eXelate segments to be extended to mobile. This unparalleled multi-platform reach amplifies the impact of all the segments in the eXelate eXchangeTM. For example, a hotel chain can now use eXelate’s “Business Traveler Segment” (with nearly 9 million records) to promote iPhone and iPad marketing efforts. A car insurance provider could use “Online Auto-Insurance Propensity” segments (~10 million records) to build a cost-per-lead campaign to target users on mobile devices. Drawbridge’s 600 million matched devices and eXelate’s audience segment reach of over 700 million users provides an unmatched multi-platform audience targeting capability for marketers and agencies worldwide.

“Our clients depend upon eXelate’s smart data to drive smarter marketing decisions,” said Mark S. Zagorski, CEO at eXelate. “As marketers evolve to embrace mobile platforms, we want to make sure that their audience targeting capabilities remain accurate and actionable across all desktop and mobile platforms. Our partnership with Drawbridge has made this process easy for our clients, by integrating existing eXelate eXchangeTM segments into mobile for comprehensive multi-platform audience targeting.”

“Drawbridge’s core value proposition springs from matching desktop cookies against mobile devices,” said Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, Drawbridge’s founder and CEO. “We have seen our travel and retail clients achieve great results from the use of audience data extended from desktop to mobile; naturally, we are thrilled to partner with eXelate, which has established its reputation around data quality and driving business impact through proprietary segments.”

eXelate has become a primary source of differentiated data and intelligence for marketers, agencies, and platforms worldwide. “We believe marketers are moving beyond big data and demanding smart data,” continued Zagorski. “Smart Data must be accurate, actionable, and agile in order to drive smarter marketing decisions and better outcomes for our customers worldwide. Our partnership with Drawbridge confirms our commitment to providing data to drive real-time action regardless of the platform.”

Figure 1: all eXelate segments now natively available for mobile targeting from Drawbridge campaign management dashboard

Figure 2: eXelate data has been paired to Drawbridge’s 600M device pairs

About eXelate
eXelate is the smart data company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide for marketers, agencies, platforms, and publishers. eXelate’s smart data platform provides accurate, actionable, and agile data and analytics on online household demographics, purchase intent, and behavioral propensities. Through the collection of trillions of directly measured online data points and distribution partnerships with information leaders such as Nielsen, Nielsen Catalina, MasterCard Advisors, Bizo, and more, eXelate makes online, offline and custom modeled data sets actionable across 700M online consumers worldwide. As members of the NAI, IAB, trustE, Council for Accountable Advertising, and Evidon’s Open Data Partnership, eXelate is a leader in privacy compliant advertising practices. For more information, please visit http://www.exelate.com.

About Drawbridge
Drawbridge has developed the first self-learning ad technology that leverages insights from cross-device behavior to enable advertisers and marketers to reach targeted mobile audiences. Drawbridge’s unique approach is built on a foundation of large-scale machine learning algorithms that correlate audience behavior across screens. Through its innovative technology, the company is able to gain insights and a much deeper understanding of mobile audience behavior than was previously possible. The company is located in Silicon Valley and is backed by Sequoia Capital, and Cleaner Perkins Caulfield and Byers. For more information, visit http://www.drawbrid.ge.

# # #

For more information:

Uriah Av-Ron
PR for eXelate
e: pr@exelate.com
t: (646) 755-6120

In the ongoing debate on the future of third-party cookies, there has been a (not-so) quiet undercurrent of thought from some branded publishers that the cookie’s demise will bring back an era of sky high CPMs, captive audiences and long expense account lunches with the Pets.com sock puppet.

Sorry to dash your hopes, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The narrative goes something like this. If third-party cookies go away, then so will the bulk of audience buying and, in turn, the ability for advertisers to reach desirable market segments without overpaying for content brands or contextual waste. The only way to reach premium users will be through branded vertical sites and then, after those are sold out, the bounty will be shared with premium content publishers.

