5 trends in martech for the decade ahead

“It’s been a crazy year.” With those words, Scott Brinker, Chief Martec and VP Platform Eco-System at HubSpot, kicked off the virtual MarTech conference today. This year, he said, organizational change finally started to keep pace with technological change.

“The folks at Twilio did a study of 2,500 companies, and they found that 97% of them reported that COVID-19 had sped up their digital transformation,” he said. “On average, companies said that it accelerated it by six years.”

Brinker, who also serves as program chair of the MarTech conference also cited evidence from McKinsey that found 10 years worth of growth this year in a three-month time period. Some of this rapid transition has been painful, Brinker acknowledged, but: “There’s some good news. I really do believe we can do this. And when I look at the trends that are already underway in marketing technology today, and start to extrapolate them for the next 10 years, things are gonna get really cool.”

Don’t miss the day three keynote: Stackie Awards with Scott Brinker

The five trends which will define the coming decade, Brinker said, are:

• No code (citizen creators);
• Platforms, networks and marketplaces;
• The great app explosion;
• From big data to big ops; and
• Humanizing human and 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.

The full presentation can be accessed by registered attendees here.

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About The Author

Kim Davis

Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.