The Secret to High-Performing Paid AdsHow Influencer Content Supercharges Growth for Brands2 IntroductionWhat Makes Good Influencer Ads?Types of IGC AdsGet Started with Aspire315831What is IGC?The Role of IGC in Ads Creative Best PracticesContent Themes by VerticalMeta Dark PostsMeta AllowlistingMeta Partnership AdsTikTok Spark AdsTikTok In-Feed AdsAbout Aspire ContentsIntroductionWhat is IGC?The Role of IGC in Ads4InTroduCTIonIntroductionRising ad costs.Tighter budgets.Reduced headcounts.In the era of efficient growth,its essential for marketers to invest in scalable digital strategies that stretch your dollars and achieve profitable results.There are several ways to do so,but one of the most effective ways to optimize your spend is by leveraging influencer-generated content(IGC)in paid ads.Leveraging IGC in ads empowers you to maximize the impact of your existing content,boosting return on ad spend while lowering customer acquisition costs.In fact,studies show that these ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50%drop in cost-per-click than average.In this comprehensive guide,youll learn the crucial role that IGC plays in boosting ad performance,the different types of IGC ads,content best practices tailored to each vertical,and more.4X50%higher click-through rates when leveraging IGC adsdrop in cost-per-click with IGC ads compared to the average?5InTroduCTIonInfluencer-generated content(IGC)refers to the images,videos,written content,and other creative that is produced by social media influencers,usually in partnership with a brand.Although it may just seem like a byproduct of an influencer marketing campaign,IGC is a powerful tool that can benefit brands in many different ways.IGC performs better than studio-shot creative.63%of marketers say influencer-generated content performs better than other brand-directed content.IGC is diverse:By partnering with influencers from different walks of life,youre able to source large amounts of content that is diverse in every way.These pieces of content can then be used to target specific audiences.IGC is a fast way to scale your content library.In comparison to professional photoshoots,turnaround times for influencer content can be measured in days and weeks,not months.Brands using influencer marketing platforms can easily manage many creators at scale,often working with dozens of influencers per campaign and receiving hundreds of images in quick batches.IGC is cost-effective to produce.Creating IGC is generally less expensive than producing professionally polished studio content,offering a more efficient option for advertisers.IGC is relatable:Consumers dont want to see bland,generic ads.They want to see genuine content from people like them.By working with influencers,brands can create ads that actually resonate,whether they post honest reviews,before-and-after images,or step-by-step tutorials.What is IGC?6InTroduCTIonFrom ancient marketplaces to modern social media platforms,the power of personal recommendations has been tried and true in shaping consumer behaviors and influencing purchasing decisions for centuries.Plus,consumers today are hyper-aware of online advertising and dont want to feel like theyre being overly sold to.In this cutthroat digital environment,its your job to create ads that blend in seamlessly with the rest of consumers feeds and feel more genuine and relatable.Enter:influencer-generated contentIGC typically aligns with the authentic,raw,and relatable style of user-generated content(UGC),created by everyday people,found across social media platforms.This makes your ads more engaging and trustworthy,ultimately boosting ROAS.Marketing trends come and go yet amidst the ever-changing currents,one timeless force remains steady:word-of-mouth.The role of IGC In AdsKey benefits of IGC ads:71%of consumers trust advertising,opinions,and product placements from influencers UGC-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates.63%of marketers say influencer-generated content performs better than other brand-directed content.7InTroduCTIon Variety.For each unique audience,voice,and perspective,there is an influencer who can help brands tell their story in a more engaging and relatable way.Marketing teams can tap into this well of content creators to fill a repository of high-value,ad-ready creative that is tailored to that audience.And based on how those ads perform,teams can improve their next content request.Velocity.Content grows stale quickly,and you may even find yourself in a pinch for seasonal content.By harnessing numerous influencers,your brand can work quickly and supply the amount of content needed to quench consumers thirst for fresh assets.IGC provides the 3 Vs of content necessary for paid ad success:Volume.Consumers expect every touchpoint to be personalized,creating an enormous demand on the sheer volume of content required to sustain any brands ad library.The traditional content creation cycle cant keep up.But because each influencer acts as their own self-contained creative agency,brands have the opportunity to crank out massive amounts of ad content in a short amount of time.Reduce Rising ad and production costs Creative fatigue Manual tracking and reportingEnjoy Endless high-performing content Increased ROAS Lower cart abandonment rates and CACTypes of IGC AdsMeta Dark Posts Meta Allowlisting Meta Partnership AdsTikTok Spark Ads TikTok In-Feed Ads9TypeS of IGC AdSJump to:Types of IGC adsMeta Dark PostsTikTok Spark AdsTikTok In-Feed AdsMeta AllowlistingMeta Partnership AdsWhen advertising on Meta and TikTok,brands have access to a wide range of ad formats that can be significantly enhanced with influencer-generated content.In fact,these platforms offer several ad formats built specifically for boosting creator content from Instagram Partnership Ads to TikTok Spark Ads.Keep reading to get an overview of the IGC ad formats that are available on Meta and TikTok.10TypeS of IGC AdSMeta Dark Posts are paid Facebook and Instagram ads that run under the brands handle,but dont appear on their timeline,page,or Stories.Instead,dark posts are shown directly to a target audience chosen by the advertiser.You can upload your influencer-generated content into Meta Ads Manager to create a Dark Post ad,where you set targeting segments,choose placements,and even select a list of approved third-party websites where the ad will be displayed.Meta dark postsEXAMPLE HERE11TypeS of IGC AdSInfluencer allowlisting,formerly known as influencer whitelisting,is like an“account takeover,”where brands can run ads under an influencers Instagram handle or Facebook page with their authorization.Once a creator grants allowlisting privileges to your brand,you gain access to the same targeting and placement tools as dark posts.This process can be done in Meta Business Manager,but Aspire simplifies the whole process.By running allowlisted ads through Aspire,brands can skip the manual and complex set up process,and instead quickly test and scale allowlisted ads.Learn more here.Meta Allowlisting12TypeS of IGC AdSPartnership Ads,formerly called Branded Content Ads,allow brands to turn a creators branded content on Instagram or Facebook into a paid ad.These ads are initially created and posted by creators as organic branded content,and brands can convert these posts into paid Partnership Ads through Meta Business Manager.Meta Partnership Ads offer:Tagging Features that make Paid Partnerships obvious in the feed.The brand and the creators handles are both prominently featured in the ads header.Creative Tools to make small edits to the copy of the influencers original post,and add call-to-action buttons like“Shop Now.”Detailed Insights so that both brands and creators can see real-time ad performance.Partnership Ad priveleges can be enabled manaully in Meta Business Manager.But similar to allowlisting through Aspire,brands and creators can streamline the process of running Partnership Ads through our platform.As an official Meta Marketing Partner,weve simplified the process of connecting your Meta Ads Manager to Aspire to seamlessly gain content usage rights,receive branded content,and go live with your Partnership Ad on Instagram or Facebook.Learn more here.Meta partnership AdsPartnership Ads,when used alongside business-as-usual (BAU)ads,achieve:53%higher click through rates 19%lower cost per actions 99%probability to outperform business-as-usual ads13TypeS of IGC AdSTikTok Spark Ads are a native ad format that allow brands to leverage organic TikTok posts whether its from your brands own account or your creators partners account in your advertising.By doing so,your ads can blend seamlessly with the rest of users feeds,making them more impactful.In fact,after viewing a Spark Ad,more than half of TikTok users said they can trust the brand because the creator shared it,while 68%said they believed a brand is authentic.Spark Ads are also connected to the original TikTok content,ensuring that all views,likes,comments,shares,and follows gained from boosting the video are attributed back to the organic post.Brands can create Spark Ads in TikTok Business Manager by using a creators Spark Ad code for the content they wish to turn into ads.Or,Aspire has a new integration with TikTok Spark Ads,allowing brands to request advertiser permissions to boost a creators TikTok post into a Spark Ad,directly from our platform.Once permission is granted in Aspire,you can view and manage the creators content seamlessly in your TikTok Ads Manager.Learn more here.TikTok Spark AdsSpark Ads drive better yield on ad dollars.On average,brands see:69%higher conversion rate 37%lower CPA than ever before 142%greater engagement than non-Spark Ads14TypeS of IGC AdSTikTok In-Feed Ads are ads that appear natively on a TikTok users For You Page among organic content,appearing like any other video in the users feed.These ads run under the brands account,rather than from a creators handle.In-feed ads can run up to 60 seconds and brands can add call-to-actions,leading users to an instant landing page,website,storefront,or app download.Brands can create In-Feed Ads by uploading IGC videos directly into TikTok Ads Manager,where you can set targeting preferences and ad parameters.TikTok In-feed AdsWhat Makes Good Influencer Ads?Creative Best Practices Content Themes by Vertical16WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdS Top-of-funnel goals:Established influencers with over 1 million followers drive 19%more clicks than influencers with less than 100K followers.*If your goal is to boost brand awareness,work with influencers with higher follower counts to leverage their namesake in your ads and drive top-of-funnel impact.Bottom-of-funnel goals:Work with creators who naturally fit your brands values,messaging,and aesthetic.Creators who align well with your brand not those with a large follower count can create the most authentic and trustworthy ads.Creative Best practicesSource creators based on your goalsBuild strategic partnerships with creators to reach your brands unique performance goals in a sustainable way.Remember,not all creators serve the same purpose.Some creators are excellent content creators,while others are powerhouse salespeople.Segment creators by their superpower to play to their strengths and reach your goals.