Share your marketing stack and direct $1,876 for charity

I’m excited to announce The Stackies: Marketing Technology Stack Awards.

The short version: share a high-level diagram of your own “marketing stack” — the collection of marketing software tools you use, large and small — by May 31, and if yours wins, I’ll donate up to $1,000 to the charity of your choice. All stacks will then be shared in a SlideShare deck, so everyone can have the benefit of learning from each other.

Here are the details:

Design a single slide that illustrates your marketing technology stack, the different products and technologies that you use in your company’s marketing. You can take inspiration from these three marketing stacks that their CMOs shared at the Demandbase B2B Innovation Summit.

There isn’t a specific template that you have to use. Actually, two of the primary criteria for judging the winners will be (1) the logical organization of your stack, as represented on the slide, and (2) the visual design of your slide. You don’t have to be an artist or a graphic designer to win — but you definitely get points for how effectively your slide visually communicates your architecture.

Other judging criteria, which will apply to a combination of your slide and a brief narrative about your stack, will include: clairity of purpose, simplicity, sophistication, detail, breadth of capabilities, synergies between components, and a certain innovative je ne sais quoi. (Yes, some factors, such as simplicity and sophistication, have inherent tension between them — such is the complexity of life.)

You don’t have to identify the products in your stack by name, although we’d greatly prefer if you did — at least for as many components as possible. It both makes the structure of your stack more concrete, and it helps identify real-world use cases where different products are being applied.

I know, someone’s going to ask, “What if I just have a single marketing technology product or suite that does everything for me?” Well, first of all, kudos — you’re a shoe-in for big points on the “simplicity” criterion. However, consider all the other possible related software you use in marketing, such as for webinars, advertising, team management, and even specialized web services. Maybe you’re using one product as your primary “platform,” with other products that plug into it? (Even if we’re just talking about WordPress plug-ins.)

Your marketing stack should be submitted via email to sbrinker@chiefmartec.com as either a 16×9 PowerPoint slide or as a PNG or JPEG image of 1600×900 pixels. You must also include the following in your email:

1. The subject line “Stackies entry”
2. Your name and title
3. Your company’s name
4. Is this for B2B or B2C marketing — or both?
5. A short narrative about your stack — the rationale behind how it’s organized.
6. The statement: “I give you permission to publish this diagram and my description of it.”

I’ll accept entries up to midnight (Eastern time) on Sunday, May 31.

The winners will split $1,876 in prize money that will be donated on their behalf to the charities of their choice. Why $1,876? Well, because there are 1,876 marketing technology companies represented on the current marketing technology landscape. The prizes will be awarded as follows:

• First prize: $1,000
• Second prize: $500
• Third prize: $250
• Fourth prize: $126

I’ll notify the winners via email by June 8 and ask them for the charities that they would like those donations to be sent in their name. I do ask that these be legitimate charities, not political groups or tax-haven-ish private foundations. Just to be safe, I reserve the right to substitute a different chairity if common sense or good taste demands it. If you’re stuck for a charity, I’ll note that one of my favorite is Heifer International.

The results will then be published a little later in June.

And that is the real point of The Stackies. I am personally fascinated to see all the different ways that people have organized their marketing technology stacks — and I think the whole marketing technology community will benefit from seeing a collection of many different examples.

ATTENTION MARKETING TECHNOLOGY VENDORS: Please help spread the word about this — it benefits everyone to be able to share a wide range of different marketing stacks. Some of the best stacks may become “reference” stacks for others. And the more entries that have your technology included in them, well, the better it is for you. I might even humbly suggest that you consider making a matching pledge for any of the winners that include your product.