Transforming marketing with composable CDPs for enhanced customer experience

Hi Futurist,

Some new developments over the past two weeks have even blown my mind. From new technical advancements to content creation. I'll take you through it in this dip. Insights, inspiration, and innovation straight to your inbox. Let's dive into the depths of the digital future together and discover the waves of change shaping our industry.

In this post, we're dipping in:

• 📣 Byte-Sized Breakthroughs: Three (technological) developments in the digital landscape

• 🎙️ MarTech Maestros: one webinar, podcast, or interesting paper I believe you should watch, listen to, or read too

•  🧐 Last but not least: Things that I like

Do you have tips, feedback or ideas? Or just want to give your opinion? Feel free to share it at the bottom of this dip. That's what I'm looking for.

📣 Byte-Sized Breakthroughs

'Byte-Sized Breakthroughs' briefly highlights (technological) developments in the digital landscape

Head story: Transforming marketing with composable CDPs for enhanced customer experience

Data warehouses (DWH) are on the rise. In recent years, the barriers for organizations to use data warehouses as their single source of truth have drastically decreased, both in terms of technical complexity and pricing. At the same time, the volume of data that organizations aggregated grew. For marketers, this is a beautiful source to tap into. However, of course, one must have access to this data.

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) were considered the holy grail seven years ago. They enabled personalization because these systems could capture data and share it with other marketing sources. However, there was little overview of data points within the different tools. Each CDP also had an black box. Direct access to this data was not available. And access to other customer data, such as purchase history, was difficult to achieve. This, apart from the limitations that using a data warehouse at the time entailed.

But, the call of marketers has been heard. Access to multiple data sources is a requirement. Data silos must be broken. And real-time must truly be real-time. All this comes together in the concept of composable CDPs. A composable CDP, in my opinion, is:

1. An infrastructure where data is not stored in different sources but centrally in a DWH.

2. Marketers have direct access to data in the DWH to create segments in one central place.

3. Marketers can send these segments to various activation tools, directly at the moment it is requested.

These are the reasons for the rise of the Composable CDP concept in the past two years:

1. The accessibility of DWH. There are tools available that set up a DWH for you in minutes, where you can connect via no-code marketing sources and then create the data model and segments with SQL.

2. The cookieless future makes first-party data more important for marketers. But for this, you must have access to this data, even if it is stored in source systems like sales, customer service, and so on.

3. There are more and more tools available that integrate well with the DWH. Thus, complex integrations are a thing of the past.

4. Marketers demand more freedom, as they are better able to determine which data points are important for improving customer experience than anyone else within the organization.

This, apart from the importance of having data under one's own control due to the applications of generative AI and the rapidly changing technological landscape, which a DWH can better respond to.

Now is the time for organizations to review their technical landscape. Your customer is demanding it. The customer experience needs to be improved before your competitors do. Composable CDP is the driver within the marketing team for this. Redraw your marketing landscape. I am happy to draw along with you. You might feel like you're 'again' adding a new tool to your landscape, but you're actually transforming your organization.

Meta builds Artificial General Intelligence in public

TL;DR

Mark Zuckerberg is fully committing Meta to the AI path. He announced the acquisition of necessary processors to achieve his ultimate goal: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Remember, this is the type of AI that Sam Altman was once fired over at OpenAI. Mark is publicly declaring it. Unlike OpenAI, Meta plans to open-source AGI. It’s evident what Meta is building towards: a world where AI merges with an AR/VR experience; the metaverse.

Read it yourself? 

Sentiment

People are both excited and fearful at the same time. Building AGI is like crossing a line that average humans are not yet ready to cross. Yet, the market agrees that developing AGI and then open-sourcing it could indeed ensure a safe transition to this powerful AI. The open-source models published in recent years are precisely why AI has been able to explode so rapidly. With the acquisition of hundreds of the most powerful processors, expectations are sky-high.

My thoughts

It's evident what Meta is building towards: The future of connection. Meta remains a metaverse company. With the adoption of AI, the release of their own AI model, and the Ray-Ban Glasses, Meta is visibly building a world where AI and AR/VR work together. Through Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, Meta has access to an audience of billions. It's exciting to see them develop something as powerful as AGI and hand it over to this massive audience. If there's any company that can steer how people interact with AI, it's Meta. So, bring it on.

One month into 2024 and already nearly 29,000 lay-offs

TL;DR

A month into 2024, 104 tech companies have already laid off nearly 29,000 employees. Big names like Amazon, Google, and SAP are included in this list. Although it's not the only reason, the rise of Generative AI is a significant factor, openly acknowledged by these companies themselves. Goldman Sachs estimates that up to 300 million jobs could be at risk due to Generative AI.

Read it yourself?

Sentiment

A shift is occurring within the tech industry. Companies are parting with thousands of employees and, at the same time, investing in AI applications. The fear of increased unemployment is growing, particularly among workers. However, there's also uncertainty in the tech industry because AI offers the potential for new and different types of jobs. Currently, there's a fear of the unknown and the prospect of AI being considered an equal workforce member.

My thoughts

It's clear that companies are reorganizing, readying for a new norm where AI is central to their operations. Unlike past restructurings that resulted in job losses, this change aims to integrate AI while maintaining the workforce. Surprisingly, there seems to be little political concern about rising unemployment due to AI's impact on jobs. A mere 1% or 2% rise in unemployment could strain a nation's social security system. We can all see this trend coming, often starting in the tech industry before spreading to other sectors.