*Meta internal meta test across global ecommerce advertisers:Creator Marketing for DR Aspiring vs Established Creator Value Stats,Jan-Aug 2021.17WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSHook your audience from the get-goThe first 5 seconds of a video ad are crucial for capturing the viewers attention.This is especially important on platforms like TikTok and Instagram,where users are quick to scroll past content that doesnt stand out.Additionally,ask influencers to show your product within the first 3 seconds.A Meta study revealed that displaying the product within the first 3 seconds increases brand interest by 44%.PRO TIP Analyze Scroll Stop Rate What is Scroll Stop Rate?This essential metric represents the percentage of viewers who pause their scrolling to watch at least 3 seconds of your video.This metric is calculated by comparing 3-second video plays to total impressions,offering valuable insight into how well your content is engaging your audience.Why does Scroll Stop Rate matter?A high Scroll Stop Rate shows your video ad is grabbing attention in those critical first seconds,especially on fast-paced platforms like TikTok and Instagram.By consistently tracking and optimizing this metric,you can identify which creative assets resonate most with your audience,refine your approach,and maximize ad impact.PRO TIP18WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSLean into trendsWhether its a viral sound,dance,challenge,or anything in between,participating in current TikTok and Instagram trends will increase the likelihood of the video garnering quick engagement and visibility.Stay up to date on the latest trends and craft up some ideas about how they can apply to your brand to jump on the bandwagon!Tailor content to each platformEach platform has its unique audience and expectations,so your ad should also align with its style and user behavior.For instance,TikTok thrives on quick,fun,and creative content,while Instagram might allow for slightly longer and more polished videos.Focus on relatabilityAvoid ads that feel overly polished or salesy.Instead,strive to source IGC that is genuine and relatable,mirroring the influencers usual style.This approach helps maintain trust and engagement with consumers.When collaborating with creators,its essential to find the sweet spot between providing guidelines that outline key selling points of your products,and giving them the creative freedom to produce content that actually resonates with your audiences.Striking this balance ensures the content feels authentic while still hitting your brands goals.19WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSOptimize video framing for ad placementMobile devices drive 70%of digital ad clicks,so ensure your video ads are fully optimized for mobile.Use vertical formats(9:16 aspect ratio)to streamline the mobile viewing experience.Keep in mind that the profile banner appears at the top and descriptions at the bottom,so avoid placing key information or text in those areas.Framing your content with this in mind will ensure your message stays front and center,delivering a better ad experience for viewers.TIKTOKINSTAGRAM POSTINSTAGRAM REEL20WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSDesign creatives for sound-off viewingSince many users scroll through social media with the sound off,captions are crucial for ensuring your message gets across.In fact,ads designed for silent viewing generate 38%more brand interest.Always use captions when influencers speak or provide voice-overs,and incorporate text overlays to highlight key points.However,avoid overloading your video keep overlays on screen long enough to be read,without distracting viewers.Guide your creators to use them strategically to boost engagement without overwhelming the audience.NOTE:Not all videos need captions!Some products or content types(i.e.unboxings,ASMR videos,etc.)can clearly communicate value without any text overlays or captions.The key point here is that your video should clearly tell a story even when viewers watch with the sound off.Text Overlay and Caption Tips Keep it short and sweet.Aim for 2-3 words per line to ensure readability,especially on mobile devices.Choose legible fonts.Select a font that is easy to read,even on smaller screens.Avoid overly decorative fonts that might look stylish but are hard to decipher.Use high contrast.Ensure the text contrasts well with the background to make it stand out.This will improve readability,especially on mobile screens and in various lighting conditions.Match the text with the audio.Proper synchronization ensures that the captions or text enhance understanding,especially for viewers who might have the sound off.Highlight special offers.Such as affiliate links and promo codes.21WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSUse commercially licensed musicAdding music can make your content more engaging,but be sure to choose tracks that are specifically licensed for ad use.Ads that include music that is not commercially licensed for advertising will be rejected by Meta and TikTok during the ad approval process.Include a strong call-to-actionA clear and compelling CTA is vital to the success of your ad.Tell viewers exactly what to do next in the caption of your ads or in the text overlay in the video whether its to visit your website,purchase via TikTok Shop,or engage with other content.22WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSLooking for fresh ideas to fuel your next batch of ads?Weve curated a list of content ideas separated by vertical to help you drive paid media success,taking inspiration from brands on Aspire.Incorporate these themes into your influencer campaign brief to ensure you source content that you can repurpose into high-performing ads.Content Themes by VerticalJump to:Beauty&SkincareTravelHome&GardenHealth&WellnessFitnessFashion&ApparelFood&Beverage23WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdS Product reviews and recommendationsInfluencers post honest product reviews narrating their experiences with your product,calling attention to specific product features and benefits,and providing actionable advice to the viewer.Expert testimonialsInfluencers with authority and legitimate credentials in your niche can validate your products effectiveness and build trust with your audience.Learning about your product through the lens of an industry professional creates credibility and trust with your audience.Unboxings and first impressionsInfluencers share candid reactions to your product,creating excitement and engagement.This content taps into viewer curiosity and invites them into the unboxing experience,making it an ideal tool for paid ad campaigns.All Verticals24WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSGet Ready With Me(GRWM)Influencers showcase how to achieve a certain look or result by using your beauty products.These casual tutorials highlight product versatility and offer practical tips,blending expert advice with inspiration to engage and educate viewers.TransformationsInfluencers post dramatic before-and-after transformations that show the power of your beauty products.Paired with stories about their own beauty journeys such as how they improved their acne with a specific skincare product the results feel more attainable,driving viewer interest.Skincare routinesInfluencers share their in-depth skincare routines,complete with information on their go-to products.This transparent,experience-driven content builds trust and encourages viewers to try the products for themselves.Beauty&Skincare25WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSTry-on haulInfluencers share what they got from your latest collection,trying on each piece to showcase how they look IRL.This is particularly effective because consumers want to see how clothes look on various body types.Outfit Of The Day(OOTD)and Get Dressed With Me(GDWM)Influencers post their daily looks featuring your brands clothing,offering real-life styling inspiration and tips.Their personal style journeys make the content relatable and aspirational to those with a similar taste in fashion.Seasonal lookbookInfluencers curate outfits for specific seasons or events,tapping into current trends and inspiring viewers to refresh their wardrobe.Their unique style and trend insights make the content engaging and fashion-forward.fashion&Apparel26WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSCooking tutorialsInfluencer share how to cook a specific dish using your food or drink product,or cooking equipment.Personal tips and cultural touches can make the content even more engaging.Taste testsInfluencers post their genuine reactions while trying your food or drink product for the first time.This is especially helpful if youre trying to promote a product launch,such as a new flavor.Behind-the-scenesInfluencers take viewers behind the scenes of food prep or sourcing at restaurants or food manufacturers to highlight quality and authenticity.This insider look boosts brand transparency and trust,making the process feel real and connected to the final product.food&Beverage27WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSDaily wellness routinesInfluencers showcase how they incorporate your products into their daily routine,providing social proof in a seamless and credible way.By doing so,your target customer market will be able to imagine themselves using your products everyday,too.Testimonials and health journeysInfluencers share authentic stories of how your product improved their health,inspiring viewers to take their own steps toward better wellness.Educational contentInfluencers,particularly those who have legitimate credentials in the health and wellness industry,can relay important product information such as the vital ingredients and long-term benefits to provide more trust and credibility.health&Wellness28WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSWorkout routinesInfluencers share their workout routines,incorporating your sports equipment,activewear,or fitness supplements,to inspire viewers to adopt similar habits.Athlete spotlightA well-known fitness influencer or professional athlete can share how your product fuels their success,giving your product their coveted stamp of approval.Behind-the-scenesInfluencers can take viewers behind the scenes of sports events,tying your product to the excitement and performance,while sharing how it enhances their game.fitness29WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSDIY home improvementInfluencers guide viewers through their home improvement projects using your brands product to showcase its functionality in a real-world setting.Encourage creators to share personal tips and tricks to make the projects accessible and achievable for everyday viewers.Seasonal decor tipsInfluencers share practical decorating tips using your product,inspiring viewers to refresh their space,especially during seasonal transitions.Organization hacksInfluencers show how to declutter and optimize spaces with your products,turning messy areas into functional,organized ones with actionable tips.home&Garden30WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSTravel vlogInfluencers share their travel adventures on the go,showcasing how your products enhance their travel experience.With personal stories and cultural insights,they can weave a narrative that makes your products a must-have for any journey.Packing essentialsSimilar to#GRWM videos,influencers can take viewers along as they pack for an upcoming trip,featuring your products as essential travel gear.Destination spotlightsInfluencers showcase local hot spots,inspiring viewers to explore new places while connecting your brand to their travel experiences.Travel31WhAT MAkeS Good InfluenCer AdSThese are just some of the ad concepts that weve seen work well for creators and brands but your options arent limited to these content ideas.Tap into the creativity of your community to come up with fresh,engaging content.And in every case,give creators enough creative freedom to produce content that is authentic,educational,and valuable so that it will resonate even when theyre ads.Get creative32GeT STArTed WITh ASpIreGet Started with AspireTo elevate your influencer ad strategy,invest in a smart solution like Aspire.Aspire is the leading influencer marketing platform empowering the worlds leading brands to cultivate influential communities and share their brand stories at scale.Our software includes:Agency ServicesNeed an extra set of hands?Let Aspires experienced media team elevate your paid social campaigns with strategies that deliver meaningful performance.We offer the strategy and expertise needed to drive impactful,scalable results on paid social.Paid media strategyPerformance creative sourcingMedia buyingCreator discovery tools,both inbound and outboundCustomizable campaign workflows for your unique needsROI measurement and analytics suiteAd amplification integrations with Meta,TikTok,and PinterestSearchable content library And so much moreReady to level up?Get in touch with us.
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Copyright 2025 The Nielsen Company(US),LLC.1GravityDefyMediasYour guide to cross-media and audience .
2025-01-23
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Affiliate Marketing 101How to Build a New Revenue Stream with Creators2 Introduction3 Successful Aff.
