Marketing Organizations’ Intent to Invest in Data Services, 2024. Source: Winterberry Group, Demystifying the Data Layer: Transformation of Marketing Data Infrastructure, February 2024.

• The evolution of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) from “systems of record” to unified intelligence and data management platforms capable of integrating persistent and non-persistent identifiers to support more relevant marketing efforts;
• Growing demand for Data Clean Rooms (DCRs) to enable collaboration within and across brands and media providers for targeted planning, analysis and measurement in a more secure, privacy-safe environment.
• Addressing challenges in content and audience data adoption and integration, particularly structured and unstructured data residing in digital asset and content management platforms. These efforts support the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) within the intelligence layer, enhancing data-driven insights and decision-making processes.

Sponsors of the Research Share Perspectives on Components of the Data Layer

This particular piece of Winterberry Group research is commissioned by numerous data and adtech/martech companies: LiveRamp, Habu (acquired by LiveRamp in January), Treasure Data, mParticle, Acxiom and Aqfer.  Each of these companies have something to say about this underlying research.

“Data is critical to not only know customers, but deeply understand them across the many enterprise touchpoints and devices, screens, and browsers they engage with,” said Daniella Harkins, SVP of product GTM, LiveRamp. “As signal loss drives investment in first-party data, enterprises must extend the value of that data and enhance their identity strategies through strategic partnerships that unlock new insights driven by new second and third-party data relationships.”

“As the Winterberry research highlights, privacy-enhancing technologies such as clean rooms are now essential for ethical data-driven collaboration,” said Matt Kilmartin, co-founder & CEO, Habu. “It’s imperative for companies to possess flexible tools designed so both technical and business users can achieve any use case, driving business growth efficiently. And, these tools should be interoperable, empowering organizations to collaborate and scale with any partner, regardless of the cloud platform from which their data resides.”

“In the age of hyper-personalization and artificial intelligence, it’s never been more important to get your data layer right as Winterberry Group highlights in its research. We believe a CDP that brings together data and decisioning is the future-proof customer data foundation that global enterprises need to orchestrate enriched customer experiences and drive profitable growth,” said Karl Wirth, chief product & technology officer, Treasure Data.

“We’re experiencing a major platform shift right now as (predictive) AI is multiplying the value that can be extracted from customer data,” said Michael Katz, CEO, mParticle. “As such, the benefit of the CDP is evolving from creating operational efficiency via simplifying martech integrations to impacting business outcomes through better decisioning at scale. While every vendor will have some sort of AI offering, it’s important to look for a diverse set of ML pipelines to create the most surface area for generating business outcomes,”

“Winterberry’s report underscores the rapid evolution of marketing data, driven primarily by expanding digital channels, regulatory shifts, and technological advancements,” said Dana Goff, SVP and head of industry and solution strategy at Acxiom. “The findings reaffirm what we’ve long recognized at Acxiom – these changes, while challenging, offer opportunities for growth and innovation. To capitalize on this potential and thrive in a data-driven future, brands must adopt cloud-native, privacy-compliant data management and analytics solutions. Establishing a robust data strategy, supported by a strong foundation, is the path forward for businesses aiming for sustained market success in the digital era.”

Results of the full study, as a PDF, are available for download from Winterberry Group.