All the latest martech, adtech and customer technology news from Google, SmartCommerce, Basketful, Appier, Woopra, AB Tasy, Epoq, Storyblok, DoubleVerify, Qualtrics and Klaus
Google debuts first-party advertising solution, data clean room partnerships
Google has launched a new solution to allow advertisers and publishers to employ and match first-party data in display and Video 360 advertising across its platform.
Called Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR), the solution is about giving publishers and advertisers an ability to reconcile first-party data for audiences who have visited both an advertiser’s and a publisher’s site in a secure environment. Advertisers and publishers will then be able to activate this encrypted first-party information in advertising.
Google said its solution is about ensuring aggregated data is only readable and meaningful in the limited context of their direct relationship. This can then be used by advertisers to show relevant ads to desired audiences.
First-party audience insights could include past purchasers and people on their loyalty lists or cart abandonment. With PAIR, advertisers could reach these people with relevant ads on a publisher’s website because they have an existing relationship with both them and the publisher. PAIR is designed for execution across all transaction types, and publishers will have the option to use their supply side platform of choice.
Google is now working with a number of data clean room providers to enable users to connect these data sets. The first three are Habu, InfoSum and LiveRamp, and there are plans to integrate with Ads Data Hub (ADH) and others in future.
Google said PAIR will encrypt unique first-party data three times with three different keys: An advertiser key, a publisher key and a unique key shared between the two parties. After encryption and reconciliation, the advertiser and the publisher both receive the percentage match rate of their first-party audience lists, but no user-level matches or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) will be sent back. No PII will be shared with either the supply side platform or with Display and Video 360, Google stressed.
Annalect is testing the PAIR solution. “It’s important for us to find new ways to help advertisers connect with their audiences without replicating third-party cookies’ pitfalls,” its president, Adam Gitlin, said.
“PAIR will allow us to create more personalised ad campaigns for advertisers by harnessing their first-party data in a way that is secure and protects users’ trust in their brand. We’re excited to begin using PAIR and to continue engaging with customers in meaningful ways.”
Appier acquires journey analytics player
Business management software vendor, Appier, has acquired Woopra, a US-based customer journey analytics player, for an undisclosed sum.
Woopra provides a SaaS platform with customer journey analytics, product analytics, marketing automation and data management. Appier said the deal will further strengthen its position in processing first-party data to build a next-generation Customer Data Platform (CDP) with advanced AI technology and user-centric visualisation analytics.
Combined, the pair plan to deliver a suite of AI-powered solutions for businesses to integrate and synchronise customer data more easily, analyse touchpoint interactions throughout the customers’ journeys in real-time and apply Appier’s AI-based decision and execution capabilities.
Appier said the deal will also further its enterprise market penetration and growth in the US and European markets. It added Woopra’s global customer base will offer opportunities to further expand and solidify a global footprint.
“Appier will now be able to combine the best of our AI-powered offerings in first-party data management and customer insights with the outstanding analytics and visualisation capabilities from Woopra to offer a best-in-class CDP for businesses around the world,” said Appier co-founder and CEO, Chih-Han Yu. “Together with Woopra, we will continue to innovate our products, with AI at its core, to bring more creative solutions to the modern marketer operating in a digital environment.
“Our mission is to turn AI into ROI by making software intelligent. With this acquisition, we are committed to supporting Woopra’s customers and we will continue strengthening our innovation in CDP.”
AB Tasty purchases personalisation provider and builds APAC presence
Our second acquisition of the week is by AB Tasty, which has purchased Epoq, an AI-driven recommendation and smart search solution.
As well as announcing the acquisition, France-headquartered AB Tasty said it’s expanded its sales and operations presence in Sydney in an effort to accelerate relations with customers in APAC.
Founded in 2003, Germany-based Epoq has created customised ecommerce solutions to address the customer journey from product research, selection, buying intent to customer loyalty. These are based on an AI-powered recommendation engine to showcase personalised content by analysing shoppers' click-and-buy behaviour via a library of algorithms.
AB Tasty said the acquisition accelerates both companies' shared vision of empowering digital teams to deliver relevant shopping experiences along the consumer journey with a best-in-class experience optimisation platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“The Epoq team is the perfect addition to AB Tasty's business, bringing their expertise, insights and sophisticated products. We are truly excited for this new era as we work together to unlock more value for our customers, who will now have unparalleled recommendation and search capabilities at their fingertips,” said AB Tasty CEO and co-founder, Alix de Sagazan.
Recently signed up AB Tasty customers locally include Berlitz, Go-To Skincare and King Living.
The news follows AB Tasty’s US$40 million Series C fundraising in 2020. Since then, the company claims to have grown internationally by 200 per cent, winning global brands such as PVH, Decathlon, L'Oreal, Clarins and Ulta Beauty.
SmartCommerce acquires Basketful Co to expand contextual commerce
Our third acquisition this week has been undertaken by SmartCommerce. The SaaS solutions provider confirmed its purchase of Basketful, an in-context, ecommerce optimisation tools and insights provider, for an undisclosed sum.
It’s the second acquisition completed by SmartCommerce this month and follows the acquisition of ecommerce solutions vendor, Myxx.
Founded in 2018, Basketful sits in the contextual commerce space and helps brands use consumer behaviour data to better customise ecommerce experiences for its customers. Its early start was in making food content in recipes shoppable. The company now claims to have supported more than 40 million paths to cart for clients.
The companies have already begun integrating technologies, and SmartCommerce plans to begin providing enhanced services to clients in Q4 this year.