The real story is a bit more complex. Programmatic ad buying and selling, with its unique capability to extract the highest value from any inventory source, has reduced friction in the market, and in the process, extracted a good deal of fat. Media buyers are loath to return to the days of manual buying based on syndicated research and fuzzy contextual proxies. As evidenced by the projected 98% growth rate in 2013, (source: eMarketer), RTB (one small slice of programmatic) is on such a tear that it is expected to take over nearly 20% of the display market this year.

The demise of the cookie will not eliminate online data capture. Persistent IDs, so called “device fingerprinting,” and other tools to enhance ad relevancy have moved from fringe technologies to the forefront of how ad-tech is supporting support the blistering demand by marketers for audience based buying that delivers better results at a lower cost.

Plus, third-party cookies play a large role in the serving of first party ads (unless you own your own ad server) and in the delivery and synchronization of such data. As was eloquently stated at a recent conference, “Third-party cookies can deliver first-party data, and first party cookies can deliver third-party data. The delivery vehicle isn’t the problem.”

Even if third-party cookies disappear, third-party data will continue to play a big role in the growth of audience targeting.

Data-driven, automated buying and selling is not going away. You can close your eyes and call it a “fad,” just like classified editors at newspapers did in 1999 when Monster and Craigslist hit the scene, or broadcasters did in the 1970s when this thing called “HBO” was piped into a few homes in Pennsylvania. Or, you can do something about it. A defensive strategy in the face of progress never works.

Smart premium publishers are getting this. Hearst has embraced programmatic in a real way, by both investing in ad-tech and re-structuring sales teams and inventory allocation. Forbes has built an “inventory optimization” approach that seeks to drive the highest value for every impression — regardless of channel. Others are building private exchanges – which to work well, need third-party cookies.

Some may call this “throwing in the towel,” but just like those who thought that cable networks were “also rans,” media progress has proven otherwise. Case in point — the Disney ABC /Cap Cities deal in 1996. Broadcast was still the high flier, and the focus of the $19B acquisition (one of the largest in media up to that date) was the ABC Network / Affiliate group. Today, ESPN is estimated to be worth $40B; its sister company, the ABC broadcast network AND affiliate group, $4.3B, per Forbes.

Killing the third-party cookie will not save branded publishers. On the contrary, new, even stickier technologies, and an ad-tech industry whose focus is performance and delivery efficiency, will continue to innovate and push forward.

You can get on board and be part of a solution that advertisers increasingly favor or you can try to block progress. History has shown which side the winners are on.

This article is part of the Digiday Partner Program and is made possible by data and analytics provider Exelate. Join Exelate at 2 p.m. on May 10, when they’ll explore the full survey findings during this free webinar. Registration is complimentary, but space is limited.

Marketers are refocusing in order to find the right audiences on mobile media, so much so that their use of audience-targeting services is nearing desktop levels, according to Digiday’s most recent State of the Industry Survey.

“Multiplatform audience targeting is quickly becoming the new norm as consumers use digital media across screens throughout the day,” said Khurrum Malik, CMO of Exelate, which sponsored the survey.

More than 50 percent of about 700 digital media executives who responded said they have expanded their audience-finding techniques to smartphones and tablets, perhaps giving credence to the oft-voiced prediction that 2013 would be the year of mobile.

Malik presented his findings at the Digiday Brand Summit in Miami, Fla. this week. He added that he was surprised to see that audience targeting on mobile devices was quickly reaching desktop levels.

Overall, nearly 70 percent of all three buy-side sectors plan to increase their audience-targeting budgets in the coming year, at an average growth rate of 38 percent.

In fact, budgets have already jumped between Q3 2012 and Q1 2013. In that time, digital agencies’ use of audience targeting has jumped 5 percent to reach 94 percent. Both advertisers and network/exchange/DSP use of the technique grew 3 percent to 83 percent and 91 percent respectively.

Despite these bumps, Malik added, “Advertisers are just scratching the surface on advanced audience targeting where they can use third-party online data with first-party CRM data to drive scale and speed for their customer acquisition campaigns.”

