Stafford represented the engine maker at a number of high-profile industry events such as Reboot Develop, DICE, and Develop: Brighton.

Studio management platform for VFX and visualization gets new scheduling, conflict detection and resource usage tracking features.

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Logiciel de simulation de travaux   Ce logiciel est destiné aux architectes, bureaux d’études, entreprises du bâtiment et courtiers en travaux qui souhaitent présenter rapidement à leur client le résultat des travaux qu’il envisage d

06/15 — 2025 by abduzeedo Explore Palantis' sleek branding and visual identity for MP2E Solutions, showcasing thoughtful design and industry-specific color palettes. In the dynamic world of industrial design, a brand's visual identity must clearly communicate its expertise and innovation. Palantis, a branding, design, and strategy studio based in Nantes, recently tackled this challenge for MP2E Solutions. The result is a sleek, adaptable, and cohesive visual system that truly reflects the company's position and know-how. MP2E Solutions specializes in distributing Hauschild planetary mixers and equipment, acting as the exclusive distributor of these highly technical machines for nearly a decade. These Speed Mixer™ machines are renowned for their versatility, capable of mixing, pulverizing, and degassing, serving vital functions across the pharmaceutical, food, medical, and electronics sectors. To usher in a new era, MP2E Solutions commissioned Palantis to refresh its entire visual identity. The Hyphen: A Symbol of Solutions Palantis built the core of the new visual system around the hyphen in "MP2E-Solutions". This seemingly small detail carries significant weight, symbolizing the connection between "MP2E"—an acronym for Mélangeur Planétaire Emmanuelle Etiemble—and "Solutions," representing the company's comprehensive range of services, products, and client support. This thoughtful integration of the hyphen into the graphic language creates a strong and recognizable visual identity. The brand’s new visual identity extends beyond just the logo. Palantis developed a flexible system through the interplay of symbols and a carefully chosen color palette. Each color was intentionally selected to evoke the specific industries MP2E Solutions serves, strengthening the brand's presence within its diverse ecosystem. For example, a vibrant green might represent the pharmaceutical industry, while a deep blue could signify the electronics sector. This allows for endless variations while maintaining clear brand identification and visual consistency. A Cohesive Visual Language An integral part of this branding and visual identity overhaul included the development of a dedicated iconographic system. This system helps structure and clarify information across various communication channels, ensuring that MP2E Solutions' message is always clear and organized. From digital platforms to printed materials, the new design elements work in harmony. Palantis' work on MP2E Solutions is a testament to the power of meaningful design and transformative solutions. They believe in crafting tomorrow's story today, and this project exemplifies that philosophy. The refreshed branding not only accurately reflects MP2E Solutions' expertise but also sets them apart as a forward-thinking industrial leader. The meticulous attention to detail, from the symbolic hyphen to the industry-evoking color schemes, showcases Palantis' deep understanding of branding and visual identity. Their approach ensures that MP2E Solutions is well-positioned for its new era, with a visual language that speaks volumes about its commitment to building the future by mixing materials. Discover more of Palantis' inspiring work at www.palantis.fr. Branding and visual identity artifacts Tags branding

In this article:See more ▼Post may contain affiliate links which give us commissions at no cost to you.Preppy fonts capture that quintessential East Coast elite vibe – think Nantucket summers, yacht clubs, and monogrammed everything. These typefaces embody the perfect balance of tradition and refinement that makes preppy design so timeless and aspirational. But here’s the thing: not all fonts can pull off that coveted preppy aesthetic. The best preppy fonts have a certain je ne sais quoi – they’re classic without being stuffy, elegant without being pretentious, and refined without being inaccessible. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the most gorgeous preppy fonts that’ll have your designs looking like they belong in the pages of Town & Country magazine. So grab your pearls and let’s dive into this typographic treasure trove! 👋 Psst... Did you know you can get unlimited downloads of 59,000+ fonts and millions of other creative assets for just $16.95/mo? Learn more »The Preppiest Fonts That Define 2025 Let’s start with the crème de la crème – the fonts that truly embody that preppy spirit. I’ve curated this list based on their ability to channel that classic New England charm while remaining versatile enough for modern design needs. Gatsby Prelude Gatsby Prelude is an elegant and modern Art Deco font duo. It combines sans-serif characters with decorative elements, perfect for creating sophisticated designs with a touch of vintage glamour.Burtuqol Burtuqol is a vintage slab serif font that exudes a retro charm. Its bold, chunky serifs and aged appearance make it ideal for projects requiring a nostalgic or timeworn aesthetic.Gafler Gafler is a classy vintage serif font with decorative elements. It combines elegance with a touch of old-world charm, making it perfect for high-end branding and classic design projects.Get 300+ Fonts for FREEEnter your email to download our 100% free "Font Lover's Bundle". For commercial & personal use. No royalties. No fees. No attribution. 