Last week, Bank of America suffered brand damage with an automated social media bot. Their intent was good: to automatically detect tweets that mentioned the bank and reach out with an invitation to help. But their algorithm was unable to distinguish between a routine customer service situation and a brand nightmare protest. The result — a partial clip of the exchange is shown to the right — was a PR train wreck. It became instantly …

Robots vs. marketers: the algorithmic marketing matrix Continue Reading »

Jeff Ogden, host of the popular video series Marketing Made Simple TV, interviewed me for his latest show on the convergence of marketing and technology: (Apologies that the audio and video are a little out of sync — apparently a bug in the recording by Watchitoo that they’re fixing for subsequent shows.) We discussed topics around a number of popular posts from this blog: Marketing technology landscape supergraphic Technology changes exponentially, but organizations change logarithmically …

Convergence of marketing and technology interview Continue Reading »

“It’s no longer a question of whether technology plays a role in marketing; it’s about what role the CMO needs to play in selecting the best solution to drive marketing and overall business success.” So begins the latest Forrester report, The CMO’s Role In Technology Purchasing ($499), by Sheryl Pattek. She summarized the report in a terrific blog post, Savvy CMOs Must Steer Their Marketing Technology Decisions In The Right Direction (free). So what role …

With big technology budget comes big CMO responsibility Continue Reading »

I believe these two things are true: Technology is changing very rapidly, and those changes seem to be accelerating. Changing an organization — how it thinks and behaves — is still hard and slow. These two truths are at the core of this blog’s mission: helping marketers understand how marketing technology is changing and how they can successfully adapt their organizations to those changes. But I’ve struggled to find a concise way to visualize the …

Martec’s Law: Technology changes exponentially, organizations change logarithmically Continue Reading »

Last month, I was invited on a fascinating marketing roadshow with SAS in southeast Asia, keynoting CMO events in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India. I’ve posted my slide deck and an essay version of my presentation on Combining Art & Science in Modern Marketing, if you’d like to read it. (Fair warning: it’s about a 30-minute read — consider it more like a free e-book!) Although it wasn’t my first visit to the …

All around the world, marketing = change Continue Reading »

It’s been a few weeks since my last post — sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been on a whirlwind tour of southeast Asia with SAS, keynoting CMO events in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India. It was a fascinating and inspiring journey, but regrettably, I didn’t find much time to write while on the road. But there are many reflections and ideas that I’m eager to share with you now that I’m back. …

Art and science in marketing: meaning, truth, and money Continue Reading »