About 83 percent of advertisers use audience targeting themselves, with 80 percent reporting it to be an effective marketing tool. Still, Malik said, advertisers lean on their shops to find the right consumers.

“Some advertisers have a fantastic relationship with their agencies,” he said. “They should not focus on catching up; instead, they should be thinking about how can they work more closely with their agency to execute audience targeting.”

The others should “consider launching quick pilots to test their own ability to execute audience targeting directly and compare their results to outside parties.”

Advertisers looking to emulate their peers should note that third-party online data was the highest ranked data set for both direct-response and branding campaigns among advertisers and agencies that participated in the survey.

The full presentation deck is available here.

Join Exelate for a full exploration of these findings at 2 p.m. on May 10 by registering for this free webinar. Registration is complimentary, but space is limited.

Advertisers prefer to use third-party online data along with first-party CRM data to target ads since they receive a higher response rate when targeting specific audiences.

In fact, more than 60% of advertisers use third-party online data as the preferred data source for audience targeting, and more than 80% find audience targeting an effective marketing strategy, according to a study released Wednesday.

The eXelate study also found an increase among advertisers using audience targeting on smartphones and tablets. While the PC remains the preferred platform, 51% of advertisers say they use the smartphone, compared with 62% of agencies and 60% of networks, exchanges and demand-side platforms (DSP).

Some may believe the eXelate findings show a bias. The third-party data provider supports audience targeting — but experts admit that the results rely on methods to confirm and maintain authenticity in data segments, no matter what the vendor. The results are drawn from 650 digital industry advertisers, agencies and networks between March and April 2012. The online survey examines audience targeting strategies and how eXelate can improve audience targeting.

This year, 69% of advertisers said they plan to increase their ad targeting budgets by 43%, compared with 68% of agencies who plan to increase budgets by 30% and 89% of networks, exchanges and DSPs, by 40%.

The study also shows that only 29% of advertisers and 40% of agencies have implemented a campaign rating solution. About 30% of advertisers said they would implement one this year, versus 46% of agencies.

Brands may find third-party outsourced data more appealing in targeting ads, but not all vendors secure consumer data correctly. An Experian Data Breach Resolution commissioned survey conducted by the research center Poneman Institute polled 748 people in organizations who transfer or share consumer data with vendors.

The most common mistakes outlined in the Securing Outsourced Customer Data include organizations that fail to hold vendors to the same security standards as they do for their own in-house security practices; do not know how frequently the vendor is losing their consumer data; do not take action following a breach, such as requiring the vendor to fix any known problem causing the data breach, and do not require the vendor to conduct an audit and detailed assessment to understand the source and cause of the incident.

The study, released earlier this year, estimates that in the past 24 months, 65% of participants admit their organization had a breach involving the loss or theft of their organization’s information when it was outsourced to a third party. Some 64% report it happening more than once.

New York, NY (April 24, 2013) – eXelate, the leading smart data and analytics engine powering smarter digital marketing decisions, today announced the results of a comprehensive survey conducted in conjunction with Digiday. The State of the Industry survey captured feedback from over 650 digital advertising professionals on the importance of audience targeting in launching high-performance direct response and branding digital campaigns. Respondents represented a wide range of industry stakeholders – advertisers, agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges, and demand side platforms (DSPs). The research was driven by the ongoing need to reduce the complexity of the ad-tech ecosystem by providing clarity to the real demands of advertisers and agencies.

A surprising survey insight included the fact that both advertisers and agencies preferred 3rd party online data as the #1 source of audience targeting data over 1st party social media, 1st party custom, and 3rd party offline data for both direct response and branding campaigns. This result confirms that the audience targeting ecosystem continues to rely on accurate and actionable 3rd party data pools to power effective audience targeting campaigns.

“Despite the ongoing debate on 3rd party cookies and data, it is clear that all parts of the digital advertising ecosystem – advertisers, agencies and platforms, increasingly rely on, and prefer the efficacy and reach of, 3rd party data,” stated Khurrum Malik, Chief Marketing Officer of eXelate.