100% free to use anywhere. Kagnue Kagnue is a modern and classy serif font. It offers a fresh take on traditional serif typefaces, blending contemporary design with timeless elegance for versatile use in various design contexts.The Blendinroom The Blendinroom is a retro serif typeface featuring luxurious ligatures. Its vintage-inspired design and intricate details make it ideal for creating sophisticated, old-world aesthetics in design projects.MODER BULES MODER BULES is a playful sans-serif font with a fun, childlike appeal. Its quirky design makes it perfect for kids-oriented projects or Halloween-themed designs, adding a touch of whimsy to typography.Nickey Vintage Nickey Vintage is a decorative display font with a strong vintage flair. Its bold, eye-catching characters make it ideal for headlines, logos, and designs that require a striking retro aesthetic.Ladger Ladger is a casual script font that exudes luxury and elegance. Its flowing lines and graceful curves make it perfect for logo designs, high-end branding, and projects requiring a touch of sophistication.Hadnich Hadnich is a modern script font with a brush-like quality. Its versatile design makes it suitable for various applications, from signage to branding, offering a contemporary take on handwritten typography.Belly and Park Belly and Park is a condensed beauty classic font family featuring both serif and sans-serif styles. Its vintage-inspired design and narrow characters make it ideal for creating elegant, space-efficient layouts.Loubag Loubag is a modern retro font family encompassing sans-serif, serif, and decorative styles. Its bold, fashion-forward design makes it perfect for creating eye-catching headlines and trendy branding materials.Petter And Sons Petter And Sons is a romantic beauty script font with decorative elements. Its elegant, flowing design makes it ideal for wedding invitations, luxury branding, and projects requiring a touch of refined beauty.Preteoria Preteoria is a modern cursive font with a sleek, contemporary feel. Its smooth curves and clean lines make it versatile for various design applications, from branding to digital media projects.Delauney Delauney is an Art Deco-inspired sans-serif font that captures the essence of the roaring twenties. Its geometric shapes and sleek lines make it perfect for creating designs with a bold, metropolitan flair.Amadi Vintage Amadi Vintage is a chic and beautiful serif font with a timeless appeal. Its elegant design and vintage-inspired details make it ideal for creating sophisticated, classic-looking designs and branding materials.LEDERSON LEDERSON is a vintage-inspired shadow font. Its weathered look and strong character make it perfect for designs requiring an authentic, aged aesthetic.Fancyou Fancyou is a versatile serif font with alternate characters. Its elegant design and customizable options make it suitable for a wide range of projects, from formal invitations to modern branding materials.Catterpie Font Catterpie is a handwritten script font that mimics natural handlettering. Its fluid, signature-like style makes it perfect for creating personal, authentic-looking designs and branding materials.Jemmy Wonder Jemmy Wonder is a Victorian-inspired serif font with a strong vintage character. Its ornate details and old-world charm make it ideal for creating designs with a classic, nostalgic feel.Monthey Monthey is a bold, elegant vintage display serif font. Its chunky characters and 70s-inspired design make it perfect for creating eye-catching headlines and retro-themed branding materials.Madville Madville is a classy script font with a versatile design. Its elegant curves and smooth transitions make it suitable for a wide range of projects, from formal invitations to modern branding materials.Crowk Crowk is a luxury serif font with a timeless, elegant appeal. Its refined design and classic proportions make it ideal for high-end branding, editorial layouts, and sophisticated design projects.Peachy Fantasy Peachy Fantasy is an Art Nouveau-inspired display font with decorative elements. Its vintage charm and unique character make it perfect for creating eye-catching headlines and artistic design projects.Cormier Cormier is a decorative sans-serif font with a strong artistic flair. Its unique design and fashion-forward aesthetic make it ideal for creating bold, attention-grabbing headlines and branding materials.Syntage Syntage is a decorative modern luxury font with both serif and ornamental elements. Its retro-inspired design and luxurious details make it perfect for high-end branding and sophisticated design projects.Jeniffer Selfies Jeniffer Selfies is a retro-inspired bold font combining sans-serif and script styles. Its playful design and vintage feel make it ideal for creating nostalgic, fun-loving designs and branding materials.The Rilman The Rilman is a ligature-rich