Data clean rooms: A beginner’s guide

With the deprecation of third-party cookies looming large and data privacy and compliance taking center stage, enterprises have had to adapt their customer data strategies substantially. Many are exploring various approaches, with data clean rooms (DCRs) emerging as a prominent option. What are data clean rooms? A data clean room… This post first … Read more

Should you use your data warehouse as your CDP?

The advent of cloud-based data warehouses (DWHs) has brought simpler deployment, greater scale and better performance to a growing set of data-driven use cases. DWHs have become more prevalent in enterprise tech stacks, including martech stacks.  Inevitably, this begs the question: should you employ your existing DWH as a customer… This post first … Read more

Where should a CDP fit in your martech stack?

Any customer data platform (CDP) must nestle nicely into your martech stack, including your customer data ecosystem. Like many architectural choices, you face few absolute rights and wrongs here, but you have options worth considering.  At Real Story Group, we’ve seen three broad approaches, including variants of each: Licensing a… This post first … Read more

How to Filter the Right CDP Short List

In this article for CMSWIRE, I explore the lenses with which to filter Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and eliminate vendors that don’t meet business needs. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are rapidly becoming a foundational technology piece in omnichannel martech stacks. They can also serve as a key component in broader digital transformation and customer experience … Read more

The Real Story on MarTech: Should you build or buy a customer data platform?

“Build versus buy” in the context of technology marketplaces is a long-running debate. At Real Story Group, we see this debate getting revisited for marketing tech stacks, particularly for customer data platforms (CDPs). Is there a single right approach? I don’t think so, but the details matter here.  So let’s dig… This post first … Read more

MarTech: Building the Culture of Innovation

Good folks at N. L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research invited me for their International Marketing Conclave. The conclave’s theme was “MarTech: Building the Culture of Innovation”. So how do you go about building a culture of innovation and how does it connect with Martech? I covered these five themes that impact culture … Read more

Universal scenarios: The key to comparing personalization technologies

In part 1 of this 3-part series, I explored different options seating personalization capabilities in a larger marketing technology stack context. In part 2 of the series, I looked at different platform components required for building a holistic personalization technology strategy. In this concluding part 3, let’s explore some canonical scenarios that you can… This post first … Read more

What to Make of Acquia Buying DAM Vendor Widen

It’s not a surprising move, but I think for Widen licensees, not a very welcome one. Longtime WCM / nascent MarTech suite vendor Acquia has announced it is buying Digital Asset Management (DAM) vendor Widen. This fills a gap in Acquia’s portfolio but I think for Widen licensees, this may not be a very welcome one. Let’s … Read more

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