This year, the Ad Council is spearheading a sweeping education campaign to sway hesitant Americans to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Using the message “It’s Up To You,” the more successful the campaign is, the shorter it will run. But campaign partners are ready for the long haul. IBM Watson committed its AI creative ad capabilities to the campaign, as well as ad inventory from The Weather Channel properties, which it owns.

The intelligence that drives the campaign is split into two key areas – market research and campaign data. For the research, the Ad Council teamed up with Ipsos Public Affairs, determining that, as of February, 40% of the American public have not made a firm decision to get their shots when the vaccine becomes available to them.

For campaign data, the IBM Watson Advertising Accelerator uses past campaign performance to continually optimize the distribution of creative assets, as well as to inform what combination of assets is shown to what audience. The technology doesn’t use third-party cookies and is context-based, making the campaign an important case study for the “cookie-less” future.

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Everyone under the sun is not going to be buying your product. Instead, businesses need to design their site with their target audience in mind.

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Identity and data solutions provider Stirista announced this week that they are acquiring Venture Development Center (VDC), a data marketplace. This is the vendor’s third acquisition in 10 months. VDC has clients that include Accenture, Asurion, TransUnion, Warner Media and others. Working with big brands and mid-market companies, Stirista uses data to fuel segmentation (B2B and B2C), email marketing and display advertising strategies, with a focus on loyalty and new customer acquisition.

Why we care. Data is king. Bringing in VDC and its clients allows Stirista to expand identity solutions and programmatic programs for brand clients. And in a virtuous circle, the VDC clients who contribute data will be able to monetize their assets through Stirista’s Data Marketplace Exchange. Data assets maximize their value when applied to smart customer engagement. If data is the raw material, martech innovations refine it.

Telephone calls remain one of the most primary means of making contact. Even today, 60% of consumers prefer to pick up the phone — nearly four times more than would choose email. Join our panel of experts as they discuss how digital transformation is changing the way customers interact with brands. Gain insights on the tools necessary to make digital advertising and marketing spend translate into real-world results and learn how call tracking can expand beyond just calls, to incorporate a holistic view of your business and how your brand appears to customers.

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We recently wrote about how Pinterest responded to the pandemic by promoting solutions to short-term challenges (what to cook the kids for dinner) and focusing on building community. New data from App Annie, the mobile analytics provider, shows that people appear to like what Pinterest is doing.

Downloads of the Pinterest app in 2020 numbered 193 million, up more than 50% YoY. In the first two months of 2021, the app saw 33 million downloads, putting it on track to beat the 2020 total. The chart above gives an indication of its international footprint.

Why we care. Marketers care about social channels which can effectively showcase brands, products and services. While Amazon ranks first for monthly active users among U.S. shopping apps, U.S. users spent on average 60% more time on Pinterest than on Amazon on mobile phones; on iPhones the number Pinterest users also using the Amazon and Walmart apps grew in 2020. These stats suggest, at least, that Pinterest is an increasingly valuable channel for discovery.

Join us online, April 13, for SMX Create — a brand-new learning experience devoted to content marketing, ad copywriting, landing page optimization, and more. Grab your pass now for just $99!

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“I’m not going to use this space to post a bunch of press releases, but will break my own rule for this news about Cisco Webex, which yesterday unveiled its new ability to translate more than 100 languages, ‘from Armenian to Zulu.’ Think this is a huge advance for multilingual inclusion.” Alison Diana, content writer, Cisco Meraki.