Key highlights from the eXelate and Digiday State of the Industry survey include:

• Audience targeting continues to grow with more than 80% of advertisers and 90% of agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges and DSPs utilizing the capability
• Over 60% of advertisers prefer 3rd party online data for audience targeting, followed by 1st-party CRM data
• Over 80% of the ecosystem reports that audience targeting is an effective marketing strategy
• 3rd party online data is the highest ranked data set for both direct response and branding campaigns for both advertisers and agencies, outperforming 1st-party social, custom and CRM data, as well as 3rd-party offline data
• More than 69% of respondents report they plan to increase their audience-targeting budgets, with an average budget increase of 38%

“Digital marketing and media professionals want higher-performing campaigns that deliver measurable and improved ROI. Audience targeting continues to play a critical strategy for achieving these goals. Targeting audiences with an accurate, actionable, and agile 3rd party data set enables marketers to reach potential customers with highly relevant messages,” stated Mr. Malik. “With over 80% of the ecosystem having a positive view of audience targeting effectiveness, we expect continued investment in audience targeting, especially 3rd party online data sets, across all platforms in both direct response and branding campaigns.”

The research also highlighted increasing momentum for platform-centric audience targeting. Smartphone and tablet platforms were utilized for audience targeting by greater than 50% of respondents – fast approaching the 75%+ for PCs. Full survey results can be found at eXelate.com.

About eXelate
eXelate is the smart data company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide for marketers, agencies, platforms, and publishers. eXelate’s smart data platform provides accurate, actionable, and agile data and analytics on online household demographics, purchase intent, and behavioral propensities. Through the collection of trillions of directly measured online data points and distribution partnerships with information leaders such as Nielsen, Nielsen Catalina, MasterCard Advisors, Bizo, and more, eXelate makes online, offline and custom modeled data sets actionable across 500M online consumers worldwide. As members of the NAI, IAB, trustE, Council for Accountable Advertising, OPA and Evidon’s Open Data Partnership, eXelate is a leader in privacy compliant advertising practices. For more information, please visit http://www.exelate.com.

# # #

For more information:

Uriah Av-Ron
PR for eXelate
e: pr@exelate.com
t: (646) 755-6120

New York, NY (April 11, 2013) – eXelate, the leading smart data and analytics engine powering smarter digital marketing decisions, today announced that Eugene Becker has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Product Management. Eugene will be responsible for global product management and development of eXelate’s data and analytics products built to power more effective marketing decisions for agencies, platforms, and marketers worldwide. This is the second senior hire for eXelate in as many months following the addition of Khurrum Malik as CMO.

“We’re excited to welcome a data and analytics pioneer like Eugene not only because of his unrivaled skill set and global expertise, but also because of his hands-on experience driving measurable returns for clients based on our industry-leading data,” said eXelate CEO Mark S. Zagorski. “Eugene’s addition is a clear boost for eXelate’s team and underscores our commitment to develop analytics products that drive marketing effectiveness and measurable ROI for our clients worldwide. His deep understanding of the data management and analytics space will further accelerate our product momentum.”

“Having worked with the eXelate team for the last few years, I have seen first-hand the value of eXelate data, which makes digital media more relevant for consumers and delivers clear value for marketers, agencies, platforms, and publishers worldwide,” said Eugene Becker, eXelate’s new SVP Product Management. “I look forward to advancing eXelate’s global push into analytics by developing innovative, market-leading applications built for smart data. Our focus on expanding our product portfolio to better meet the needs of marketers and agencies directly will be a core, strategic priority in 2013.”

Bringing more than 15 years of product and analytics experience, Eugene joins eXelate from WPP’s Xaxis division, where he served as VP of Analytics. At Xaxis, Eugene established the analytics and audience strategy practices for the world’s largest agency audience buying platform. Prior to Xaxis, Eugene was the SVP, Director of Analytics at MRM Worldwide, part of the McCann Worldgroup, where he drove digital analytics and built products that enabled channel planning, market mix modeling, and cross-channel dashboards. Before joining MRM, Eugene led analytics for a blockbuster franchise at Pfizer. He received a BA and an MA in Economics from Northwestern University.

