Search Results for: landscape

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 those trends is a breaking down of the boundaries between different martech apps and platforms. The silo’s days are numbered. …

The amazing turning point when martech systems complexity and martech UX complexity diverge Continue Reading »

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 of the report, with the added color commentary of two giant martech nerds armchair industry analysts weighing in on some …

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

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, customer-centricity — that wound up saying absolutely nothing at all. There but for the grace of God go I in …

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

Want to know what 2024 has in store for martech? I’m not talking about wild-eyed, hand-wavy, link-baity prognostications that proliferate in every year-end prediction season like that one Mariah Carey Christmas tune. I mean real-world, fact-based, happening-now trends that will inform your marketing operations and technology strategy for the next 12 months. On December 5, Frans Riemersma and I will release a 50+ page report on Martech for 2024. Based on our research over the …

What will happen in martech in 2024? A no-BS report and webinar by two giant martech nerds Continue Reading »

At last count, there are over 11,000 products on the martech landscape. And while it’s been a tough couple of years for many SaaS companies, forcing industry consolidation through acquisitions or shutdowns, the number of new martech startups that keep entering the field remains remarkably robust. Are these people nuts? Hold that thought. We’ll come back to it. However, while the martech landscape is massive by the total count of companies on it, the scale …

Products in the “long tail” of martech have a wide range of different strategies and aspirations Continue Reading »

One of the most interesting annual martech surveys out there is the Martech Replacement Survey produced by the team at MarTech.org. (Kudos to Chris Elwell, whose brainchild this was.) Every year they ask marketers: They also ask about commercial vs. homegrown martech, what the approval process was like, and how the replacement affected staff. Did existing employees get retrained or were new staff or service providers added? Having run the survey for the past four …

Martech stacks and staff are stabilizing, thanks to both better integration and budget pressure Continue Reading »

I’ve floated the idea of an Inverse Conway’s Law in previous posts before, but only in passing. So today I want to fully describe the concept, because I believe it is a useful way to understand some of the current challenges in martech — and why it may drive a major shift in marketing software in the AI Era. Conway’s Law (broad interpretation) To understand Inverse Conway’s Law, you first need to understand Conway’s Law. …

Conway’s Law vs. Inverse Conway’s Law and the future of build vs. buy in martech Continue Reading »

For years, people have been prognosticating the collapse of the martech landscape. That all these thousands of different martech apps are going to be winnowed down to a handful of winners. For the past 12 years, those predictions have been consistently proven wrong, year after year after year. (The myths of martech are nothing if not resilient.) But maybe, just maybe, the Age of AI will be the inflection point that will bring those failed …

3 possible scenarios for the future of martech in the Age of AI Continue Reading »

Why let data get in the way of a good narrative? Tech stacks are going to shrink dramatically. Marketing’s tech stack is bloated compared to every other department. Shadow IT is a scourge across major martech systems. And most SaaS products — especially martech apps — are highly underutilized, a wanton waste of resources. It’s enough to make you shake your fist in the air. “Down with martech! Down with SaaS!” The only problem with …

Countering 4 “myths” of tech stack dysfunction: shrinkage, martech, shadow IT, and utilization Continue Reading »