All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Dentsu Aegis, SOCi, DoubleVerify, Salesforce, Evergage, SECURITI.ai, Community, Productsup, Sitecore, Tealium and Invoca
Dentsu Aegis acquires 4Cite Marketing
Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired people-based identification and data services technology company, 4Cite Marketing.
4Cite will join Merkle, a technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing company and part of Dentsu Aegis Network. 4Cite has capabilities that helps retailers influence purchase activity by reaching more customers with personalised engagements. Its proprietary technology platform aggregates and distills personally identifiable actions using advanced analytics and real-time decisioning to understand when to best market to each consumer and trigger individualised content. 4Cite is also a repository of first-party consumer information captured across its client and partner base.
Merkle said the acquisition of 4Cite bolsters its role as a leader in identity technology. 4Cite will also enable M1, Dentsu Aegis Network’s people-based insights, planning, and activation platform, to build an identity graph that delivers scale, deterministic matches and persistent identity based on first-party cookies. 4Cite’s technology reinforces Merkle’s media business, providing clients with a viable path to execute addressable media campaigns outside of walled gardens.
Salesforce acquires Evergage
Salesforce has acquired Evergage for its real-time, cross-channel personalisation and machine learning capabilities
The CRM giant said the platform would complement Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s customer data, audience segmentation and engagement platform, enabling companies to deliver more relevant experiences during moments of interaction across the entire customer journey. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In a blog post, Evergage co-founder and CEO, Karl Wirth,noted the vendor's efforts to personalise B2B marketing, noting its work with clients including Autodesk, Carhartt, Citrix and Zumiez.
"Our real-time, cross-channel personalisation and machine learning capabilities complement Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s robust customer data, audience segmentation and engagement platform, enabling companies to deliver more relevant experiences during moments of interaction across the entire customer journey," he said.
"Given our shared commitment to customer success, joining Salesforce just makes sense. We’ll be able to do what we do better and at much greater scale and pace than we ever could before."
SOCi closes oversubscribed US$15 million funding round
Social and reputation management platform, SOCi, has closed an oversubscribed Series C round of US$15 million.
The round was co-led by Vertical Venture Partners, Grayhawk Capital, and newcomer Ankona Capital with participation from Blossom Street Ventures.
SOCi last year introduced a number of new solutions to its product suite - SOCi Ads PLUS, Reputation insights, Listings Management and Google Posts integration - to help clients better manage their brands on a local level. This latest funding round will enable the company to bring new products to market that allow enterprise companies to generate a holistic view of the local customer journey.
DoubleVerify launches connected TV fraud detection program
Digital media measurement platform, DoubleVerify, has released the first programmatic platform certification program for comprehensive connected TV fraud protection, designed to protect advertisers from fraud and invalid traffic.
In order to be certified by DoubleVerify for connected TV targeting, a platform must demonstrate the ability to prevent fraud and invalid traffic by applying DoubleVerify’s pre-bid app and device fraud protection for connected TV inventory transactions.
DoubleVerify’s fraud identification leverages custom-built algorithms and detection methods that do not require the use of an SDK or custom integration. Its system combines human expertise and machine learning (ML), which includes fraud analysts; dedicated hardware lab with advanced capabilities to reverse-engineer CTV threats; ML features and algorithms designed for connected TV fraud prevalent; and specialised telemetry to identify fraud.
SECURITI.ai raises US$50 million in Series B round
Privacy and data security automation outfit, SECURITI.ai, has raised US$50 million in Series B financing, led by General Catalyst with participation from Mayfield.
The latest round comes months after the company’s Series A and brings total fundraise to US$81 million. PRIVACI.ai enables enterprises to manage their consumer’s data, comply with global privacy regulations and bolster their brands. It can automatically and accurately find all the personal data within an organisation across physical and cloud data systems and map data to its owner with AI-driven bots.
Other capabilities include reducing the time and cost to fulfill individuals’ data requests and other compliance requirements by leveraging robotic automation. Automate consent revocation across systems and vendor assessments and facilitating breach notifications.
The CW, Tastemade, AccuWeather and Microsoft Advertising join Community
Community, powered by Xandr, has added four additional premium media brands: The CW, Tastemade, AccuWeather and Microsoft Advertising, to its marketplace.
Community simplifies and enhances an advertiser’s access to unique audiences. Community enables advertisers to reach their audiences at scale in brand-safe, privacy-protected, and premium video environments.
Consumers no longer view video content on a single screen. As a result, marketers are looking for solutions that reach audiences across digital, video and traditional TV. Xandr’s cross-screen addressable offering enables advertisers to reach audiences across screens, combining the power of addressable TV with the precision and scale of digital.
Community is powered by first-party insights from AT&T’s 170 million direct-to-consumer relationships. Community’s approach allows advertisers to reach audiences based on intent, interest and lifestyle, while preserving the viewer experience by managing frequency caps.
Productsup announces partnership with Sitecore
Ecommerce data integration business, Productsup, has a new strategic partnership with digital experience management software outfit, Sitecore.
The partnership will enable their enterprise customer bases to implement personalised digital experiences and seamless end-to-end product content flow to support a business ecosystem of channels, suppliers and customer experiences.
Productsup offers product content syndication, feed management, marketplace integration and vendor onboarding for brands and retailers. The platform enables users to optimise and syndicate product content to any digital marketing, shopping or business channel. By connecting Productsup’s platform with Sitecore Content Hub, the partnership will support higher quality data and media, as well as clearer context of channels, allowing content to come to life for brands.
Tealium and Invoca partner in customer experiences analytics
Real-time customer data orchestration outfit, Tealium, and enterprise AI-powered call tracking and conversational analytics firm, Invoca, have announced a strategic partnership to allow organisations to combine customer data and conversational analytics insights in real-time to better inform contact centre interactions and optimise the caller experience.
For companies that engage with consumers through both digital channels and high-touch human interactions, the integration between Tealium and Invoca enables more personalised experiences across online and offline touch points.
Invoca can use enriched data from the profile in Tealium to route inbound calls automatically to agents with specific skill sets – such as product expertise or language proficiency – to eliminate unnecessary call transfers, shorten call handle time and reduce contact center costs. Additionally, Tealium users can enrich customer profiles with Invoca’s conversational analytics capabilities, which detect key buying signals and call outcomes.
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