Scott Brinker

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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Marketing services and technology M&A increased 67% in 2012

January 2, 2013 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / 2 Comments

The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) investment bank released their report of 2012 M&A deals in media, information, marketing, and technology sectors last week. Overall, the number of deals and the total value of deals were way up — a 50% increase in the number of deals and a 43% increase in total value over 2011. A few highlights worth calling attention to: The sector with the largest number of deals and the highest total …

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A striking example of the power and peril of data

January 1, 2013 / Marketing Data / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

Here’s a parting story from 2012 that I think sets the stage for a major theme of 2013: data has power. Last week a newspaper in New York published an interactive map of gun permit owners in Westchester and Rockland counties. It made it effortless for anyone to see who has a gun permit in their neighborhood, with names and addresses. While this is not the first time such information has been put online, this …

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5 thoughts on Oracle’s acquisition of Eloqua for $871 million

December 21, 2012 / Marketing Software / By Scott Brinker / 1 Comment

Wow, this certainly tops off a spectacular year in the marketing technology space: yesterday, Eloqua announced that it was being acquired by Oracle for $871 million. Reflecting on this last night, five thoughts came to mind: Thought #1: Congratulations First, big congratulations to Joe Payne, Steven Woods, and the rest of the Eloqua team! I’ve been a big fan of Steven’s thinking around digital body language for many years. They’ve done an amazing job of …

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How a marketing technologist says “Happy Holidays”

December 20, 2012 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 1 Comment

It’s been a great year — and a busy one — for everyone in the marketing technology space. And all indications are that next year will be even more of a rocketship. For now though, I just want to say thank you for reading and contributing to this blog this year. The exchange of ideas that we’ve shared over the past 12 months has been very inspiring to me. Reflecting back on the year, these …

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Why this CMO loathes marketing plans (interview)

December 19, 2012 / Agile Marketing / By Scott Brinker / 1 Comment

One of my favorite marketers in the Boston area is Frank Days. He’s super smart, speaks his mind, and is a great champion of innovation in the marketing department. He was one of the early pioneers of agile marketing, implementing it at Novell several years ago and sharing his experience with others. So I was excited to finally catch up with him for an interview on some of his current thinking about agile marketing. You …

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Agile marketing in 20 slides and 5 minutes (video)

December 18, 2012 / Agile Marketing / By Scott Brinker / Leave a Comment

“What the heck is this agile marketing thing people keep talking about?!” If that question is on your mind — and you aren’t familiar with agile software development, from which its ideas sprang — this 5 minute video will give you the quick lowdown. It was recorded at the ASAE’s technology conference earlier this month in an “ignite talk” format — 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide auto-advancing, 5 minutes total. (I’m not sure who …

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4 out 5 analysts recommend a marketing technology office

December 9, 2012 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 2 Comments

Admittedly, the statistical validity of that headline is suspect. As a child of the 80’s, back when people actually watched commercials on our sole screen in the living room, such tag lines were embedded in my psyche and occasionally pop out. (I always wondered why the fifth dentist from those Trident commercials was such a killjoy.) But I digress… More and more people — even those with credentials primarily from IT — are reaching the …

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5 marketing meta-trends (the presentation)

December 4, 2012 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 11 Comments

I’m giving a presentation today at the ITSMA‘s annual marketing conferencing on the topics of agile marketing and the rise of marketing technologists — two of my favorite subjects. I’ll be discussing them in the context of the 5 meta-trends in modern marketing that I wrote about earlier this year. Here’s the presentation, along with an essay version of my talk. It’s long — about 8,000 words — so if you want the Cliff Notes …

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“Every customer experience is a brand moment of truth.”

November 30, 2012 / Marketing Management / By Scott Brinker / 3 Comments

The reason why I like Google’s term “ZMOT” — the Zero Moment of Truth — is because I really do visualize that the distance of most prospect’s initial moment-of-truth with a company has collapsed to effectively zero. It’s the distance someone’s finger needs to travel to click (or tap) on a link that holds forth a promise, explicitly or implicitly. Does your brand live up to that promise? In all channels, digital and physical? The …

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