Alpine IQ unveils Surveys, a groundbreaking feature that aims to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers, as well as foster internal communication within teams. This tool not only amplifies the customer voices but also offers a comprehensive platform for businesses to create, manage, and analyze feedback.

The Surveys tool allows businesses to craft tailored surveys to gather invaluable feedback on various topics. These encompass areas such as customer experience, product assortment, pricing strategies, promotions, and operational facets. What sets this feature apart is its ability to target and dispatch surveys to the appropriate audience, ensuring high response rates and gathering valuable insights.

This initiative demonstrates Alpine IQ's dedication to nurturing a culture of ongoing improvement and feedback within organizations. Moreover, the feature facilitates the collection of product reviews based on customers' purchase histories, guaranteeing authentic and relevant feedback.

Nicholas Paschal, co-founder, and CEO of Alpine IQ said, "At Alpine IQ, we prioritize listening to both our customers and our internal teams. The Surveys feature embodies our unwavering commitment to innovation and continuous enhancement."

Surveys offer a seamless experience for businesses. Within an intuitive interface, creating a survey is straightforward, allowing users to set its duration and provide essential details. The platform ensures brand consistency with customizable content and design flexibility. A variety of question types cater to diverse feedback needs, with responses stored in the Persona profile for precise audience segmentation. Additionally, the share tab facilitates easy distribution, whether standalone or integrated with campaigns. Once collected, businesses benefit from detailed insights, with options to view individual question data or download responses for in-depth analysis.

With the Surveys feature, Alpine IQ is poised to transform the manner in which businesses collect and leverage feedback. This ensures they remain efficient, prioritize their customers, and maintain a competitive edge.

Bloomreach’s customers can now benefit from the fast ROI of AI-driven search and content management solutions

Bloomreach today announced it has launched Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce on Salesforce AppExchange, in partnership with digital commerce agency Astound Commerce. With availability on the world’s leading enterprise cloud marketplace, Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce will provide customers with new ways to create personalized e-commerce experiences driven by rich data and powerful AI.

Bloomreach solutions enable businesses to drive fast results by connecting every customer with the right product, in the right place, at the right time. Its Discovery app is backed by AI and an extensive e-commerce data set, unlocking smarter, more personalized e-commerce search from the moment of implementation. Its Content app allows businesses to manage storefronts with ease, curating and optimizing the right content and products for their site. Together, these apps empower every business to optimize e-commerce for greater relevance, better customer experiences, and faster revenue growth.

Bloomreach has also worked with Astound Commerce to make its apps available within the agency’s Launch360 accelerator. Launch360 offers out-of-the-box capabilities, design enhancements, and agile integrations for Salesforce businesses, allowing them to quickly build a commerce experience tailored to their unique brand. Through Launch360, businesses will leverage Astound Commerce’s more than 16 years of Salesforce expertise to seamlessly implement Bloomreach solutions.

Comments on the news:

• “Bloomreach Search and Discovery Cartridge for B2C Commerce is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as it accelerates business transformation for customers by driving AI-powered personalization across the online shopping journey,” said Alice Steinglass, Executive Vice President of and General Manager, Platform. “AppExchange is constantly evolving to connect customers with the right apps and experts for their business needs.”
• "Bloomreach's Discovery and Content solutions are market-leading and fuel great outcomes for many of Astound's clients. We are so excited to launch these apps in AppExchange as well as our own Launch360: Composable accelerator," Vanessa Cartwright, CEO of Americas, Astound Commerce.
• “We’re pleased to bring our Discovery and Content apps to Salesforce AppExchange,” said Anand Subbiah, VP of Technical Alliances & Ecosystem Platform, Bloomreach. “This will offer exciting new opportunities for Salesforce customers to seamlessly integrate Bloomreach into their commerce ecosystem, enhancing the experience for their customers and quickly recognizing the ROI of personalization.”

Machine Learning Wrapper Optimization enables one-click A/B testing for Prebid recommendations

Magnite, the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company, today introduced machine learning driven recommendations for A/B testing within its Demand Manager product. Built on Prebid technology, Demand Manager empowers leading publishers with the tools, insights, and connections to grow revenue across the ever-changing marketplace of ad exchanges, formats, and vendors. This launch marks the introduction of sophisticated machine learning algorithms packaged with existing industry-leading capabilities for publishers to manage their Prebid stack.

