Jeff Dachis on Sprinklr, Native Ads & Anonymous So

Last week two social tools -- Sprinklr and the Dachis Group -- joined forces on the back of a shared belief “that social would transform how business is done. The entire business -- not just marketing.”

The magnitude of this perspective shouldn’t be underestimated by the PR world. After all, the industry has watched social evolve from conversational marketing to a core aspect of business that touches every part of an organization.

It, of course, remains to be seen if Sprinklr buying Dachis is going to be a catalyst for better integrating social data with other business intelligence. It’s heartening, however, that this combined entity is working towards elevating social within organizations.  According to the announcement on Sprinklr’s blog:

Businesses must adapt to this new reality of a world shrunk by social media. And go back to its roots. Building better products and caring much more about their customers. Building relationships by managing experiences at every touch point. Across internal teams, departments, divisions, and locations.

We talked to Dachis Group founder Jeff Dachis about what this all means for social commerce, what’s next for social media -- and for him.

That’s the backdrop that we created the Dachis platform against. We created the next-generation evolution of brand analytics with the ability to understand how well a brand engages. Sprinklr can say when and with who to engage. Sprinklr is the peanut butter to our chocolate.

Right now there are way too many point solutions out there, but this is how these marketplaces evolve. I see Sprinklr becoming the Razorfish of its category.

In2: Both Sprinklr and Dachis work with top-tier brands -- Virgin America, North Face, Samsung, Dell, Nike, Disney and Cisco, among others. What has the reaction been from customers?  

JD: This deal was really market-driven and based on customer pain points. [The team at Dachis and Sprinklr] had many conversations and we realized there would be a market inflection point if we put our solutions together. We can finally do what customers have finally grown mature enough to ask for.

In2: So, what’s the new selling proposition?

JD: First and foremost, it’s undeniable that consumption patterns of individuals have shifted. Everyone knows we consume more content created by each other than major media companies. And with that, marketers’ abilities to advertise to us have become less and less. And we make our pre-purchase considerations based more on family, friends and strangers than from brand copy.

With the decreasing effectiveness of major media; ads being shouted at us; and the increasing effectiveness of social platforms leaves us in an environment where the customer is setting the tone. You have to touch the customers where they are.

In2: What’s your view on native advertising?

JD: It’s remarkable how willing publishers are to engage in this, but it’s really just an advertorial. As long as it’s authentic and transparent, I don’t mind. But think about when Travis Pastrana jumped out of an airplane. Red Bull has created totally transparent and interesting content.

So if it’s good, it doesn’t matter if it’s native. Most native advertising isn’t shared because it has an icky feeling that you’re being sold something. People smell that. So this isn’t a condemnation of the format but of those creating the ads.

In2: Any trends on the horizon that interest you?

There’s all of this sharing and visibility on social networks but then you have the “dark net” where people still want to protect their identity. It allows you to be on the Internet but in not such a personally identifiable way.

In2: What does that mean for brands?

JD: This puts more pressure on brands to operate in an environment of authenticity and trust. You may want to have [brands] confide their secrets to you, if you felt they were authentic.

Look at all the stuff that people are sharing publicly. If brands don’t respect that and just keeping pumping advertising messages, people are going to move off these platforms into ones where they are shielded by some anonymity so they won’t be forced to be marketed to.

In2: You co-founded Razorfish (now owned by Publicis), now you’ve sold Dachis to Sprinklr. What’s next?

JD: I’ll be taking a short-term advisory role to make sure my clients and employees transition successfully and that Sprinklr is as successful as possible. Then I’m chief evangelist on the board. I’m not at liberty to say what I’ll be doing next but there will be some well-needed time with family.