rounded sans-serif font with a 90s-inspired design. Its retro charm and smooth edges make it perfect for creating playful, nostalgic designs and branding materials.Milky Croffle Milky Croffle is a classic beauty elegant serif font. Its refined design and timeless appeal make it ideal for creating sophisticated layouts, high-end branding, and projects requiring a touch of traditional elegance. What Makes a Font Feel Preppy? You might be wondering what exactly gives a font that unmistakable preppy vibe. After years of working with typography, I’ve identified several key characteristics that define the preppy aesthetic: Classic Serif Structure: Most preppy fonts are serifs, drawing inspiration from traditional typography used in prestigious publications and academic institutions. These serifs aren’t just decorative – they’re a nod to centuries of refined typographic tradition. Elegant Proportions: Preppy fonts tend to have well-balanced letterforms with moderate contrast between thick and thin strokes. They’re neither too delicate nor too bold – just perfectly poised, like a well-tailored blazer. Timeless Appeal: The best preppy fonts don’t scream “trendy.” Instead, they whisper “timeless.” They’re the typography equivalent of a strand of pearls – always appropriate, never out of style. Sophisticated Details: Look for subtle refinements in letterforms – graceful curves, well-crafted terminals, and thoughtful spacing. These details separate truly preppy fonts from their more pedestrian cousins. Heritage Inspiration: Many preppy fonts draw inspiration from historical typefaces used by Ivy League universities, prestigious publishing houses, and old-money families. This connection to tradition is what gives them their authentic preppy pedigree. Where to Use Preppy Fonts (And Where Not To) Preppy fonts aren’t one-size-fits-all solutions, but when used appropriately, they’re absolutely magical. Here’s where they shine brightest: Wedding Invitations: Nothing says “elegant affair” quite like a beautifully chosen preppy serif. These fonts are perfect for formal invitations, save-the-dates, and wedding stationery that needs to feel sophisticated and timeless. Luxury Branding: Brands targeting affluent audiences or positioning themselves as premium often benefit from preppy typography. Think boutique hotels, high-end fashion, or artisanal goods. Editorial Design: Magazines, newsletters, and publications focusing on lifestyle, fashion, or culture can leverage preppy fonts to establish credibility and sophistication. Corporate Identity: Professional services, law firms, financial institutions, and consulting companies often choose preppy fonts to convey trustworthiness and establishment credibility. Academic Materials: Universities, prep schools, and educational institutions naturally gravitate toward preppy typography that reflects their traditional values and heritage. However, preppy fonts might not be the best choice for: Tech Startups: The traditional nature of preppy fonts can feel at odds with innovation and disruption. Modern sans serifs usually work better for tech companies. Children’s Brands: While elegant, preppy fonts might feel too formal for products targeting young children. Playful, rounded fonts are typically more appropriate. Casual Brands: If your brand personality is laid-back and approachable, overly formal preppy fonts might create distance between you and your audience. How to Choose the Perfect Preppy Font Selecting the right preppy font requires careful consideration of several factors. Here’s my tried-and-true process: Consider Your Audience: Are you designing for actual prep school alumni, or are you trying to capture that aspirational preppy aesthetic for a broader audience? Your target demographic should influence how traditional or accessible your font choice is. Evaluate the Context: A wedding invitation can handle more ornate details than a business card. Consider where your text will appear and how much personality the context can support. Test Readability: Preppy doesn’t mean hard to read. Always test your chosen font at various sizes to ensure it remains legible. Your typography should enhance communication, not hinder it. Think About Pairing: Will you be using this font alone or pairing it with others? Consider how your preppy serif will work alongside sans serifs for body text or script fonts for accents. Consider Your Medium: Some preppy fonts work beautifully in print but struggle on screens. Others are optimized for digital use but lose their charm in print. Choose accordingly. Pairing Preppy Fonts Like a Pro The magic of preppy typography often lies in thoughtful font pairing. Here are some winning combinations that never fail: Classic Serif + Clean Sans Serif: Pair your preppy serif headline font with a crisp, readable sans serif for body text. This creates hierarchy while maintaining sophistication. Traditional Serif + Script Accent: Use a refined script font sparingly for special elements like signatures or decorative text, balanced by a solid preppy serif for main content. Serif + Serif Variation: Sometimes pairing two serifs from the same family – perhaps a regular weight for body text and a bold condensed version for headlines – creates beautiful, cohesive designs. Remember, less is often more with preppy design. Stick to two or three fonts maximum, and