About eXelate
eXelate is the smart data company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide for marketers, agencies, platforms, publishers and data providers. eXelate’s smart data platform provides accurate, actionable, and agile data and analytics on online household demographics, purchase intent, and behavioral propensities. Through the collection of trillions of directly measured online data points and distribution partnerships with information leaders such as Nielsen, Nielsen Catalina, MasterCard Advisors, Bizo, and more, eXelate makes online, offline, and custom modeled data sets actionable across 500M online consumers worldwide. As members of the NAI, IAB, trustE, Council for Accountable Advertising, OPA and Evidon’s Open Data Partnership, eXelate is a leader in privacy compliant advertising practices. For more information, please visit http://www.exelate.com or follow @eXelate.

# # #

For more information:

Uriah Av-Ron
PR for eXelate
e: pr@exelate.com
t: (646) 755-6120

New York, NY (April 4, 2013) – Better data accuracy generates up to a 1.8X lift in on-target campaign performance due to a recent data refinement process developed by eXelate, the smart data company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide. “Our ongoing commitment to work with unbiased third parties like Nielsen to validate the accuracy of eXelate’s data and how it can improve campaign effectiveness for marketers is critical,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of eXelate. “Accurate data is one of the key factors in minimizing ad spend waste and maximizing digital campaign returns.”

To ensure its customers are utilizing the best possible targeting data sets, eXelate developed a proprietary methodology to test and refine the accuracy of eXelate’s demographic data segments at the most granular level. The research revealed that eXelate’s data outperformed unbiased benchmarks derived from an analysis of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings campaigns by up to 1.8X across a broad spectrum of demographic segments.

eXelate used this information to better refine its data collection and segmentation algorithms resulting in the most accurate 3rd party demographic data available to digital marketers today.

Leaders in the digital video space, increasingly held to broadcast levels of audience accuracy and accountability welcomed the work done to increase data efficacy. “eXelate’s efforts to improve their data demonstrate the importance of data quality and campaign waste reduction,” said Aleck Schleider, VP Data Solutions at Videology. “More accurate data will not only help advertisers deliver against campaign goals more effectively, it will also continue to power the programmatic video boom, driving more offline dollars online.”

“To invest with confidence online, marketers need to understand that the data they’re using to inform marketing campaign execution and evaluate ROI is sound,” said Andrew Feigenson, SVP, Digital Client Service at Nielsen. “By using Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings as a yardstick to gauge audiences, eXelate is helping to propel the industry forward toward greater accountability. eXelate obviously takes data quality seriously.”

eXelate has become a primary source of differentiated data and intelligence for marketers, agencies, and platforms worldwide. “We believe marketers are moving beyond Big Data and demanding Smart Data,” continued Zagorski. “Smart Data must be accurate, actionable, and agile in order to drive smarter marketing decisions and better outcomes for our customers worldwide.”

The Company plans to continue its focus on delivering the most accurate data to its marketer, agency and platform partners with validation and optimization projects slated for in-market auto, travel and finance as well as household psychographics in Q2. “No one has more accurate data, period. And eXelate is the only data company working with unbiased third parties to prove this fact,” added Zagorski.

About eXelate
eXelate is the smart data company that powers smarter digital marketing decisions worldwide for marketers, agencies, platforms, and publishers. eXelate’s smart data platform provides accurate, actionable, and agile data and analytics on online household demographics, purchase intent, and behavioral propensities. Through the collection of trillions of directly measured online data points and distribution partnerships with information leaders such as Nielsen, Nielsen Catalina, MasterCard Advisors, Bizo, and more, eXelate makes online, offline and custom modeled data sets actionable across 500M online consumers worldwide. As members of the NAI, IAB, trustE, Council for Accountable Advertising, OPA and Evidon’s Open Data Partnership, eXelate is a leader in privacy compliant advertising practices. For more information, please visit http://www.exelate.com.