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Key insights on consumer,advertising,and media trends with data gathered from nearly 700 leading marketing industry professionals.2 2025 MediaoceanIntroduction.3Foreword by Brian Wieser,Madison and Wall.4Insight 01:Ad spending:Marketers continue to prioritize digital channels.5Insight 02:AI:Top consumer trend surpasses CTV.7Insight 03:Automation:The fastest-rising investment.9Insight 04:Shifting focus:Preparing for a multi-ID future.11Insight 05:Actionability:Critical for ad verification.12Insight 06:Creative-media gap:Small strides,big opportunities.13Conclusion and Methodology.14About Mediaocean and Flashtalking.15Table of contents3 2025 MediaoceanIntroductionThank you for reading Mediaoceans 2025 Advertising Outlook Report.These insights reflect input from nearly 700 marketing professionals,focused on key consumer and technology trends along with 2025 H1 projected media investments.We primarily surveyed marketers and agencies,but also included perspectives from media companies,measurement firms,tech platforms,and other industry cohorts.This is the seventh in our series of bi-annual market reports,with the first published at the end of 2021.The most recent data points used in this research are based on surveys conducted in November 2024.4 2025 MediaoceanWe often look at the world and the overall advertising industry,mindful that its ever-changing mix of different marketers,and focus on what will happen rather than what should happen.Surveys of groups of marketers often tend towards the should and cant typically capture the fact that the evolution of an economy means that many new kinds of marketers emerge,further limiting the visibility that surveys can provide.With that noted,we find ourselves in strong agreement with most of the observations raised by the survey underpinning the Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook Report and further agree that these are among the most important trends set to impact marketers this year.The results generally weave together very clearly.With individual practitioners increasingly incentivized towards shorter-term sales-like KPIs(in part because newer media channels and tools make it possible to measure them relatively quickly),its natural that performance-driven media would become a most critical capability.Because most platforms providing these performance-driven solutions are digital,its then understandable that digital channels would outpace those which are not digital.With the massive expansion of workflows that follows from the ongoing growth of digital channels,the need for automationand thus AItrumps CTV in importance.And then,given the aforementioned performance focus and all of the challenges that go with quantifying performance,it more than makes sense that high-quality measurement would similarly become more important than it ever was.ForewordOf course,there are some problems underpinning much of this focus along with some under-realized opportunities,too.To start,the use of performance media as practiced by many marketers comes at the expense of prioritizing brand-building.Those who truly want to use performance media probably should consider direct mail,although because its not“digital”physical mail usually doesnt wind up on a media plan.For a similarly mixed trend,the key factor driving adoption of AI is an ongoing need for efficiencywhich is a laudable objectivebut the ways in which efficiencies are realized often causes marketers to focus on individual functions rather than whole systems.Put differently,there is a tendency among many large marketers to prioritize the short-term growth of their proverbial trees rather than manage the long-term health of their much bigger forests.Thats illustrated largely in the creative-media gapboth wide and meaningfulwhich probably should not exist at all.If marketers that better creative and better ideas drive better media performance,why are they not more tightly integrated?If theres one important topic we think that advertisers appear to underestimate(by virtue of its low ranking among consumer trends),its the potential for political and advocacy issues to meaningfully impact everything else this year.There are some positives to consider,but probably more negatives overall.As examples,for all marketers a ban on TikTok in the US will probably alter which social media vehicles US-based brands will work with.Tariffs and deportations will alter prices and competitive dynamics within categories and probably impact supply chains,too.These factors will impact the choices that all marketers need to make in 2025.And then there are considerations for the pharmaceutical industry,which may face more targeted regulations and the dynamics of negative consumer sentiment towards that business,healthcare and many other industries.At an industry level,2025 will be a year of tremendous uncertainty for all of these reasons and more,although many individual marketers will still find ways to adapt and thrive.Tactics and strategies described in this report will undoubtedly be critical elements behind those outcomes.Brian WieserPrincipal5 2025 MediaoceanTo make informed decisions,marketers need a clear understanding of the broader trends shaping advertising spending.Our research indicates that the industrys wave of optimism from 2024 will carry into 2025.Social Media,Digital Display/Video,and Connected TV(CTV)remain the fastest-growing channels,with a consistent rise in investment that aligns with consumer engagement and time spent.Specifically,68%of survey respondents plan to increase their Social Media spending,67%for Digital Display/Video,and 55%for CTV.Additionally,28%,30%,and 36%of marketers,respectively,intend to maintain their investments in these channels.On the other hand,Radio/Audio has joined Print and TV in experiencing a decline in investment.While more respondents are decreasing their budgets in these areas than increasing them,the majority still report maintaining their current levels.Reviewing the data from the past four years,its evident that traditional media is being increasingly deprioritized as digital channels gain momentum and popularity among both consumers and advertisers.Social Platforms,in particular,have experienced remarkable growth,with a 21%increase in ad spending between 2022 and 2025.This shift underscores the growing importance of digital and social media in shaping advertising strategies and reaching target audiences effectively compared to traditional channels.Ad spending:Marketers continue to prioritize digital channels01Insight For each media channel below,do you expect to increase,decrease,or maintain your spend?20222023MaintainDecreaseIncrease20242025National TVLocal TVCTVPrintRadio/AudioOOH/DOOHDigital display/VideoSearchSocial platformsRetail mediaSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 20246 2025 MediaoceanTop channel by verticalLooking at the numbers by industry vertical,more than half of the sectors we surveyed identified Social Platforms as the primary channel for increased ad spending,followed by one-quarter citing Digital Display/Video.Quick Service Restaurant(QSR)and Travel were outliers in selecting CTV as their top channel for increased ad spending.SOCIAL PLATFORMSDIGITAL DISPLAY/VIDEOSOCIAL PLATFORMSSOCIAL PLATFORMSSOCIAL PLATFORMSSOCIAL PLATFORMSSOCIAL PLATFORMSCTVDIGITAL DISPLAY/VIDEODIGITAL DISPLAY/VIDEOSOCIAL PLATFORMSCTVSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 20247 2025 MediaoceanWhen we asked marketers to rank the most critical consumer technology and media trends,Generative AI(Gen AI)topped the list with 63%.As the technology has undergone rapid and unprecedented advancements,advertisers are more quickly embracing Gen AI.According to a November 2024 study by Microsoft,the use of Gen AI increased from 55%in 2023 to 75%in 2024.OpenAI has remained at the forefront of this trend with the introduction of the ChatGPT Store,a platform that allows users to create,customize,and share GPTs tailored for specific tasks.This development has rendered AI tools notably more approachable,not only for seasoned developers but also for the average,non-technical user.Furthermore,OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o,a versatile model capable of handling text,images,and audio in multiple languages.This marks a major advancement in AI technology,providing enhanced and comprehensive processing for various forms of media.While OpenAI and ChatGPT lead the market,other tech giants are also integrating Gen AI into their products.Google has incorporated generative AI into its Search platform,enabling users to receive AI-generated summaries that provide more detailed and synthesized information.CTV,which was the top trend in our previous survey,now ranks second with 56%of marketers considering it the most critical consumer trend.CTV remains a vital channel as consumers continue to switch to streaming services with ad-supported options.AI:Top consumer trend surpasses CTV02Insight What are the most important consumer trends youre watching for 2025?Source:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 2024July 2024November 20248 2025 MediaoceanWhen we break down the data into 12 industry verticals,5 chose Gen AI and 5 chose CTV.CPG/FMCG companies favor E-commerce Everywhere,while direct-to-consumer(DTC)brands prefer TikTok and Social Video as their top trends.While Google is working to make its Gemini AI chatbot work better with Android devices,Apples Apple Intelligence wants to make things easier for users by letting AI work inside apps.Cognizant and Microsoft formed a global partnership to help businesses adopt Gen AI,leveraging Microsoft Copilot and Cognizants services.Top trend by verticalCTV/STREAMINGE-COMMERCE EVERYWHERETIKTOK/SOCIAL VIDEOGENERATIVE AICTV/STREAMINGGENERATIVE AIGENERATIVE AICTV/STREAMINGCTV/STREAMINGGENERATIVE AIGENERATIVE AICTV/STREAMINGSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 20249 2025 MediaoceanWhile Performance-Driven Paid Media,Measurement and Attribution Capabilities,and Brand Advertising remain the top three critical investments,Automation has emerged as the fastest-growing area.Compared to our July 2024 survey,the number of respondents identifying Automation as a critical capability has increased by 17%,with 28%of marketers now selecting it.Automation was the only option that saw an increase,while Creative Testing and Analysis remained unchanged,and the rest declined.Automation and AI work together to streamline omnichannel workflows.With Automation,advertisers can use a single platform for all channels,eliminating time wasted on manual,redundant tasks.Innovative ad tech platforms use Automation and AI to help build compelling,brand-safe creative at scale,surface actionable insights,optimize campaigns,and drive better business outcomes across channels.As advertisers increasingly implement Automation into their processes and technologies,they are finding it easier to streamline workflows and apply AI to solve practical challenges.The most common applications of AI are Data Analysis and Market Research,with 47%and 38%of use cases,respectively.Copywriting and Image Generation follow with 32%and 22%of use cases.Automation:The fastest-rising investment 03Insight How are you currently using Generative AI in your marketing?Source:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 2024Given current macroeconomic conditions,which advertising capabilities and media investments are most critical?July 2024November 2024July 2024November 202410 2025 MediaoceanWhen we break down the numbers by vertical,three-quarters of the industries identified Data Analysis as their most prevalent use case.This includes sectors like Auto,CPG/FMCG,DTC,Entertainment,Financial Services,Tech,and Telecommunications.One-quarter of the verticals,primarily from Education,Retail,and Travel,indicated Market Research as their primary use case for Gen AI.Top trend by verticalDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISMARKET RESEARCHDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISMARKET RESEARCHDATA ANALYSISDATA ANALYSISMARKET RESEARCHSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 202411 2025 MediaoceanShifting focus:Preparing for a multi-ID future04Insighthow often users are exposed to ads,ensuring that frequency caps are set and maintained effectively.The attribution of conversions to paid media by accurately linking ad exposures to subsequent site activity,regardless of the browser or device used,ensures a more accurate measurement of media impact.By embracing multi-ID solutions,advertisers can futureproof their measurement,and ensure they are accurately tracking campaign effectiveness in 2025.November 2023October 2022November 2024What are your largest areas of concern in your media and marketing initiatives?Source:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 2024Decline in ability to measure campaign effectivness on tech platforms and open webPoor ability to manage reach&frequency across CTV and digital channelsConsumer ad avoidance/ad blindnessLoss of access to third-party dataLack of preparedness for cookieless future and other data deprecation relating to consumer privacy and walled gardensTalent retention/access to expertiseOther12 2025 MediaoceanAs concerns around ad verification grew in the past year,we introduced this question in our July survey.Our latest findings show that the aspects of verification considered most important by marketers when selecting partners and evaluating ROI are in a state