By Adam Fraser.
As founder of EchoJunction, a business operating at the intersection of the worlds of the CMO and CIO, I live and breathe the marketing technology landscape and a world of 5,000+ marketing technology vendors (the “Martech5000”).
EchoJunction works with enterprises on their social media strategy from a technology roadmap perspective and partners with global social media software specialist providers such as Brandwatch (social listening), Lithium (social service and community), Hootsuite and Spredfast (end to end enterprise social media platforms) to fulfil defined business requirements.
Hence I had more than a passing interest in two exciting announcements from Brandwatch this week – both as a local partner and analyst of the sector.
Firstly Brandwatch has acquired Buzz Sumo, the leading content marketing and influencer identification platform on the market. Two market leaders in synergistic market segments coming together is a powerful play, and it will be interesting to see if this merger is symptomatic of a broader consolidation in the crowded marketing technology landscape, something I have previously discussed with author of the MarTech landscape ideographic Scott Brinker on the EchoJunction podcast in both 2015 and 2017.
Secondly, Brandwatch announced on off the shelf integration between their Vizia large screen command centre product, and Hootsuite Insights, one of the most powerful analytics capabilities on the market. We now live in the world of the API where you need to ‘play nicely’ with other software partners – who can also potentially be competitors at times. No one tool can do everything, so best of breed specialists working together to stitch together end to end solutions via API connectors is a reality of today’s marketing technology sector. One of the reasons marketing and IT are working in a closer alliance.
Smart forward-thinking software companies embrace rather than resist this – one of the reasons I love the Brandwatch Vizia platform, which can display business insights not just from Brandwatch’s own social insights product, but also from a multitude of third party sources such as Google Analytics, CRM, Hootsuite and any other data feed.
I love the fast-moving, dynamic nature of the social media and marketing technology sectors, and working with enterprises and partners embracing these rapidly changing dynamics. Certainly never a dull moment!
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