# # #

For more information:

Uriah Av-Ron
PR for eXelate
e: pr@exelate.com
t: (646) 755-6120

Conventional wisdom holds that using third-party data for ad targeting is not effective, especially for direct-response-oriented campaigns; that despite all the fanfare about audience-based buying, micro-segmentation and intent-based-targeting, third-party data just doesn’t live up to the promise. The reasons offered by doubters are varied – the data are too expensive, the data are bogus, inventory is all that matters, and so on – but the conclusion drawn is always the same: third-party data doesn’t work.

Actually, it does. Third-party data can be an effective and efficient way to drive customer acquisition. The challenge in making third-party data effective is in knowing what data to target. With over 100,000 targetable data points available across dozens of data vendors, finding the right segments to target is a daunting task. Most marketers take an intuitive approach and pick segments that seem aligned to their customer base. But there is no guarantee that segments that feel like they should work will in fact drive results. Additionally, segments chosen through intuition don’t account for overlap with a marketer’s current customers. This can lead to wasted impressions leading to wasted impressions and inflated costs, as marketers are better served targeting current customers via their own retargeting campaigns.

Rather than buy data based on intuition, marketers should buy based on quantifiable fact. The state of RTB technology today is such that marketers can forecast which data segments are best aligned with their current customers before they ever spend a dime. These proactive audience forecasts allow visibility into the data segments that are most aligned with a marketer’s customer base, and have highest likelihood of performance. Many times, the results are surprising and counterintuitive – like the women’s apparel company that found a niche target in motorcycle-driving pet owners, and the mom’s services company that found Volvo and Audi wagon drivers were their most likely customers. None of these segments were easily intuited, but they all worked.

Done right, in fact, proactive forecasting of third-party data can lead to exceptional performance. We found that, on average, top performing third-party data segments perform 40X better than untargeted media. And the best third-party segments produce results comparable to remarketing. There are very few channels that produce comparable ROI. Results will get better, too, as data providers offer up new levels of granularity and control.

Products such as Exelate’s MAX modeling deconstruct the standard, pre-packaged data segments and hone in on the specific data points most relevant to a given advertiser. Customized approaches like these are just now emerging, and they hold great promise in reducing false positives and further enhancing data targeting effectiveness.

To be clear, there are no silver bullets in our world. But the prevailing wisdom on third-party data targeting is dated. If you aren’t already engaged in identifying the third-party data segments that can drive your business, now’s the time to start.

As Seen In: MediaPost Online Media Daily

If the online data isn’t good, then ads fail to connect brands with consumers. While it has been an ongoing push in the online ad industry, some companies, like eXelate, are beginning to take a more aggressive approach — despite industry experts’ belief that most data is worthless.

Accurate data can minimize the amount of ad dollars lost to miss targeting. It can generate up to a 1.8 times the lift in on-target campaign performance at eXelate, due to a recent data refinement process developed by the company, said Mark Zagorski, eXelate CEO. He cites research from the Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings system that measured campaigns across several demographic segments.

A change in the availability of customer data provides advertisers with a major opportunity to understand behavioral patterns, but “accuracy in data needs to become the next step, because we now have efficiency in media delivery through real-time bidding,” Zagorski said. “We’re moving toward using real purchasing behavior, integrating offline and online.”

The group Enliken put out a survey to give consumers a sense of how data mining companies view them, and found that 50% of what companies like Google know them is wrong. The company looked at Bluekai, AOL, Yahoo, eXelate and Google.

The battle to maintain data accuracy to improve the quality of campaigns continues to put a heavy burden on companies serving messages. Some 53% of respondents from a Black Ink study points to data accuracy as one of the biggest challenges to measuring ROI. Marketers believe that without the measurement tool they can’t easily quantify and qualify budgets.

Accurate data collected from patterns in behavior for online searches and keywords can determine intent and buying cycles, but it may also detect mood and frame of mind. Computer scientists at the University of Southern California have built a platform using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor to detect depressions with 90% accuracy in a controlled group of 60 people.

