By Adam Fraser
Long-term readers of the EchoJunction blog and listeners to the EchoJunction podcast will know all about the marketing technology landscape produced by Scott Brinker at chiefmartec.com.
Yep, that one – the one you see at every marketing conference – packed with tiny logos of marketing technology vendors, which has grown from approximately 2,000 vendors in 2015, to 3,500 in 2016 and over 5,000 in 2017. The marketing technology landscape is broad, deep and complex, and simply refuses to consolidate.
With EchoJunction’s business operating at the intersection of marketing and IT, it’s clearly a world I live and breathe, and accordingly, it was appropriate that my very first guest on the EchoJunction podcast (almost 130 episodes ago), was the landscape author Scott Brinker. Scott has since been on the podcast two further times, latterly talking about the 2017 landscape, and a world of 5,000+ marketing technology vendors (the “Martech5000”).
Given my interest in this area, it was fascinating to see a further evolution of this thinking from Jeremy Epstein, one of the world’s leading experts in what Blockchain means for marketers, with his recent release of the Blockchain Marketing Technology Landscape.
Blockchain technology is in its relative infancy, but many see this as an uber trend (alongside Virtual Reality, AI and the Internet of Things) which will have a profound impact on not just marketing but society more broadly. Bitcoin was just the start.
Whilst the Blockchain marketing technology landscape is relatively sparse compared to its crowded martech landscape cousin, clearly, Jeremy is expecting to see profound growth in blockchain marketing technology platform offerings over the coming years. In 5 years time will the Blockchain version also contain thousands of tiny logos?
Interesting to see the display and programmatic as the most crowded area to date for Blockchain marketing tech, a segment with obvious operating inefficiencies and middlemen who can potentially be disintermediated.
In terms of technology trends, there is a lot for marketers to absorb at present, but Blockchain is a topic worthy of developing at least a basic understanding given its relative potential importance. For an intro – Jeremy’s high-quality ebook (and accompanying EchoJunction podcast discussion) represent a good starting point.