Braze unifies its data capabilities and partner ecosystem, launches new features to help brands more easily integrate and activate data for relevant, memorable customer experiences

• Braze Data Platform Launch: Braze unveils a comprehensive data platform designed to streamline data unification, activation, and distribution for marketers, enabling them to create personalized customer engagements effectively.
• Challenges Addressed: Marketers face difficulties in integrating and leveraging customer data effectively for engagement, with a significant gap in utilizing behavioral and sentiment data for product and brand strategies.
• Platform Features: The Braze Data Platform offers flexibility, interoperability, and modularity, allowing brands to integrate and utilize first-party data seamlessly across various technologies and workflows.

Key Capabilities:

• Data Unification: Simplifies the collection and aggregation of first-party data from diverse sources through real-time integrations with leading cloud data platforms like AWS's Amazon Redshift, Databricks, and Snowflake via CDI Segments.
• Data Activation: Enhances personalization capabilities with advanced data management tools in Braze Catalogs, facilitating real-time user behavior analysis and personalized campaign execution through Sage AI by Braze™.
• Data Distribution: Facilitates secure data sharing with third-party tools such as Amplitude, Contentsquare, Mixpanel, and Snowplow for deeper analytics and business insights.

Strategic Impact:

• Customer-Centric Approach: Empowers brands to engage customers personally and efficiently across digital channels, leveraging real-time stream processing to gain immediate insights into customer behavior.
• Ecosystem Integration: Collaborates closely with leading data ecosystem technologies and customer data platforms (CDPs) to enhance data lifecycle management from unification to distribution.

Industry Collaboration:

• Partner Perspectives: Snowflake highlights alignment with Braze's goal to optimize data utilization, enhancing their AI Data Cloud product vision by bringing applications closer to data for improved business outcomes.

The Braze Data Platform represents a significant advancement in enabling brands to harness the full potential of their customer data for personalized and impactful customer engagements. By integrating seamlessly with leading technologies and platforms, Braze aims to empower marketers with the tools needed to navigate complex data landscapes and drive meaningful customer interactions across digital touchpoints.

New Tool Launch: Rapid URL Indexer announces the release of its advanced Google indexing tool, designed to help clients efficiently index their websites in Google Search.

Client-Centric Approach: Utilizes a pay-as-you-go credit system with automatic refunds for unsuccessful indexing after 14 days, ensuring transparency and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Includes detailed reporting, visual charts, CSV downloads, and integration-friendly features like a RESTful API and a free WordPress plugin for automatic submission of new posts.

Indexing Efficiency: Boasts a higher indexing rate compared to competitors, with rapid Googlebot crawls and initial indexing reports available within 4 days.

Key Use Cases:

• Press Releases: Specializes in indexing press releases, overcoming challenges with duplicate content.
• Mass Page Websites: Efficiently indexes large directories or SEO-focused sites with numerous pages.
• SEO Testing: Indexes lorem ipsum SEO test pages quickly for testing purposes.
• Backlink Disavows: Helps recover from backlink-related penalties by recrawling and indexing disavowed links.
• Any Backlinks: Ensures indexing of tiered backlinks, social profiles, and citations for enhanced SEO strategies.

Competitive Advantage:

• High Success Rate: Achieves an average 91% indexing rate, making it a cost-effective choice with guaranteed results.
• Versatility: Suitable for any type of website, offering competitive pricing and reliability in indexing services.

Rapid URL Indexer sets a new standard in Google indexing tools with its reliable, efficient, and cost-effective approach. Designed to meet the needs of diverse clients across industries, it promises high indexing rates and ensures client satisfaction with a refund guarantee for unsuccessful attempts.

Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics, has announced the appointment of Akhil Parekh as its Chief Solutions Officer of Digital Product.

New Role and Responsibilities

• Role Creation: This is a newly created position at Nielsen.
• Value Proposition Expansion: Akhil will expand Nielsen's value proposition within the advertising ecosystem through new digital products and enhancements.
• Team Oversight: He will oversee teams focused on Nielsen's planning and ads products.
• Strategic Partnerships: Akhil will manage and enhance strategic partnerships.
• Collaboration: He will partner with Deirdre Thomas, Chief Product Officer for Audience Measurement, to lead product strategy for Nielsen's content solutions and existing ratings and reporting teams.