The new feature utilizes machine learning to provide automated Prebid optimization recommendations based on Prebid and ad server auction data and session data, with the goal of revenue lift. Publishers can now activate machine generated settings into an A/B test with a single click. Initial tests showed that 80% of wrappers that ran a machine-generated experiment saw an increase in revenue compared to the existing setting.

“Publishers are confronted with a seemingly endless number of daily choices that materially impact revenue. We developed this new feature to eliminate Prebid optimization guesswork while still giving publishers full control,” said Matt Tengler, VP of Product at Magnite. “Infusing A/B testing with machine learning makes it easy for publishers to measure revenue and page performance improvements. This continues to bring publishers innovative tools that focus on revenue and efficiency at the same time.”

“We were excited to test this new Demand Manager feature to see how machine learning could improve our wrapper configurations,” said Ben Elshaw, Director of Operations at LADbible. “We were pleased to see a material rCPM increase following the implementation of the optimization recommendations. Demand Manager's A/B testing functionality combined with machine learning recommendations is a welcome innovation that we hope to see expand in the future."

“After using Demand Manager's new machine learning-driven recommendations for wrapper optimization, we were pleased to see an immediate increase in revenue,” said Lewis Lee, Senior Ad Tech Specialist at REA. “The A/B testing capabilities allow us to customize our wrapper configurations based on data and quickly test more scenarios while minimizing risk. We look forward to testing additional features that utilize machine learning to help us improve our Prebid settings.”

Konect.ai, a pioneering SaaS company at the forefront of conversational AI technology for the automotive retail industry, is thrilled to announce a $5.5 million seed investment from Silverton Partners, a prominent venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas. This investment will fuel Konect.ai's mission to transform the way auto dealerships and auto tech companies engage with their customers through advanced AI-driven communication.

This investment marks a significant milestone for Konect.ai, enabling the company to further its mission of revolutionizing the way auto dealerships and auto tech companies interact with their customers. With features like acquisition lead management, outbound SMS campaigns, and after-hours support, Konect.ai is committed to enhancing the customer experience and helping clients achieve their sales goals.

Cole Kutschinski, President/CEO of Konect.ai, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, "This investment from Silverton Partners is a strong validation of our vision and the hard work of our talented team. With this support, we are poised to accelerate our growth and continue to innovate, bringing the most advanced conversational AI products to the automotive retail industry."

Rob Taylor, Operating Partner at Silverton Partners, also shared his thoughts on the investment, saying, "We at Silverton are excited to partner with and support the Konect.ai team as they accelerate their growth. We were drawn not just to the incredible business they have already built, but also to their forward vision of utilizing machine intelligence innovation to create delightful experiences for all parties across the automotive retail ecosystem."

The funds raised will be used to expand Konect.ai's product offerings, enhance research and development, and grow the company's presence in key markets. This investment solidifies Konect.ai's position as a leader in the automotive retail technology sector and sets the stage for continued success.

New Page Strength Metric Shows Highest Correlation to Rankings

Leading the charge in AI-driven SEO innovations for enterprises, seoClarity has launched its latest AI development, Keyword Difficulty, the most reliable way to determine ranking difficulty for any keyword.

Built from the ground up over the last three years, seoClarity's Keyword Difficulty score is based on a brand new metric—seoClarity's Page Strength.

Keyword Difficulty's innovative Page Strength metric goes beyond backlink-counting models and offers a comprehensive evaluation of a page's topical relevance, or page strength.

"seoClarity's approach is significantly different and takes into account everything known about a page to create a composite score called Page Strength," said Mitul Gandhi, seoClarity's Co-founder and Chief Architect.

Page Strength leverages every data point in seoClarity's industry leading Research Grid dataset—keywords, search volume, volatility, SERP features, backlinks and most importantly, on-page content—and applies sophisticated AI to calculate the page strength of every one of the tens of billions of pages across 90+ countries.

"Existing approaches to determining page strength and keyword difficulty using backlinks have shown declining correlation to rankings over the years," Gandhi explained. "In fact, the last study on this showed only a 0.233 correlation."

In contrast, seoClarity's Page Strength shows a correlation of 0.51 to rankings and has been validated multiple times by third-party statistical studies, making it the highest correlation any SEO metric has ever achieved to rankings.

