All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Qualtrics, Aprimo, Liferay, Twitter, Salesforce, Fluent, Intercom, Digiviser, Clevertar, LinkedIn, and more.
Qualtrics announces new XM integration with Adobe Experience Platform
Qualtrics has taken the wrappers off a new XM Integration with Adobe Experience Platform Launch to help organisations deliver customer experiences (CX) at scale.
With the Qualtrics extension for Experience Platform Launch, the vendor said customers can quickly create and deploy feedback intercepts across all their digital properties to gather customer feedback and close experience gaps faster.
The Experience Platform Launch extension further builds on Qualtrics and Adobe’s existing relationship, which includes an Adobe Analytics XM Integration built on the Qualtrics Developer Platform (QDP). The Qualtrics Adobe Analytics integration is used by hundreds of customers to help them more easily integrate experience (X-data) and operational data (O-data) to gather critical data at every point of the customer journey.
LinkedIn to acquire Drawbridge
LinkedIn has entered into an agreement to acquire Drawbridge to accelerate the capabilities of its Marketing Solutions platform.
Drawbridge is an identity resolution platform using artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide marketing, customer experience and security solutions. The aim is to help customers to better reach and understand professional audiences, and measure the ROI of campaigns across mobile and desktop.
It is expected Drawbridge will improve reach via LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences and Audience Network campaigns, and offer better attribution, allowing advertisers to measure results across channels and devices. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Twitter acquires Fabula AI
Fellow social platform, Twitter, also went on a purchasing spree last week, acquiring Fabula AI, a London-based startup, with a world-class team of machine learning researchers using graph deep learning to detect network manipulation.
Graph deep learning is a new method for applying powerful ML techniques to network-structured data. The result is the ability to analyse large and complex datasets describing relations and interactions, and to extract signals in ways that traditional ML techniques are not capable of doing. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Twitter is also building out a research group, led by Sandeep Pandey, to focus on a few key strategic areas such as natural language processing, reinforcement learning, ML ethics, recommendation systems, and graph deep learning.
The strategic investment in graph deep learning research, technology and talent will be a key driver to help people feel safe on Twitter and help them see relevant information.
Specifically, by studying and understanding the Twitter graph, comprised of the millions of Tweets, Retweets and Likes shared on Twitter every day, we will be able to improve the health of the conversation, as well as products including the timeline, recommendations, the explore tab, and the onboarding experience.
Salesforce delves into blockchain
Salesforce has launched Blockchain as a new way to build trusted networks.
With Salesforce Blockchain, users can quickly create these networks using point-and-click tools. Salesforce Blockchain infrastructure is based on a distributed ledger, and adds on the power of Salesforce metadata. A partner can securely publish and independently verify records on Salesforce Blockchain from whatever system they use. Users in Salesforce can see and work with blockchain data in reports, automations, and all the places they expect to work with typical record data.
Salesforce Blockchain handles the difficulty of building a secure network and establishing the right authentication protocols.
As the Salesforce Blockchain app is configured, the user can decide if partners should be able to publish data to the blockchain, or if they should have read-only access. And outside of Salesforce, partners can view data from and publish to their Salesforce Blockchain ledger through APIs.
Aprimo announces enhancements across platform
Aprimo has debuted the Spring 2019 Release of its marketing management platform including new features, user experience innovations, and expanded integrations across the entire platform.
The vendor said new product enhancements focus on making it easier for users to find and re-use components of advanced content types, as well as work more efficiently via tighter integrations and enhancements to work requests. Among these are advanced package support for files; enhanced 3D and CGI preview capabilities; integration with Outlook; new work request experience; and UX improvements.
There's also the Aprimo Mobile App, which enables reviewers to approve new purchase orders and invoices on-the-go.
Fluent launches new division
Data-driven performance marketing company, Fluent, has launched a newly launched division dedicated to expanding Fluent’s suite of data solutions.
Fluent Dialog addresses the complex needs of marketers in their quest to grow, retain, and deepen relationships with high-value customers. This division will focus on providing brands with the scalable ability to activate unique insights and drive goal-oriented outcomes, across every point of consumer and brand interaction.
By leveraging Fluent's first-party, self-declared data assets amassed from opted-in consumers, and overlaying performance-driven marketing analytics and services, Fluent Dialog aims to drives growth and optimise resource planning through insight activation and custom research.
Fluent Dialog aims to provide simplified orchestration by coordinating digital services, communication strategies, creative services, and audience development across the entire customer lifecycle, including acquisition, retention and loyalty.
Intercom's new customisable inbox with apps
Intercom, a customer messaging platform, is claiming it's reimagined the customisable Inbox with apps that brings all of the information and tools sales and support teams need into one place.
Featuring 19 apps built with partners including Stripe, Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira and Shopify, the new Inbox provides teams the right context alongside every customer conversation, triggers actions in external tools with one click, and syncs data across tech stacks for faster and more personalised conversations with customers and leads.
The new Inbox allows partners and developers to build private or public apps on Intercom’s Inbox product.
Digivizer adds paid advertising strategy
As part of Digivizer’s partnership with Google, businesses can now take advantage of real-time insights and monthly account reviews of Google Ads in addition to all social media owned, earned and paid activities.
To help businesses get more from their paid search (SEM) programs, Digivizer has added Paid Advertising strategy and support to its platform, and expanded its partnership with Google.
Businesses can now connect and assign their accounts to the Digivizer platform, and measure the performance of their paid digital programs in Google, YouTube and Display alongside the media programs they run across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter - making it easy to identify and compare performance between platforms.
Also new to Digivizer account users is complimentary Digivizer Premium Ad Support, providing them access to monthly Digivizer digital strategy sessions, education and in-platform support.
Clevertar launches Conversagent
Clevertar, a virtual human consumer engagement company, has a new virtual human chatbot that it's boasting is the first to offer self-service set-up.
The Conversagent platform is aimed at opening up the virtual human landscape to smaller businesses in need of efficient customer service agents without breaking the bank.
Conversagent requires no coding and can be set up on a company’s website in under 15 minutes, according to the vendor. Allowing users to increase sales and capture leads, the virtual human can follow a business’ unique script or use one of the inbuilt templates. To activate the widget, a generated line of code is added to the website.
“One of the major issues facing companies large and small is that delivering a frictionless customer experience often requires a well-trained human support team," CEO, Tanya Newhouse, said. “Unfortunately, customer support teams are expensive to operationalise 24/7. But with Clevertar's technology, companies can deploy a virtual human employee and take all the best elements of their most effective support agents to train the virtual human and create conversational flows that deliver a satisfying customer experience every time."
Liferay announces new cloud, commerce and content capabilities
Liferay has launched the latest versions of Liferay DXP and Liferay Commerce and announced global availability of Liferay DXP Cloud.
The new releases of Liferay’s products equip enterprises with reusable content management and personalisation tools along with the flexibility of a decoupled CMS architecture, powered by the cloud.
With Liferay DXP 7.2, enterprises can build and deliver meaningful experiences to their customers with features like content recommendations and auto-tagging. Liferay DXP Cloud, meanwhile, is an enterprise solution that aims to simplify the deployment, management and scaling of Liferay DXP with Platform as a Service capabilities.
Liferay Commerce 2.0 enables businesses to leverage their content to deliver easy-to-use purchasing experiences unique to each customer.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
