Relationship marketing company CM Group rebrands to Marigold, Kantar unveils Vivvix: Datacenter Weekly

CM Group is now Marigold

CM Group—the martech company behind Campaign Monitor, Cheetah Digital, Emma, Sailthru, Selligent and Vuture—just announced its new name: Marigold. The rebrand is timed to the release of the company’s Consumer Trends Index 2023, the latest edition of its annual global survey of more than 6,000 consumers (more on that below).

The new brand is certainly an improvement over the blandly mysterious CM Group (whose initials came from Campaign Monitor). Incidentally, the marigold is prized by gardeners for being easy to grow in all kinds of soil conditions—and for being deer-resistant to boot. So maybe think of the soil in this metaphor as, say, the unpredictable economy—and ravenous deer as inflation, perhaps?

At any rate, the friendly, more accessible moniker is meant to underscore the company’s focus on relationship marketing, and its role in helping more than 40,000 brands (e.g., American Airlines, Magnolia Bakery, Orangetheory Fitness, TGI Fridays) leverage data to connect with consumers through personalized messaging, loyalty programs and more. (Among Marigold’s slogans: “Make people feel seen, not sold to.”)

Anyhow, a few key takeaways from Marigold’s latest Consumer Trends Index:

• “Consumers are incredibly concerned about current global economic uncertainty, with 60% very pessimistic about both the rising cost of living and economic outlook. Half of consumers are doing less impulsive purchases with most doing more research (50%), waiting for sales (47%) and relying on loyalty benefits (46%) when purchasing from their favorite brands.”

• “As privacy regulations become the norm and third-party tracking cookies edge closer to curtailment, the vast majority of consumers (67%) are cheerily unaware that Google will soon cease tracking activity online in this way. However, 31% are glad about this change, and a further 35% are optimistic it will improve their relationship with brands.”

• “Email remains the most effective channel for driving sales”—beating other digital channels including banner ads and SMS campaigns—“with over half of consumers (52%) purchasing a product directly as a result of an email they received in the last 12 months.”

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Kantar unveils Vivvix

“Kantar Group is consolidating and rebranding its syndicated competitive media intelligence business as Vivvix, a standalone unit that will combine what was previously known as Kantar Media with elements of Numerator,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports.

The big picture: “The combined business will measure more than $250 billion in global media spending with detailed descriptors for more than 35 million creative assets,” Neff notes.

Essential context: “Numerator, acquired by Kantar in 2021, is best known for its panel of more than a million consumers whose online and offline spending are tracked and linked to survey research mainly for packaged-goods marketers,” Neff adds. “That business will remain separate from Vivvix inside Kantar.”

Keep reading here.

The NBA’s data play

“The National Basketball Association has signed a multiyear deal with consumer data firm StellarAlgo, with the league’s investment arm taking an ownership stake in the firm as it looks to grow its portfolio,” Bloomberg News reports (via Ad Age).

What’s involved: “The partnership was signed on behalf of the league’s franchises, which will have access to fan data services for matters such as e-commerce, venues, ticketing and social media,” per Bloomberg.

Essential context: “Management decided to take a stake in StellarAlgo after the Brooklyn Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento Kings forged their own relationships with the Calgary-based data company,” Bloomberg notes.

Keep reading here.

AI boosts retail media network investments

“Horizon Media’s e-commerce unit Night Market is launching an artificial intelligence platform that plans and optimizes investments across retail media networks and allows for in-campaign changes to shift money among networks, products and tactics based on predicted results,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports.

The details: “Named Neon, the new platform ... draws on historical media mix modeling (MMM) return on investment reports, client sales data and retailer-reported campaign performance data about return on ad spending (ROAS) to predict quarterly ROI,” Neff explains. “The platform predicts optimal media investment across retailers and third-party channels such as Amazon and Walmart, including breakdown between formats and tactics such as search, display and promotional offers.”

Essential context: “Retail media and e-commerce have become growing focus areas for big agency holding companies in recent years, as seen by the launch of Omnicom Media Group’s Transact unit; Publicis Groupe’s acquisitions of Profitero and CitrusAD; and WPP’s acquisition of a series of e-commerce agencies and consultancies,” Neff notes.

Keep reading here.

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Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Joy R. Lee.