let the inherent elegance of your chosen typefaces do the heavy lifting. The Psychology Behind Preppy Typography Understanding why preppy fonts work so well psychologically can help you use them more effectively. These typefaces tap into powerful associations: Trust and Reliability: The traditional nature of preppy fonts suggests stability and permanence. When people see these fonts, they subconsciously associate them with established institutions and time-tested values. Sophistication and Education: Preppy fonts are reminiscent of academic institutions and intellectual pursuits. They suggest refinement, education, and cultural awareness. Exclusivity and Status: Let’s be honest – part of the preppy aesthetic’s appeal is its association with privilege and exclusivity. These fonts can make designs feel more premium and aspirational. Quality and Craftsmanship: The careful attention to typographic detail in preppy fonts suggests similar attention to quality in whatever they’re representing. Modern Takes on Classic Preppy Style While preppy fonts are rooted in tradition, the best designers know how to give them contemporary flair. Here are some ways to modernize preppy typography: Unexpected Color Palettes: Pair traditional preppy fonts with modern colors. Think sage green and cream instead of navy and white, or soft blush tones for a fresh take. Generous White Space: Give your preppy fonts room to breathe with plenty of white space. This modern approach to layout keeps traditional fonts feeling fresh and uncluttered. Mixed Media Integration: Combine preppy typography with photography, illustrations, or graphic elements for a more contemporary feel while maintaining that sophisticated foundation. Strategic Contrast: Pair your refined preppy fonts with unexpected elements – maybe a bold geometric shape or modern photography – to create dynamic tension. Preppy Font Alternatives for Every Budget Not every preppy project has a premium font budget, and that’s okay! Here are some strategies for achieving that coveted preppy look without breaking the bank: Google Fonts Gems: Fonts like Playfair Display, Crimson Text, and Libre Baskerville offer sophisticated serif options that can work beautifully for preppy designs. Font Pairing Magic: Sometimes combining two free fonts thoughtfully can create a more expensive-looking result than using a single premium font poorly. Focus on Execution: A free font used with excellent spacing, hierarchy, and layout will always look better than an expensive font used carelessly. Common Preppy Font Mistakes to Avoid Even with the perfect preppy font, poor execution can ruin the effect. Here are the most common mistakes I see designers make: Overdoing the Decoration: Just because a font has elegant details doesn’t mean you need to add more flourishes. Let the typeface’s inherent sophistication speak for itself. Ignoring Hierarchy: Preppy design relies on clear, elegant hierarchy. Don’t make everything the same size or weight – create visual flow through thoughtful typography scaling. Poor Spacing: Cramped text kills the elegant feel of preppy fonts. Give your typography generous leading and appropriate margins. Wrong Context: Using an ultra-formal preppy font for a casual pizza restaurant’s menu will feel jarring and inappropriate. Match your font choice to your content and audience. The Future of Preppy Typography As we look ahead in 2025, preppy fonts continue to evolve while maintaining their classic appeal. We’re seeing interesting trends emerge: Variable Font Technology: Modern preppy fonts are increasingly available as variable fonts, allowing designers to fine-tune weight, width, and optical size for perfect customization. Screen Optimization: Classic preppy fonts are being redrawn and optimized for digital screens without losing their traditional charm. Inclusive Preppy: Designers are expanding the preppy aesthetic beyond its traditional boundaries, creating fonts that maintain sophistication while feeling more accessible and diverse. Sustainable Design: The timeless nature of preppy fonts aligns perfectly with sustainable design principles – these typefaces won’t look dated next year, making them environmentally responsible choices. Conclusion: Embracing Timeless Elegance Preppy fonts represent more than just letterforms – they’re a gateway to timeless elegance and sophisticated communication. Whether you’re designing wedding invitations for a Martha’s Vineyard ceremony or creating brand identity for a boutique law firm, the right preppy font can elevate your work from merely professional to genuinely distinguished. The beauty of preppy typography lies in its ability to feel both traditional and fresh, formal yet approachable. These fonts have stood the test of time because they tap into something fundamental about how we perceive quality, tradition, and sophistication. As you explore the world of preppy fonts, remember that the best typography choices support your message rather than overshadowing it. Choose fonts that enhance your content’s inherent qualities and speak to your audience’s aspirations and values. So whether you’re channeling that old-money aesthetic or simply want to add a touch of refined elegance to your designs, preppy fonts offer a wealth of possibilities. After all, good typography, like good manners, never goes out of style.

