3 different futures for marketing technology

My post from last week — is marketing technology consolidating or diversifying — resonated with the folks at HubSpot, and they invited me to contribute a few thoughts on that subject to their blog. The result: Will Marketing Technology Look Like iOS Someday? As illustrated in the graphic above, we consider three possible futures for marketing technology: Diversified with no real center of gravity (kind of what we have today), on the left. Consolidated into …

3 different futures for marketing technology Continue Reading »

BI and marketing should be peanut butter and jelly (interview)

If you were to take a poll of the hot topics in marketing these days, “social media” and “big data” would both be top contenders. So when the folks at Viralheat, a provider of social media marketing software (covered in TechCrunch earlier this year), invited me to interview their Director of Business Intelligence, Erin Robbins O’Brien, on her perspective of “big data” and marketing, the hard part was narrowing my list of questions. Tell us …

BI and marketing should be peanut butter and jelly (interview) Continue Reading »

Gartner: 72% have a “chief marketing technologist” today

Laura McLellan, a research VP at Gartner, caused quite a stir at the beginning of this year when she boldly predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. Exclaims of, “Really?!?!,” echoed among marketing and IT professionals alike for months thereafter. But the evidence was compelling, and those of us working in the marketing technology space have been witnessing this trend first-hand. Now, Laura is back with even more research to …

Gartner: 72% have a “chief marketing technologist” today Continue Reading »

Is marketing technology consolidating or diversifying?

Is marketing technology consolidating or diversifying? Every few weeks it seems like we see a new round of marketing technology acquisitions, especially from Oracle, Adobe, IBM, Salesforce.com, Google. For example, Google’s recent acquisition of Wildfire. There are certainly plenty of anecdotes to support the narrative that marketing technology is consolidating. At the same time, however, the pages of TechCrunch, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, GigaOm, etc., are constantly pumping out announcements of new ventures launching in this space. …

Is marketing technology consolidating or diversifying? Continue Reading »

Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2012)

UPDATE: The 2020 Marketing Technology Landscape is now available. Marketing is in a whirlwind of technological innovation. It’s thrilling, inspiring, and a little dizzying. Last year, I made the first version of a marketing technology landscape infographic to try to glimpse the “big picture” of this broad field. I’m pleased to now share with you the all-new 2012 version of this supergraphic above (click to open a large version that’s actually readable). Its purpose is …

Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2012) Continue Reading »

CMO should focus on process, content, and skills (interview)

Marketo is one of the leading providers of marketing automation software. “No IT” was one of their early selling points, and I remember thinking at the time that represented a major inflection point in marketing’s relationship with technology. So I was excited to have the opportunity to interview Jon Miller, their VP of Marketing Content and Strategy, on the impact they’ve seen technology have in the marketing department over the past 6 years. Here’s his …

CMO should focus on process, content, and skills (interview) Continue Reading »

“We want to test bold, new ideas that always work.”

Nobody likes to see their idea lose. Everybody wants straight A’s. Look good for the boss. It’s the Lake Wobegon effect: all the children are above average. (If you don’t appreciate that joke, take this pop quiz.) So at some level it’s not surprising that survey data of Fortune 1,000 marketers from the CEB Marketing Leadership Council shows that only 50% of marketers agree or strongly agree with the statement: “My team accepts that some …

“We want to test bold, new ideas that always work.” Continue Reading »

VentureBeat says Chief Marketing Technology Officers are hot

Well, not hot like the Real Housewives of Madison Avenue. But in their article — The hot new CxO: Chief Marketing Technology Officer? — they acknowledge “a new role that’s a cross between the traditional chief marketing officer and chief technology officer.” And it’s become a hot topic. “CMTOs are using significant technology and analytical expertise to help companies make sense of and exploit vast amounts of customer and market data from sources as diverse …

VentureBeat says Chief Marketing Technology Officers are hot Continue Reading »

Marketers are less statistical than, um, statisticians

The Corporate Executive Board had an eye-catching post on the HBR blog recently, Marketers Flunk the Big Data Test. They begin: The big-data explosion is driving a shift away from gut-based decision making. Marketing in particular is feeling the pressure to embrace new data-driven customer intelligence capabilities. No wonder a strong appetite for data is one of the most sought-after qualities in new marketers. And yet, a recent CEB study of nearly 800 marketers at …

Marketers are less statistical than, um, statisticians Continue Reading »