of flux.Measurement,particularly with Media Rating Council(MRC)accreditation and robust reporting,remains the top priority.Advertisers need intuitive data access with flexible reporting that provide actionable analytics.Notably,Actionability has remained the second most important factor,but with a 22%increase in our November 2024 survey.The ability to use data for real-time decision-making is crucial for ad verification,as it allows advertisers to be proactive with their media strategies and apply insights to optimize campaign performance.In a separate survey conducted in October 2024 on ad verification and brand safety,87%of marketers agreed that rebuilding trust in ad verification is essential,and 75%of respondents viewed brand safety as more critical than it was six months ago.66%of marketers surveyed also advocated for a verification model focused on factoring positive content engagement rather than relying strictly on-site exclusions and negative keywords.Actionability:Critical for ad verification 05InsightFor our 2025 Advertising Outlook Report,Integrations for connectivity to media buying applications came in third.Verification solutions must be seamlessly integrated with ad servers to ensure an end-to-end streamlined workflow,which increases efficiency,reduces errors,saves time,and cuts costs in both media and verification processes.Comprehensive Channel Coverage(including walled gardens,the open web,and CTV)and Cost rounded out the fourth and fifth places.Advertisers have faced challenges such as limited options,higher costs,and a slowdown in innovation due to the concentration of services with two primary providers.As we enter 2025,a positive security model for verification presents compelling opportunities for marketers.What aspect of ad verification is most critical when selecting partners and evaluating return on investment?Integrations:connectivity to media buying applicationsCost:low incremental fees on top of mediaComprehensive channel coverage:walled gardens,open web,CTVMeasurement:MRC-accreditation and robust reportingActionability:ability to use data for real-time decisioningSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 202413 2025 MediaoceanIn our research,86%of respondents reported that they do not have fully synchronized media and creative processes and technologies,a slight improvement from 89%in our 2024 Advertising Outlook Report.Only 14%of advertisers are fully synchronized in 2025 compared to 12%in 2024.Despite this initial progress,the industry still has significant room for improvement.The“creative-media”gap is primarily caused by the industrys overemphasis on media at the expense of creative content.This disparity has a profound impact,especially in a world where consumers increasingly respond to and reward personalized experiences.Closing this gap represents the most significant growth opportunity for brands.To address these gaps,brands need to implement independent ad tech platforms that connect the silos between teams,allowing the delivery of more efficient production,versioning,and distribution of creative.Essential to this solution is the enablement of personalization to ensure the most relevant and impactful brand message reaches the right consumer at the right moment.Creative-media gap:Small strides,big opportunities06Insight The ability to deploy intelligence for a deep understanding of what messages are connecting with different audiences and environments with granularity and transparency of data is imperative.With a comprehensive Creative Ad Tech stack,advertisers can seamlessly integrate with existing platforms and collaborate with partners in both creative and media domains,empowering teams to effectively bridge the creative-media gap.How well synchronized are your media efforts?So soWe have some processes that overlap,but theres room for improvementNot at allOur media and creative processes are totally separateVery wellWe have fully synchronized media and creative processes and technologiesWellWe have a formal approach to media/creative collaborationSource:Mediaocean 2025 Advertising Outlook ReportMethodology:Survey of 688 marketing professionals conducted through TechValidate in November 202414 2025 MediaoceanConclusion In 2025,the advertising industry is poised for continued growth and transformation.The sustained increase in ad spending,particularly in digital channels,underscores a market that is highly attuned to the continued shift in consumer attention.Advertisers are maintaining and even expanding their budgets from the previous year,signaling a strong commitment to leveraging advertising for business success.The steady rise of AI,driven by ongoing advancements and widespread adoption by tech giants,has solidified its position as a critical technology in the advertising world.AI is now an indispensable tool,enhancing content generation,research,and analytics,and deeply integrating into daily workflows.This technology is not just a trend but a fundamental shift that is reshaping how advertisers operate.Automation is also playing a more significant role,as advertisers seek to optimize their omnichannel strategies.By streamlining workflows,automation saves time and reduces manual,repetitive tasks,allowing teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.Accurate measurement remains a top concern,and advertisers need to adopt a multi-ID approach.This strategy,which combines cookies with other identifiers,is essential for improving reach,frequency,and attribution,ensuring that campaigns are effectively measured and optimized.The ad verification space has seen groundbreaking developments,compelling marketers to reassess Methodology This survey was conducted via TechValidate in November 2024 and contains data from 688 respondents representing brands,agencies,media companies,measurement firms,tech platforms,and other marketing industry constituents.and prioritize their partnerships.The emphasis on actionability is crucial to maintaining high standards of ad delivery and ensuring that every dollar spent yields tangible results.Despite some progress,the creative-media gap continues to be a critical issue.To bridge this divide,the industry must implement independent ad tech platforms that can connect silos,enable personalization,and deploy advanced intelligence.This integration is vital for creating cohesive,effective advertising strategies that resonate with consumers and drive business outcomes.2025 will be a year of significant advancements and challenges in the advertising industry.By embracing AI,automation,and multi-ID measurement,and by addressing the creative-media gap,advertisers are well-positioned to navigate the complexities of the market and achieve their goals in the coming year.15 2025 MediaoceanAbout Mediaocean Mediaocean is powering the future of the advertising ecosystem with technology that empowers brands and agencies to deliver impactful omnichannel marketing experiences.With over$200 billion in annualized ad spend running through its software products,Mediaocean deploys AI and automation to optimize investments and outcomes.The companys advertising infrastructure and ad tech tools are used by more than 100,000 people across the globe.Mediaocean owns and operates Prisma,the industrys trusted system of record for media management and finance,Flashtalking,an innovative ad server and creative personalization platform,as well as Protected by Mediaocean,an MRC-accredited ad verification solution.Visit for more information.About Flashtalking Flashtalking unleashes the power of creative to make media work better.As the leading independent platform for personalization,orchestration,and intelligence across all marketing channels,our Creative Ad Tech bridges the gap between creative and media.We provide AI and automation to connect the silos between teams and deliver more efficient production,versioning,and distribution of creative.Our solutions operate at scale across CTV,Video,Display,Social,Native,Audio,DOOH,and Retail Media channels.As part of Mediaocean,Flashtalking is tied into the industrys core ad infrastructure for omnichannel planning,buying,and billing.Visit for more information.
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Martech for 2025by Scott Brinker and Frans RiemersmaSponsored by:December 3,2024&Martech for 2025Scott Brinker is the editor of the chiefmartec blog,covering the intersection of marketing and technology for over 15 years.He serves as the vice president of platform ecosystem at HubSpot.He is also the author of the best-selling book Hacking Marketing and co-author of The New Automation Mindset.He jointly produces the MartechMap marketing technology landscape with Frans.Frans Riemersma founded MartechTribe,a company specializing in Martech research and benchmarking.With 30 years in consultancy,he combines qualitative expertise with quantitative Martech data on stacks,vendors,and requirements in a proprietary Martech Data Warehouse.He is the author of A Small Book on Customer Technology and co-author of Marketing Tech Monitor,Customer Technology Sector Trends,and Hello Firstname.In collaboration with Scott,he also co-produces the MartechMap,an overview of the marketing technology landscape.This report is sponsored by GrowthLoop,Hightouch,MetaRouter,Progress,and SAS.AuthorsSponsors 2024 Marketing Technology Media,LLC,MartechTribe B.V.,and MartechUnited B.V.Graphic design,information design,and illustrations by Angela Ribeiro da Silva(Dattura Studio)&Martech for 20251.How AI is Reshaping the Marketing and Martech Environment GenAI Boosts Martech Growth in 5 SegmentsThe First 3 Segments:Indie Tools,Incumbent and Challenger PlatformsThe 4th Segment:Instant Software The 5th Segment:Service-as-a-Software 1629710 17252.Foundations for an AI Strategy The Evolving Universal Data LayerThe(Underdeveloped)Universal Content LayerAPI Composability as AI Agent Building Blocks IntroductionFive Perspectives on Martech for 2025GrowthLoop:End-to-End Marketing on Your Data Cloud with AIHightouch:Why the Next Wave Beyond CDPs is AI DecisioningMetarouter:A CDPs Best Friend:“Shifting Left”Data QualityProgress:Lessons of Composability for Marketing OperationsSAS:Filling the Gaps in Governance for Generative AI3.How Marketers Are Using GenAI Today Popular Martech GenAI Use CasesNew AI Tools vs.AI Embedded in Current Martech ToolsFrequency of GenAI Tool Usage by Use CaseGenerative AI Policy and Impact on UsageDemographics of Survey Respondents2933364344495459626464748693101Content&1Martech for 2025We are absolutely at a place where,if AI development completely stopped,we would still have 5-10 years of rapid change absorbing the capabilities of current models and integrating them into organizations and social systems.I dont think development is going to stop,though.Ethan Mollick,The Wharton SchoolIs AI overhyped?Yes.Is AI a massive disruptor?Also yes.The logic to that seeming paradox is Amaras Law:we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate its effect in the long run.P and Webvan,epically failed dot-com businesses from the late 1990s,overestimated e-commerce in the short run.At the peak of the dot-com boom in 1999,worldwide e-commerce transactions totaled$100 billion,a mere 0.3%of the worlds GDP.But by the end of 2018,global ecommerce totaled$25.6 trillion1 B2B and B2C combined a whopping 29.7%of the$86.2 trillion2 global GDP.Amazon went from being a$5 billion company in 2001,its future deeply discounted by Wall Street,to now being the 5th largest company in the world with a market cap of$1.8 trillion.How many of you,back in 1999 expected Amazon to reach that scale?Did you invest?Did you hold on to your investment through the dot-com crash?1 https:/unctad.org/fr/isar/news/global-e-commerce-hits-256-trillion-latest-unctad-estimates 2 https:/ for 2025The thing to remember about the Hype Cycle,of course,is that its a measure of hype not a measure of the underlying technology.While the hype bobs wildly up and down,the technology behind it steadily marches forward.And if so,are you reading this report from your boat with a shoddy connection in the tropics,three months after we published it?3 Thats Amaras Law.Amaras Law has repeated itself time and again throughout the history of technology.Grand expectations when a new innovation first appears,quickly hyped to an extreme.Disappointment when those expectations fail to materialize quickly.But steadily the technology grows,improves,and is adopted in more and more applications.Until one day,years later,its scale and impact far exceeds the grandest expectations that we hoped for at its beginning.If you were to visualize Amaras Law on a graph,it would look a little like or a lot alike Gartners famous Hype Cycle:3 A nod to JP Castlins excellent Strategy in Praxis newsletter.The Hype CycleGartners famous(infamous?)Hype Cycle is a visual approximation of Amaras LawTechnology TriggerTrough of DisillusionmentPeak of Inflated ExpectationsSlope of EnlightenmentPlateau of ProductivitySource:Gartner/chiefmartec&3Martech for 2025The only difference with Amaras Law is that“Plateau of Productivity”isnt the summit.Its a stop along the way,followed by another climb upwards often with its own squiggly hype curve followed by another,and another,and so on.That ascent over decades took us from the 3-ton mainframes of the 1960s to having 10 million times more computing power in the palm of your hand with todays mobile phones.As youve no doubt surmised,this is the journey were on with AI.But there are a couple of key differences this time.First,the rate of change is much,much faster.In previous reports,we described this as the compression of the Hype Cycle.A pattern that used to take 5-10 years to play out,from technology trigger to productivity plateau,now happens in half that time.ChatGPT is barely 2 years old,yet it already has over 200 million users per week.Second,AI is not really a single Hype Cycle,but a multitude of them,all at different stages,many entangled with each other.