CDP providers at the focus: Tealium

About Tealium

Tealium describes itself as a universal data hub, and has its roots in enterprise tag management. Founded in 2008 in San Diego, California, Tealium has offices in the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, France and Australia. Tealium's solutions include Tealium iQ, arguably the most widely used independent enterprise tag management system, and the Tealium AudienceStream customer data platform.

International customers include names from all sectors such as retail (Adidas, Ikea, Patagonia), travel und hospitality (American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, TUI), technology (Sony, IBM, Nokia), finance (HSBC, AXA) and media (The Economist). In Germany, Tealium's solutions are used by Booking.com, Lufthansa and Allianz, among others.

Customer data platform - categorizing Tealium

The major strength of Tealium's solutions is collection and combination of digital data, and consequential breakup of closed data silos. The Tealium iQ tag manager enables client-side data collection, while EventStream makes it possible to collect server-side data. This data collection forms the basis for standardizing data across multiple sources with the help of AudienceStream, and thus creating a homogeneous user profile. The generated target groups and measured events can then be restored both on the server and client sides, or relayed via SQL or JSON files, for example, to a data warehouse or a data science or BI department as well as visualization tools. In this way, data are linked in real time across all customer contact points, technological platforms and teams.

For activation, the profiles or segments are relayed to the appropriate campaign tools via standard connectors or APIs.

The customer data platform of Tealium can therefore be assigned as follows among the CDP categories:

CDP key features

Tealium's customer data platform contains the following key features:

Data

Over 1,200 out-of-the-box connectors on the data-collection and activation sides enable fast and easy integration of numerous data sources. Should a connector nonetheless be missing, the source can be connected via an API/webhook. The tag manager and EventStream not only allow easy connection of all channels, but also easy tagging of website and app elements.

Analytics

For analysis, data can be relayed to a data warehouse, machine learning tools, BI or visualization tools. This includes Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Hadoop Apache Spark, Terradata and Tableau.

Engagement (web)

On the engagement side too, Tealium offers diverse standard connectors for integrating external service providers such as CRM systems and marketing clouds. Examples here include Adobe Campaign, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Google DV360 (formerly DoubleClick) and Facebook. In addition, Tealium is basically open to cooperation with every MarTech provider.

Highlights of Tealium's CDP

Special highlights of Tealium are visitor stitching via AudienceStream as well as easy integration of the widely used, independent enterprise tag management system Tealium iQ.

Visitor stitching with Tealium's AudienceStream

During the first visit to a website without a user ID, a Tealium cookie with a Tealium ID is set. This ID is then read by AudienceStream to create a user profile. During subsequent arrivals at the website followed by login, the login data are hashed and added to the existent user profile, so that it now has a unique identifier. User data before the first login are also retained as a result. If the user later logs in via other devices, this information is also added to the user profile. To make user detection as efficient as possible, Tealium operates according to a key-ring principle: For example, a Facebook or Google ID can be added to the regular login so that the user can be recognized later even without this login. All these data combined lead to a homogeneous user profile across multiple sessions and different devices.

Tealium iQ tag manager

Tealium's widely used tag manager is considered the fastest tag management solution with a positive impact on website performance. At the same time, hardly any other system offers so many out-of-the-box connectors which can be used without requiring elaborate implementation. In addition to quality assurance testing tools, Tealium iQ also offers a consumer privacy manager allowing easy integration of website consent. In the overall picture of the universal data hub, however, the tag manager is mainly seen as a data supplier for the CDP, and can be used like other tag managers with the CDP.

Target group

Companies considering use of a powerful customer data platform while wanting to continue selecting engagement channels independently and neutrally with respect to vendors should take a close look at Tealium's universal data hub.

Do you have further questions about the customer data platform of Tealium?

We look forward to hearing from you!