On Thursday, Publicis-owned Epsilon became the latest company to support Unified ID 2.0. UID 2.0 is an open-source industry initiative, originated by The Trade Desk, that aims to develop an alternative to third-party cookies by replacing them with hashed or encrypted email addresses. Specifically, Publicis clients can activate Epsilon’s proprietary CORE ID (which stands for […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. So Modest Publicis beat market expectations for organic growth in the last quarter of 2020 thanks in large part to its data company Epsilon, which helped the holdco generate modest growth in the US, Reuters reports. Publicis, which bought Epsilon in 2019 for a […]
Over the past year, Publicis-owned Epsilon has been developing a system called Pub Link, designed to buy ads using a publisher’s authenticated users instead of third-party cookies. Epsilon claims its early results are sending more revenue to test publishers. This setup requires publishers add an Epsilon tag to their site or create a server-side link […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Digital Wins, And So Does The Triopoly Digital is expected to account for the majority of US ad spending this year, an industry shift driven (or forced?) by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WPP media buying unit GroupM. GroupM expects US ad spend to […]
Epsilon is helping clients prepare for the new world of digital marketing that will follow after the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome and IDFA on Apple devices. While Epsilon’s ID graph still uses cookies and mobile ad IDs while they’re available, its CORE ID relies on deterministic matches against transactions and conversions, such as […]
Publicis Groupe released an outcomes-based solution on Thursday aimed at midsize companies (MSBs) that provides a money-back guarantee. “If the desired KPI isn’t met, we’ll refund 100% of the client’s entire investment,” said Bryan Kennedy, CEO of Epsilon, which is powering the solution, called The Pact, for its new parent company. There are around 200,000 […]
Publicis reported Q3 earnings on a last-minute call with investors Thursday after results came in worse than expected, causing the holding company to lower its guidance through 2020. Organic growth was down 2.7% to $2.86 billion in Q3, and down 1.4% to $7.6 billion in the first nine months of the year. So Publicis lowered […]
Agency holding companies have spent $12 billion on data assets over the past five years but have yet to successfully deploy those assets at their creative agencies, according to a Forrester report released Monday. “It’s still very much a media proposition,” said Jay Pattisall, Forrester analyst and author of the report. “[Creative] seems to be […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Audit This WPP has had enough of Accenture playing agency and media auditor at the same time. So, starting in 2020, it will no longer participate in pitches run by the consulting firm. WPP is concerned that Accenture can use the media and services […]
Ashlen Cherry, Epsilon’s chief privacy officer, would bet on federal privacy legislation happening – just not before the end of the year. “This can be a bipartisan issue, and there’s an appetite for it on the hill,” said Cherry, who joined Epsilon last October after almost a decade as the global privacy program manager at […]
With its $4.4 billion acquisition of Epsilon/Conversant, Publicis Groupe becomes a data controller – and that ups the regulatory ante under the General Data Protection Regulation and, likely, any other privacy legislation that comes down the pike. Controllers, in GDPR parlance, determine how and why personal data is processed. Controllers are also required to establish a […]
Publicis acquired Epsilon on Sunday primarily for the latter’s expertise in working with first-party client data. But Publicis got a lot more with Epsilon’s hefty $4.4 billion price tag. Epsilon is best known for its services related to data management, email marketing and loyalty platforms. But Epsilon also gives Publicis an affiliate marketing network (Commission […]
When Publicis acquired Epsilon for $4.4 billion on Sunday, it put a big emphasis on the value the company brings to the group around first-party data. But while Epsilon has deep experience working with its clients’ first-party data and managing their CRM databases and loyalty programs, it doesn’t actually own first-party data – depending on […]
Publicis Groupe’s $4.4 billion purchase of email marketing and data company Epsilon on Sunday comes down to three words: first-party data. “What is really important for our clients is to build their first-party data,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun on an investor call Monday. “If not, they will be killed by direct to consumer […]
Agencies need access to unique data sources to bring strategic value to their clients. Publicis said Monday it is in talks to acquire Epsilon from parent Alliance Data Systems in an effort to beef up its own data assets. The agency network is bidding against Goldman Sachs and private equity firm Advent International for Epsilon, […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Claws Down The bidding war between Comcast and Disney for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets has finally come to an end, with Comcast backing down after Disney’s $71.3 billion counterbid. Comcast will focus instead on beating Fox to acquire Sky, the British satellite TV […]