“Generative AI”is a massively large field with different use cases all at different stages of maturity.All of them inherit advances in the rapidly improving The Hype Cycle and Technology DevelopmentWhile the“hype”has its ups and downs,the underlying technology continues to advanceTechnology TriggerTrough of DisillusionmentPeak of Inflated ExpectationsSlope of EnlightenmentPlateau of ProductivityTechnologySource:chiefmartec&4Martech for 2025foundation models from OpenAI,Anthropic,Google,Meta,etc.Yet they each have their own technology innovations wrapped around them.And generative AI itself is just one part of a larger AI universe,where the myriad of machine learning(ML)techniques and applications have been advancing for years.Useful applications of ML are already embedded in almost every software product you use today.With greater scale of data and computing power,the capabilities of ML continue to grow at the exponential rate of Moores Law.Prompt to ChatGTP:“Generate a tree diagram for me of the many different ways in which generative AI is being applied.”Applications of Generative AIVirtual Reality ContentTranslatorsContent Creation3D ModelGenerationPhotographyEnhancementCreative WritingFilm andSpecial EffectsSynthetic Data for TrainingData AugmentationAI-Generated Test CasesCode TranslationDeepfakesText GenerationVideoGenerationGenerativeAIImageGenerationGenerativeCodeChatbots and Conversational AgentsFashion and StyleCode CompletionSound EffectsCreationSpeech-to-Speech TranslationSummarizationAudioGenerationVoiceSynthesisAnimatedCharactersArt andDesignMedical ImagingMusic CompositionAutomatedProgrammingSource:chiefmartec&5Martech for 2025All of this combines to make it very difficult to say,“AI is overhyped.”Some of it is,for sure.But much of it is already being deployed throughout marketing,with new functionality and use cases continually being added to the repertoire of modern marketing.Quoting Ethan Mollick,one of the leading observers of AIs ever-morphing abilities,even“if AI development completely stopped,we would still have 5-10 years of rapid change absorbing the capabilities of current models and integrating them into organizations and social systems.”But its not going to stop.Welcome to Martech for 2025.&6Martech for 2025Its like riding a roller coaster,isnt it?Being a marketer in this AI era brings a flood of mixed emotions.The thrill of an exhilarating new ride.The nervous excitement from not knowing whats around the next curve.The anxiety as you consider the possibility that the whole thing might just fly off the rails and possibly take your career with it.Yet youve already purchased your ticket,climbed on the trolley,and are being dragged up the lift hill.Too late to turn back now.AI is reshaping marketing and martech.And while were not prone to hyperbole,we do believe there will be significant real-world changes that marketers and marketing operations leaders will have to face with this technology in 2025.So while consciously avoiding a bunch of bull-slinging,heres the martech environment for AI that we see now and expect in the year ahead.1.How AI is Reshaping the Marketing and Martech Environment&7Martech for 2025In our State of Martech 2024 report in May of this year,we revealed our(in)famous marketing technology landscape had grown a whopping 27.8%from 2023 to 2024.The total number of martech tools we tracked grew from 11,038 to 14,108 in just one year.The vast majority of this growth came from an explosion of AI-powered specialist tools in the“long tail”of the market:Number of Martech Software Apps Since 2011GenAI Boosts Martech Growth in 5 Segments0200040006000800010000120001400016000201120122013201420152016201720182019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024150350947187638745381682970408000993211038141069.304%growth over 13 years 27.8%growth in the last 12 months 41.8GR Source:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&8Martech for 2025New AI Products in 2024Top 14 New GenAI Based Tools in MartechTailTorsoHeadScale(revenue&install base)10s100s1000sMartech productsNew AI-Native ProductsAI into Existing Products 3,068 new products(77%AI-native)ManagementAdvertising&PromotionsData Commerce&SalesSocial&RelationshipsContent&ExperienceContent MarketingSales AutomationEnablement&IntelligenceVideo MarketingBusiness/CustomerIntelligence&DataScienceLive Chat&ChatbotsSocial Media Marketing&MonitoringCollaborationCMS&Web ExperienceManagementAudience/Marketing Data&Data EnhancementCustomer ExperienceService&SuccessEmail MarketingSEOMobile AppsOptimizationPersonalization&Testing33.1.3%6.3%5.4%5.2%3.5%3.5%3.4%3.3%3%2.5%2.3%2.1%1.6%Sales use casesClient meetings,notesLead sourcing&OutreachLead ScoringPitch DecksGenAI Data use casesData Infrastructure,Storage&UnificationData Interpretation&Chat with DataData Sourcing&ExtractionSource:chiefmartec&MartechTribeSource:MartechTribe&9Martech for 2025We tracked 2,324 new AI-native products,most of them in the content marketing and sales automation categories.And that didnt include hundreds of custom GPTs in OpenAIs GPT Store focused on marketing use cases.Consolidation continued to happen elsewhere in the market.But the number of new martech solutions being tracked far exceeded the number that went away.The martech landscape continues to be a seeming paradox of simultaneous consolidation on one end of the spectrum and new growth on the other.As F.Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote,“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time,and still retain the ability to function.”Thats been the martech motto.But will AI ultimately break that pattern?&10Martech for 2025Of course,its not just new martech products providing AI functionality to marketers.The past year has seen a frantic rush by existing martech companies to add new AI capabilities to their products.Adobe,HubSpot,Microsoft,Salesforce,SAS,etc.all added a slew of new features with generative AI as well as more features leveraging good,old-fashioned analytical AI with machine learning.Through one lens,this sets up a repeat of the age-old struggle of startups vs.incumbents.The“head”of the martech long tail the dominant martech platforms of the past decade and the thinly stretched“tail”of new martech startups are competing as they always have.AI just happens to be the field of battle today.But we think theres an important nuance here.Indie Tools,Challenger and Incumbent PlatformsThe First 3 Segments:Indie Tools,Incumbent and Challenger PlatformsIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingM&ASource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&11Martech for 2025Only a relatively small percentage of these AI-native startups are intentionally trying to compete with the incumbents.Most are just experimenting with what generative AI engines from OpenAI,Google,Anthropic,Meta,and others now make possible.Theyre building small,stand-alone tools that complement existing platforms by automating or augmenting tasks that marketers have done manually around those platforms.Examples include:Headlime AI-powered marketing copywriting with templates browse.ai AI-powered web site scraper for data and monitoring tl;dv AI-powered notetaker for Zoom,Google Meet,MS Teams Vizly AI-powered data analysis and visualization Howler AI AI-powered personalized intro lines for sales reps SpeakAI.co AI-powered transcription and translationWe call these indie tools because many of them have little or no institutional VC funding.(Its remarkable how much can be built so quickly with so little investment now a point well come back to in a little bit.)Not only are most indie tools not trying to compete with the large incumbent platforms.Many are actually seeking to leverage and integrate with them in their ecosystems.Hugh Durkin,the founder of AppM,a service that tracks app ecosystems across B2B platforms,has reported an explosion of“AI”tools added to these marketplaces this year.Non-AI vs.AI Apps00ded inOct.2024Overall in202471.4.1(.6%9.9%AI AppsNon-AI AppsSource:Hugh Durkin,AppM,October 2024&12Martech for 2025To help visualize the incredible scale of this AI-native indie tool space,we produced a special genAI version of our Marketing Technology Landscape earlier this year that highlights the collection of these indie tools that we discovered over the past year.You can browse an interactive PDF version here.However,some of these AI startups are intentionally seeking to disrupt the major martech incumbents.Andreesen Horowitz published a barnburner of a blog post in July called“Death of a Salesforce”:Why AI Will Transform the Next Generation of Sales Tech that speaks to the strategy of these challenger platforms:We believe AI will so fundamentally reimagine the core system of record and the sales workflows that no incumbent is safe.Instead of a text-based database,the core of the next sales platform will be multi-modal(text,image,voice,video),containing every customer insight from across the company.An AI-native platform will be able to extract 2024 MarTech GenAI LandscapeSource:2024 MarTech GenAI Landscape,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&13Martech for 2025more insight from a customer and their mindset than we could ever piece together with the tools we have today.Sales workflows will fundamentally change.With AI,sales teams will no longer need to spend endless hours researching new leads or prepping for calls AI will be able to do it in seconds.Reps wont have to suss out the readiness of potential customers because AI will have automatically compiled a ranked list of primed buyers,and will keep it constantly updated.Need personalized marketing collateral for a deal?Your AI wingman will produce whatever assets you need and feed you live tips while youre on a call to help you close.The examples they cite are Clay for prospecting data intelligence,11x for autonomous AI agents serving as inbound and outbound SDRs,Naro for sales enablement,Day as an AI-native CRM,and People.ai for a new generation of salesforce automation(“salesforce”as the employees in a company responsible for selling,not the blue cloud SaaS pioneer).The advantage these AI-native challenger platforms have is that they can rethink everything data models,workflows,user interface,pricing and package,etc.for a new AI-powered world.They are not constrained by technical backward compatibility or the dynamics of Clayton Christensens Innovators Dilemma biasing their business model choices.However,these challengers have their own disadvantages to overcome.Most are incomplete and require integrations with multiple other products to cover the capabilities customers require.Because they have small user bases,they often have access to small amounts of data to train their AI features.In contrast,the incumbents theyre targeting have large user bases and are deeply integrated in those customers tech stacks.Displacing these incumbents la rip-and-replace is a daunting proposition,especially given that these challenger platforms carry existential risk:90%of startups fail.44 https:/ for 2025Where challenger platforms gain a tailwind is when the fundamental nature of the category may change as a result of AI a true paradigm shift.For instance,competing with existing DXPs such as Adobe,Optimizely,and Sitecore is a hard uphill climb unless websites themselves shift to become something very different.If avatar agents or dynamic content canvases engage customers outside of traditional web pages and site navigation,the very nature of a DXP gets disrupted.That opens