Marketing Management

Thank you, Clay Christensen, for everything you taught me about disruptive innovation and more

As you probably have heard by now, Clayton Christensen — renown author, professor, and consultant on the topic of disruptive innovation — passed away late last week. I didn’t know him personally, but I had the privilege of meeting him on several occasions. And the ideas he shared in his writing and presentations have had a significant impact on my life. My first encounter with Clay’s concept of disruptive innovation was in 1994. At the …

Thank you, Clay Christensen, for everything you taught me about disruptive innovation and more Continue Reading »

Clayton Christensen

What’s the current state of marketing technology and operations careers?

Actually, I’m asking you. What is the current state of marketing technology and operations careers? This is my one-time-a-year pleading on my knees request to the martech community to participate in our survey of professionals in the field. In exchange for 5 minutes of your time, you’ll help all of us better understand the work we do and the mobility of positions in this space. In which department do you report? What are your job …

What’s the current state of marketing technology and operations careers? Continue Reading »

Take the Martech Career Survey

The many splendid varieties of marketing technologists in 2020: martech roles and archetypes

At the beginning of the 2010’s, I wrote a post about the rise of the marketing technologist. It was the early days of a new, hybrid professional emerging: rare “unicorns” who combined IT skills with marketing domain expertise and a genuine passion for harnessing the blossoming marketing technology landscape. Fast-forward to the start of 2020’s. Marketing technologists aren’t rare anymore. They’ve been fruitful and multiplied and are now an integral part of modern marketing organizations. …

The many splendid varieties of marketing technologists in 2020: martech roles and archetypes Continue Reading »

Marketing Technologist Roles

A marketing stack organized according to The Periodic Table of Martech

Happy New Year! To kick off 2020, I’m excited to share one of the first entries into The Stackies 2020: Marketing Stack Awards from Nexthink, an enterprise platform that help IT departments deliver great digital employee experiences. Jon Blumenfeld, Nexthink’s director of digital marketing, created their entry around the concept of a “Periodic Table of Martech,” a riff on the periodic table of elements. Each “element” represents a different martech tool — Jon narrowed them …

A marketing stack organized according to The Periodic Table of Martech Continue Reading »

Nexthink's Marketing Stack and The Periodic Table of Martech

The explosion of code — and “no code” — in marketing and martech, presented at TEDx Boca Raton

I love TED Talks. They have such a great format for packing a really interesting phenomenon, observation, or story into ~15 minutes of focused narrative. Giving one myself — even an independent TEDx Talk — has long been something I’ve aspired to. And so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do so at TEDx Boca Raton earlier this fall with a presentation on how Everyone is a Software Developer now. Here’s my attempt …

The explosion of code — and “no code” — in marketing and martech, presented at TEDx Boca Raton Continue Reading »

Scott Brinker's Martech Talk at TEDx Boca Raton

Martech collaboration between marketing and IT, and the real impediments to martech success

Last month, I declared that the 10-years war between marketing and IT was over. This was in response to Gartner’s CMO Spend Survey 2019-2020 that showed a remarkable reversal in the relationship: IT went from being one of the “top inhibitors” to marketing’s vision and strategy to being a “top supporter.” Actually, IT vaulted into first place as now the very top supporter of marketing. This week, Gartner shared their new Marketing Technology Survey 2019 …

Martech collaboration between marketing and IT, and the real impediments to martech success Continue Reading »

Martech Management Between Marketing and IT

What do martech and the Portuguese navy have in common?

About a month ago, I received an odd comment on my blog, “Martec’s Law was quoted by the Portuguese navy with respect to asymmetrical warfare. It is definitely a law now.” Huh? That mandated an immediate Google search. Sure enough, Martec’s Law had just appeared in Jane’s Defense Weekly — what AdAge is to marketers, Jane’s is to defense industry professionals — in the article, Portuguese Navy reveals existence of “tech guerrilla” unit. (Ironically under …

What do martech and the Portuguese navy have in common? Continue Reading »

Martec's Law in Jane's Defense Weekly

A martech milestone: IT leaders embrace the upside of “shadow IT”

There are notable inflection points in the history of martech where you simply have to pause and say, “Wow, the world sure has changed.” Crossing more than 1,000 solutions on the marketing technology landscape in 2014 was one. Digital ad spend surpassing traditional ad spend earlier this year was another. And now here’s a big one: “shadow IT” is going from bad to good — even in the eyes of IT. Shadow IT is coming …

A martech milestone: IT leaders embrace the upside of “shadow IT” Continue Reading »

Benefits of Shadow IT

The 10-years war between marketing and IT is over

I was reading Gartner’s latest CMO Spend Survey 2019-2020 — spoiler alert: average marketing budgets have fallen to 10.5% of company revenue and the percentage of the marketing budget dedicated to martech slipped from 29% to 26% — when something truly remarkable popped out at me. On page 20, Gartner included the chart at the top of this post, listing CMOs top supporters and top inhibitors. The IT Organization was the top of the top …

The 10-years war between marketing and IT is over Continue Reading »

Marketing and IT Make Peace

The (near) future of marketing is decentralized

In Gartner’s most recent Marketing Organizational Survey for 2019 — how marketing leaders structure their teams today and how they expect them to change over the next several years — a remarkable finding popped out to me: 20% of respondents reported that they run some form of decentralized marketing organization today. By the end of 2022, however, a majority — 51% — expect they will have a decentralized structure in place. A 31 point jump …

The (near) future of marketing is decentralized Continue Reading »

Decentralized Marketing Organizations

Want to Receive New Articles by Email?

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our latest articles directly to your inbox!

Subscribe

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.