This week in martech

Uberflip announces product innovations

CX platform Uberflip this week announced a number of product enhancements to finish a year which saw the closure of the deal to acquire SnapApp, the launch of an Uberflip app marketplace, and the launch of CX and platform strategy certification programs.

The enhancements are:

• A Salesforce integration which allows visitor activity and content engagement data from Uberflip to be visible within Salesforce;
• The launch of Uberflip Analytics Explore, offering a suite of analytics dashboards and reports, and the ability to create custom queries based on hundreds of data-points; and
• Streamlined consent management.

Why we care. Uberflip continues to build out B2C-like CX and content personalization capabilities for the B2B space.

Best practices for working with travel influencers

Based on a selective survey of high-profile travel influencers with between 10,000 and 300,000 followers, the Abbi Agency has compiled advice for destinations that expect to work with influencers in 2021. Highlights include:

• Don’t be shy to reach out -— influencers are keen to visit new places;
• Build out a sufficient budget for influencers to be able to reflect the full experience;
• Don’t stop at Instagram, stay abreast of new platforms and channels to reach niche audiences; and
• Identify the best message for the destination and share it with your influencer partners.

Why we care. Influencer marketing can be approached strategically. It’s more than just putting a friendly face on a message.

LinkedIn starts roll-out of ads in Stories

Last week, LinkedIn announced it had started beta testing of ads in LinkedIn Stories for selected advertisers and for all members globally. The ads include both single image ads and full-screen video, and there are plans to launch more broadly in 2021.

Why we care. This clearly responds to the success of the Stories format across Facebook and Instagram, but leaves open the question whether LinkedIn’s audience will be receptive. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, President of social analytics platform Socialbakers, said in an email to us: “B2C brands have been successfully leveraging ads on Snapchat and Instagram Stories for some time as a tried and tested format that yields good results. But LinkedIn’s user demographics differ significantly from Snapchat or Instagram. LinkedIn targets a different demographic to Snapchat and Instagram. With a user base that’s more B2B focused and a demographic that skews much older than Snapchat or Instagram, it remains to be seen how well ads in Stories will perform versus the more traditional Feed ads.”

Taboola announces long-term partnership with Kendago

Taboola, the AI-powered discovery platform, this week announced a long-term strategic partnership with D2C-focused digital ad agency Kendago. Taboola uses machine learning to provide content recommendations on premium editorial sites, creating opportunities for brands to interact with engaged consumers. Kendago is using data from Taboola newsroom to build acquisition models for their D2C clients, and Taboola Video to engage consumers with high-profile video content.

Based on Taboola data showing over 1.5 billion page views about weight loss during the last six months, Kendago was able to support increased as spend on behalf of brands like Trim Down Club, which showed an 87% increase subscriptions after advertising with Taboola.

Why we care. Taboola presents another AI-driven take on contextual advertising, an old strategy which is being re-invented by new technologies, and which will be increasingly important in a cookie-less world.

About The Author

Kim Davis

Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech Today. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.