the door for a new generation of martech leaders.The role that AI agents could play in disrupting how work gets done and customer experiences get delivered will likely open many such doors.But the incumbents are not standing still.Salesforces bold moves with Agentforce and Generative Canvas.HubSpots Breeze co-pilots and agents,and co-founder Dharmesh Shahs agent.ai(a“professional network for AI agents”).Microsofts embedding of Copilot throughout their Dynamics product suite.Adobes GenStudio is a seamless AI-driven content supply chain.Indie Tools,Challenger and Incumbent PlatformsIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingDisadvantagesLimited resources and scale,low defensibilityHard to dislodge incumbents,viability risk,limited dataConstrained by backwards compatibility and existing revenue structuresThousands of stand-alone AI specialist tools that do one thingNew AI-native platforms that aspire to disrupt existing platform incumbentsDominant martech platforms rapidly embedding AI features in their products,organically and via acquisitionsAdvantagesCreatively use AI to do one thing really,really well with specializationDesigned from the ground up with new AI paradigms,free from innovators dilemmaLarge user bases,deeply embedded in tech stacks,big cash flows/reserves,huge amounts of data for trainingM&ASource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&15Martech for 2025As Sonya Huang and Pat Grady of Sequoia Capital recently wrote in an article,Generative AIs Act o1:The Agentic Reasoning Era Begins,“The classic battle between startups and incumbents is a horse race between startups building distribution and incumbents building product.Can the young companies with cool products get to a bunch of customers before the incumbents who own the customers come up with cool products?”The incumbents are moving quickly to build cool AI capabilities.They are also leveraging their equity and capital reserves to acquire hot indie tools and rising challenger platforms to make non-linear jumps forward.And theyre already leveraging their large customer bases their distribution to roll out that new AI functionality at scale to shut out the challengers before they get their foot through the door.One could easily assume that the incumbent platforms will come out on top.Yet the incumbents have hurdles to overcome that arent about the technology per se.Clay Christensens Innovators Dilemma will be a real struggle for them to balance their commitments and expectations with existing customers and the reliable financial engine of their existing pricing and packaging with new product paradigms and new pricing models.(Dharmesh Shah,the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot,has shown one way of escaping that dilemma by producing products such as ChatSpot and,more recently,Agent.ai adjacent to HubSpots core platform.)Shifts in Pricing ModelsmodelSaaSIaaS/PaaSservice-as-a-softwareproduct formapplicationsservicesAI agentsaligned toemployeescompute/data resourcesgoalscostsfixed,based on number of usersvariable,based on resource utilizationvariable,based on outcome demandcost-related riskunderutilizationpoor optimization or forecastingmiscalculated value or demandOutcomesUsageSeatsSource:chiefmartec&16Martech for 2025But the bigger hurdle for them may simply be mindset and their ability or inability to truly imagine how this new world will differ from the old one.To quote a bit more from Huang and Grady:Twenty years ago the on-prem software companies scoffed at the idea of SaaS.“Whats the big deal?We can run our own servers and deliver this stuff over the internet too!”Sure,conceptually it was simple.But what followed was a wholesale reinvention of the business.EPD went from waterfalls and PRDs to agile development and AB testing.GTM went from top-down enterprise sales and steak dinners to bottoms-up PLG and product analytics.Business models went from high ASPs and maintenance streams to high NDRs and usage-based pricing.Very few on-prem companies made the transition.5What if AI is an analogous shift?Could the opportunity for AI be both selling work and replacing software?So who will win?Its not clear.And practically speaking,its not a strictly zero-sum game in the near-term.For 2025,we believe most marketers will benefit from all three:Leverage the new AI features being released by your existing incumbent platform(s).Adopt indie tools that complement those platforms and let you experiment with new AI capabilities quickly and inexpensively.And keep an open mind to creative new approaches championed by AI challenger platforms.Whether they ultimately succeed as companies or not,they are likely augurs of the future.5 Holy acronym city,Batman!EPD=enterprise product development.PRD=product requirements document.GTM=go-to-market.PLG=product-led growth.ASP=average selling price.NDR=net dollar retention.AB=version A and version B of something,being tested against each other.&17Martech for 2025But true disruption often comes at you from an angle you arent expecting.While commercial incumbent and challenger platforms are battling it out,we believe one of AIs biggest impacts will be the explosion of custom“software”in businesses of all sizes not just enterprises.We put“software”in scare quotes because,increasingly,people will create software programs through AI without even realizing it.(Should we call it“instant software”in a nod to the magic of“instant coffee”just add water,or in this case,just add intent?)But first,lets acknowledge that even conscious custom software development is on the rise.While public LLM services have become extremely popular ChatGPT,Claude,Gemini,etc.they are generic in their reasoning and training data.Custom AppsThe 4th Segment:Instant SoftwareIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingM&ACustom AppsReplacingAugmenting&ReplacingSource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&18Martech for 2025To harness their power in ones own digital operations and customer experiences,businesses need to tailor them to their proprietary data and context-specific logic.Tailoring can be done through a variety of methods:training ones own model,fine tuning an existing model,and/or using RAG(retrieval-augmented generation).RAG,which is the most common method today,looks up data from internal databases and feeds it behind-the-scenes into the prompts given to the LLM engine.The LLM generates its response using that retrieved data as input,augmenting its own generic knowledge.Hence,retrieval-augmented generation.RAG implementations may also check or manipulate the output from the LLM to provide further guardrails on the end result.All of this is done by building custom software to connect these pieces together,often using Python,which has become the preferred programming language for AI.These custom generative AI implementations can be run stand-alone or incorporated into larger software apps.We often see teams follow a hack-pack-stack progression here.Quickly test an idea in a stand-alone fashion(hack).If proven feasible,build it the“right”way and deploy it into production(pack).If it delivers sustained value,optimize it for long-term maintainability(stack).The Hack-Pack-Stack ProgressionTest an idea quickly to determine if it is technically feasible and if it will deliver the intended value/outcome;an experimentOnce the idea is validated if successfully addresses a clear need implement it the proper way and deploy it in full productionRefactor into a scalable,low-maintenance version and integrate it into the ecosystem of your tech stack(your digital ops”DNA”)best-of-needbest-of-speedbest-of-breedPackHackStackSource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&19Martech for 2025AI coding assistants,such as GitHub Copilot,Gemini Code Assist,Amazon Q Developer,Cursor,and more,are accelerating the speed and quality of proper software development.Combined with the rise of composability with APIs and organization-wide accessibility of data through cloud data warehouses,companies are more willing and able to build pieces of custom software as part of their overall digital operations.As an extreme example,the fintech giant Klarna announced earlier this year that they were ditching Salesforce and Workday to build their own custom CRM and HCM applications using AI and composable cloud services.6 While theres been skepticism about the wisdom of such a“build it all yourself”strategy,the fact that such a move is even conceivable is a testament to both the improved economics of custom development and the perceived business advantage of more tailored digital operations in the AI era.6 https:/ for 2025What should you build vs.buy?Largely its a question of comparative advantage.Where commercial companies in the market have greater experience and expertise in building a particular kind of product or platform,its often most economically rational in both direct costs and opportunity costs to buy.Where can your company generate unique value from its experience and expertise expressed in software?Those may be a candidate for building.Its where the expertise in your company for those specialized needs is greater than the more generalized expertise in the market at large with commercially packaged products.As a new technology winds its way up and down the Hype Cycle as a number of AI capabilities currently are the rationale for building vs.buying often evolves.In the early stages of the technology,we buy to learn from those companies who have specialized in the technology.If we build,its often to prototype exploratory ideas.The Technology Hype Cycle Buy to learn Build to prototypeExpertiseMarket CompanyExpertiseCompany Market Buy to compose Build to integrateSource:MartechTribe&21Martech for 2025In later stages,we buy to acquire viable and proven capabilities that we can then compose into our business operations and customer experiences.We build the unique components that leverage our domain expertise and integrate everything together.But the greatest quantity of custom software ahead wont be built by professional developers.It will be apps,automations,and analyses created by business users through“no-code”interfaces and AI.Weve already seen an explosion of such citizen development,as Gartner labeled it,over the past 10 years.Products such as Airtable(database apps),Webflow(web apps),and Workato(workflow automation)have empowered business ops teams including marketing operations and revops to self-serve many of their own custom software needs.Gartner predicted that by 2025,70%of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies,up from less than 25%in 2020,that are“driving the increase of citizen development,and notably the function of business technologists who report outside of IT departments and create technology or analytics capabilities for internal or external business use.”7And that prediction was made before the genAI revolution broke out.Now,we have a whole new wave of no-code AI agent builders,such as Googles Vertex AI Agent Builder,Relevance AI,and Kore.ai.But even with no-code tools,these are all explicitly created software“programs.”Business users might not think of themselves as developers,but they recognize that they are building an app,an automation,or an agent when they use those tools.However,when you ask an AI agent to do something for you and it creates a custom program on-the-fly to execute it completely behind-the-scenes,and by default not visible to the user who made the request is that custom software?We would argue that it is.7 https:/ for 2025Such automatic or even ambient creation of software programs by AI agents will be faster and cheaper by orders of magnitude than any software development process that came before.And because the interface of these AI agents will be accessible to any business user,the number of people triggering the creation of these dynamic programs will asymptotically be everyone in the company and,through customer-facing agents,potentially many more.Beyond the millions of human-built no-code apps,there will be billions of AI agent dynamic programs.This explosion of unseen custom“software”has already begun,and we expect it will accelerate in 2025 as AI agents proliferate.The AI agent is,in a very real sense,a software developer.