Originally appeared on Adweek
The advertising industry is experiencing a significant shift resulting from Oracle’s market exit. Over the years, Oracle’s advertising tools—built through key acquisitions like Crosswise, BlueKai, Datalogix, and Grapeshot—have become essential for many marketers, data providers, and platforms. With Oracle’s departure, stakeholders are left searching for reliable alternatives to maintain their data-driven strategies.
While this transition may seem daunting, it presents a unique opportunity to reassess audience and identity solutions. With the growing importance of adaptability and interoperability, now is the perfect time for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and platforms to adopt future-focused strategies.
Oracle’s legacy: A combination of acquisitions
Oracle’s advertising business wasn’t a unified solution but a collection of acquired technologies. Crosswise provided a cross-device identity graph; BlueKai offered a robust data management platform (DMP); Datalogix specialized in offline purchase data; and Grapeshot was known for its contextual targeting. Together, these tools powered a comprehensive offering for advertisers, data providers, and platforms.
Yet, much of Oracle’s advertising success stemmed from the external data it used. For example, many of Oracle’s automotive audiences relied heavily on third-party data, largely powered by Experian data. This means that while Oracle may no longer be an option, many of the services marketers depended on through Oracle are still available from Experian, ensuring continuity.
What this means for advertisers and agencies
For advertisers and agencies, Oracle’s exit means losing access to its syndicated audiences. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to cause a major disruption. As one of Oracle’s primary data providers, we’ve mapped Oracle’s audiences to our own, ensuring marketers can easily maintain their targeting strategies without losing performance or efficiency.
With access to over 2,400 syndicated audiences across key verticals such as demographics, automotive, retail purchases, or financial data, advertisers can continue their campaigns with confidence and precision.
What sets us apart? Powered by data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, our audiences are built on reliable, offline, deterministic data — like name, address, phone number, and email. This means advertisers can be confident that they are reaching the right audiences across all channels. With our audiences available across 30+ ad platforms, including programmatic, TV, and social media, advertisers and agencies have easy access to keep their campaigns running.
For advertisers that ran audience targeting using Grapeshot’s Contextual Platform, our new Contextually-Indexed Audiences are a replacement built for the evolving digital media landscape. By combining the precision of audience targeting with the flexibility of contextual targeting, marketers get a privacy-safe, yet scalable way to target audiences that is not reliant on cookies or other user identifiers. Marketers can activate these audiences through leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) or through Audigent private marketplaces (PMPs).
A new opportunity for data providers
Oracle’s marketplace has long been a crucial distribution channel for third-party data providers, particularly through BlueKai. With its closure, providers have an opportunity to explore new onboarding services and marketplaces that offer similar or even better reach and effectiveness.
New alternative onboarding solutions are emerging, particularly in areas like TV and digital, ensuring that the loss of Oracle’s services does not leave a significant gap. These solutions are being built to overcome the challenges typically present with data onboarding — complicated integration processes, limited ID matching capabilities, and opaque pricing structures. One such solution is Experian’s new Third-Party Onboarding.
What sets us apart? With our digital and offline identity capabilities embedded within this solution, data providers receive superior programmatic and connected TV (CTV) reach and addressability compared to the competition. The first data providers – Adentro, Kontext, L2, and Webbula – are already using this solution to increase the adoption of their audiences and maximize their revenue.
Additionally, new marketplaces are emerging that aim to fill the void left by Oracle, offering distribution to key destinations and providing data providers with continued access to advertisers who require high-quality, third-party data.
Platforms shift to new audience solutions
Platforms that relied on Oracle for third-party data and audience onboarding are now facing challenges in maintaining their ability to target specific audiences. This could affect their inventory’s attractiveness to buyers. However, we offer a seamless solution for platforms looking to replace Oracle’s capabilities.
As one of Oracle’s primary data providers, we’ve already mapped Oracle’s audiences to our catalog of over 2,400 syndicated audiences. Platforms can continue providing precise audience targeting and ensure advertisers receive the performance that they demand.
Additionally, Third-Party Onboarding builds upon the investment and infrastructure used to distribute our own audience segments, providing platforms with audiences from leading third-party data providers.
Moving forward: Embracing connectivity
We’re dedicated to powering data-driven advertising through connectivity. With best-in-class syndicated audiences, new Contextually-Indexed Audiences, and an easy-to-use Third-Party Onboarding solution, we’re enabling advertisers, agencies, data providers, and ad platforms to improve their marketing operations.
Oracle’s departure marks the end of one era, but it also opens the door to a future where collaboration, interoperability, and connectivity define the landscape. By choosing partners like us, advertisers, agencies, and platforms can ensure they remain agile, innovative, and well-equipped to thrive in this new era of data-driven marketing.
Reach out to your account representative or our audience team for information about our comprehensive audience mapping and finding the right audiences for your campaigns.
Download our audience lookbook to discover more about Experian’s audiences.
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Dextro clients to achieve increased accuracy in cross-device consumer measurement and engagement NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Dextro Analytics, a pure play analytics company that harnesses the power of human learning and artificial reasoning to drive more informed and effective consumer marketing, is partnering with Tapad, the leading provider of unified, cross-screen marketing technology solutions and now a part of Experian. The deal is effective immediately and the scope of the partnership covers North America. Additional terms were not disclosed. Leveraging Tapad's privacy-safe Device Graph™, Dextro Analytics will be able to significantly bolster its insight engine to decode complex customer journeys. Armed with more relevant, actionable insights, marketers can use Dextro's cross-screen, closed-loop measurement systems to reach and engage the right customer at the right time through the right channel. "Being able to accurately map consumer preferences, behaviors and journeys in a privacy-safe and unified way across devices is still one of the biggest pain points for marketers," said Ajith Govind, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. "At the same time, this partnership engages customers with the right message at the right time." "Detecting latent patterns and signals, and tracing backward- and forward-looking behavioral characteristics, are keys to sustaining a competitive advantage in a crowded space," said Manmit Shrimali, co-founder of Dextro Analytics. "With the proliferation of data and devices, connecting the dots is of paramount importance." "Dextro is solving some of the biggest challenges in analytics today," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad's data division. "Our partners consistently see notable improvements in both budget allocation and device optimizations after integrating with the Tapad Device Graph, and I have every confidence that Dextro will be among them." For more information about Dextro Analytics' revolutionary approach to using human learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to solve business and analytical problems, please visit http://dextroanalytics.com/. For more information about Tapad's cross-platform advertising solutions, please visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync Contact us today!