25madison Forms Strategic Partnership with Apollo to Incubate AI Applications

Read time: 3.5 minutes

Hi AI Pro!

There’s a lot happening in the AI content creation and advanced marketing tech space to keep up with this week. Check out your top story briefs below to stay ahead of the curve!

HERE’S TODAY’S AI-POWERED MARKETING REPORT:

• Top News of the Day: 25madison Forms Strategic Partnership with Apollo to Incubate AI Applications | TechTarget and Informa to Merge with Plan to Leverage First-Party Data

• Funding News: Marketing Personalization Platform Blueshift Raises $40 Million

• Today’s Top AI Marketing Trend: Fivver Exec Opines on Need for Marketers to Hire AI Talent Strategically

• AI Legal News: Georgia Judge Denies OpenAI’s Motion to Dismiss ChatGPT Libel Case

• Today’s Master Marketing Tip: Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

TOP NEWS

25madison Forms Strategic Partnership with Apollo to Incubate AI Applications

25madison, a provider of brand, marketing and UX design services, has announced a new strategic partnership with the investment firm Apollo called 25m Evolve to incubate AI-native applications.

Entrepreneurs backed by the new venture will receive funding from Apollo as well as data science, software development, UX design, and B2B go-to-market strategy.

Apollo is an alternative asset manager, with around $631 billion under management.

Through the newly formed entity, companies in the 25m Evolve incubator will receive operational expertise, as well as marketing and UX design services through an agency called Creature. In addition, they’ll have access to capital support for rapidly deploying and scaling “validated, AI-enabled vertical software solutions with enterprise partners,” according to an announcement.

"We believe the 25madison and Apollo partnership is a significant differentiator for founders and startups building the next generation of AI-enabled B2B software,” commented Grant Silow, Managing Director at 25madison.

TechTarget and Informa to Merge with Plan to Leverage First-Party Data

TechTarget, a B2B content and marketing data services company, announced it plans to merge with Informa, a provider of industry events, digital services and research to create an integrated marketing platform with a focus on first-party B2B marketing data.

Under the agreement, TechTarget will pay $350 million of cash in exchange for a 57% stake in the combined company.

“We believe that the importance of permission-based audiences and first-party data is growing exponentially, and this combination positions New TechTarget to capitalize on these impactful trends by increasing our first-party intent signals, archive of original content, traffic footprint and size of our permission-based audience,” TechTarget CEO Michael Cotoia said in an announcement.

The merged companies are expected to have more than 8,600 customers operating in over 20 countries, with a total permission-based first-party audience of approximately 50 million.

FUNDING NEWS

Marketing Personalization Platform Blueshift Raises $40 Million

Blueshift, a company that helps brands automate and personalize engagement across multiple marketing channels, using a combination of Customer AI & Generative AI, has raised $40 million of debt financing from Runway Growth Capital.

Blueshift ranks among the fastest growing companies in North America according to the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, which it has made for the fourth straight year.

The company’s customer engagement platform uses AI to unify, inform, and activate data across all channels and applications, with an integrated data and cross-channel marketing hub. Blueshift says it gives brands “all the tools they need to seamlessly deliver 1:1 experiences in real-time across the entire customer journey.”

“We are excited to support Blueshift’s innovative approach to marketing automation and customer engagement,” said Jeff Goldrich, Managing Director of Technology at Runway. “We believe Blueshift’s unique capabilities to leverage customer data will set a new standard in personalized marketing.”

TODAY’S TOP AI MARKETING TREND

Fivver Exec Opines on Need for Marketers to Hire AI Talent Strategically

In a recent column by the GM of Fivver Pro, an online platform for hiring freelance talent, Maya Roisman advises that AI holds tremendous potential for marketers but “the complexities of implementation pose major challenges.”

“To succeed, marketers must educate themselves and invest in the right AI tools to reap the benefits of the technology’s full capabilities in marketing operations,” Roisman writes. “That said, although it may seem daunting, there are freelance AI experts readily available to help ease the transition into the world of AI.”

A gap of in-house skills and expertise among marketing operations, which resulted from staff reductions during the economic uncertainty of 2022 and 2023—when 85% of marketing leaders conducted layoffs—continues to linger and create in-house resource constraints, according to the Fivver exec.

Marketers are relying more on freelance talent than ever before, and 45% of marketing teams today include freelancers, with 54% adding more in 2023 than in previous years, she adds.

“From primarily using freelancers to support full-time employees (63%) and support specific projects (57%) to benefiting from new skills brought in by these individuals (56%), marketers have no issue leveraging the agility and flexibility of a freelance workforce,” according to Roisman.

AI LEGAL NEWS

Georgia Judge Denies OpenAI’s Motion to Dismiss ChatGPT Libel Case

A state judge in Georgia has denied OpenAI’s motion to dismiss a libel case against the company filed by radio talk show host Mark Walters, who claims he was defamed by the company’s AI as having been accused of misappropriating funds.

Walters alleges that the accusation was a “complete fabrication” by ChatGPT, but nevertheless was relied upon by the journalist Fred Rieh, founder of the publication AmmoLand News, who reported the allegation about Walters as fact.

“Although the technology behind ChatGPT may be new,” OpenAI’s lawyers argued in a motion to dismiss Walter’s case, “plaintiff’s claims fail for reasons deep-rooted in settled defamation law: there was no publication, no actual malice, no listener who believed the alleged defamatory content, and thus no harm to any reputation.”

A hearing on OpenAI’s motion to dismiss was held in December by Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Tracie Cason, who this week denied the company’s arguments and ruled that the case against OpenAI will proceed to next steps.

TODAY’S MARKETING MASTER TIP:

GET YOUR BRAND REFERRED TO ACTIVE, ENGAGED, TARGETED READERS:

Want to learn how to get your brand referred at scale to your target customer? Check out Presspool.ai to learn more.

Let’s win together!

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY, FOLKS!