Leadership Statements

• Akhil Parekh's Vision: Akhil expressed his honor in continuing Nielsen's leadership in audience measurement and innovation in the digital space.
• CEO's Perspective: Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen, emphasized the strategic importance of innovation in streaming and convergent TV, and expressed confidence in Akhil's role in achieving this vision.

Akhil Parekh’s Background

• Industry Experience: Akhil has extensive experience in the advertising industry.
• Track Record: He has a proven track record of driving product innovation and maximizing impact through collaboration.
• Previous Roles:
  • Publicis Groupe: Executive Vice President, Managing Director, responsible for building a new media platform for agency planners and buyers.
  • Mediaocean: Held senior positions, including at 4C Insights, acquired by Mediaocean.
  • Other Positions: Served at Rovi Corporation, Amp'd Mobile, and ExcelaCom.

• Strategic Growth: Akhil Parekh’s appointment is a strategic move for Nielsen, aiming to enhance its digital product offerings and maintain its leadership in audience measurement and advertising innovation.
• Future Vision: The addition of Akhil to the team is expected to play a crucial role in developing the products and strategies necessary for client success in the evolving advertising ecosystem.

Former Cohere leader to drive innovation and disrupt rental housing market with AI-powered intelligence

Radix, a cutting-edge market research, performance, and data analytics platform, announced the hiring of Shaun Hillin as its new Chief Information Officer.

Role and Responsibilities

• Leadership Role: Shaun Hillin will lead Radix's engineering and data science teams.
• Innovation Strategy: He will develop a transformative innovation strategy leveraging artificial intelligence and Radix's existing data analytics platform.
• Industry Disruption: Hillin's visionary approach aims to disrupt the rental housing industry with a complete ecosystem of data for operators and renters.

Leadership Statements

• CEO's Statement: Blerim Zeqiri, CEO of Radix, highlighted Shaun's experience, leadership, and passion for generative AI as key factors in enhancing Radix's data resources and industry influence.
• Vision and Potential: Zeqiri emphasized that Hillin's background in technology and AI will accelerate Radix's mission to provide transparent, current, and actionable market data to the rental housing industry.

Shaun Hillin’s Background

• Previous Experience:
  • Cohere: Global Head of AI solution architecture, instrumental in launching enterprise-focused AI models on major platforms like Oracle, AWS, Azure, and GCP.
  • AWS: Drove strategy around enterprise data platform transformations.
• Achievements: Contributed to Cohere's impressive $5 billion valuation.
• Education: Attended the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University.
• Speaking Engagements: Guest lecturer at Harvard and frequent conference speaker at events like SXSW on AI and machine learning.

Hillin's Vision for Radix

• Depth of Data: Radix offers unparalleled depth and granularity of data in the rental housing industry.
• Team and Mission: Excited to join a passionate team committed to delivering a category-defining product.
• AI-Driven Analytics: Aims to build paradigm-shifting AI-driven analytics for the multifamily sector.
• Strategic Growth: Shaun Hillin's appointment is poised to drive significant growth and innovation at Radix through advanced AI and data analytics.
• Industry Impact: His expertise is expected to transform the rental housing industry, providing operators and renters with critical market insights and performance data.

37% of consumers surveyed will start holiday shopping by September; 23% begin in August

Bazaarvoice, the leading platform for full-funnel authentic user-generated content (UGC) and social commerce solutions, has released its 2024 Global Holiday Season Consumer Behavior Report based on insights from more than 8,000 global consumers. The report suggests that the holiday shopping season begins as early as August.

Early Shopping Trends

• Early Starters: 23% of shoppers will start gift shopping by August or earlier.
• September Shoppers: 37% will begin by September.
• October Shoppers: More than half (55%) will start by October.
• Country Comparisons:
  • UK: 63% start shopping by July or earlier.
  • US: Only 13% start by July.
  • Germany: 63% start in November or later.