Tom Edwards is different from most of the other people flowing through the halls of the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose at Facebook’s F8 developers conference this week. Because Edwards isn’t a developer. He’s the chief digital officer at marketing services firm Epsilon. “There aren’t a lot of agency folks here,” Edwards said. “I’m […]
When Epsilon parent Alliance Data reported full-year 2016 earnings last Thursday, CFO Charles Horn said “the old ValueClick business” was “a three-point drag on Epsilon’s revenue growth.” Horn was referring to Conversant’s ad network business before it rebranded to pivot toward ad tech in 2014, said Epsilon and Conversant CEO Bryan Kennedy. “It’s probably 4% […]
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is by Stacey Hawes, president of data practice at Epsilon. No doubt, 2016 was the year of data. There was the good: Data-driven principles were at the forefront of conversations across industries, versus […]
After being acquired by Epsilon, Conversant had two big challenges. First, continue combining its own disparate technologies into a single stack. Second, get the whole caboodle working smoothly with Epsilon. Conversant claims it has accomplished the former, as it’s rolled its CRM assets into CORE (Conversant One-to-One Relationship Engine). “CORE takes advantage of our match, […]
As the CMO role has evolved, so too has Epsilon’s selling strategy. “We were trying to sell everything to every customer,” said Stacey Hawes, president of Epsilon’s data practice. “We want to step back and ask, ‘Where does methodical selling make sense, rather than being everything to everyone?’” In September, Epsilon reorganized into six practices […]
If Dentsu Aegis Network’s majority investment in Merkle goes through, the CRM and performance marketing agency will support Dentsu’s media-buying agencies. Those media agencies will gain access to Merkle’s proprietary tools, including a cross-device identity management system, a CRM-matching database for publishers and, most notably, the M1 audience platform. “The intent is that every agency […]
The National Football League (NFL) customer database is about as diverse as it gets. Segments span season ticket holders, a millennial parent who loves football but might lack time for games and younger fans who may have been introduced to the sport in school. But the NFL recognizes that “a fan is not a data […]
Here at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, phrases like “change management” are getting nearly equal airtime as data and analytics. Over the past 12 months, Marriott International has accelerated its tech investments as it blends digital and offline. To do so, it has needed to prove marketing strategies align with corporate objectives. “We’ve been […]
It’s been a transitional year for Conversant, the ad technology solution that’s now a part of data marketing services company Epsilon. Integrating Conversant “caused a fair amount of angst for the first half of the year,” acknowledged Ed Heffernan, CEO and president of parent company Alliance Data Systems, during its Q3 earnings call Thursday. The […]
After hinting it would bring more video inventory to market, Conversant acted on that promise Tuesday with the launch of a Personalized Video suite. With Personalized Video, the company aims to link desktop and mobile video messages with both online behavioral attributes and offline sales data. Because of its roots with display retargeter Dotomi, a […]
Alliance Data Systems CEO Ed Heffernan isn’t thrilled with data marketing unit Epsilon’s 5% top-line performance, he said during Alliance Data’s Q2 earnings call Thursday. “That isn’t an acceptable long-term number,” he said, adding he thinks its potential is 7% or 8%. Getting to that potential will require double-digit growth in Epsilon’s tech offering – […]
Time Warner subsidiary Turner Broadcasting revealed during its May upfront a centralized data-management platform to power its ad products. That system is the Turner Data Cloud, which the network souped up on Tuesday with data integrations to Epsilon, Krux and Oracle. Using Turner’s Data Cloud, a marketer can apply first-party audience data as well as […]
Conversant (formerly ad net ValueClick and now owned by Epsilon, for those who haven’t updated their M&A scorecard) uncorked a private exchange Wednesday, designed to hook up programmatic buyers with 6,000 publishers via Deal ID. The ad tech company will build Deal IDs for advertisers working with a trading desk or using a demand-side platform […]
The attribution space heated up this year. First Google snapped up Adometry, then AOL grabbed Convertro. Not to be left out, Rakuten bought DC Storm. Everybody wants a solution to the attribution problem – but attribution is more than just another shiny object. “The marketer’s world has never been more fragmented – from channels to possibilities […]
