CPG marketing platform Quotient buys location data provider Ubimo

Quotient announced last week that it’s buying Ubimo, an Israeli location intelligence company. Ubimo translates location data and history into audience segmentation, activation and campaign attribution, connecting digital campaigns to in-store results.

DSP was the attraction. Quotient and Ubimo had worked together for several years, utilizing the latter’s data for Quotient customer campaigns. But the primary rationale behind the acquisition was Ubimo’s DSP, according to Jason Young is Quotient’s Chief Marketing & Media Officer.

Quotient intends to offer its CPG brand and agency clients a self-service DSP. “The acquisition will accelerate Quotient’s product development of a self-service platform, where marketers can plan, buy, and optimize media campaigns directly from an automated platform,” according to the Quotient’s press materials.

Coupons.com evolved. Quotient began life as Coupons.com in 1998, which it still owns and operates. In 2017, the company acquired mobile marketing company Crisp Media for roughly $53 million.

Quotient distributes digital coupons through its network, which includes Coupons.com and a wide range of retailers and grocery store properties. The company also makes programmatic media buys on behalf of customers.

Through loyalty cards and point-of-sale (POS) redemption data, Quotient is able to deliver closed loop reporting as well. It also uses POS data for campaign targeting.

For retailers, Quotient offers a range of ad and media solutions. For example, it enables retailers to sell ad space on their sites and apps and distribute digital circulars on social media. It also operates an influencer marketing platform.

Utility of location data. Brands that don’t have access to coupon or loyalty card POS data, have increasingly used store visitation as an attribution metric. That’s one of the primary capabilities Ubimo offers its customers.

But Ubimo also uses location data, which can be combined with other data sets, to enable highly specific audience segmentation and targeting. Quotient will bring Ubimo’s technology into its platform and combine its own shopper data with Ubimo’s location data and analytics, which Quotient “expects to meaningfully improve campaign performance for customers.”

With Ubimo’s assets and customer relationships, Quotient intends to expand beyond its traditional CPG and retail customer/partner base and move into “adjacent markets, such as Out-of-Home.”

Why we should care. Quotient’s main reason for buying Ubimo was the company’s DSP. But from a larger market perspective, the deal shows the increasingly mainstream use of location intelligence, both for targeting and attribution. It also shows a growing recognition of the power of location data for merchants and brands — unless they sell exclusively online — to maximize targeting effectiveness and to demonstrate the real-world impact of digital campaigns.

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