Scott Brinker

Data is marketing’s gateway drug to software fluency

February 13, 2013 / Marketing Data / By Scott Brinker / 2 Comments

In observing the language that CIOs and CMOs alike keep using around the big data bubble — where both parties seem ready to acknowledge that marketing is in the hot seat for making productive use of data — I’m starting to conclude one of two things: “Data” is a euphemism for all application-level marketing technology. There’s an illusion that data-driven marketing can thrive independent of any deeper engagement with the technology that generates or harnesses …

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Moving a blog is quintessential marketing technologist work

February 4, 2013 / Marketing Tactics / By Scott Brinker / 3 Comments

Migrating a blog from one platform to another reminds me of the saying: “In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they’re different.” In the process of moving this blog from Typepad to WordPress — on the occasion of our 5th anniversary — I was struck by how this is exactly the sort of work for which marketing technologists are ideally suited. The blog itself is a marketing mission. There are all kinds …

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5 years worth of marketing technology geekery

February 1, 2013 / Other / By Scott Brinker / 10 Comments

This month marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of this blog. The momentum that has grown around these topics of marketing technology management, marketing technologists, marketing software, marketing data, agile marketing, etc., has been incredibly exciting. Thank you for reading, sharing, and contributing. On the occasion of this 5th anniversary, I decided to invest in fixing up the place a little. First, a fresh coat of paint. I commissioned a logo to give the …

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Balancing marketing technology and IT at a Fortune 500 firm

January 30, 2013 / Interviews / By Scott Brinker / 3 Comments

Marketing technology management can look straightforward on paper, when analysts and pundit-bloggers such as myself draw simplified diagrams of new organizational structures with a few quick brushstrokes. But the real work of implementing these organizational changes for “the new marketing” — and the cultural shifts entangled in that mission — especially at a major Fortune 500 company is considerably more complicated. I have tremendous respect for the people tackling that. Therefore, it was my pleasure …

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3 epicenters of innovation in modern marketing

January 28, 2013 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / 3 Comments

Here’s another way to visualize the relationship between big data and the other innovations happening in the marketing department. I propose that there are three epicenters of innovation in modern marketing: The first is customer communications and the revolution brought about by social media. Marketing communications has, rather quickly, moved from being a one-way broadcast to a more personal, two-way interaction with customers, prospects, and influencers, all interconnected together. Organizations have had to embrace operational …

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CMOs must become systems thinkers and culture champions

January 24, 2013 / Interviews / By Scott Brinker / 3 Comments

There are few companies that are witness to The Great Digital Transformation of the world at the scale of IBM. And as that transformation overtakes the marketing department — an epic collision of cultures like no other in the history of business — I envy the court-side seats they have seeing this play out across many different organizations, in many different industries, all around the globe. So I was excited by the opportunity to interview …

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The big data bubble in marketing — but a bigger future

January 21, 2013 / Marketing Data / By Scott Brinker / 15 Comments

Let’s face it: marketing is in a big data bubble. That’s both a “big data” bubble and, more generally, a big “data” bubble. Everyone is talking about data, big data, data analytics, big data analytics. Vendors, analysts, consultants, pundits, bloggers, etc., are all falling all over themselves to squeeze these terms into their propaganda content marketing. As just one example, three out of the Top 10 predictions for CMOs by IDC revolve around data. How …

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50% of all new marketing hires will be technical

January 13, 2013 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 10 Comments

“Starting in 2013, after the CMO realizes that he/she does not have the skill sets in place for data analytics proficiency, 50% of new marketing hires will have technical backgrounds.” That is prediction #5 on IDC’s Top 10 CMO Predictions for 2013, released last week by analysts Rich Vancil and Kathleen Schaub. I dream about bold declarations like that from mainstream analysts, validating the central hypothesis of this blog: marketing is now a technology-powered discipline, …

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New species of marketers in the marketing kingdom

January 11, 2013 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 6 Comments

“As a marketer, you have two choices: adapt and survive, or stand still and die. The ones who do the first the best will emerge at the top of the marketing food chain.” That’s the concluding quote from Gord Hotchkiss’s latest article on MediaPost: Evolving On The Fly: Growth Hackers, Agile Marketers, Bayesian Strategists And CMTs. Gord’s Search Insider column is my weekly go-to source for big picture thinking in the evolution of marketing. This …

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The drama that swirls around data in marketing

January 7, 2013 / Marketing Data / By Scott Brinker / 4 Comments

Great article in The New York Times this past weekend, Can Social Media Sell Soap?, sheds some light on the war in marketing between the “humanists” of Don Draper’s world and the “quants” of the digital marketing revolution. The essence of the story: data-driven marketing is incredibly promising, but it is not all-powerful. Those who polarize themselves into one camp or the other, rather than seeking the best of both worlds, find themselves on precarious …

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