For years, the SEO industry has predominantly relied on backlinks as the primary factor for calculating keyword difficulty. However, search engines have evolved dramatically since the birth of these metrics.

As Duy Nguyen of Google's Search Quality Team recently stated, "Backlinks as a signal have a much less significant impact compared to when Google Search first started out many years ago." Gary Illyes even stated at September's PubCon event that links "aren't even in the top three" of ranking factors.

Mark Traphagan, seoClarity's VP of Training and Product Marketing, highlights the importance of this release, saying, "Given the limitations of the "link factor" approach, Page Strength as the focus for Keyword Difficulty provides a clear and actionable metric for prioritizing topics."

One client, Niall Brooke, an Ecommerce SEO Manager for leading UK and International omni-channel retailer, Matalan, shared, "There's a lot more that goes into how difficult a keyword is to rank for these days; having a complex algorithm worked out for you is really beneficial and a big time-saver."

Program participation signifies Appfire's focus on compliance with EU, UK, and Swiss data privacy standards

Appfire, the leading global provider of software that enhances, extends, and connects the world's leading platforms, such as Atlassian, Microsoft, monday.com, and Salesforce, announced it has been included on the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) participants' list, maintained by the International Trade Administration (ITA) within the US Department of Commerce. Ongoing participation in the program by Appfire's US entities listed among DPF participants signifies to partners, customers, vendors, and employees that Appfire has reliable mechanisms for personal data transfers to the United States from the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland while ensuring data protection that is consistent with EU, UK, and Swiss law.

In today's digitally connected world, data flows and data transfers are critical to an organization's success. For organizations that transfer data between the EU and US, this process has become complex as data privacy regulations have introduced more stringent requirements to ensure compliance. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, restricts the transfer of data to countries without appropriate levels of data protection comparable to the EU. The EU-US DPF provides US-based organizations with a way to transfer personal data while ensuring data protection consistent with EU law. With this participation, customers and other stakeholders are assured that Appfire is in compliance with EU, US, UK, and Swiss data privacy standards and is able to provide adequate data protection. 

"Becoming a participant of the Data Privacy Framework Program marks a significant milestone in our journey to ensure data privacy and security for every Appfire customer, vendor, partner, and employee," said Appfire General Counsel Christine Alpers. "Instilling a culture of compliance is an important pillar for our team at Appfire. This participation reinforces our commitment to maintaining the gold standard of privacy compliance and supports our mission to promote trust, giving our stakeholders further assurance that we are operating within the boundaries of legal and ethical data handling practices."

Cisco today announced it is making changes to its product categories and customer markets to simplify and enhance its reporting to investors and other stakeholders.

Effective Q1 FY 2024, Cisco will report its product and service revenue in the following categories: 

• Networking
• Security
• Collaboration
• Observability
• Services

Cisco will report its customer markets in the following categories effective Q1 FY 2024:

• Enterprise
• Public Sector
• Service Provider & Cloud

These revised product categories and customer markets will be used in the Q1 FY 2024 conference call scheduled for Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

Cisco's reportable segments will continue to be based on its geographies which consist of the Americas, EMEA, and APJC.

A critical need for future-proofed, sustainable marketing measurement & attribution solutions supporting growth in an always-on and connected environment is driving industry demand

Ipsos MMA, the globally recognized leader in marketing performance measurement and ROI analytics, unveils powerful enhancements to its market leading innovative Agile Attribution Platform. In response to the imminent deprecation of cookies and the continued data privacy concerns among consumers, Ipsos MMA has introduced Agile Attribution, a unified marketing measurement platform which integrates holistic marketing mix models, with micro-level models using advanced machine learning algorithms, and continuous market validation into a single insights and optimization platform. This strategic development reaffirms Ipsos MMA's unwavering commitment to continuous innovation, its focus on providing the industry marketing investment decision-making that can be validated through increasing marketing value and its proactive approach to tackle the evolving challenges of data privacy. 

Navigating the Changing Landscape

Multi-touch attribution (MTA) had long been an effective tool in marketers' arsenals, providing insights into customer journeys, campaign and placement level effectiveness, and resource efficiency across attributable media tactics. However, with the diminishing reliability of third-party cookies and escalating concerns surround data privacy, marketers are in search of alternative solutions that achieve the same or better results.

