Why the Krux/Salesforce Union is a Disaster for Media Companies

The announcement this week that Krux is being acquired by Salesforce doesn’t mean that media companies using the Krux platform will suddenly have access to Salesforce’s suite of identity-based relationship management tools.

In fact, if history is any guide, the announcement means Salesforce will be using Krux’ behaviorally-based DMP platform to bypass media advertising and allow its customers to reach consumers directly, no matter where they are.

At the heart of the deal is the new Salesforce platform called Einstein. It’s designed to bring artificial intelligence to the CRM giant, giving its partners direct access to customer behavior across the web.

The deal is not about helping Krux customers access the Salesforce toolkit—it’s about Salesforce being Krux’ main—and possibly only!—customer going forward.

You see, Krux was one of five partners feeding data into Einstein in June of last year. Apparently, the volume of data was so massive it broke the Einstein platform. Since DMPs like Krux, BlueKai and ONEcount deal in managing volumes of big data, it makes sense that Salesforce wants to use Krux to power its ever-expanding Einstein platform.

So how does this impact publishers and other media brands currently using Krux?

Take a look at LinkedIn’s 2014 purchase of Bizo. Having relied on Bizo’s ad network to provide site visitor data and a steady stream of remnant (and not so remnant) advertising, hundreds of B2B publishers suddenly found themselves in a contractual relationship with a huge, highly aggressive competitor.

Most of these media companies swiftly severed their relationships with Bizo and never found a revenue stream to replace it. Meanwhile, LinkedIn embedded Bizo into its platform and continued chip-chip-chipping away at B2B publishers’ vital banner revenue.

Will the same happen with Krux?

Absolutely.

Any media company using Krux to drive banner revenue through targeting and audience segmentation should probably start looking for a replacement…and fast.

Sean Fulton is Vice President of Technology at ONEcount. ONEcount is the only identity-driven DMP exclusively built for media companies. For more information, on how how to drive a Return on Audience Data (ROAD), e-mail sean@one-count.com or call 203.665.6211 x203.

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