2017

I have an allergy to hype. I know, that’s an unfortunate condition given that I’m in the field of marketing technology. It’s like being a lactose-intolerant maître fromager. Luckily, the symptoms are relatively mild — mostly involuntary rolling of the eyes and rapid finger twitching on the delete key. But I also have an addiction — I admit it — to stories of how marketing is changing. Not the hypothetical, buzzword-laden promises of change that …

Marketing + Technology + Management – Hype = MarTech Continue Reading »

I am excited to share with you one of the first entries to The Stackies: Org Edition awards. Rishi Dave, the CMO of Dun & Bradstreet, and his team just shared with me their “org stack” graphic above (click for a larger version). This is a terrific example of the kind of illustration that we’re hoping people will contribute to The Stackies. It reveals the five major functions of the marketing organization as seen from …

Where does martech fit in Dun & Bradstreet’s marketing org? Continue Reading »

As we were planning the upcoming MarTech conference for Boston, the Third Door Media team and I had an invigorating discussion about the philosophy of “martech.” What is martech? Who are the citizens in this growing community? What are the shared ideas and ideals that bring us together? What do we collectively aspire to achieve? Coming out of that conversation, I was inspired to take a pass at answering those questions with a written statement …

The Grand View of Martech: A Martech Manifesto Continue Reading »

We’ve been running The Stackies for three years now, where we’ve invited marketers to send in a single slide that visually illustrates their marketing tech stack. We run it as an awards program and a drive for charity (the last Stackies program raised $7,800 for Girls Who Code), with a little friendly competition and trophies at the end. But its main purpose is to encourage our community here to share ideas and experience with each …

What’s better than a marketing tech stack? Your marketing org stack Continue Reading »

I know, you get asked to participate in a ton of surveys. You’re super busy, and most of the time, the results of these studies are of dubious value to your actual work. So it’s easy to pass on taking them. But if you like the content of my blog, and have ever found it helpful, I’d personally ask you to participate in this survey: Marketing Organizations in the Age of Martech. I also believe …

What do marketing orgs look like in the martech age? Let’s find out Continue Reading »

One of the points I raised when we released the 2017 marketing technology landscape was that “the platformization of marketing technology” was now fully underway. Heterogeneous marketing stacks have become the norm. Even if many of the integrations between different marketing technologies in a stack are still relatively “shallow” — i.e., passing around fairly lightweight data, such as contact record fields, activity events, and common campaign identifiers — there is nonetheless a basic level of …

Is marketing technology entering a post-platform era? Continue Reading »

Okay, I admit it. I’ve just been waiting for an excuse to post this “5 Stages of Martech” chart. These stages were originally slides in the opening keynote at MarTech San Francisco back in May, when we unveiled the 2017 marketing technology landscape. I figured a little comic relief was in order as we contemplated life in a world of 5,000+ marketing technology vendors. But just a few months later, The Martech 5000 doesn’t seem …

Struggling through the 5 stages of martech? Let’s learn together Continue Reading »