In simplistic terms, the reason for this could be that companies are investing budget without having the skills, people, or time to deliver the desired outcome.

Of course, there could be much more nuanced reasons at play, too, which is what Econsultancy’s latest whitepaper (in partnership with TAP London), aims to uncover.

One of the main points the whitepaper raises is the importance of clarity, particularly at the start of the process. Crucially, marketers should consider the question: “What are we trying to achieve?” From this, the focus should be on building a business case that is both realistic and motivating.

The next step for businesses is to ask another important question. Namely, “Can we achieve the outcome with the technology we already have?”

It is also found that no advertisers believe they are utilising media technology very effectively.

30-second summary:

• Complexity is an ongoing challenge. Martech’s proliferation of data and tools can be overwhelming, making it difficult to keep technology up-to-date and staff up-to-speed on how best to utilize the stack.
• Finding the right talent is another big pain point. A technical marketing landscape requires technical skills, but marketing still requires creativity, empathy, and humanity.
• Avoid the temptation to over automate. Balancing data with creativity is incredibly important, particularly in the post-COVID-19 marketing universe. Consumer behavior and sentiment can change in an instant, so messaging must be authentic, appropriate, and supremely human.
• Martech stacks tend to be underutilized, meaning companies are wasting money by not fully leveraging their martech. Understanding the pitfalls listed here can help businesses better plan and maintain their stacks and the resources needed to ensure they facilitate business growth.

But we believe each of these patterns will grow exponentially over the next 10 years, redefining the very nature of marketing technology and operations:

“No Code” Citizen Creators
Platforms, Networks & Marketplaces
The Great App Explosion
From Big Data to Big Ops
Harmonizing Human + Machine

No code. This is the trend for citizen creators — non-developers — to be able to create apps with no need for coding skills.

Platforms, networks and marketplaces. Although these three concepts overlap, Brinker conceptualizes them as (1) the common software foundations on which solutions, workflows and campaigns can be built; (2) the facilitation of communication, collaboration and asset sharing among users; and (3) spaces like Etsy and Fiverr which bring producers and consumers together.

The great app explosion. IDC published estimates that over 500 million digital apps and services will be developed and deployed using cloud native approaches by 2023.

From big data to big ops. After a decade focused on big data, said Brinker, the next decade will emphasize the processes triggered by it; the way it’s distilled into information and insights; and the way it’s activated by marketing ops professionals who will be able to undertake analysis of the insights and orchestration of the actions which follow.

Humanizing human and machine. The power of AI will continue to grow, but there will remain a need for the things that humans specialize in, such as domain expertise and an understanding of business.

LUMA is the leading investment bank focused on digital media and marketing. We provide strategic advice, proven M&A expertise, and extensive industry knowledge to optimize outcomes for our clients.

In the same way that leaders may harbor an implicit bias about characteristics of groups of people, they may also harbor implicit biases about new technology — including new technology they might be considering investing in to improve productivity or competitiveness.

You may think that you make decisions about technology tools with an open mind and a clear process for evaluating options. But our review of hundreds of published studies on new technology adoption reveals that personal beliefs about new technology — that it’s wondrous, complex, and alien — prompt specific, unconscious biases about how and why it’s better than older options.

Implicit bias toward the dazzle of new tools can cause leaders to take unnecessary risks and ignore the advice of human experts in decision-making. Further, implicit bias toward new technology may lead to sizable investments in products and services that are unproven or even unsafe.

• Voice technology is being widely adopted, thanks to the global distribution of voice assistants like Google Assistant, which is installed in over 1 billion devices as of 2020.
• Improvement in voice recognition accuracy is also helping with widespread adoption of voice technology. Google achieved a 95% accuracy rate for the English language as of March 2017. This is the same threshold for human accuracy.
• 82% of consumers expect an immediate response on sales or marketing. Voice recognition technology, which enables the immediacy of customer service responses, is addressing this need for many businesses.
• Voice-enabled tools are increasingly being employed within an organization’s martech stack, to facilitate internal operations. Examples include speech-to-text transcription tools, real-time conversational analysis, and automated call listening/conversational analysis platforms.

Customer journey mapping software helps to streamline strategic business planning. This allows companies to create a plot of client locations onto visual maps and align those resources accordingly. When mapping customers, companies can help identify areas of opportunity for revenue as well as growth.

Tim Kopp, CEO of ABM platform Terminus, said he's more convinced than ever that ABM is the new marketing platform of the future and that we need to stop thinking of this idea of a martech stack. "Integration is the new innovation," he said. All-in-one will trump best of breed.

From a web experience perspective, look at Acquia. It has pulled together all the pieces required to build the next generation web experience solution - the digital experience platform, at a time when everyone else is focusing on pieces of the puzzle. Todd Berkowitz, Practice Vice President, Gartner, states, "ABM programs have been shown to result in significant improvements in pipeline growth. If economic uncertainty continues, these programs should remain a core element of marketing strategy."

Kopp takes it further. He believes that we won't use the term ABM in a few years. Instead, ABM will become the new B2B marketing cloud with data as the hub. One thing B2B marketers are doing that is key to their success is creating a new data architecture that brings together all account-level data in one place. When brought together, the data from systems of engagement like email, advertising, chat, and all interactions can create a more informative data model.