How Do Brands Bring AdTech And MarTech Under One Roof?
About ten years ago, I was working at a small data company in the offline predictive analytics and data management industry at a time when offline data, segmentation, predictive analytics, algorithms and machine learning were largely the domain of database marketers and CRM teams.
Though many of my colleagues were excited about the potential future of online customer acquisition, real-time segmentation and bridging the gap between offline data and online data, the data management industry and the respective companies all slowly realized the opportunity. The most aggressive shifted employees to exciting new roles and opportunities that drove further growth. The least aggressive continued with business as usual and missed the outsized opportunities and outcomes created by companies like LiveRamp, DataLogix, BlueKai, Krux and others.
More than anything else, the most successful firms were the ones who saw this convergence and opportunity as something to be seized – one that would allow them to leverage their offline expertise with new technologies, faster and at a fraction of the cost.
I believe that we can achieve the same sort of transformation here in the advertising and marketing space.
While technology is certainly pivotal to the AdTech/MarTech convergence, you won't succeed unless you have first established a robust set of processes to govern how your people will carry out this shift. After all, how can you possibly combine AdTech and MarTech when the human beings responsible for operating these tools are not yet on the same page?
Brands can begin the AdTech/MarTech convergence by focusing on their people. By homing in on five key tasks, you'll be able to create an organizational structure that allows your team to flourish while integrating your AdTech and MarTech systems. I dive into the details of each key task in the blog post, “Want To Combine Your AdTech And MarTech Operations? Focus On Your People."
- Foster collaboration by uniting the corporate clans.
- Give your orchestra a conductor.
- Build momentum with short-term wins.
- Give your star employees room to grow.
- Be transparent.
There's a lot of excitement around this. In a recent study conducted by Forrester Research, commissioned by LiveIntent – 93% of B2C brands are at least discussing AdTech/MarTech integration. For brand marketers, few industry developments hold more promise than the convergence of the advertising and marketing technology stacks which help to power People-based Marketing.
It is going to take some hard work, some strategic thinking and a willingness to embrace change. Firms must first focus on creating a workflow that allows their people to communicate and collaborate with transparency and purpose. Click here to read more on the blog.
Are you ready for this transformation in the advertising and marketing tech space? Comment below, would love to hear your views.