The backdrop for Marketing Tech in 2024

Thanks so much to Ashton Media, the amazing event sponsors, speakers and delegates who allowed me the pleasure of MC'ing the 2024 Marketing Tech Symposium. As always, it was a brilliant event that I was very lucky to be a part of.

Delegates had the opportunity to learn from some of the best experts and technology providers in the business, as well as a range of brands including Commonwealth Bank , Telstra , 飞利浦 Tabcorp Qantas 拜耳 , Domain , Endeavour Group and many more. The topics covered spanned across paid media and advertising through to Gen AI and personalisation.

Here were my opening remarks to set the context of the past year:

There’s certainly a lot happening for us all at the moment. Geopolitical tensions are palpable. The US Presidential Election is on its way. Interest rates have remained high for an extended period. The cost of living has skyrocketed, and economic growth, particularly in Australia, is under scrutiny. The housing situation... Well, it’s a pressure cooker. But at least inflation seems to be getting under control, and rate cuts have begun across the globe—let’s just hope we’re not too far behind. And at least stock markets recovered in a big way too – largely driven by the magnificent 7.

And this was mostly thanks to big tech heavily investing in AI development. Whether it’s Meta advancing its open source LLMs, Apple integrating AI into iOS, Microsoft collaborating with OpenAI, or Google enhancing its GPU infrastructure, the focus on AI is unmistakable.

As a result, the world’s leading chip manufacturer, Nvidia, saw its stock price surge by over 200% in 2023, becoming one of the world’s most valuable companies. However, its market cap then dropped by over 400 billion dollars in a single day last week even after beating earnings expectations. It’s getting choppy out there, to say the least.

Sequoia Capital has estimated that there’s a gap of over half a trillion US dollars between the revenue generated from AI and the cost to produce it. Could this be a sign of a potential “bubble burst” or a “hype” correction in the near future?

No matter your answer, innovation continues to thrive. Despite a public battle between its board of directors and a dispute with Scarlett Johansson, OpenAI released its generative video model, Sora, and its GPT-4o multimodal voice assistant.

Meanwhile, in the land of marketing, Gartner’s latest CMO survey found that global marketing budgets as a percentage of company revenues were at a five-year low and Martech spending was at its lowest in 10 years.

Luckily for the Aussies though, the IAB Australia reports that the internet advertising market has grown by almost 10% year-on-year, which is good. Albeit the estimated total ad spend growth for this year has been downgraded to 1.1% by GroupM. It could be a heads up on where the economy is heading.

We still have quite a few persistent issues with our MarTech though. One of the most common is the integration of new technologies with existing systems (and, as Frans Riemersma will tell you, there is still a growing number of platforms out there). The rapid pace of technological change makes it hard for businesses to stay current, whether AI or otherwise. Measuring the ROI of MarTech investments is also challenging, especially as economic conditions tighten budgets. This all raises an important question both outside and inside of MarTech: What is just tech hype vs. things that deliver real, tangible business benefits?

On top of all of that, there is so much happening with Privacy updates. Google announced that it won't be scrapping third-party cookies on its Chrome browser anymore. Many are now asking whether the past 5 years have been a “Game of Thrones”-type letdown with the white walkers-style cookie demise being an over-hyped industry issue or a “toothless tiger”. Others, with myself included, believe the outcome is going to be the same anyway due to ongoing regulatory focus, so preparing well should bear fruit, nonetheless.

To that affect, significant changes to Australian privacy laws are expected any day now and the Australian Government is now also exploring its own AI Regulations. And if that wasn’t enough, the US is now even taking legal action against Australian companies for the use of tracking pixels, highlighting that we have a plethora of global regulatory requirements to be across.

Remember when we thought GDPR by itself was scary? There’s a lot for us to figure out, but I'm confident we can do it together.

Highlights from the Marketing Tech Symposium 2023 included:

• After some welcome drinks hosted by Dotdigital , there were some exclusive Tech Talks to get things moving on Monday. This was followed by some networking over drinks provided by the Ashton Media team.
• On Tuesday, Frans Riemersma gave a stunning opening keynote speech about the insights shaking Martech and harnessing the future. This was jam-packed with brilliant research, anecdotes and practical tips - luckily, the Symposium delegates will have access to the slides too. What an honour to share the stage with one of Europe's top Martech influencers!

• Jaye Vernon from Braze and Ben Karpin from Domain had a fireside chat exploring their advanced data & CX strategies. This was very impressive.
• Luke Smith gave us a rundown of Spark’s incredible journey into AI Integrated, Data-Driven MarTech. This was a great build on the presentation we saw from Matt Bain two years ago.
• In our partner breakout sessions, Heeren Gandhi from Acoustic and Nathan Ting from Scenic discussed Scenic - Luxury Cruises & Tours Journey into Scaling Up Personalisation; and Courtney Harland from Twilio explored the theme of Navigating Better Customer Experiences Through CPaaS, Voice Technology, and AI.
• I then had the pleasure of moderating a panel that debated the "Frankenstack" approach to procuring martech vs. the "Monostack". In other words, choosing the best bits of multiple martech platforms vs. keeping things simple with a few. Jo Jones from Tabcorp , Paayal Dharmani from Sydney Opera House , Oliver Garas from Pickles Auctions and Lauren Papandony from 阿斯利康 did a fantastic job of debating some very relevant themes and, understandably, we had a plethora of questions from the audience!

• After a very successful year for the The Lumery, part of Accenture Song , we heard from Rajan Kumar on 'Why Your CRM Might be the Innovation Hub You’ve Been Searching For', as well as Acquia 's Paul Thompson on 'Digital Strategies to Increase Accessibility and with it Your Marketing ROI'.
• After lunch, sponsored by Tealium , we were treated to a thorough Privacy update by IAB Australia 's Sarah Waladan - no doubt, we all have a lot of work ahead of us in this space! Don't forget that delegates of the Symposium can of course access Sarah's excellent slide deck.
• To round out the afternoon, everyone enjoyed afternoon activities including wine tasting with Commission Factory , golf, paint & sip and a workshop with Harris Hutkin . Then, we enjoyed a gala dinner sponsored by Adobe followed by an unbelievable magic show with special guest, Liam Power.
• On Wednesday, the day kicked off with another legendary speaker who flew in from Europe. Henk-jan ter Brugge from 飞利浦 gave a keynote sharing insights from Philips phenomenal Global MarTech Roadmap and the world of their marketing transformation. What a start to the day!

• We then moved to partner breakouts. Oliver Spring from Qantas and Alison Albeck Lindland from Movable Ink talked about their partnership that has helped to breathe new life into their personalisation programs; while Alison Sainsbury from Sitecore gave a rundown of how to deliver best-in-class digital experiences.
• The Think Tanks then got underway. I had the pleasure of joining Frans Riemersma for the Gen AI session, but there were other excellent sessions run by Anna Jackson , Ben Karpin & Kate Bothman , Yvonne Richardson and Peter Thiem . The feedback was that they were all fantastic.
• We then heard from Edwin Garcia from 拜耳 on how he and his team have been making use of Gen AI and Machine Learning to enhance customer relationships.
• For the final session of the Symposium, Rachel Crimmins from EBOS Group Limited took us home by exploring the "The Ferrari Conundrum" and how to bring together the talent with the tech.

What were your key highlights from the #MarketingTechSym?

See you next year!