The software, SimSensei, developed by Stefan Scherer and colleagues, taps a mix of vision algorithms and psychological model of depression. The on-screen psychologist asks questions and watches how the person physically responds. The software builds a detail model of the person’s face, such as smile and horizontal gaze.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/197246/data-accuracy-vital-to-improve-online-advertising.html#ixzz2PVFE8JQr

Advertisers who fully grasp the interplay between ad tech and Business Intelligence (BI) will maximize customer lifetime value in the accelerating digital world. Here’s why.

In the late ’90s, relational databases and the advent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) laid the foundation for today’s BI industry. Players like Siebel, Oracle and even JD Edwards pushed enterprises to capture and retain data about their customers to grow their base. Then came a need to analyze and report customer information with BI tools like Cognos and Crystal Reports.

Fast forward to today’s BI market. One sees a thick ecosystem of software (Microstrategy, IBM, Alteryx, Domo) and services (Accenture, Deloitte), providers who are chasing a multibillion-dollar market dedicated to helping businesses analyze and optimize performance. BI has evolved from simple reporting to predictive analytics, demonstrating a hunger to answer as many customer questions as possible – all behind or at the firewall. It is important to note that a majority of this spend is controlled by enterprise CIOs who are dedicated to maximizing the value of technology investments, but who are also sometimes at odds with CMOs.

Enter the ad tech and digital advertising ecosystem, built to fulfill the needs of the CMO – specifically, the needs of advertisers to improve awareness, consideration, and eventually acquisition of customers through digital channels. When a potential customer is in the awareness and consideration phase, ad tech nudges the customer forward to acquisition. But this ecosystem must realize it is only part of the customer journey. With billions of dollars being spent on improving digital funnel performance from customer awareness to consideration to acquisition, companies across the ad tech industry are wondering if there is more they can do to meet the needs of advertisers worldwide – and not just play outside the firewall.

Imagine a major wireless company; let’s call it Horizon Wireless. Horizon’s marketing team wants to acquire as many customers as possible, retain them as long as possible, and grow (upsell, cross-sell) their customers – all to maximize customer lifetime value. In order to meet these goals, Horizon utilizes the ad tech ecosystem to raise awareness and drive consideration for potential customers; however, once Horizon acquires customers, BI plays a larger role in retaining and growing them.

So why should advertisers care about BI? Three major reasons pop out:

1. Size Matters – The Business Intelligence market isn’t going away. With analysts sizing the market anywhere from $12B to $30B-plus and growing at double-digit rates, BI will continue to capture enterprise budgets and deepen relationships with both the CIO and, increasingly, the CMO.
2. Expansion – Almost all BI players are recognizing the ad tech impact and utilizing legacy BI/enterprise data with ad tech smart data to drive smarter decisions and accelerate the customer journey. Why not take first-party customer conversion data and use that to seed online third-party smart data, more effectively targeting many potential customers?
3. New Advantage – Companies that can lay out a strategy and execution plan which demonstrates the right mix of ad tech and BI interplay are poised to flourish, capturing the mindshare and budgets of CIOs and CMOs worldwide.

Some companies are already positioning to take advantage of this trend:

1. Software/SaaS – Industry leaders like Microsoft, Adobe and IBM already see this dynamic and are investing within and outside the enterprise to accelerate the customer journey. Another example is Salesforce’s move to purchase Buddy Media.
2. Services – Players like Accenture and Deloitte are pushing their comfort zones beyond BI and analytics to help clients influence customers earlier in the customer journey.
3. Ad Tech – Companies like comScore are bridging this gap with audience, advertising and digital analytics across the customer journey, while agencies like Merkle and R/GA are moving proactively to carve pre- and post- acquisition inroads with CMOs. Industry giants like Facebook are already pushing across customer touchpoints by positioning themselves as a one-stop shop for awareness and brand growth.

The time for behind-the-firewall (BI) and beyond-the-firewall (ad tech) collaboration is here. Only those who can bridge the gap and accelerate the customer journey will survive the shifting digital landscape.