More byte-sized breakthroughs:

• Multi-GPT integration: streamlined expertise in one chat window

  ChatGPT's latest feature revolutionizes conversation dynamics. Now, you can summon multiple GPTs within a single chat window, eliminating the need to switch between chats or copy and paste conversations. Just type '@', select a previous GPT, and continue your conversation smoothly. This allows everyone to access an array of expertise instantly, all within one conversation.

• Disney's HoloTile: The First Multi-Person Treadmill Floor
  As a child, I dreamed while playing EA FIFA games of my body being the controller. Impossible. No space at home is as vast as a soccer field. Until now. Disney researcher Lanny Smoot has developed the HoloTile, enabling people to walk in a space without actually moving. This fascinating innovation resolves the spatial issue, heralding the future of virtual and augmented reality gaming and experiences.

• Cristiano Ronaldo plays soccer with some of his NFT holders

  During the NFT hype of 2021, a number of football clubs launched NFTs of their players. Many projects flopped. They were just digital images. But it can be different, as Cristiano Ronaldo proves in his collaboration with Binance. NFT holders have actually been able to play soccer with him. Following the example with Donald Trump from a few Dips ago, this is a new example of how combining the digital world with the physical can indeed add value. It is a way to get closer to your heroes than ever before.

Now available as a podcast: Listen on the go!

Perfect for everyone always on the move. No time to read? No problem! Now you can listen to our Digital Dip wherever and whenever it suits you. The link to the podcast is only available to subscribers. If you haven’t subscribe already, I recommend to do so.

🎙️ MarTech Maestros

In 'MarTech Maestros,' I share one webinar, podcast, or interesting paper I've encountered, which I believe you should watch, listen to, or read too.

A Guided Tour of Apple Vision Pro

Tomorrow, the sale of the Vision Pro really kicks off in America. Then, everyone can buy it in stores. I expect to see brilliant new applications in the coming weeks, which I will of course share with you in the next Digital Dips. For now, take a look at what the future looks like.

 🧐 Last but not least

• Future of watching sports: This is undoubtedly the future of sports viewing. In this case, Formula 1, but it applies to football too. Imagine using physical space around you to place the sport as if you are a camera at the match or race. How brilliant would it be to have the entire Olympic Park on your living room table this summer, experiencing the games as a spectator?

• Animate multiple elements in one shot: Runway has launched a new feature, the multibrush. It's now possible to animate elements in a shot independently of each other.

• Hyper-personalization in online shopping through AI: This tool displays various items based on your search query, learns your preferences, and makes recommendations accordingly. Then you can directly proceed to checkout.

• Argentinian President speaks English using AI tools: At the World Economic Forum, the President of Argentina recently gave his speech in his native language, which was simultaneously translated into English by another person. Not anymore. Here's Milei's speech where he speaks English in his own voice and mimics.

• Google Lumiere: Google is about to launch its own video generation tool. Here’s a list of its capabilities: Text-to-video, image-to-video, style reference, video stylization, image mask, and video inpainting. Too much to explain. Watch the introduction video to grasp the possibilities.

• Real time image editor: Generate your image in real-time with this tool. Drag images, use a text prompt, or an eraser to edit, and watch your image generate in real-time.

• Spacial computing: The actual sale of the Vision Pro starts tomorrow. Here’s a glimpse of the future of 'computing' as we know it.

• AR for medical use: AR/VR glasses combined with AI are not just exciting for marketers. They have practical applications too, like this one in healthcare.

• Fake Nike Ad met AI: This campaign could have been released by Nike itself. However, it was made by someone like you and me, using tools like Midjourney, Runway, and Krea. User-generated content is the future.

• Complete website based on AI build in one evening: In a previous Dip, I shared Relume for generating wireframes. Combine it with Midjourney for generating images, and you can design a complete webpage in one evening.

• Replace any charechter with 3D avatar: Alibaba has launched a tool that allows you to change characters in a video to 3D avatars.

• Meta releases MAGnet: Meta comes with its own text-to-music model. Whether it's songs, background sounds, or samples, it's now possible.

• Brilliant example of AI Cinema: The following 3-minute video is a must-watch. It's based on a true story. All images, except the final shot with Malcolm X, are AI-generated in Midjourney. The quality is then upscaled in Magnific. The images are animated in Runway and Pika Labs. After that, the video is upscaled again in Topaz. The result? Brilliant!

• Video deblurring: This model enables the upscaling of blurry videos. Time to get those videotapes from the attic; you can now make them crystal clear.

• Realistic voices in Edge: Web reading no longer sounds robotic. Check out this example.

• Dashtoon: Easily create complete storyboards with this tool. Creators can achieve a high level of creative control with consistent characters, perfect composition, and more.

• Combinatie van eigen expertise + AI: A beautiful example of how personal expertise combined with AI can bring a concept to fruition.

• ASML brand film, fully created with AI: ASML, a world-leading brand with an impressive position in the chip market, has launched their new brand video. The footage was generated using Midjourney. It's a bizarre production to witness. 1,963 Midjourney prompts generated 7,852 images. This is Champions League level.

This was it. Our fourth digital dip together. It might seem like a lot, but remember; this wasn't even everything that happened in the past few weeks. This was just a fraction.

If you'd like to chat, discuss, or dream about any of the topics I've written about, feel free to send me a message. I would love to connect with you on this. For example, if you'd like me to help with redrawing your marketing technology landscape in light of the topic of composable CDP, I'd be happy to come by!

Looking forward what tomorrow brings! ▽

-Wesley