(Albeit one without a love for pizza and Star Wars.)The Democratization of Marketing Technologytimediscipline expertsdomain expertspower usersusersambient,automaticmarketing operationsmarketersITcodelow-codeno-codeAI agent dynamic programswhohowcost,expertise requiredvolume,production ratedemocratization of marketing technologySource:chiefmartec&23Martech for 2025This will change the composition of tech stacks.Not only will companies draw from the long tail of commercial applications,such as those we catalog in the ever-bulging marketing technology landscape.They will complement and augment them and in some cases replace them with a growing quantity of custom“software”that they build for their unique operations and customer experiences.If the commercial martech landscape has been a“long tail”distribution a small number of major martech vendors in the head and torso,followed by a large number of martech startups,specialists,and challengers in the tail we see this explosion of custom IT-built,citizen-built,and agent-built software as an effectively infinite extension of software choice.We call this a hypertail distribution.With due respect to Klarnas decision to ditch major commercial platforms to roll their own,we actually expect that most tech stacks will incorporate both commercial and custom software.Commercial platforms that help aggregate and orchestrate custom software providing cohesion and governance to the plethora of apps,agents,The HypertailTailTorsoHeadScale(revenue&install base)10s100s1000sMartech softwareHypertail1,000,000s1,000,000,000sAgent-BuiltSoftwareCitizen-BuiltSoftwareIT-BuiltSoftware(.)Source:chiefmartec&24Martech for 2025However,we suspect this may be the turning point where the number of commercial apps in the tech stack peaks and future growth of the stack which overall we think could be exponential will come from custom software,a cornucopia of custom apps,agents,and automations.and automations operating in this“big ops”environment will be especially valuable as coordinating centers of gravity.Custom vs.Commercial SoftwareQuantity of Marketing SoftwareMainframe EraPC EraSaaS EraCustom SoftwareCommercialSoftwareAI EraTimeSource:chiefmartec&25Martech for 2025The 5th Segment:Service-as-a-SoftwareBut wait,theres more.So much software to date has been tools to help people do their work better,whether through increased efficiency or greater creative range or applying their talents to digital assets,data,experiences,media,etc.that inherently required a digital interface.Software has been an assist to labor.But with the rise of agentic AI capabilities where a new generation of AI-powered software can actually do more of the work autonomously or with minimal supervision its becoming possible for software to increasingly serve as labor.Services-as-SoftwareIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingM&ACustom AppsReplacingAugmenting&ReplacingServices-as-SoftwareSubstitutingManaging&SubstitutingSource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&26Martech for 2025That is the gateway to a much,much larger disruption than challenger platforms vs.incumbent platforms in the software industry.As Grady and Huang from Sequoia Capital noted(emphasis our own):The cloud transition was software-as-a-service.Software companies became cloud service providers.This was a$350B opportunity.Thanks to agentic reasoning,the AI transition is service-as-a-software.Software companies turn labor into software.That means the addressable market is not the software market,but the services market measured in the trillions of dollars.The race is on to reinvent every nook of that multi-trillion dollar services market by providing more services wrapped through AI agents and software interfaces.The clever term for this is service-as-a-software,the new kind of“SaaS.”Existing marketing services will certainly be impacted by this,as you can expect current agencies and a new wave of challenger agencies to leverage AI to change the economics,speed,and scale of the services they have historically provided:market research,audience segmentation,media planning and purchasing,creative production(if not the creative itself),etc.But there will also be new kinds of AI-powered service providers that essentially replace both internal software products and the labor required to use them.Instead of in-house tools and talent,there will be options to purchase outsourced“outcomes”from these providers.Why buy a set of content distribution tools,and hire and train a team to use them,if a highly cost-efficient(thanks to AI)service provider can do the work for you quickly,easily,effectively and may only charge you for successful outcomes such as views,engagements,click-throughs,leads,purchases,etc.?For martech and marketing operations,these new kinds of service-as-a-software options will change the make-up of tech stacks and the processes orchestrated around them.&27Martech for 2025As venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz recently wrote,“When AI products are sold as services,they replace in-house labor.This changes internal processes.When the internal processes change,the opportunity to replace the system of record arises because the existing workflows are no longer relevant.”Service-as-a-software options will,in a very real sense,be both complements and competitors to software companies and internally-built custom software.This is not a far-future prediction.Production instances of these software-as-a-service solutions are already in-market,such as Sierra.ai for“outsourced”customer service interactions(using a pay-per-resolution pricing model).We expect to see many more in the year ahead.The HyperscalersIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingM&ACustom AppsReplacingAugmenting&ReplacingServices-as-SoftwareSubstitutingManaging&SubstitutingHyperscalersPowering the 5 SegmentsExternally sourcedInternally builtSource:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&28Martech for 2025With this full view of the five segments of martech solutions in the AI era,its worth pointing out that all of them are powered by the hyperscalers:Amazon AWS,Google Cloud Platform,and Microsoft Azure.This opens up interesting opportunities to use those underlying infrastructure providers as a more explicit substrate for coordinating across ones internal and external stack.This is essentially the pattern that has emerged with cloud data warehouses(and cloud data lakes and cloud data lakehouses):a common substrate of data and software APIs that enable marketers to mix and remix insights and functionality across their organization in novel use cases.&29Martech for 2025The Evolving Universal Data Layer“You cant have an AI strategy without a data strategy.”A number of highly respected experts across the industry have expressed that opinion over the past year,and we agree with them wholeheartedly.Your data is what turns generic AI algorithms with both generative AI and classic machine learning(ML)into differentiated and relevant capabilities that give your business a competitive advantage.From a martech stack perspective,the key to this is a universal data layer that aggregates data from all the different applications in your stack and makes it available for any other app to use.For many companies,this is being accomplished with a cloud data warehouse(CDW)or cloud data lakehouse(CDL)the latter being able to handle both structured data,as classic data warehouses have,and unstructured data,which has typically been stored in a more open data lake.Hence the“lakehouse”portmanteau.While some marketing organizations are using customer data platforms(CDPs)or other“data clouds”as a shared data layer,with more marketing-specific capabilities,more and more of those solutions now actually sit on top of a cloud data warehouse/lakehouse.These are often called“composable CDPs”because they operate on data that is composed from other data storage sources.In our State of Martech 2024 report,71%of the martech and marketing ops professionals who took our survey on composability reported that they have a cloud data warehouse/data lake in their martech stack,such as Snowflake,Databricks,Google BigQuery,Amazon Redshift,etc.2.Foundations for an AI Strategy&30Martech for 2025Out of those,61.3%said that more than 50%of the apps in their martech stack were integrated with it.The advantage of a non-marketing-specific cloud data warehouse/lakehouse layer is that it can span the entire organization.This is a huge unlock for marketing,as it gives marketers access to data from customer touch points that are managed by other departments:sales,customer service,finance,digital product operations,etc.These broader datasets provide richer customer insights and can be used to power better marketing campaigns and customer experiences.These cloud data warehouses/lakes/lakehouses are the backbone of what has become known as the“modern data stack”for organizations.The stack also includes tools for ingesting data,transforming data,cleaning data,enriching data,governing data,and feeding data into tools for data science,business intelligence,machine learning,and front-line business applications.Do you use a cloud data warehouse/data lake with your martech stack?15.5%8.3G).2%Yes,we send data one-way,from martech apps into our warehouseYes,we send data one-way,from our warehouse into martech appsYes,we send data both ways,between apps and our warehouseNo,we dont use a data warehouse with any of our martech appsSource:2024 Martech Composability Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&31Martech for 2025That last piece feeding data from the modern data stack into applications such as CRMs,marketing automation platforms(MAPs),digital experience platforms(DXPs),etc.that directly engage or support customer interactions makes this more of a circular data ecosystem.Those apps are both generating data that is pushed into the universal data layer as well as pulling other aggregated and processed data out from it.The Circular Data EcosystemModern Data StacksApps&OpsData Security&GovernanceData Workflow&AutomationData Observability(Data Quality)Metadata Management(Data Catalog)Data Transformation&ModelingData LakehouseData LakeData WarehouseData in*structured data*unstructured dataModern Data StackData Ops EcosystemConnectors(iPaaS)Event StreamingExternal DataBusiness IntelligenceReverse ETLGenerative AIMachine LearningData SciencePrep&QueryETL(ELT)OrchestrationData OutStoragelocation formatacessdata flowuse casedata usageinterfacechallengeDataPastPresenton premstructuredfew users1-way(linear)analyticslow utilizationcode(SQL)big datacloudstructured&unstructuredmany users&apps2-way(circular)analytics&operationshigh utilizationUI&AI for business usersbig opsApps&OpsData Security&GovernanceData Workflow&AutomationData Observability(Data Quality)Metadata Management(Data Catalog)Data Transformation&ModelingData LakehouseData LakeData WarehouseData inSource:chiefmartec Source:chiefmartec&32Martech for 2025This evolution of the data layer has catalyzed many changes.By moving data into the cloud,its become easier to integrate with all our cloud-based applications.The capacity to deal with both structured and unstructured data lets us unlock greater value with generative AI engines,which are exceptional at processing such unstructured data.Enabling many apps,and through them many users,to leverage more data in their work.Going from a linear one-way data flow,where most data would“sink”into storage only to be used for backwards-looking analytics,if at all,to now a circular,two-way data flow that integrates data with our front-line apps and operations.Because were utilizing our data in more ways,we extract more value from it.And now,more and more use cases for that data are delivered with AI whether embedded in existing apps,new stand-alone tools,custom“software”that we create ourselves,or service-as-a-software solutions from outsourced providers.Of course,managing this broader data ecosystem and all of the apps and ops activities that are interacting with it has become a challenge of its own.Whereas a previous decade wrestled with big data,we believe the mission of this new AI-powered era is to wrangle“big ops”taming the scale and complexity of all the apps,agents,and automations interacting with this data.Big Data vs.Big OpsBig DataBig OpsScale&complexity of data collected,stored,and analyzed Scale&complexity of apps and automations interacting with dataSource:chiefmartec&33Martech for 2025Yet for all the advances of the modern data stack,its largely been focused on customer data and business operations data.Far less has happened with content“data”.The Current Personalization StackThe(Underdeveloped)Universal Content LayerData is Real-Time Unlike Mass Customizing ContentContent Layer(simplified)Data Layer(simplified)Largely integrated&automated processLargely fragmented&manual processContent SourcingCL guide,digital assetsContent Qualitytag,translate,localizeContent Modelling?analyse,ranking,etc.Content Activation?content?Contenttest&optimizeDataContentdecide&orchestrateDataHyper PersonalizeData SourcingETL,ingestData Qualitystitch,clean&enrichData Analysismodelling,machine learnData Activationreverse ETLSource:MartechTribe&Rasmus