Ipsos MMA recognized the urgent need for a more adaptable, agile and privacy-conscious approach. The introduction of Agile Attribution three years ago has been adopted and validated by global clients across multiple industries.  This latest evolution has positioned Ipsos MMA at the vanguard of innovation, ensuring that clients can continue to access detailed insights into their marketing performance and ROI, as well as driving both short and long-term marketing results in terms of achieving measurable gains in sales and brand equity.

Revolutionizing Marketing Measurement

Ipsos MMA's Agile platform, fueled by cutting-edge analytics, empowers its clients to comprehensively assess marketing effectiveness across media channels, publishers, campaigns, creative, audiences and ad formats, both online and offline, without reliance on individual user data. This advanced approach seamlessly synthesizes econometric modeling, data science, AI, and machine learning, enabling monthly, weekly and daily measurement and optimization.

Key Benefits of Ipsos MMA's Agile Attribution Platform:

1.  Aggregate-Level & Micro-Level Media Insights: Powered by traditional marketing mix models coupled with micro-level attribution modeling, Agile offers a deeper understanding of how media investments, pricing, promotions, operations and external factors impact sales and customer behavior, leading to improved marketing effectiveness, efficiency and more accurate forecasting results.
2. Unparalleled Agility: Clients can benefit from monthly and even weekly/daily model results, allowing for swift adjustments to marketing allocation strategies based on near-real-time insights. The platform dynamically identifies and automates the delivery of the most relevant, tactical simulation, optimization and next-best-action recommendations based on key priorities and KPIs.
3.  Comprehensive Insights: Agile Attribution considers macroeconomic impacts, base consumer propensities, relative price position, creative factors, salesforce effectiveness, and competitive activity, among other key variables to ensure a true quantification of incrementality across platforms and channels.
4. Ongoing, in-market validation and recalibration: Integration with testing ensures the accuracy and reliability of the platform's insights.

Rob Cardarelli, Ipsos MMA's Executive Vice President, Analytics and Attribution, explains, "Agile Attribution represents a monumental leap in the evolution of marketing measurement. With Ipsos MMA's Agile platform, we've harnessed the power of cutting-edge analytics and AI to provide our clients with granular, rapid insights for agile marketing decision-making. This innovation addresses the challenges of data privacy and the lack of third-party cookie data, enabling our clients to make informed decisions and optimize their marketing strategies with unprecedented precision."

Case Example: Telco Provider – Unlocking Marketing Excellence

A telco service provider faced the complex challenge of optimizing its vast marketing investment in media channels and promotional offers, and across a diverse range of geographic regions, asked Ipsos MMA for a comprehensive solution. The Agile Attribution platform identified specific, actionable insights and their associated value-proposition, enabling the telco provider to answer the following questions:

1.   Media Optimization – Strategic Precision:

• What is the optimal balance of upper/mid/lower funnel tactics, channel-level strategies, creative approaches, targeted audiences and reach & frequency thresholds at the regional level?

2.    Product Allocation – Resource Allocation Wisdom:

• How should the telco allocate its marketing spend across different lines-of-business, such as prepaid vs. postpaid, and wireless vs. internet vs. video?

3.    Promotional Strategy – Crafting Effective Offer Combinations:

• What is the optimal promotional offer type and combination, including pricing, bundles, device trade-in credit, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), new account incentives, add-a-line promotions, upgrades, and gifts/freemiums?

Ipsos MMA's Agile Attribution platform was able to provide insights and optimization recommendations not only within each marketing silo (media, product and promotion) but as a combination across all three levers at a DMA level, providing the ability to fine-tune the holistic marketing mix for maximum impact in each geographic area. In this real-world scenario, the Agile optimization solution yielded a potential 10% month-over-month increase in gross additions with neutral spending. These results speak to the platform's effectiveness in enhancing strategic marketing decision-making.

"Our Agile Attribution platform doesn't just deliver marketing performance insights; it sets a new standard for excellence in the industry, and our clients are absolutely thrilled with it," exclaimed Charlie Hinton, Vice President, Analytics Consulting at Ipsos MMA. She went on to emphasize, "Agile isn't just a tool; it's a transformative force, especially for businesses grappling with complex marketing mixes. It has the potential to revolutionize go-to-market strategies for clients, optimizing investments across a multitude of critical areas including multiple lines-of-business, pricing and promotions, and media investments. The power of Agile is truly unparalleled."