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Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker
Scott Brinker is the president & CTO of ion interactive, a leading provider of post-click marketing software and services. He writes the Conversion Science column on Search Engine Land and frequently speaks at industry events such as SMX, Pubcon and Search Insider Summit. He chairs the marketing track at the Semantic Technology Conference. He also writes a blog on marketing technology, Chief Marketing Technologist.

Can martech data be unified, federated, and siloed all at the same time? Yes, and each serves a purpose

First, one more reminder: please take our Martech Composability Survey this week. When you see the questions, I think you’ll agree that having a...

Well, SaaS tech stacks shrank from 2023 to 2024… but only by 8%. You were expecting more?

First, a quick ask: please take this 5-minute survey on martech composability. We’ll share the full results back with everyone. I bet it will...

Every marketer a data analyst and an engineer… delusion or destiny?

“Everyone within Publicis will become a data analyst, an engineer, an intelligence partner, with all the information they need at their fingertips to supercharge...

The amazing turning point when martech systems complexity and martech UX complexity diverge

Welcome to 2024! I expect this will be a transformative year in martech. The Martech for 2024 report we published last month (video presentation) covered...

Products in the “long tail” of martech have a wide range of different strategies and aspirations

At last count, there are over 11,000 products on the martech landscape. And while it’s been a tough couple of years for many SaaS...

Dissolving martech? Tech stack aggregation brings more power to marketing, more control to IT

Was it John Lennon who wrote, “Imagine there’s no martech, I wonder if you can?” I may be misremembering that lyric. But it’s what came…

Martech utilization problems: how to diagnose and remedy them

Martech utilization sucks. At least that’s the conclusion one draws from Gartner’s latest 2023 Marketing Technology Survey, which includes the above chart. “Thinking about the...

Conway’s Law vs. Inverse Conway’s Law and the future of build vs. buy in martech

I’ve floated the idea of an Inverse Conway’s Law in previous posts before, but only in passing. So today I want to fully describe the…
Marketing Technology Landscape

3 possible scenarios for the future of martech in the Age of AI

For years, people have been prognosticating the collapse of the martech landscape. That all these thousands of different martech apps are going to be...

Countering 4 “myths” of tech stack dysfunction: shrinkage, martech, shadow IT, and utilization

Why let data get in the way of a good narrative? Tech stacks are going to shrink dramatically. Marketing’s tech stack is bloated compared to...

Composability is already everywhere in martech today, you just may not realize it (which is a good thing)

Lately, I’ve been excitedly talking about “composability” as a major new trend in martech (and business technology in general). But in the absence of defining…

Breaking through the noise getting harder? Here’s one marketing channel that’s getting more effective

To regular readers, it’s no surprise that I’m bullish on ecosystems. I’ve long advocated that platform ecosystems solve many of the challenges of an...

The key point of Google’s “we have no moat” memo on generative AI is that ecosystems are the moat

A few weeks ago, an internal memo from Google (or so it was claimed) was leaked that warned, “We have no moat.” Allegedly, it was…

Three pillars of The New Automation Mindset, for an age when anyone can automate anything with AI

I’m excited to announce a new book coming out this summer, The New Automation Mindset: The Leadership Blueprint For An Age When Anyone Can Automate…

How big is your tech stack, really? Here’s the latest data…

It’s springtime, in the Northern hemisphere, and tech stacks are blooming. Zylo, a SaaS management platform that manages over 30 million SaaS licenses for its…

Holy $#!&, two major martech disruptions just collided together: AI and composability

At the start of the year, I predicted 2023 would be a chaotic year for martech — yet the start of a truly massive wave of growth for...

The future of martech apps is happening in SMB and the mid-market. Here’s why.

We’re busy working on the 2023 edition of the martech landscape (interactive version at martechmap.com) that will be released on #MartechDay, May 2. Spoiler alert: if you...

Composability and usage-based pricing go hand-in-hand for martech applications

Martech software companies — and SaaS vendors in general — have several different ways they can charge for their products. The classic SaaS subscription models...

15 reflections on martech and more from 15 years of writing chiefmartec.com

15 years ago, sitting at a wobbly kitchenette table in our cramped apartment, on a frigid February morning outside Boston, I started this blog for...

Tech layoffs? Great companies are actively hiring marketing technology talent

In my previous post, I boldly predicted that we’re on the verge of a whole series of martech innovations: AI, composability, AR/VR, even, yes, “Web3”....

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