Reading Time: 9 minutes In marketing, data isn’t a buzzword. It’s the lifeblood of all successful campaigns. But are you truly harnessing its power, or are you drowning in a sea of information? To answer this question (and many others), we sat down with Ankur Kothari, a seasoned Martech expert, to dive deep into this crucial topic. This interview, originally conducted for Chapter 6 of “The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die” explores how businesses can translate raw data into actionable insights that drive real results. Ankur shares his wealth of knowledge on identifying valuable customer engagement data, distinguishing between signal and noise, and ultimately, shaping real-time strategies that keep companies ahead of the curve.   Ankur Kothari Q&A Interview 1. What types of customer engagement data are most valuable for making strategic business decisions? Primarily, there are four different buckets of customer engagement data. I would begin with behavioral data, encompassing website interaction, purchase history, and other app usage patterns. Second would be demographic information: age, location, income, and other relevant personal characteristics. Third would be sentiment analysis, where we derive information from social media interaction, customer feedback, or other customer reviews. Fourth would be the customer journey data. We track touchpoints across various channels of the customers to understand the customer journey path and conversion. Combining these four primary sources helps us understand the engagement data. 2. How do you distinguish between data that is actionable versus data that is just noise? First is keeping relevant to your business objectives, making actionable data that directly relates to your specific goals or KPIs, and then taking help from statistical significance. Actionable data shows clear patterns or trends that are statistically valid, whereas other data consists of random fluctuations or outliers, which may not be what you are interested in. You also want to make sure that there is consistency across sources. Actionable insights are typically corroborated by multiple data points or channels, while other data or noise can be more isolated and contradictory. Actionable data suggests clear opportunities for improvement or decision making, whereas noise does not lead to meaningful actions or changes in strategy. By applying these criteria, I can effectively filter out the noise and focus on data that delivers or drives valuable business decisions. 3. How can customer engagement data be used to identify and prioritize new business opportunities? First, it helps us to uncover unmet needs. By analyzing the customer feedback, touch points, support interactions, or usage patterns, we can identify the gaps in our current offerings or areas where customers are experiencing pain points. Second would be identifying emerging needs. Monitoring changes in customer behavior or preferences over time can reveal new market trends or shifts in demand, allowing my company to adapt their products or services accordingly. Third would be segmentation analysis. Detailed customer data analysis enables us to identify unserved or underserved segments or niche markets that may represent untapped opportunities for growth or expansion into newer areas and new geographies. Last is to build competitive differentiation. Engagement data can highlight where our companies outperform competitors, helping us to prioritize opportunities that leverage existing strengths and unique selling propositions. 4. Can you share an example of where data insights directly influenced a critical decision? I will share an example from my previous organization at one of the financial services where we were very data-driven, which made a major impact on our critical decision regarding our credit card offerings. We analyzed the customer engagement data, and we discovered that a large segment of our millennial customers were underutilizing our traditional credit cards but showed high engagement with mobile payment platforms. That insight led us to develop and launch our first digital credit card product with enhanced mobile features and rewards tailored to the millennial spending habits. Since we had access to a lot of transactional data as well, we were able to build a financial product which met that specific segment’s needs. That data-driven decision resulted in a 40% increase in our new credit card applications from this demographic within the first quarter of the launch. Subsequently, our market share improved in that specific segment, which was very crucial. 5. Are there any other examples of ways that you see customer engagement data being able to shape marketing strategy in real time? When it comes to using the engagement data in real-time, we do quite a few things. In the recent past two, three years, we are using that for dynamic content personalization, adjusting the website content, email messaging, or ad creative based on real-time user behavior and preferences. We automate campaign optimization using specific AI-driven tools to continuously analyze performance metrics and automatically reallocate the budget to top-performing channels or ad segments. Then we also build responsive social media engagement platforms like monitoring social media sentiments and trending topics to quickly adapt the messaging and create timely and relevant content. With one-on-one personalization, we do a lot of A/B testing as part of the overall rapid testing and market elements like subject lines, CTAs, and building various successful variants of the campaigns. 6. How are you doing the 1:1 personalization? We have advanced CDP systems, and we are tracking each customer’s behavior in real-time. So the moment they move to different channels, we know what the context is, what the relevance is, and the recent interaction points, so we can cater the right offer. So for example, if you looked at a certain offer on the website and you came from Google, and then the next day you walk into an in-person interaction, our agent will already know that you were looking at that offer. That gives our customer or potential customer more one-to-one personalization instead of just segment-based or bulk interaction kind of experience. We have a huge team of data scientists, data analysts, and AI model creators who help us to analyze big volumes of data and bring the right insights to our marketing and sales team so that they can provide the right experience to our customers. 7. What role does customer engagement data play in influencing cross-functional decisions, such as with product development, sales, and customer service? Primarily with product development — we have different products, not just the financial products or products whichever organizations sell, but also various products like mobile apps or websites they use for transactions. So that kind of product development gets improved. The engagement data helps our sales and marketing teams create more targeted campaigns, optimize channel selection, and refine messaging to resonate with specific customer segments. Customer service also gets helped by anticipating common issues, personalizing support interactions over the phone or email or chat, and proactively addressing potential problems, leading to improved customer satisfaction and retention. So in general, cross-functional application of engagement improves the customer-centric approach throughout the organization. 