The unpredictability at the heart of marketing

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Good morning, Marketers, and never say never.

What makes emerging technologies so exciting in martech is that there’s no surefire way to know how the story will end. Will there be disruption, as is the case with D2C retail, or an entire new ecosphere, like what came out of the original App Store?

There is an experimental ethos at the heart of marketing and of digital technology that keeps me glued to my seat every day as a journalist. Our MarTech flash survey found that out of over 200 respondents, the marketers who are considering some kind of commercial effort in the metaverse outnumber those who never will, approximately three-to-one.

As more brands launch storefronts in VR environments, and we at MarTech ask the hard questions about campaign execution and success, there’s a chance that some of the “nevers” will convert. But for any marketing strategy, there has to be a good reason backed by data and experienced reporting. I also can’t say enough about the need for marketers across industries to connect and share ideas, which is why we’re all thrilled that our MarTech virtual conference will be underway next week on March 29 and 30 (registration is free).

Chris Wood,

Editor

Shorts

Quote of the day: “One of the sad truths of business is that responsibility without authority will yield failure.” William Terdoslavich, MarTech contributor

About The Author

Chris Wood draws on over 15 years of reporting experience as a B2B editor and journalist. At DMN, he served as associate editor, offering original analysis on the evolving marketing tech landscape. He has interviewed leaders in tech and policy, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, to former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Vivek Kundra, appointed by Barack Obama as the country’s first federal CIO. He is especially interested in how new technologies, including voice and blockchain, are disrupting the marketing world as we know it. In 2019, he moderated a panel on “innovation theater” at Fintech Inn, in Vilnius. In addition to his marketing-focused reporting in industry trades like Robotics Trends, Modern Brewery Age and AdNation News, Wood has also written for KIRKUS, and contributes fiction, criticism and poetry to several leading book blogs. He studied English at Fairfield University, and was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He lives in New York.