The Week in Data Marketing, MarTech and AI: December 13, 2024 edition

Welcome to The Week in Data Marketing, MarTech and AI, a weekly roundup from Quad Insights that sums up the latest news surrounding the technology-driven transformation of marketing.

As the holiday season nears its peak, leading technology companies are racing to unwrap their latest AI offerings. Among them:

• Google just announced the release of Gemini 2.0, its next-generation AI chatbot. The new model offers enhanced capabilities for solving tougher problems, especially in math and coding, Igor Bonifacic of Engadget reports. The company also announced pre-testing for Project Mariner, an AI agent for automating workflow and tasks across the web. As Maxwell Zeff of TechCrunch explains, Mariner can take over your Chrome browser, “allowing it to use and navigate websites much like a human would.”

• Apple delivered iOS 18.2, which offers expanded access to the Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools via the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. This release, Kerem Gülen of Dataconomy reports, includes hotly anticipated AI features such as Image Playground, for enhancing photos; Genmoji, for creating customized emojis; and Writing Tools. (The new features are also available via iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2.)

More on AI

• “AI is top technology ‘hazard’ facing healthcare in 2025: report” (Healthcare Dive)
• “Reddit tests conversational ask AI tool” (MediaPost)
• “OpenAI, Google veterans launch audio AI startup” (Axios)
• ICYMI: “Marketers discuss using AI beyond content creation” (MarTech)

Sophisticated new ways of capturing data will fuel another year of growth in direct mail in 2025, a new white paper predicts. An estimated 80% of U.S. brands say they are planning to spend more on direct mail in the new year, according to Winterberry Group’s “Delivering Performance 2024: Direct, Digital and the Dynamics Shaping the Future of Omnichannel Marketing,” which was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service. The increase comes as brands are “leveraging techniques such as retargeting based on digital media, third-party marketing tech integration, direct mail triggers and QR codes.” Winterberry Group specifically cites improvements in connecting household addresses to digital identifiers. (See also: “Data marketing’s game-changer: How household addressability can transform your brand’s connection with consumers,” from Quad Insights.)

That’s the share of brands that cited availability of better data as a primary factor in their decision to spend more on direct mail, according to a Winterberry Group survey.

More on direct mail and channel mix

• “Those Tiresome Emails: Consumers Quick To Switch When They Get Too Many” (MediaPost)
• “Canada Post strike severely impacting Salvation Army’s largest annual fundraiser” (Durham Radio News)

This week’s Forbes CMO newsletter highlights a study that offers fresh data on the effectiveness of omnichannel marketing campaigns. The Out of Home Advertising Association of America, working with The Harris Poll, found that two-thirds of consumers remember noticing online or social media elements — a handle, hashtag, contest, promotion code or QR code — in OOH ads. Half of all respondents (52%) say they are more likely to engage with a brand after viewing an ad that integrates one of those elements. The Harris Poll survey polled 2,035 U.S. adults.

More on omnichannel marketing

• “DigiPlus Fest 2024: How traditional and digital-first brands master the omnichannel maze” (ET BrandEquity.com)
• “Macy’s Strategy Shows Promise with Focus on Omnichannel Shoppers” (PYMNTS)
• “5 Investment Trends Driving Digital Grocery Growth in 2025” (Grocery Doppio)
• “Walmart wraps up holiday promotion with omnichannel features” (Chain Store Age)

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s 10 septillion years to you and me — the amount of time it currently takes the fastest supercomputer to perform a benchmark computation designed to test the capabilities of quantum computing. (For now.)

Google just reported that its new Willow computer processor solved the same problem in five minutes — a game-changer as researchers explore quantum computing applications in areas such as drug discovery, financial modeling, cybersecurity, sustainability and fundamental physics.

(No word yet on the ramifications for first-party data.)

More far-out AI news

• “Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre meet AI-generated Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis in ad for gin brand” (Ad Age)
• “A phone company developed an AI ‘granny’ to beat scammers at their own game” (NPR)
• ICYMI: “If you can make this AI bot fall in love, you could win thousands of dollars” (TechCrunch)