8. What do you think some of the main challenges marketers face when trying to translate customer engagement data into actionable business insights? I think the huge amount of data we are dealing with. As we are getting more digitally savvy and most of the customers are moving to digital channels, we are getting a lot of data, and that sheer volume of data can be overwhelming, making it very difficult to identify truly meaningful patterns and insights. Because of the huge data overload, we create data silos in this process, so information often exists in separate systems across different departments. We are not able to build a holistic view of customer engagement. Because of data silos and overload of data, data quality issues appear. There is inconsistency, and inaccurate data can lead to incorrect insights or poor decision-making. Quality issues could also be due to the wrong format of the data, or the data is stale and no longer relevant. As we are growing and adding more people to help us understand customer engagement, I’ve also noticed that technical folks, especially data scientists and data analysts, lack skills to properly interpret the data or apply data insights effectively. So there’s a lack of understanding of marketing and sales as domains. It’s a huge effort and can take a lot of investment. Not being able to calculate the ROI of your overall investment is a big challenge that many organizations are facing. 9. Why do you think the analysts don’t have the business acumen to properly do more than analyze the data? If people do not have the right idea of why we are collecting this data, we collect a lot of noise, and that brings in huge volumes of data. If you cannot stop that from step one—not bringing noise into the data system—that cannot be done by just technical folks or people who do not have business knowledge. Business people do not know everything about what data is being collected from which source and what data they need. It’s a gap between business domain knowledge, specifically marketing and sales needs, and technical folks who don’t have a lot of exposure to that side. Similarly, marketing business people do not have much exposure to the technical side — what’s possible to do with data, how much effort it takes, what’s relevant versus not relevant, and how to prioritize which data sources will be most important. 10. Do you have any suggestions for how this can be overcome, or have you seen it in action where it has been solved before? First, cross-functional training: training different roles to help them understand why we’re doing this and what the business goals are, giving technical people exposure to what marketing and sales teams do. And giving business folks exposure to the technology side through training on different tools, strategies, and the roadmap of data integrations. The second is helping teams work more collaboratively. So it’s not like the technology team works in a silo and comes back when their work is done, and then marketing and sales teams act upon it. Now we’re making it more like one team. You work together so that you can complement each other, and we have a better strategy from day one. 11. How do you address skepticism or resistance from stakeholders when presenting data-driven recommendations? We present clear business cases where we demonstrate how data-driven recommendations can directly align with business objectives and potential ROI. We build compelling visualizations, easy-to-understand charts and graphs that clearly illustrate the insights and the implications for business goals. We also do a lot of POCs and pilot projects with small-scale implementations to showcase tangible results and build confidence in the data-driven approach throughout the organization. 12. What technologies or tools have you found most effective for gathering and analyzing customer engagement data? I’ve found that Customer Data Platforms help us unify customer data from various sources, providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions across touch points. Having advanced analytics platforms — tools with AI and machine learning capabilities that can process large volumes of data and uncover complex patterns and insights — is a great value to us. We always use, or many organizations use, marketing automation systems to improve marketing team productivity, helping us track and analyze customer interactions across multiple channels. Another thing is social media listening tools, wherever your brand is mentioned or you want to measure customer sentiment over social media, or track the engagement of your campaigns across social media platforms. Last is web analytical tools, which provide detailed insights into your website visitors’ behaviors and engagement metrics, for browser apps, small browser apps, various devices, and mobile apps. 13. How do you ensure data quality and consistency across multiple channels to make these informed decisions? We established clear guidelines for data collection, storage, and usage across all channels to maintain consistency. Then we use data integration platforms — tools that consolidate data from various sources into a single unified view, reducing discrepancies and inconsistencies. While we collect data from different sources, we clean the data so it becomes cleaner with every stage of processing. We also conduct regular data audits — performing periodic checks to identify and rectify data quality issues, ensuring accuracy and reliability of information. We also deploy standardized data formats. On top of that, we have various automated data cleansing tools, specific software to detect and correct data errors, redundancies, duplicates, and inconsistencies in data sets automatically. 14. How do you see the role of customer engagement data evolving in shaping business strategies over the next five years? The first thing that’s been the biggest trend from the past two years is AI-driven decision making, which I think will become more prevalent, with advanced algorithms processing vast amounts of engagement data in real-time to inform strategic choices. Somewhat related to this is predictive analytics, which will play an even larger role, enabling businesses to anticipate customer needs and market trends with more accuracy and better predictive capabilities. We also touched upon hyper-personalization. We are all trying to strive toward more hyper-personalization at scale, which is more one-on-one personalization, as we are increasingly capturing more engagement data and have bigger systems and infrastructure to support processing those large volumes of data so we can achieve those hyper-personalization use cases. As the world is collecting more data, privacy concerns and regulations come into play. I believe in the next few years there will be more innovation toward how businesses can collect data ethically and what the usage practices are, leading to more transparent and consent-based engagement data strategies. And lastly, I think about the integration of engagement data, which is always a big challenge. I believe as we’re solving those integration challenges, we are adding more and more complex data sources to the picture. So I think there will need to be more innovation or sophistication brought into data integration strategies, which will help us take a truly customer-centric approach to strategy formulation.   This interview Q&A was hosted with Ankur Kothari, a previous Martech Executive, for Chapter 6 of The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die. Download the PDF or request a physical copy of the book here. The post Ankur Kothari Q&A: Customer Engagement Book Interview appeared first on MoEngage.

