Customer comms giant Twilio to acquire SendGrid for $2bn

Twilio has entered into an agreement to acquire email API platform SendGrid in a $2bn (£1.82bn) bid to build out its leading Platform-as-a-Service, which virtualises the world’s telecoms infrastructure through APIs.

Used by more than 40K companies globally such as Airbnb and Netflix, Twilio lets software developers add capabilities such as voice, video, chat and messaging into their applications, backed by a “Super Network” connecting communications networks...

16 October 2018 | Customer Experience

Will the SaaS revolution stifle digital marketing innovation?

It’s a common perception that software as a service (SaaS) now drives digital industry innovation.

Companies like Salesforce, MailChimp, Kenshoo, Marin and Impact ushered in SaaS revolutions in their respective industries by introducing new technology and pricing models. But some people question, will SaaS really be good for digital innovation over the next decade?

The growth and popularity of SaaS business models is undeniable. According to the Q1 2018...

7 September 2018 | CRM

Two-thirds of organisations plan to up spend on martech, but struggling to keep pace

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of marketing organisations plan to up their spend on martech in the next year while just 5% intend to curb it, according to Walker Sands State of Martech Report 2018.

Right now, though, they’re struggling to keep up.

According to the report, based on responses from 300 marketers of varying company size, level and experience, martech certainly doesn’t suffer from a lack of interest of understanding of its benefits.

However, while 63% of...

10 August 2018 | Advertising Technology

Amazon hits record $2.5bn quarterly profits driven by online sales and cloud demand

Amazon’s profits hit a record $2.53bn (£1.9bn) in Q2 this year, driven by its dominance in e-commerce and growing demand for its lucrative cloud computing services.

Takings for the last three months amounted to 12 times that of the same period last year, with sales rising 39% to meet $52.9bn (£40.4bn) and its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division raking in $6.1bn (£4.7bn) in sales - a 50% hike year on year.

Amazon’s shares jumped 3% as a result of the...

27 July 2018 | Advertising Technology

Adobe adds batch of new marketing tech analytics features

Adobe has announced a suite of updates to its cloud marketing stack, including attribution improvements and the ability to hyper-personalise ads for marketers in the travel sector.

The software company launched Attribution IQ at Cannes Lions earlier this week, an update to its Analytics Cloud that will offer marketers a 10 different models for measuring the effect of their marketing campaigns.

In a blog post, Adobe Analytics’ senior product manager, Trevor Paulsen, said...

22 June 2018 | Advertising Technology

Salesforce and Google ramp up data sharing partnership for CRM marketing

Following integration between their CRM and analytics products late last year, Salesforce and Google have announced that they will now share data between Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Google Analytics 360.

The tie-in between the two cloud-based products, which is already in trial with brands including Ticketmaster, would allow Salesforce customers to access insights from both platforms to build highly-personalised and reactive campaigns based on cross-channel...

13 June 2018 | CRM

Azuqua onboards SaaS giants Adobe, Zendesk for software integration

Software automation and integration company Azuqua has announced a raft of large SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies joining its Connect Partner Program, which aims to cut down the need for internal development time and tactical acquisitions when customer demands change.

Adobe, Zendesk, Allocadia, and Workfront are some of those high profile outfits now employing the service, among 15 additional companies who have not been named by the Seattle-based group.

Azuqua’s CEO...

7 June 2018 | Automation

Avoiding Frankenclouds – why you need built, not bought

Here’s an interesting question – would you choose a solution that has been purpose built to handle all aspects of a marketer’s needs? Or would you prefer to use a solution that has been created through a variety of sources, in a vain attempt to offer some semblance of an all-encompassing offering, which would you go for?

For some organisations they have no choice but to work with what they have. Those investing in new solutions would likely use the former –...

19 March 2018 | CRM

Solving the cross-channel personalisation problem

Personalised marketing is hardly anything new. It’s been around for decades and marketers have long reaped the benefits.

However, the sheer number of digital channels that consumers are engaging with has increased dramatically over recent years.

As consumers incorporate technology into more aspects of their daily lives, they meander across channels and devices as needed. They seek answers, solutions, products, and entertainment. They express interests, intent, and...

2 May 2017 | Marketing Cloud

Salesforce becoming ever more valuable for marketers – but data integration still a problem

(c)iStock.com/andresr

Two in three UK companies say Salesforce is more valuable to them today than this time last year, according to a report from Bluewolf.

Bluewolf – an IBM company but also a Salesforce strategic partner – issued its global State of Salesforce study, which this publication duly covered back in September. Yet the company’s latest missive shows UK businesses are ahead of the curve compared to their peers; 77% of UK companies polled can access...

10 January 2017 | Data-driven marketing