幸运飞行艇官方开奖记录查询 99% of brands plan martech overhaul in the year ahead

Businesses might have already invested billions in their martech systems but nearly all (99%) are planning to make changes to their stack next year, with over a third (35%) ditching their existing tools, and the rest planning to either boost or consolidate their stack as the battle for marketing excellence rages on.

That is the stark conclusion of a new Acxiom study which quizzed 200 marketing chiefs in the UK and US and reveals that developing a martech strategy is the top priority across the board, with 34% of respondents including it in their top three.

This is on par with more typical marketing objectives such as increasing brand awareness and acquiring new customers – perhaps in recognition of the fact that an effective martech strategy can help marketers achieve those more traditional goals.

Interestingly, however, implementing marketing AI was a relatively low priority, with only 21% identifying it as a top three objective.

Even so, it is not just marketing teams that are paying attention to martech development, with the rest of the C-suite now taking a major interest, indicating many brands are increasing getting buy-in for martech modernisation at the highest level.

It is particularly evident in smaller companies, who may be relying on technology to outperform larger competitors and maximise their limited resources.

And, despite a tough economic environment, almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents said their martech budget is likely to increase over the next 12 months, by between 5% and 20%. Only 10% of those surveyed felt the budget it may be reduced.

This growing allocation of resources to martech signifies a heightened awareness of its importance. But it also highlights the need for meticulous planning and strategic decision making to ensure these investments yield the desired results. Especially with the C-suite watching, Acxiom insists.

When asked what they are hoping to achieve by changing their stack, the top three motivations are all related to broader marketing goals, of supporting new channels, boosting performance, and improving the customer experience. Further down the list come more practical motivations, such as improving integration, complying with evolving regulations, and reducing complexity.

And, while the hype surrounding AI in marketing might suggest otherwise, widespread adoption actually remains a distant reality for many organisations. This goes some way to explaining why brands do not yet see implementing new AI workflows as immediate motivations for changing their martech stack.

In fact, over half (54%) of the businesses surveyed have not yet implemented AI into their martech stack at all, although the majority of these plan to do so in the near future. Of the 47% that are using AI, less than half are using it for advanced tasks such as customer segmentation and real-time organisation, with the rest still using it for relatively basic tasks like content recommendation.

Even so, while it seems martech stacks are not yet ready for the adoption of AI technologies over half (53%) of those surveyed acknowledge that some of their martech solutions are no longer fit-for-purpose, hindering their ability to achieve marketing objectives.

Measurement and attribution challenges come top of the list, with 37% of respondents citing this as one of the top three things getting in the way of achieving marketing objectives.

This inability to measure performance often stems from siloed data and technology. When information is scattered across platforms and systems that do not talk to one another, it is difficult to get a complete picture of the customer journey and measure the impact of marketing efforts.

The fact that 29% of respondents include connecting customer data from separate silos to gain a single view in their top three challenges supports this point.

In response to another question, 68% agreed that fragmented and siloed data is a key challenge for their organisation. This fragmentation prevents marketers from gaining a unified view of customer interactions across various channels and touchpoints, and hinders their ability to deliver relevant, timely, personalised experiences.

The report concludes: “It’s clear brands are serious about modernising their martech stacks so they can use emerging technologies such as AI to achieve their marketing goals and maintain a competitive edge.

“But despite having a mandate to modernize, progress is slow due to obstacles such as martech complexity, slow cloud migration, and a lack of direction or internal expertise.

“Organisations can accelerate their modernisation efforts both by dedicating an internal team to martech and by working with a service partner that has all the experience and expertise they need.”