Reading Time: 6 minutes What is marketing without data? Assumptions. Guesses. Fluff. For Chapter 6 of our book, “The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die,” we spoke with Alec Haase, Product GTM Lead, Commerce and AI at Hightouch, to explore how engagement data can truly inform critical business decisions.  Alec discusses the different types of customer behaviors that matter most, how to separate meaningful information from the rest, and the role of systems that learn over time to create tailored customer experiences. This interview provides insights into using data for real-time actions and shaping the future of marketing. Prepare to learn about AI decision-making and how a focus on data is changing how we engage with customers.   Alec Haase Q&A Interview 1. What types of customer engagement data are most valuable for making strategic business decisions? It’s a culmination of everything. Behavioral signals — the actual conversions and micro-conversions that users take within your product or website. Obviously, that’s things like purchases. But there are also other behavioral signals marketers should be using and thinking about. Things like micro-conversions — maybe that’s shopping for a product, clicking to learn more about a product, or visiting a certain page on your website. Behind that, you also need to have all your user data to tie that to. So I know someone took said action; I can follow up with them in email or out on paid social. I need the user identifiers to do that. 2. How do you distinguish between data that is actionable versus data that is just noise? Data that’s actionable includes the conversions and micro-conversions — very clear instances of “someone did this.” I can react to or measure those. What’s becoming a bit of a challenge for marketers is understanding that there’s other data that is valuable for machine learning or reinforcement learning models, things like tags on the types of products customers are interacting with. Maybe there’s category information about that product, or color information. That would otherwise look like noise to the average marketer. But behind the scenes, it can be used for reinforcement learning. There is definitely the “clear-cut” actionable data, but marketers shouldn’t be quick to classify things as noise because the rise in machine learning and reinforcement learning will make that data more valuable. 3. How can customer engagement data be used to identify and prioritize new business opportunities? At Hightouch, we don’t necessarily think about retroactive analysis. We have a system where we have customer engagement data firing in that we then have real-time scores reacting to. An interesting example is when you have machine learning and reinforcement learning models running. In the pet retailer example I gave you, the system is able to figure out what to prioritize. The concept of reinforcement learning is not a marketer making rules to say, “I know this type of thing works well on this type of audience.” It’s the machine itself using the data to determine what attribute responds well to which offer, recommendation, or marketing campaign. 4. How can marketers ensure their use of customer engagement data aligns with the broader business objectives? It starts with the objectives. It’s starting with the desired outcome and working your way back. That whole flip of the paradigm is starting with outcomes and letting the system optimize. What are you trying to drive, and then back into the types of experiences that can make that happen? There’s personalization. When we talk about data-driven experiences and personalization, Spotify Wrapped is the North Star. For Spotify Wrapped, you want to drive customer stickiness and create a brand. To make that happen, you want to send a personalized email. What components do you want in that email? Maybe it’s top five songs, top five artists, and then you can back into the actual event data you need to make that happen. 5. What role does engagement data play in influencing cross-functional decisions such as those in product development, sales, or customer service? For product development, it’s product analytics — knowing what features users are using, or seeing in heat maps where users are clicking. Sales is similar. We’re using behavioral signals like what types of content they’re reading on the site to help inform what they would be interested in — the types of products or the types of use cases. For customer service, you can look at errors they’ve run into in the past or specific purchases they’ve made, so that when you’re helping them the next time they engage with you, you know exactly what their past behaviors were and what products they could be calling about. 6. What are some challenges marketers face when trying to translate customer engagement data into actionable insights? Access to data is one challenge. You might not know what data you have because marketers historically may not have been used to the systems where data is stored. Historically, that’s been pretty siloed away from them. Rich behavioral data and other data across the business was stored somewhere else. Now, as more companies embrace the data warehouse at the center of their business, it gives everyone a true single place where data can be stored. Marketers are working more with data teams, understanding more about the data they have, and using that data to power downstream use cases, personalization, reinforcement learning, or general business insights. 7. How do you address skepticism or resistance from stakeholders when presenting data-driven recommendations? As a marketer, I think proof is key. The best thing is if you’ve actually run a test. “I think we should do this. I ran a small test, and it’s showing that this is actually proving out.” Being able to clearly explain and justify your reasoning with data is super important. 