“We’re incredibly excited about how Basketful and Myxx technologies extend SmartCommerce capabilities to help our client brands unlock massive short and long-term growth opportunities in this increasingly consumer-centric marketplace,” said SmartCommerce CEO, Jennifer Silverberg. “Basketful brings strong reach and visibility tools that help make marketing work both harder and longer for CPG and FMCG brands, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring more of those to our clients.”
Storyblok brings its CMS to APAC
Storyblok is looking to grow penetration of its content management system (CMS) in the Asia-Pacific market with a new regional sales manager and investment into building a presence and hosting capability in region.
The vendor’s technology is already being used by customers locally including Pizza Hut Australia, Sydney FC, Liberty Finance Australia, Vicinity Centres, Treasury Wine Estates, Crimson Education and Octopus Deploy. Storyblok has now hired Marcus Paterson as its APAC sales manager, based in Thailand and tasked with building out a sales team across the APAC region. Paterson has previously worked in senior roles across National Australia Bank, Fuji Xerox and Leidos Australia.
“After working throughout APAC for over 20 years, I’ve come to understand the unique challenges that companies face in this part of the world,” Paterson said. “Agile and secure content management continues to be something that all sorts of businesses struggle with.”
Storyblok’s own research across 200 users found only 21.5 per cent are satisfied with their CMS right now, 50 per cent are worried about the security status of their current set-up, and 44 per cent are exploring a move to headless CMS solutions.
Storyblok has data centres in the US, Europe and a dedicated instance in China and said it’s planning to offer a hosting option in Australia soon.
DoubleVerify debuts Attention Lab for advertisers
Adtech player, DoubleVerify, has debuted a new DV Attention Lab aimed at helping advertisers optimise campaign performance using attention data insights on ad engagement and exposure.
The lab refers to a dedicated, multidisciplinary team of 20 data scientists, product experts and marketing analysts that will work with marketers to devise actionable, privacy-friendly ‘attention data’ insights and recommendations that can then be used to maximise campaign effectiveness and drive outcomes. The lab team is powered by DV’s Authentic Attention solution, and complemented by DV’s library of industry benchmark reports, best practice guides and case studies.
DV Authentic Attention is a performance solution that analyses more than 50 data points pertaining to exposure of a digital ad and a consumer’s engagement with a digital ad and device. This includes user-initiated events while the ad creative is displayed such as user touches, screen orientation, video playback and audio control interactions.
“Traditional KPIs such as viewability and clicks are not effective at identifying whether an ad is making an impact on the end viewer, and disruption from regulatory shifts to cookie deprecation is hindering how brands can use existing tools,” said DoubleVerify CEO, Mark Zagorski. “With that in mind, we are confident that privacy-friendly attention metrics will become the industry’s new performance currency. We are excited to launch the DV Attention Lab to help advertisers navigate today’s digital landscape.”
Qualtrics betas contact centre enhancements
Qualtrics has taken the wrappers off new real-time contact centre innovations it says will help make agents more productive and deliver customer support with empathy.
Automated Call Summaries and Real-Time Agent Assist are both designed to automate post-call work and help contact centre agents. They tap into Qualtrics’ natural language understanding and machine learning capabilities to identify key elements such as sentiment, reasons for calls, common issue resolutions and compliance risks.
Qualtrics’ Real-Time Agent Assist coaches contact centre agents during a call with a customer, using AI to analyse the conversation and develop real-time, informed recommendations. Based on analysis, Real-Time Agent Assist then prompts the agent with brand-specific suggestions, personalised experiences and offers, relevant knowledge base articles and related answers. Real-Time Agent Assist is also designed to recognise when it’s appropriate to deliver in-call reminders to the agent, such as when they may be going off-script or out of compliance, when they should show more empathy for the customer, or when to offer a discount to an unhappy customer.
Qualtrics also offers Automated Call Summaries to provide automated call recaps that include all relevant details discussed during the call. This can be integrated with a company’s CRM.
“For many companies, addressing feedback after a customer has had a poor experience is not enough to salvage the relationship. Organisations need to guide and orchestrate experiences in real time and that starts on the front line,” said Qualtrics president of products and engineering, Brad Anderson.
Qualtrics Real-Time Agent Assist and Automated Call Summaries are available in private beta.
Klaus customer service platform raises €12 million
Estonia-based AI-powered platform for customer service optimisation, Klaus, has raised €12 million (AUD$18.55m) in Series A equity funding.
The round was led by Acton Capital, with participation from previous investors, Icebreaker, Creandum and Global Founders Capital. The new round of funding will allow Klaus to focus more on product and engineering teams while also expanding sales and marketing capabilities.
“The Series A funding means we can now scale our growth to the next level. To do that, we are seeking the best sales and marketing talent as well as adding to our team of PhD’d, data-science aces,” Klaus co-founder and CEO, Martin Kõiva, said. “As we hope to almost double our team in the next six months. We are excited that we have the resources to really find the best people.”
Klaus was founded by Kõiva and Kair Käsper in response to what they saw as a pain point they encountered while working together at CRM startup, Pipedrive. The customer service quality management platform integrates with support helpdesks, works with contact centre platforms from brands such as Zendesk, Salesforce and Intercom, and is designed to help existing agents as well as with onboarding new staff. It does this by collecting text and audio customer interaction data to identify all outlier conversations that require further investigation.
Klaus has secured a number of global enterprise customers so far, including SoundCloud and Epic Games.
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