<p>Tesco has recently acquired Sociomantic Labs, an ad tech firm that specializes in <b>programmatic and retargeting advertising</b> with an emphasis on e-commerce. The purchase was made by the Tesco-owned Dunnhumby, according to Tech Crunch. Tesco has been an early adopter of using data collected via loyalty cards used both online and in its brick and mortar stores, in order to figure out what customers want to buy.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but TechCrunch reported that a source close to the negotiations said the price was in the <b>low hundreds of millions of dollars</b>, while Business Insider noted a rumor in March that put the number at <b>up to $200 million.</b><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Sociomantic has never raised venture funding. Instead, it is run by an ex-Google employee, Jason Kelly. The company first opened for business in 2009, according to Tech Crunch.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"What we see with them is the ability to use data to <b>activate customers in real time...</b>" said Dunnhumby's CEO Simon Hay.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In its promotional materials, Sociomantic describes its Streaming CRM as, "<b>Customized digital advertising</b> in real time; offers created on-the-fly for a specific individual, and powered by the big data you already have... In milliseconds, <b>an offer</b> based on your revenue management data is created <b>for that specific individual...</b> While the customer is navigating [away from your website] to that other site, the ad space is purchased, the customized ad is assembled, and the impression is made. No matter which website is visited, or which device is used, they see <b>an ad that is tailor-made for them.</b>"<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The report indicated that currently, Dunnhumby works with brands and retailers to reach roughly 700 million consumers, while Sociomantic’s ad network reaches 400 million consumers.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">It will be interesting to see how Dunnhumby's acquisition of Sociomantic changes Tesco's consumer marketing for grocery retail.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><b>1-to-1 offers</b>, custom tailored to the customer could prove to be a very valuable idea. The details of how this will be applied have not been revealed, but we can see that <b>collecting data</b> about consumers using a <b>customer card program</b> is key to making real time 1-to-1 marketing possible.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="https://www.sociomantic.com/" target="_new"> Sociomantic Labs </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.dunnhumby.com/" target="_new"> Dunnhumby </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.tesco.com/" target="_new"> Tesco </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