8. What technology or tools have you found most effective for gathering and analyzing customer engagement data? Any type of behavioral event collection, specifically ones that write to the cloud data warehouse, is the critical component. Your data team is operating off the data warehouse. Having an event collection product that stores data in that central spot is really important if you want to use the other data when making recommendations. You want to get everything into the data warehouse where it can be used both for insights and for putting into action. For Spotify Wrapped, you want to collect behavioral event signals like songs listened to or concerts attended, writing to the warehouse so that you can get insights back — how many songs were played this year, projections for next month — but then you can also use those behavioral events in downstream platforms to fire off personalized emails with product recommendations or Spotify Wrapped-style experiences. 9. How do you see the role of customer engagement data evolving in shaping business strategies over the next five years? What we’re excited about is the concept of AI Decisioning — having AI agents actually using customer data to train their own models and decision-making to create personalized experiences. We’re sitting on top of all this behavioral data, engagement data, and user attributes, and our system is learning from all of that to make the best decisions across downstream systems. Whether that’s as simple as driving a loyalty program and figuring out what emails to send or what on-site experiences to show, or exposing insights that might lead you to completely change your business strategy, we see engagement data as the fuel to the engine of reinforcement learning, machine learning, AI agents, this whole next wave of Martech that’s just now coming. But it all starts with having the data to train those systems. I think that behavioral data is the fuel of modern Martech, and that only holds more true as Martech platforms adopt these decisioning and AI capabilities, because they’re only as good as the data that’s training the models.     This interview Q&A was hosted with Alec Haase, Product GTM Lead, Commerce and AI at Hightouch, for Chapter 6 of The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die. Download the PDF or request a physical copy of the book here. The post Alec Haase Q&A: Customer Engagement Book Interview appeared first on MoEngage.

Mario Kart World is one of the year's hottest games, but its pivot to an open world setting, while peeling back kart customization options, opened a massive rift for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds to drift into. And Sega is determined to do everything possible to make its kart racer the one to beat by including numerous guest characters and cross-platform, multiplayer contests. I took Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for a test drive at the Summer Game Fest, and it's a strong contender racing game of the year.Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds' Deep Kart CustomizationThe biggest difference between Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and Mario Kart World is that Sega's title focuses on kart customization. I'm not just talking about colors and tires; CrossWorlds introduces Gadgets, add-ons that augment your car, giving your whip helpful abilities to bring into the race. (Credit: Sega)Each ride has a license plate with six slots where you can slot your chosen Gadgets. A Gadget can take up one, two, or three slots, so the idea is to find a mix that pairs well with character traits. There's a surprising amount of depth for people who want to min/max their favorite anthropomorphic animal.I chose Sonic, a speed character, and added a Gadget that started him with two boosts (one slot), a Gadget that improved his speed while trailing an opponent (two slots), and a Gadget that improved acceleration (three slots). There were so many Gadgets that I could have easily spent my entire demo session building a car to match my playstyle. I envision people happily getting lost in the weeds before participating in their first race.(Credit: Sega)Gameplay: This Ain't Mario Kart WorldAlthough it's not an open world like Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds injects a unique spin on traditional kart racing. The familiar trappings are all here, such as rings to boost your top speed. Each Grand Prix consists of three maps, but the gimmick at play is stage transitions. Recommended by Our EditorsAbout a third of the way down a course, a giant ring-portal opens, presenting a new world and track (hence the name "CrossWorlds"). The shift in tone and terrain keeps the races fast-paced and unpredictable. I particularly liked how whoever is in first place can sometimes choose which CrossWorlds track to go down, controlling the tempo. With every race completion, you earn credits based on your performance that you can cash in for new car parts.In a stark contrast to Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is far more aggressive, even on lower difficulties. At the start of each grand prix, the game assigns you a rival—this is the character to beat, and the one who taunts you all match. Beat them all, and you can race high-powered Super variants.Just about everything caused you to lose rings: bumping into other players, the walls, and, of course, getting hit by items. The series' trademark rubberband AI is still in place, too. Even in the press demo, I wasn't safe from taking four items back to back and being knocked off the stage mere feet away from the finish line.(Credit: Sega)The demo didn't include the new characters that debuted at the Summer Game Fest, but I studied the character screen to see who else could be coming to the game. Including the 12 Sonic characters available in the demo, I counted a whopping 64 character slots. They include Hatsune Miku (the ultra-popular Vocaloid), Joker (from Persona 5), Ichiban Kasuga (from Like a Dragon), and Steve (from Minecraft). However, I hope to see other classic Sega IPs like in previous Sonic Racing titles.Platforms and Release DateWill Sega do what Nintendon't? I had an exhilarating time playing Sonic Racing: CrossWorld, and I can't wait to see more wild track compositions. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds will be available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on Sept. 25, 2025. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is planned for later in the year.