#MartechDay 2024

This isn’t hyperbole: we have some big counterintuitive revelations coming on #MartechDay 2024

If you only attend one online event this year… well, then it’s clearly not 2021 anymore! 😀 But this one is worth it. I guarantee you will be surprised, if not shocked, by what we share. On Tuesday, May 7, Frans Riemersma and I will host our annual #MartechDay celebration. We’ll release the epic 2024 […]

This isn’t hyperbole: we have some big counterintuitive revelations coming on #MartechDay 2024 Read More »

5 Rings of a Tech Stack

Visible and invisible tech stacks, and the upsides and downsides of “shadow IT” in martech and beyond

Tech stacks are large. The empirical stack data we recently shared from Zylo, a leading SaaS management platform, showed that even after a year of belt-tightening, the average SMB (500 employees or less) still has 162 SaaS apps. Mid-market companies (500 to 2,500 employees) have 245. And large enterprises have 650. This isn’t particularly surprising

Visible and invisible tech stacks, and the upsides and downsides of “shadow IT” in martech and beyond Read More »

Martech Data Stack Architecture

Can martech data be unified, federated, and siloed all at the same time? Yes, and each serves a purpose

First, one more reminder: please take our Martech Composability Survey this week. When you see the questions, I think you’ll agree that having a statistically significant dataset for a “no BS” view of this topic would be super valuable for the whole martech community. We’ll share the full results publicly. But we need your participation.

Can martech data be unified, federated, and siloed all at the same time? Yes, and each serves a purpose Read More »

SaaS Tech Stack Size 2023 to 2024

Well, SaaS tech stacks shrank from 2023 to 2024… but only by 8%. You were expecting more?

First, a quick ask: please take this 5-minute survey on martech composability. We’ll share the full results back with everyone. I bet it will be very interesting. Thank you! Okay, back to today’s post… I prefer empircal data over gut-feel prognostications. For 12 years, I’ve been told that SaaS in general — and martech in

Well, SaaS tech stacks shrank from 2023 to 2024… but only by 8%. You were expecting more? Read More »

2024 Stackie Awards

The 2024 Stackie Awards are now open for entries — share a slide of your martech stack, everybody wins

It’s that time of the year. The Northern hemisphere looks forward to spring. The Southern hemisphere looks forward to fall. And everybody in martech and marketing operations looks forward to the annual Stackie Awards. This will be our 10th edition of The Stackies: Marketing Tech Stack Awards. Wow, a decade of hundreds of martech stack

The 2024 Stackie Awards are now open for entries — share a slide of your martech stack, everybody wins Read More »

Developer vs. Non-Developer Is The Wrong Divide

Developer vs. non-developer is the wrong divide; what matters with no-code is knowing what you’re doing

Dear marketing readers: hang in with me here. I have a point. Promise. I started programming as a kid, writing multiplayer games for dial-up bulletin board systems (BBSs) — a precursor to the web and social media as we know it today. It was the late 80’s, early 90’s, and I mostly wrote in a

Developer vs. non-developer is the wrong divide; what matters with no-code is knowing what you’re doing Read More »

Marketing Operations and Business Automation

Every marketer a data analyst and an engineer… delusion or destiny?

“Everyone within Publicis will become a data analyst, an engineer, an intelligence partner, with all the information they need at their fingertips to supercharge client growth.” Publicis Groupe made that bold statement last week in a press release and presentation celebrating their performance from last year “after shifting from a holding company to a platform”

Every marketer a data analyst and an engineer… delusion or destiny? Read More »

Diverging Martech Complexity in Systems vs. UX

The amazing turning point when martech systems complexity and martech UX complexity diverge

Welcome to 2024! I expect this will be a transformative year in martech. The Martech for 2024 report we published last month (video presentation) covered several of the major trends underway, such as aggregation and composability in stacks — especially in the data layer with cloud data warehouses, lakehouses, and lakes. The common theme of

The amazing turning point when martech systems complexity and martech UX complexity diverge Read More »

Martech for 2024 Presentation on YouTube

Missed our Martech for 2024 jam session? Catch the replay and get the 89-page report for free

Last week, Frans Riemersma and I published our Martech for 2024 report, an in-depth analysis of the evolving martech landscape in the gen AI era and the underlying forces of aggregation and composability that are shaping it. You can download a free copy here. We also hosted an hour-long presentation, discussing many of the themes

Missed our Martech for 2024 jam session? Catch the replay and get the 89-page report for free Read More »

Martech for 2024 Report

Major trends in martech for 2024: the real changes underway in a 99% platitude-free report

There was a meme circulating around social media last week of an agency marketer rambling in a “thought leadership” interview on TikTok. I have no idea if it was parody or real. Or more accurately, if it was intentional or accidental parody. It was a jumbled jubilee of buzzword bingo – personalization, data, brand, experience,

Major trends in martech for 2024: the real changes underway in a 99% platitude-free report Read More »