Consumer Preferences and Behaviors

• Timing for Holiday Displays:
  • Too Early: 62% believe October or earlier is too soon for holiday items.
  • Never Too Early: 26% say it’s never too early.
• Shopping Venues:
  • Malls: 28% start holiday shopping at malls.
  • Gen Z: 35% prefer malls.
  • French Shoppers: 41% prefer malls, the highest among surveyed countries.
  • US Shoppers: Only 20% prefer malls, the lowest among surveyed countries.
  • Online and In-store: 33% shop both in-store and online, with Amazon being a popular choice.

Social Media and Video Content

• Social Media Shopping:
  • Intentional and Spontaneous: 49% of festive social media shopping is both.
• Preferred Content Format:
  • Video: 37% say video captures their attention most effectively.
  • Video Length:
    • 1-5 minutes: Preferred by 29%.
    • 1 minute or less: Preferred by 28%.
• Content Preference:
  • Brand-Created: 46%.
  • User-Generated: 44%.
  • Influencer-Created: 10%.

Omnichannel Strategy

• Seamless Experience: 82% of shoppers emphasize the importance of a seamless experience across multiple channels.
• Omnichannel Integration: Leveraging both online and in-store experiences is crucial for an effective strategy.
• Insights and Strategy: Bazaarvoice’s 2024 Global Holiday Season Consumer Behavior Report provides valuable insights into holiday shopping trends and the importance of integrating UGC and social commerce.
• Report Availability: The report is available for download, offering detailed data to help brands and retailers fine-tune their holiday strategies.

Pioneers in Their Respective Fields Join Forces to Establish an Unprecedented Customer Data Operating System

BlueConic, a leading customer data platform (CDP), has announced its acquisition of Jebbit, a premier first-party data-capture and experience-creation software for marketers. This strategic merger results in the creation of the industry’s first-ever Operating System for Customer Data.

Strategic Acquisition

• Acquisition Announcement: BlueConic acquires Jebbit to expand its capabilities in customer data management.
• New Offering: The acquisition creates the industry’s first Operating System for Customer Data.
• CEO’s Statement: Cory Munchbach, CEO of BlueConic, expressed excitement about the merger and its potential to offer enhanced capabilities for marketers, providing deeper insights, actionable strategies, and growth acceleration.

Jebbit’s Role and Capabilities

• Data-Capture Tools: Jebbit provides interactive tools such as custom quizzes, surveys, and lookbooks.
• No-Code Interface: Jebbit’s no-code, AI-driven experience creator interface facilitates easy data collection for marketers.
• Data Integration: Jebbit’s first-party data, combined with BlueConic’s enterprise data, creates comprehensive customer profiles.
• Clean Room: Profiles can be anonymized in the BlueConic Clean Room for advanced segmentation and channel activation.

Jebbit’s Mission

• Tom Coburn’s Statement: Tom Coburn, CEO and Co-Founder of Jebbit, emphasized the mission to create engaging, assumption-free digital experiences that uncover customer interests and preferences.
• Enhanced Customer Understanding: The merger aims to redefine customer profiles with diverse data types.

Expanded Global Reach

• Customer Base: The combined entity will serve an expanded global customer base of over 500 clients.
• Commitment to Innovation: The acquisition highlights both companies' dedication to innovation and customer-centric solutions in the competitive marketing landscape.
• Significant Milestone: The acquisition of Jebbit by BlueConic marks a major development in the CDP industry, introducing a groundbreaking platform for customer data management.
• Future Outlook: The merger is set to offer marketers unprecedented tools for data-driven strategies and growth.

The newest addition to Zakeke's tech stack acts as a central hub for brands to easily create, store and manage 3D models in one place; empowering brands to cut costs, increase efficiency and operate more sustainably.

Zakeke, the world leader in the Visual Commerce landscape, has officially launched the 3D Digital Asset Manager (DAM). This new central hub is designed to simplify the creation, storage, management, and sharing of 3D models, helping brands embrace the 3D revolution in visual commerce.

