The MarTech Minute: Dreamforce highlights, Facebook F8 dates and Nielsen Global Connect’s new CMO

MarTech Minute briefs always appear first in our daily newsletter throughout the week. Click here to subscribe. The following is our compilation of the past week’s briefs from those newsletters.

Amazon Connect users get a dose of Helpshift tech. Helpshift announced on Monday a new integration with Amazon Connect, Amazon’s customer service platform. Amazon Connect’s omnichannel cloud contact center will have access to Helpshift’s digital customer service capabilities, making it possible to transfer a caller to a messaging platform or offer built-in call-back scheduling features. There is also a Helpshift bot-component that offers an automated messaging feature for Amazon Connect users. According to Helpshift CEO Linda Crawford, the integration delivers, “Unprecedented levels of flexibility” in terms of how companies choose to communicate with their customers. 

SalesLoft puts LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator job data to use. The sales engagement platform SalesLoft is taking advantage of LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s latest data validation feature, incorporating sales prospect role changes into its system, which can then be automatically updated in Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “Customers of SalesLoft using Sales Navigator Enterprise Edition through Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM will no longer have to manually search LinkedIn to validate that a contact hasn’t changed jobs, as this information is now accessible within the SalesLoft UI,” reports SalesLoft. In other words, sales teams using SalesLoft will now have the most up to date information on their sales leads’ and prospects’ current roles via LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator. “Ultimately, this saves time spent reviewing customer data manually, and it will increase the quality of all opportunities as salespeople progress through the buying cycle,” said SalesLoft CMO Sydney Sloan. 

Facebook’s F8 coming in May. Facebook has announced the official dates for its F8 Developer’s Conference. The company will host the annual event May 5 and 6, 2020 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. Attendees can expect the usual product announcements from Facebook, product demos and deep-dive sessions aimed at developers, creators and entrepreneurs who regularly use — or want to become more familiar — with Facebook’s apps, technology and resources. Anyone interested in going can sign up at www.F8.com to receive an alert when registration opens.

Bloomreach launches brX implementation accelerator. Bloomreach announced the launch of an implementation of a pre-built integration with Salesforce B2B Commerce. The integration will allow users to utilize Bloomreach in combination with Salesforce, helping them build customer-facing experiences and touchpoints with more agility.

LiveRamp and OpenX announce integration. The integration between LiveRamp’s identity Link and Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) with OpenX’s OpenAudience will deepen the partnership between the two identity resolution and people-based marketing companies. “By combining the identity resolution capabilities of ATS and IdentityLink with OpenAudience, we are delivering a powerful one-stop solution to publishers that future-proofs revenue from a cookieless world, immediately increases yield from an expanded knowledge of audiences, and in turn, drives a marketer’s return on ad spend,” said Todd Parsons, chief product officer for OpenX.

Brave Software launches Brave 1.0. Brave Software has announced the launch of the Brave 1.0 open-source browser. The browser combines privacy with a blockchain-based digital advertising platform to give users a secure and private browsing experience. “Advertisers are wasting time and money on an industry filled with fraud. Everyone with a legitimate stake in the open Web loses in this environment,” said Brendan Eich, co-founder and CEO of Brave Software, “Brave 1.0 is the browser reimagined, transforming the Web to put users first with private, browser-based ads and payment platform. With Brave, the Web can be a rewarding experience for all, without users paying with their privacy.”

Mobivity launches personalization across print and digital. Customer personalization platform Mobivity has announced the launch of its omnichannel Offers and Promotions management platform. The platform will support offers from in-app purchases, email, SMS promotions and printed collateral such as receipts.

Uploadcare secures $1.7 million. Cloud content delivery network provider Uploadcare announced that is has raised $1.7 million in new funding. The latest round was co-led by Runa Capital and Vendep Capital. “The amount of data that’s created per day is rising at a breakneck rate,” said Dmitry Chikhachev, General Partner at Runa Capital. “With its robust infrastructure of delivery networks that span the globe, Uploadcare has quietly become a go-to solution for developers and engineers at some of the world’s largest companies. With differentiated technology and a strong leadership team, we believe that Uploadcare is well-positioned to accelerate its growth and further solidify its leadership in the content delivery market.”

Dreamforce 2019 Highlights

Salesforce didn’t cut any corners for this year’s annual Dreamforce user conference. The company recruited 27 keynote speakers and delivered 2,200 sessions. There was a Fleetwood Mac performance (“Have you any dreams you’d like to sell?”) and appearances by President Barack Obama, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and “Game of Thrones” alum Emilia Clarke.

But what was the real news? Along with the newly launched Salesforce Customer 360 Truth platform, Salesforce shared more information on its partnership with Apple, announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft and introduced deeper integration with Tableau (which it acquired in August). The company also rolled out a new Einstein Voice feature within its CRM, enabling a “customized, voice-activated” interface as part of its Salesforce apps.

As far as its partnership with Apple — which was first announced at last year’s conference — Salesforce launched two new iOS apps: The Salesforce Mobile app and Trailhead GO. The new Salesforce app is powered by Einstein technology and includes new analytics and features that are exclusive to iOS (Siri shortcuts and a face ID feature). The Trailhead GO is the first app for Salesforce’s Trailhead learning platform.

On the Move

Jacqueline Woods has joined Nielsen Global Connect as the data insights agency’s new chief marketing officer. She will lead global marketing and will report to chief commercial officer Pat Dodd. “Jacqueline is a marketing powerhouse in the technology sector,” said Dodd, “We are inspired by her proven successes at IBM, Oracle, GE, Verizon and other Fortune 500 companies.” Prior to joining Nielsen Global Connect Woods served as the CMO for IBM Partner Ecosystem overseeing marketing and communications and strategy for IBM’s finance division. 

Customer engagement solution Cheetah Digital has named Richard Jones as its new chief marketing officer, leading global marketing efforts for the company’s Customer Engagement Suite. Prior to being named CMO, Jones was the CEO of Engage Sciences and Wayin. Earlier this year, Cheetah Digital acquired Wayin and rebranded it as Cheetah Experiences. “I am confident Richard’s experience and understanding of our product-market fit will help take our leading solutions to the next level in the market,” said CEO Sameer Kazi, “He will be a strong addition to the Cheetah Digital executive team as we execute our strategic growth plans.” In addition to his CEO roles at Wayin and Engage Sciences, Jones led regional sales for the EMEA team at Eloqua.

Precise Target, a retail data solution provider, has announced three new executive hires: Andrew McCasker as chief technology officer, Brian Graziano as VP of marketing and Mitch Paletz as senior VP of channel partnerships. Paletz will be charged with managing strategic partnerships and raising awareness for Precise Target’s retail audience segments. McCasker will lead the company’s data-science and technology teams and Graziano will develop and implement the company’s overall marketing initiatives. “I am thrilled to welcome Mitch, Andrew, and Brian to Precise Target’s senior leadership team,” said CEO Rob McGovern. He went on to say that the three new hires bring valuable experience to the company as it aims to deliver an “industry-first” retail data solution.