Martech Symposium Roundup.
As proud sponsors of the 2023 Marketing Technology Symposium this year, we had a chance to explore industry insights which resonated with what we hear, working on the ground with our clients and partners.
This year’s 2023 Martech Symposium struck a strange discord between the future (AI) and the reality of the now for Marketing leaders (everything but AI).
Darrell Alfonso (Indeed) was on the money focusing on the future role of Marketing Operations and how the role of Marketing Ops needs to change to better incorporate the technical and data specifics required to support Marketing.
Scott Brinker (of the 12 trillion Martech systems map fame) gave a compelling keynote on the future of Martech – much of it hinged on the fact that Artificial Intelligence was going to solve most Marketing technology headaches we face today – connecting systems, working with data, building the perfect Martech stack and so on - all by just telling the AI what you want.
Scott essentially dangled a shiny (AI) bauble which was odd given Scott has made a career of arguing Marketing teams should stop chasing shiny baubles.
When we spoke to Marketing leaders, AI was far from their top agenda items.
Here were the four main areas that CMO’s were challenged with:
1.Data Capability.
On-going battles with centralising, governing, understanding, and connecting data to meet Marketing use cases (including the increasing spectre of privacy).
2.Personalisation & Customer Experience.
Including optimising personalisation in a multi-Martech, multi-channel organisation, creating connected customer experiences, and driving personalisation at scale.
3.Technology Integration & utilisation.
Utilisation is a major challenge with use slipping from 58% to 42% in the last few years. Tech stack integration, customisations, automation and finally AI featured in challenges in increasing overall ROI on investment.
4.Change Management and Talent.
Many leaders need help in change management, aligning business and technology, and finding the right talent with the required skill sets.
Food For Thought.
What was very apparent in all the discussions was the focus on getting more value out of technology and less on buying more technology.
The four problem children of the symposium are often easy to solve – however the solutions are boring and nothing like the excitement of ChatGPT – get your data in order, excel at the fundamentals of basic, good old-fashioned direct and digital marketing, stop buying technology solutions until you can fund, resource implement and operate them appropriately and finally ensure a strong emphasis on training and up-skilling.
Maybe people are finally learning that chasing the next bit of technology might seem fun until you need to have it pay back.
Interested in getting more bang for your Martech buck - read our Martech Utilisation series here.