3D Digital Asset Manager Overview

• New Launch: Zakeke introduces the 3D Digital Asset Manager, enhancing its suite of advanced tools for visual commerce.
• Central Hub: The DAM provides a single platform for managing all 3D digital asset needs.
• Capabilities:
  • Creation: Simplifies the creation of 3D models from 2D images.
  • Management: Centralizes 3D content management with bulk editing and collaboration features.
  • Storage: Offers unlimited storage for 3D assets.
  • Sharing: Facilitates seamless sharing through native integrations with other platforms.

Benefits for Brands

• Enhanced Efficiency: Helps brands cut costs and operate more efficiently by centralizing 3D asset management.
• Sustainable Practices: Reduces costs associated with samples and photoshoots, and minimizes overproduction of unnecessary samples.
• Immersive Experiences: Enables brands to deliver engaging 3D shopping experiences, improving customer engagement.

Client Base and Market Reach

• Global Presence: Zakeke serves over 10,000 global customers across more than 400 sectors in over 200 countries.
• Notable Clients: Includes major fashion labels like Valentino, Colmar, and Testoni, as well as tech brands like HP.

CEO’s Statement

• Angelo Coletta’s Vision: Angelo Coletta, CEO & Co-Founder of Zakeke, emphasized that the 3D Digital Asset Manager helps businesses overcome challenges in 3D content creation and management, enhancing customer engagement and streamlining operations.
• Revolutionizing Visual Commerce: Zakeke’s new 3D Digital Asset Manager marks a significant advancement in the visual commerce landscape, offering brands a comprehensive solution for 3D model management and supporting the transition to more efficient, sustainable practices.

97% of executives admit they are ill-prepared for Google phasing out third-party cookies; 86% believe their personalization capabilities are inadequate

At a pivotal moment for digital marketing, Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, has released a new survey revealing that 97% of executives feel unprepared for the foundational shift brought by Google’s plan to eliminate third-party cookies. This survey, which includes responses from 1,000 executives across six countries, highlights significant challenges and opportunities in adapting to the future of digital marketing.

The Cookie Phaseout and Its Impact

• Major Shift: Google’s plan to eliminate cookies represents a fundamental change in how companies gather consumer data and understand preferences.
• Executive Readiness: 97% of executives report feeling unprepared for this shift.
• Personalization Challenges: With over 75% of consumers more likely to buy from brands that offer personalized experiences, 86% of executives believe their current ability to run personalized marketing campaigns is inadequate.

Survey Findings

• Research Scope: The survey included 1,000 Marketing, E-Commerce, and IT executives from the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Australia/New Zealand, and Singapore.
• Generational Shifts: The survey comes at a crucial time as Google phases out cookies, AI technology evolves, and regulatory pressures increase.

Personalization and Experimentation

• Budget Increases: 62% of respondents have increased their personalization budgets over the past year.
• Experimentation Benefits: Executives acknowledge the benefits of experimentation in personalization efforts, including:
  • Identifying Mistakes: 40% find it helps spot errors.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: 40% use it for making informed choices.
  • Testing Strategies: 39% value it for pre-implementation testing.
  • Personalizing Experiences: 39% see it as key to crafting customer experiences.
  • Effective Strategies: 39% use it to discover successful personalization methods.

Challenges in Personalization Strategies

• Real-Time Personalization: Executives face challenges including:
  • Focused Analytics: 43% struggle with analytics for real-time personalization.
  • Scaling Programs: 40% find it hard to scale personalization efforts.
  • Activating Experiences: 39% have trouble with real-time activation.
• Process-Oriented Obstacles: 36% cite disjointed workflows as a top challenge.
• Unified Definition: Only 26% have a unified definition of personalization within their organization.
• Measuring ROI: No single metric is used by half of the respondents, indicating uncertainty in tracking success.

Preparing for the Future

• Adapting to Change: Executives must move away from third-party data and focus on innovative ways to create personalized campaigns.
• Effective Campaigns: The transition will require new strategies to gather data directly from consumers and create effective marketing campaigns.
• Critical Insights: Optimizely’s survey underscores the need for brands to prepare for a cookie-free future by investing in personalization and experimentation tools.
• Access the Report: For detailed insights and strategies to navigate the upcoming changes in digital marketing, read the full report.