Marc Andreessen had a great essay in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Why Software Is Eating the World. Remarking on the news from last week that Hewlett-Packard is looking to jettison its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, he makes the case this isn’t a tech bubble — this is the new normal: My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and …
I’m detecting an exciting shift in the marketing technology landscape — less of an emphasis on back-office analytics, and more of a focus on delivering compelling customer experiences in the front-office. To be sure, analytics support that mission; but they don’t dominate it. I think this is a really important step forward. Earlier this month, Brian Walker of Forrester released a report on The Emergence of Customer Experience Management Solutions that discusses some of the …
Amazing graphic of customer experience touchpoints Continue Reading »
A recent Forrester report on Understanding The Marketing Technology Buying Process (which is also available from Neolane) had a few exciting revelations. Their survey of 137 customer intelligence professionals — whom they see as a new breed of marketer — showed that marketing is now starting to lead the buying process for marketing technologies. I know, that probably sounds obvious — marketing leading marketing technology decisions. It’s like asking who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? But …
Forrester: Establish a marketing technology office Continue Reading »
Written version of my Search Insider Summit presentation today: In the beginning, there was marketing. Simply marketing. Then, in the era of Mad Men, the marketing universe split in two. Suddenly, we had brand marketing, building a brand image, a position in the market — marketing above the fray. Versus direct marketing, right down in the frothy fray of persuading individual prospects to do something, the origin of calls-to-action and conversion rates. Specialized galaxies of …
From marketing specialties to marketing mash-ups Continue Reading »
I lived in New York City for about five years, and if I had to name one thing about the city that I loved most, it was its energy. The city just crackles with creativity and drive. Our inaugural marketing technologist interview was with New Yorker Jonathan Mendez, who in turn, introduced me to today’s metropolis-based interviewee: Darren Herman. Like Jonathan, Darren is a multi-faceted marketing technologist: an entrepreneur, an early-stage venture investor, and the …
Mashing media, advertising and technology (interview) Continue Reading »
Search engines created a new ecosystem for consumers and marketers — and in the process made Google worth around $200 billion. If you put aside the hype, the core value proposition is simple: people go to Google looking for things, and marketers whose products or services are related to those things are thrilled to buy “sponsored answers” (i.e., ads) that show up with the results for those queries. While there’s a lot of chatter about …
Q&A threat to Google that marketers should watch Continue Reading »
Thank you for all the positive feedback on Rise of the Marketing Technologist. It’s been inspiring to hear so many stories of people who are already working as de facto marketing technologists — one of whom called my proposal for a marketing CTO their “dream job.” This bolsters my belief that the talent and skill set for such marketing technology leadership is out there, eager to contribute at the next level up. To motivate such …
20 years of massive development in marketing (a metaphor) Continue Reading »
Last week, I gave my talk at Search Insider Summit on the Rise of the Marketing Technologist. Based on the positive feedback I received from brands, agencies, and technology vendors alike, it apparently resonated deeply. So, first, I’d like to share the slide presentation with you: Rise of the Marketing Technologist from Scott Brinker However, since slides can’t capture the full dynamics of the presentation, I thought I would follow with an essay version of …
In January, I wrote a post on 7 business models for linked data (with an 8th model added shortly thereafter). Although far from comprehensive, it attempted to illustrate the range of direct revenue vs. indirect revenue models that could justify development of linked data initiatives. A number of people from the linked data community contributed feedback and suggestions of additional models, including Leigh Dodds (Thoughts on Linked Data Business Models), Paul Groth (Another 5 Linked …
Business models for linked data and web 3.0 Continue Reading »
Flying home from the Semantic Technology Conference 2009 (#semtech2009 on Twitter), I have to confess that I’m drunk on the Kool-Aid. My presentation on marketing in the semantic web attracted a packed room, and feedback — from both technical and business attendees — was incredibly positive. But it was the sum of the rest of the conference that really inspired me to conclude: The semantic web — or web of data, web 3.0 if you …
