Unpacking The New Martech State Of Play

As the new normal becomes the new future, businesses are working vigorously to adapt to the ever-changing market.

They are fast adopting technology and leaping into digital transformation in fear of being left behind. As businesses evolve into the new future, so does the role of the traditional marketer. 

In early 2021, Arktic Fox, in conjunction with Michael Page, released a report on the Marketing State of Play for the Australian market, exploring the core challenges marketers are grappling with, and in particular, flagging key transformational, martech and data challenges. 

To explore the report findings in-depth, Cheetah Digital and Arktic Fox hosted a webinar, “The Marketing State of Play: Leadership Matters”, where leading experts discussed the success that has come from martech and digital adoption, giving insight on how to best make the leap into the new era of digital.

The panelists included:

• Caitlin Riordan, ​​VP client success and services, APAC, Cheetah Digital; 
• Teresa Sperti, director and founder, Arktic Fox; 
• Natalie Gray, expert lead, marketing operations, ING; and 
• Rae Leong, director of technical services, Cheetah Digital.

Trust and implementation partners

The Marketing State of Play Report found close to 30 per cent of marketing leaders don’t feel like they can trust implementation partners or can’t find the right partners to support them. 

Teresa Sperti, director and founder at Arktic Fox, said the market lacks independence and most implementation partners have received some form of kickback from the vendors to influence purchasing decisions. 

Sperti said platforms should be chosen for their ability to empower marketers to achieve their business goals, rather than self-interest: “commissions and kickbacks are far too prevalent in the industry, and more prevalent than most marketers realise. Marketers need to be aware that preferential selection occurs in the market, and seek transparency from providers.”

“Marketers need to decide if the recommendations presented to meet their needs, or are in the self-interest of the provider.”

Selecting the wrong platform is a costly mistake, Sperti explained.

“It impacts your ability to realise benefits, demonstrate return and has a knock-on effect on the team’s credibility and the ability to secure additional funding.

“As marketers reach to own the biggest seat at the table, these types of things are critical. Platform selection needs to be done with eyes wide open, and it’s got to be right-sized for the organisation.

“This means we’ve got to ask the tough question; who is benefiting from the decision I’m making?” Sperti concluded. 

The absence of a holistic martech playbook

There is no holistic “playbook” to help marketers vet martech solutions, according to Natalie Gray, Expert Lead, Marketing Operations, ING. This lack of knowledge encourages marketers to rely heavily on external partners and their recommendations. 

Gray said she has seen partners bring “how to not” and “watch out” playbooks, and ultimately they dovetail into psychological safety around making mistakes. 

“Any vendor that can come along and help you navigate a complicated environment is worth their weight in gold,” she said. 

Rae Leong, director of technical services at Cheetah Digital said that as a vendor, Cheetah Digital works with many different clients across many different verticals and industries. This enables Cheetah Digital to predict what might work for a client. 

“We regularly draw on our cross-industry experience and learnings to understand what worked well. We share these insights and best practices with our clients to help them with their marketing goals. For example, if we see there are similarities in demographics, we recommend strategic approaches that we have seen work,” explained Leong.

“It’s not a direct copy, cut-paste approach however, we need to understand and overlay the brand’s approach, the brand’s visions and goals before implementation.”

“Being from the tech side, you need to consider the layers and layers of integration points, data gaps and capability gaps that need to be addressed.” 

In any martech implementation, there are going to be challenges, added Sperti. 

“Let’s not pretend that every platform is flawless, and is going to meet all of our needs. Platform providers and the implementation partners are much better placed if they’re open and honest when working together,” Sperti said. 

Gray said one thing she is loving at ING is being able to get these issues on the table. 

“The journey to this point has been developing a collaborative environment. It has been about getting the right people together for these important conversations, and feeling comfortable to say ‘we don’t know, can you help?’ It’s okay to admit that.”

“That’s why I keep harping on about psychological safety in every meeting. By admitting “we don’t know” something, we begin to see this uncharted territory as an opportunity.”  

Vendors and vulnerability

Experts agreed the client plays an important role in building confidence and psychological safety to enable the vendor to admit when they don’t know something. Leong noted that as a vendor, it’s sometimes difficult to come out and admit, “I’ve not seen a requirement of this nature before”. 

“Instead of putting a smokescreen to say, ‘we can do this and hack our way through’, we think it is better to be upfront and honest and say ‘we’ve not seen this before’,” Leong said.

“By being open, it allows us to work collaboratively with the clients. It’s about finding a way to do this together, working through the use case together, and finding a way together. We’ll succeed together, we’ll fail together, and go on that journey together. We turn from just vendors to real partners by sharing the success together.”  

Organisational agility

Sperti said she often sees organisations pull a structural lever quickly, as a way to address collaboration and agility, and other key issues. 

“The reality is of course, that structure can enable you to flatten and reduce hierarchy and reduce silos to reorient around the customer. There’s a lot of valuable outputs from engaging in some sort of restructuring.”

“But too often restructuring is seen as a silver bullet to address the broader, deeper cultural issues that need to be addressed within the organisation.” 

She explained that if organisations truly want team members to collaborate and have greater agility, then the leadership team should model the right behaviours.

“As a leader, you need to unlock the obstacles and get out of the way so the team can do their job. You need to provide clarity around direction to serve as guardrails and be actively nurturing relationships across the organisation with your peers.” 

“We still see significant misalignment between marketing leaders and IT leaders. They’re not actively working together to achieve common outcomes. They’re trying to work around each other and that sentiment filters through to the way that teams engage. No structural change is going to improve that. This is about culture and mindset,” Sperti added. 

Leong notes organisations need to have an agile mindset. She said adopting agile principles will allow organisations to respond quickly to change and improve prioritisation.

“It’s all about providing clarity. It’s not putting a structure in place, for the sake of it, because it’s the latest buzzword. Personally, I have seen many organisations who say they are agile practitioners, they throw around the lingo and run agile ceremonies because it’s the hype. However, they’re not actually practicing the agile values wholeheartedly.” 

“They need to ask, are we empowering individuals on a ground level? Are the objectives clear enough for them to know? If organisations today want to adopt that agile mindset and structure, it has to be done from a leadership level. Leaders have to lead by example. They have to fully embrace the mindset and create an environment that allows the organisation to transform successfully,”Leong added. 

How to think differently 

The Marketing State of Play Report challenges organisations to think and to act differently. For the future, Sperti said marketers should lean into big challenges like digital transformation. 

“Be brave. Discuss what’s not working in your function. Leadership isn’t a title, it’s a mindset.”

“I encourage every marketer and digital professional to challenge the current state. If something is not working, something needs to be improved. It can’t be changed if you’re not honest about the challenges. Be brave and speak up, and lean into those difficult challenges,” she added. 

Gray believed that marketers should be courageous. 

“Change is hard. Transformation is hard. It’s tiresome,” she explained. “It’s like wrangling a toddler and a six-year-old. Even in the face of resistance, stay your course and be confident in what you believe in. Use the people around you, collaboration is so important.”

Leong ended by quoting Brené Brown: “Clear is kind. It’s okay to be vulnerable, and lean in.”

To watch the full panel in action click here.