We had the opportunity to learn from some of the sharpest minds in marketing today, having attended various keynotes and panel discussions. One specific presentation that resonated with the team was Scott Brinker’s main stage keynote, “Martech in 2019: the new, new rules of marketing.” Scott brought up an in interesting statistic published by research group Econsultancy, who surveyed 1,026 senior marketing professionals in 2017, stating that,

"66%of responding companies believe they don’t have the skills or talent to make most use of marketing technology." - [Econsultancy, 2018]

This lack of confidence or uncertainty in the marketing technology stack should be viewed as a huge cause for concern for brand marketers, further highlighting the fragmentation of data across today’s digital ecosystem –specifically within a marketer’s own toolbox.

Scott goes on to urge marketers to employ four key action items to combat this fear of technology: ‍

• Design for change and adaptability. The martech landscape is changing very quickly, and it’s the marketers job to both hedge their bets, and plan for changes as they roll in.
• Employ agile marketing strategies. Scott says that “agile marketing continues to be one of the best things we can do to be effective marketing leaders.”
• Practice Red Team strategies – looking at things through the eyes of someone looking to disrupt your business. Having a strong competitive analysis is the key to a successful red team exercise, giving you the ability to fully understand what you’re up against.
• Have an open mindset (this one is self explanatory 😉)

We recommend watching the entire keynote, but if there’s one main takeaway, it’s in the last 3 minutes:

Big thanks to the team over at MarTech for having us as a sponsor this year. We’re looking forward to the next one!