I can recall like it was yesterday, my first blurry understanding of InfoSum’s technology. As a former customer at AT&T, I went through the same process that I see many clients, prospects, and investors go through every day. It is a magical moment where the concepts of ‘non-movement of data,’ control, speed, and security, all come together in a live platform demo. I recall this memory as a “blurry understanding” because although I was armed by my talented team and the brilliant Nick Halstead directly describing these new concepts, it was exceptionally unlike other technologies that I was familiar with. Almost unbelievably so.
Truthfully, that magical moment was also a lightswitch. I realized many of the technologies we were using or exploring at the time were only band aids to the challenges we faced, leaving us ill-equipped to address new problems ahead. At the time, adoption of our current solutions came from great taglines, slick marketing, and inertia. But often we were buying legacy technology and processes. They were not innovations.
At the time of that first InfoSum demo, I was familiar with a patchwork of solutions claiming to address one or more of the problems often found in the art of data collaboration - trust, speed, security, privacy - just to name a few. None of the existing solutions addressed all of these challenges in a completely new way, like InfoSum. The fact that InfoSum was exclusively a technology company (one which maintained neutrality and objectivity given no ownership of data and no identity of its own) was also a refreshing concept.
However, as a customer of so many piecemeal technology solutions, I couldn’t ‘place’ InfoSum. I had spent years placing technology vendor logos into thoroughly analyzed buckets as a management consultant. InfoSum was difficult to categorize, as true innovations usually are. Technologies that distinctively reinvent ways of working don’t have an existing context, and require new descriptive terms.
Flash-forward to today, and those aforementioned market challenges have been exacerbated. With the advertising industry’s increasing focus on consumer privacy, ever-changing regulations, and deprecation of third-party identifiers, there is a new level of complexity and fragmentation. The industry needs innovative technology which addresses these challenges, but it also requires education, and clarity.
A Brand Refresh - not a Rebrand
This brings me to our brand refresh. Market fragmentation often leads to mis-use and abuse of technical concepts, which can carelessly become taglines and buzzwords. Misunderstanding arrives at the door of those who are most in need of clear answers. Recognizing this, we endeavored to refresh our brand, add clarity to our purpose, and reaffirm our commitment to privacy, control, and customer relationships.
The timing of this brand refresh happens at the intersection of increased market complexity and the rapid adoption, usage and overall growth and maturity of InfoSum. We are a global company, which can proudly assert that some of the most beloved companies across the world recognize our platform for delivering better data-driven experiences. A brand refresh is a time to not only deliver a new visual identity, e.g., logo, typography, or colors, but also define and refine messaging at a time when the market needs it.
In the earliest stages of InfoSum, we often spent more time on what we were NOT, then what we WERE. You might hear... InfoSum is NOT an identity graph. InfoSum is NOT just a data clean room. InfoSum is NOT a data marketplace. Today, I am excited to share a few of my favorite messages that introduce exactly what InfoSum IS:
- InfoSum is redefining data collaboration in a privacy-first way
- InfoSum is infrastructure. It’s a SaaS product, providing companies the technology to control their collaborations securely and compliantly
- InfoSum’s patented invention of the “non- movement of data” allows data to be connected with both internal groups and external partners - without sharing any data (this is an innovation unlike any other ‘decentralized’ solutions)
- InfoSum is one platform powering all shapes of data collaboration (internal, one-to-one, one-to-many, or even data co-ops)
- InfoSum’s technology is often more complementary than competitive to some of the legacy data connectivity platforms in market (hi, LiveRamp)
- InfoSum builds amazing technology, but prides itself also on being people- first and creating a workplace that promotes diversity and inclusion
I won’t get into the labor of love and detailed steps of the process a brand refresh entails. I simply welcome you to digest the new InfoSum brand. Whether looking through our website, reading a client case study, hearing our salespeople pitch, or seeing this posted on Linkedin - as of today you’ll notice a brand with clear purpose and commitment - designed for the complicated new era we work in. The InfoSum brand today best represents the innovative technology that motivated me to become a customer and eventually an employee.
This refresh also signals the beginning of a series of exciting milestones to come! Stay tuned...
P.S.
These things don’t happen overnight - they take time, focus, creativity, tenacity, energy and care. I was privileged to work with an incredible team who made this happen alongside amazing, trusted partners... THANK YOU!
