Bill Gates Predictions About Intent Data: Headline Roundup

This week’s roundup of headlines in the intent data space explores Bill Gates predictions from 1999, a merger and acquisition, the idea of the marketing data scientist, interactive content syndication, and an emerging security and development trend that has transformative potential.

You Heard It from Bill Gates First

This article from entrepreneur.com reflects on 15 Bill Gates predictions made in 1999 in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought. As it turns out, two of the predictions define what we now call intent data-driven strategies.

He predicted automated promotional offers, saying “Software knows when you’ve booked a trip and uses that information to suggest activities at the local destination.”

He also predicted smart advertising: “Devices … will know your purchasing trends and will display advertisements that are tailored toward your preferences.”

Both of those activities require historical purchase information, personalization, and targeting that can only be informed by contextual information that’s captured, synthesized, and executed by automated programs or tech powered by machine learning.

Industry News

In data-driven news, DiscoverOrg has acquired ZoomInfo (Zoom Information, Inc.). You might remember DiscoverOrg from our Who’s Who in Intent Data roundup, and you may know ZoomInfo as another provider of B2B data.

Both firms offer B2B intelligence platforms for Sales, Marketing, and Recruiting organizations. Those platforms will be available via a “light” integration for clients, and the databases will be combined into one B2B intelligence platform within the next year.

Henry Schuck, DiscoverOrg’s co-founder and CEO, will helm the merged company.

Interactive Content Syndication Networks

In a demandgenreport.com article, Elise Schoening explores the emerging B2B marketing trend of investing in interactive content and content syndication networks.

Content insights provide data on buyer accounts and purchase intent, but supposedly, interactive content and content syndication networks can maximize content reach and insights.

Static content has long been relied on to generate leads, determine buyer intent and interests, and deliver targeted information. According to Schoening, interactive content can provide unprecedented levels of insights due the nature of interaction; users engage with interactive content, answering questions and essentially defining their exact intent signals.

I See Science in Your Future, Marketer

In a martechadvisor.com article, Daniel Raskin says the world of marketing has have moved on from “point in time” analytics to continuous analytics of customer activities, historical purchase and win/loss information, using machine learning for predictive intelligence, and AI in marketing strategy and operations.

He predicts that data will become so central to the marketing function that real-time customer data will be real-time applied to campaigns for real-time optimization engagements. He posits, “As customers engage with the marketing platform, the customer profile [will be] constantly updating.”

And Raskin’s grandest idea, to me at least, is the emergence and rise of the Marketing Data Scientist.

Different Kind of Intent Data for DevSecOps

This article takes a sharp departure from the usual intent-based marketing covered in this weekly roundup: Intent-based security might be the next big thing for DevOps. According to this piece on securityboulevard.com, a new model for cyber security design has emerged.

Put incredibly simply, DevOps is a development methodology that uses software development and IT operations for rapid and high-quality product and services development.

With intent-based security, instead of developers having to wait for a security team to write and define the rules for products in rapid development, they will implement security themselves, following guidelines set by the security team. The guidelines are based on the intent of the product in development.

The author hypothesizes that machine learning will eventually dynamically determine the security intent and security rules for intent-based security.