Scott Brinker

22 blockchain-based adtech/martech companies you should know

September 17, 2018 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

The following is a guest article by Donny Dvorin, general manager of Never Stop Marketing Research, a leading analysis and consulting group focused on blockchain martech providers. Jeremy Epstein, the CEO of Never Stop Marketing, will be keynoting the MarTech conference this October 1-3 in Boston. It was clear to anyone who attended one of the many talks — or screaming matches — touching on blockchain at Cannes this year that a major technology debate …

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Martech companies talk customer-centricity, but can they be customer-centric?

September 13, 2018 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / 2 Comments

A ton of marketing technology is sold today as the solution to delivering better customer experiences. Of course, martech doesn’t automagically create great customer experiences any more than a food processor automagically makes you a great chef. It depends on how you wield it. And, frankly, the most important elements of customer experience have nothing to do with technology at all. They have to do with the choices a company makes about how to treat …

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The CMO Council asked 8 good, hard questions about marketing technology management

September 1, 2018 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

The following interview was originally published by the CMO Council in the August 2018 edition of their Marketing Magnified e-journal. They asked me eight great questions about martech for marketing executives. These are my suggestions in reply. 1. How would you characterize the state of marketing technology discovery, qualification, implementation and use in global enterprises today? In many ways, we’re living in the golden age of marketing technology. There’s a jaw-dropping amount of innovation happen …

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Martech Olympics: Even just the UK Marketing Technology Landscape has 417 companies

August 30, 2018 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

In the beginning, there was the first marketing technology landscape. And then it grew. And grew. And grew. And grew. And grew. And, yes, this year it grew again. To be honest, there were a number of things about this slightly obsessive exercise of mine that surprised me over the years. For instance: I was surprised that it grew as much as it did as fast as it did. I was surprised that it became …

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The 4 Forces of Marketing Operations & Technology

August 28, 2018 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 9 Comments

As I’ve been preparing for the upcoming MarTech conference in Boston, I have been thinking about the fundamental forces that marketing technology and operation professionals wrangle in their work. I believe there are two overarching challenges in marketing operations today: Our environment is continuously changing, often quite rapidly. We have to gracefully balance opposing concepts and objectives. The struggle of continuous change is something that I’ve discussed previously with Martec’s Law, what I consider to …

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4 Forces of Marketing Operations and Technology

1 in 40 of the Inc. 5000 are martech companies

August 25, 2018 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

This article was co-written with Anand Thaker, my collaborator on the marketing technology landscape. Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the U.S., the Inc. 5000, was just released for 2018. Out of those 5,000, 2.64% of them are martech companies that appeared on this year’s marketing technology landscape, e.g., the Martech 5000. Now, 2.64% might not seem like a very large percentage, but when you consider that’s out of every …

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The next level of marketing maturity on stage at MarTech this October

August 20, 2018 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

I’m going to declare that, as of August 2018, martech has crossed a threshold in maturity. And by martech, I mean the grand view of martech, the convergence of marketing, technology, and management practices across industries — and the hybrid marketing leaders who are driving the strategy and operations of that convergence. Sure, the marketing technology landscape has advanced tremendously over the past year. I think we’re finally getting our head around the paradox of …

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Bots and automation don’t automagically create a great customer experience

August 11, 2018 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 8 Comments

The alliterated alternate title for this post could be: Tickets, Tools, and Taylor Swift — One Father’s Afternoon in Automated Customer Experience Purgatory. Subtitle: a small case study of anti-patterns for customer experience bots and automation. My daughter turned 10 this year. As a present, my wife and I agreed to take her to her first big pop concert, a stadium tour by Taylor Swift. (Don’t judge. Or, if you do, know that I’ll simply …

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Last week to get MarTech tickets at the lowest rate for an awesome conference in Boston

July 22, 2018 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 1 Comment

Want to attend MarTech in Boston this fall, October 1-3? (If you’re a hybrid marketing technologist — or a marketing executive who depends on them — the answer should be, “Of course!”) Then this is the last week to get tickets at the lowest “alpha” rate — prices go up on Sunday, July 29. Since our first sneak peak of the MarTech agenda last month, we’ve added three exciting new keynote speakers: Michael Tidmarsh, CTO …

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Choosing between being strategic or being agile is a false dichotomy

July 11, 2018 / Agile Marketing / By Scott Brinker / 4 Comments

“Agile marketing” is a crutch for those who do not have a real strategy. That was the headline from an article published this week by Samuel Scott on The Drum. Now, I’m a fan of The Drum. They generally have sharp coverage of marketing and media topics. I’m also a fan of Samuel in particular. His writing is punchy and makes you think. But painting agile marketing and strategic brand leadership as polar opposites is …

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