Marketing Software

I know I’ve sworn off of making predictions in the dynamic marketing technology space, but I’m going to make a big one today: the marketing technology landscape supergraphic for 2045 will contain only a single logo. I know, I’m not the first armchair analyst to suggest that there will be massive consolidation in the marketing technology landscape — despite the empirical evidence to the contrary that has consistently foiled that claim for the past 5 …

Marketing tech landscape in 2045 will consolidate to one logo Continue Reading »

So many projects converged for me at the MarTech conference this week in San Francisco. An amazing cast of speakers and sponsors, who knocked it out of the park (thank you!). The release of the 2016 marketing technology landscape. The shipping of Hacking Marketing. But my favorite was the unveiling of the 2016 Stackies Awards. 41 marketing teams, at companies large and small, B2B and B2C, invested time and effort to each create a single …

41 marketing technology stacks from the 2016 Stackies Awards Continue Reading »

UPDATE: The 2020 Marketing Technology Landscape is now available. I’m posting this from the 2016 MarTech USA conference in San Francisco — a fitting venue to release the 2016 marketing technology landscape supergraphic. (Finally!) You can click on the image above for a larger version — which you’ll obviously need in order to be able to see anything more than a colorful blur. But if you really want to zoom in and explore the landscape, …

Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2016) Continue Reading »

Two things happen around the time I’m working on updating my marketing technology landscape graphic each year. First, I get pitched by a large number of marketing technology entrepreneurs about their ventures and visions. I sincerely regret that due to the constraints of time, I am unable to engage most of them in briefing calls or one-on-one conversations — I’m sorry, I really wish I could. But I do read their emails, and I do visit …

A Valentine’s Day ode to marketing tech entrepreneurs Continue Reading »

As you may know, the MarTech conference series is produced by a company called Third Door Media. They’re the amazing team that does all the hard work for the event with facilities, logistics, registration, sponsors, and exhibitors. As program chair, I get to do all the fun stuff: define the editorial agenda, work with speakers, and perform my nerdy version of a master of ceremonies. An intentional benefit of this structure is that, from the …

Marketing technology vendor lollapalooza just 52 days away Continue Reading »

A number of people have been asking me when the 2016 version of my marketing technology landscape will be released. The short answer is “soon.” But I’ll share some more color if you’re interested… For the past two years, I’ve gotten in the habit of working on that landscape over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Things quiet down for those couple of weeks, and I sit out on the deck of my brother-in-law’s house, …

Where in the world is the 2016 marketing tech landscape? Continue Reading »

I’m excited to announce the second annual Stackies awards. Last year, we ran the inaugural Stackies as an experiment with two questions: How do marketers visualize their marketing technology stacks? How many of them would be willing to share an illustration of their stack with the rest of the community? To add a little extra incentive, we offered to donate $1,876 to the charities of the winners’ choosing. It was a terrific success. At the …

Announcing the 2016 Stackies to be awarded at MarTech Continue Reading »

Most people suck at accurately predicting the future. I’m one of them. I took my shot at the prediction hall-of-fame last year, predicting that Microsoft would spend more than $1 billion on acqusition(s) in the marketing technology space in 2015. I thought it was a reasonably solid bet. And when they tried to buy Salesforce for $55 billion in the spring, I was feeling pretty cocky for about a week — that would have been …

7 not-quite-predictions for marketing technology in 2016 Continue Reading »

Al Ries and Jack Trout, who essentially invented the concept of “positioning” in marketing, wrote a terrific book in 1993 called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. It’s a fantastic read, and even though it’s more than two decades old, I believe it’s as relevant today as ever. To discuss marketing technology consolidation, I’d like to call out six of their “immutable” laws related to positioning: #1 The Law of Leadership: It is better to …

The race for the #1 and #2 marketing technology brands Continue Reading »

This is the first of several articles leading up to my predictions for marketing technology in 2016. Because martech is a relatively complex space, I thought it would be helpful — at least for my own thinking — to break out a couple of foundational ideas, which we can then build upon. Let’s start with the illustration above, the 5 stages of maturity in marketing technology categories. While this certainly echoes Everett Roger’s famous diffusion …

5 stages of maturity in marketing technology categories Continue Reading »