Houlind&34Martech for 2025Yes,we have tools such as digital asset management(DAM)to store brand and campaign assets,such as images and videos,or Product Information Management systems(PIM)to store product information.We have content management systems(CMS),whether tightly integrated with a digital experience platform(DXP)or separated as so-called“headless”CMS.And we have master data management(MDM)platforms to own the definitions for a range of entities and messages in our business.But many of these components have not been well-integrated together.Theyre often connected in a fragile point-to-point fashion to serve specific use cases.We only connect them to customer data in the late stages of campaigns or customer experiences to deliver limited personalization.And thats not even considering all of the“content”that businesses have that lives outside of those official repositories,scattered across Google Drives,Word documents,internal wikis,and a plethora of indie content creation and curation tools in the cloud,sometimes stored by their agencies.In all fairness,its been harder to organize and leverage all that content across the organization than the comparatively well-structured,API-accessible data associated with customers and our business operations.We didnt have the technology to harness this content in more advanced ways,so there was little incentive to invest in a“modern content stack”to the same degree as the modern data stack.Until now.Generative AI has the ability to absorb this vast treasure trove of content and synthesize it into a wide range of creative new use cases.We believe the greatest opportunity is rendering more holistically-personalized customer engagement,where personalized content and experiences seamlessly blend both our deep knowledge about the customer(via the modern data stack)and the true“personality”of our brand from relevant content(via a new modern content stack).&35Martech for 2025Analogous to the master files of creative assets from which context-specific derivatives are currently produced,we can envision a“master file”LLM or really a multi-modal model tuned on the content that represents the brands core identity and personality.This genAI“brand master file”or“brand LLM”orchestrates the universal content layer at its foundation.In turn,there may be campaign-specific variations from this brand model that inherit the core identity and personality but then fine-tune to the characteristics of the campaign.While such a modern content stack to power hyper-personalization like this is at best nascent today,we expect to see significant innovation in such a universal content layer in 2025.The Future Personalization StackScaling Real-Time Content with GenAI Content Master FilesContent Layer-Largely GenAI(simplified)Data Layer-Largely ML(simplified)Largely parallel process(sourcing,quality,analysis&activation)Largely sequential process(sourcing,quality,analysis&activation)Non customer facingBrandLLMCampaignLLMCollateralLLMContent LLMContenttest&optimizeDataContentdecide&orchestrateDataHyper PersonalizeData SourcingETL,ingestData Qualitystitch,clean&enrichData Analysismodelling,machine learnData Activationreverse ETLCustomer facingSource:MartechTribe&36Martech for 2025Try to fill in the blank here:“are to AI agents as data is to AI models.”The answer,if you havent already guessed,is APIs.Data gobs and gobs and gobs of data feed the training of ever more powerful LLMs.OpenAIs GPT-4 model was reportedly trained on more than a petabyte of data.(A petabyte,which is 1,000 terabytes,is roughly the equivalent of 223,000 full-length DVDs.Thats about half of all the movies that have ever been made,including classics such as The Empire Strikes Back and not-so-classics such as Jay&Silent Bob Strike Back.)Data powers AI models.AI agents leverage those data-powered AI models,but they add a powerful capability on top of them:the ability to use tools and take actions.While AI models can“talk”the talk,suggesting actions for us humans to go do,AI agents can actually“walk”the walk and take actions directly themselves.This action-orientation is resulting in a new generation of AI models called LAMs,large action models,a label that rhymes with LLMs,large language models.Cobus Greyling produced a useful summary of the differences between them:API Composability as AI Agent Building Blocks&37Martech for 2025FeatureLarge Language Model(LLM)Large Action Model(LAM)Primary FunctionProcesses and generates natural language(text)Executes actions and decisions in real-world or simulated tasksCore TaskText generation,language understanding,answering queriesPerforming tasks,interacting with tools,and decision-makingExamplesGPT-4,BERT,T5xLAM,AlphaGo,ReActKey ApplicationsChatbots,translation,summarization,content generationAutonomous agents,robotics control,task completionTraining DataMassive text corpora(e.g.,books,websites,documents)Specialized datasets that include actions,outcomes,or decisionsArchitecture FocusText processing,sequence prediction,context understandingAction-oriented,combining reasoning&decision-making strategiesOutput TypeNatural language text(e.g.,paragraphs,responses)Actions,decisions,or task completions(e.g.,API calls,moves)Example Use CaseWriting an article,answering questions in a customer support botControlling a robot to stack blocks autonomouslyExample Use CaseSummarizing scientific research papersGenerating the correct sequence of steps to complete a function-callInteraction with ToolsLimited,requires fine-tuning or integration for specific tasksDesigned to handle tool usage and decision-making in real timePerformance BenchmarksNLP benchmarks like SuperGLUE,SQuADAgent performance benchmarks like Berkeley Function-CallingGeneralizabilityHighly general,handles a wide variety of language-based tasksTask-specific,often fine-tuned for specific domains or toolsetsIllustrationLLM:A chatbot providing movie recommendations based on reviewsLAM:A home assistant autonomously adjusting lights based on user preferences and current conditionsLarge Language Models&Large Action ModelsSource:https:/ for 2025How do the LAMs and AI agents actually take actions?Some will simulate human use of a computer mouse movements,button clicks,text input,and“reading”the output.This is what Anthropics latest Claude 3.5 Sonnet release in October enabled.Its kind of a next-generation approach to robotic process automation(RPA).But simulating humans is messy and computationally expensive compared to letting AI agents work in their native digital tongue by calling APIs.As described earlier,AI agents can generate small software programs on-the-fly behind the scenes to take many of their actions.For software programs,the easiest and most direct way to get things done is to call the APIs of other software programs.A recent report by Workato,Behind the Hype:The 2024 State of LLMs in Business Processes,revealed that nearly half of business leaders(n=1,000 in North America)see APIs as the best way to leverage generative AI in their business processes significantly more than through conversation chat interfaces or RPA-like user interface simulations.APIs have the benefit of being well-defined,versioned,predictable in the format of their input and output,and able to be accessed and paid for in a more granular fashion.In the future,which method to use generative AI in business processes do you believe will be best for your organization?00!%9)%6%4)%Manual Via Chat23%Other48%Via APICustom code via APIIntegration/automation platform via APIOtherRPASaaS AI featuresSpecialized AI orchestration via APIManual via chatSource:The 2024 State of LLMs in Business Processes Report,WorkatoNote:n1,000&39Martech for 2025This is why APIs are to AI agents what data is to AI models.The good news is that were already on the road to support agents with APIs by leaning into increased“composability”in our tech stacks.Back in May,we published the The State of Martech 2024 report,which did a deep dive into the rise of composability in martech stacks.We know,“composable”has become a buzzword in martech these past few years,with composable CDPs,composable DXPs,and such.But the essence of composability has been around in technology for decades.Its the ability to take different pieces from your tech environment data from multiple sources,APIs from multiple platforms and services and combine them together into new workflows or customer experiences.In a very real sense,all software is composed,using programming frameworks and code libraries.But for many years,composing new digital creations required technical skills.Degrees of ComposabilityComposed stackComposed datasetComposed workflowComposed app/websiteComposed StackComposed capabilitiesComposed experiencesComposable Platforms&ProductsComposed CreationsCustomer experience or employee experienceSource:chiefmartec&40Martech for 2025One of the powerful effects of AI is a shifting of the skills required to use such composability to empower less technical users.More and more composition of workflows and experiences can be achieved through visual interfaces or natural language requests to AI co-pilots and agents.This in turn has made APIs and open data models more important to martech buyers.In our State of Martech 2024 survey this past spring,83.9%of the participants said APIs were important or very important when evaluating martech products.With the rise of AI agents and automation in the year ahead,this will be more true than ever.However,while most martech products have certainly improved their API coverage over the past few years,only 17.3%of the platforms marketers have at the center of their stack are rated as having great API coverage,enabling marketing ops to do everything they want via APIs.Spectrum of ComposabilityServicesNon-technicalTechnicalDataCRM platformsLow-code app builders(e.g.,Power Apps)Code librariesCloud API services(e.g.,AWS)Composable DXPsNo-code website builders(e.g.,Wix)No-code autom.tools(e.g.,Zapier)Spreadsheets(e.g.,Excel,Google Sheets)Low-code ETL tools(e.g.,Fivetran)CDPsCloud data warehouses(e.g.,Snowflake)BI&analytics(e.g.,Looker)No-code databases(e.g.,Airtable)Enterprise automation tools(e.g.,Workato)Shifting with AISource:chiefmartec Note:Products mentioned above are only approximate examples&41Martech for 2025How important are APIs when youre evaluating a new martech product?How complete are the APIs for that platform at the center of your stack?Source:2024 Martech Composability Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribeSource:2024 Martech Composability Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe51.22.7.3%4.8%Very important one of the top requirementImportant part of our core requirementsSomewhat important a secondary criteriaNot important83.9.3G.6(.6%5.3%1.2%Great coverage we can do everything we want via APIsGood coverage we can do most of the things with want via APIsOkay coverage we can do some of the things we want via APIsPoor coverage we can do very few of the things we want via APIsNot applicable we dont use APIs&42Martech for 2025Our advice to martech vendors:seize this opportunity for competitive advantage.Having better APIs for your product is a way to distinguish yourself from your competitors.You can enable your customers to do more automations and soon more AI agent magic by providing great programmatic interfaces to your products functionality.Because increasingly,your users arent just going to be humans.Theyre going to be automations and agents operating on behalf of humans.But just as your closed/lost or churn risk increases if a human user cant work with your product,you can expect the same risk will rise if their“artificial users”cant either.Now,some martech vendors might be worried that enabling greater API access to their functionality will reduce the usage of their human-oriented UI.Since human attention is extremely limited and highly valuable,there is an incentive to want to catch and hold on to as much of it as possible.It might be tempting to say,“No,you can only unlock the power of our product by giving us your full attention as a human in our UI.”For most products,we think that would be a mistake of Innovators Dilemma magnitude.Yes,human attention is valuable.But its not the only source of value for a vendor.As an army of AI agents thunders across the field,those vendors who are able to empower such artificial users will have greater usage than those who dont.In the Age of AI,usage will be even more important than UI.Increasingly,this will be how most martech products monetize.The Age of AI will also be the Age of APIs,and we expect to see that play out in practice in martech stacks over the year ahead.&43Martech for 2025Generative AI is moving faster than any other technology weve seen before:the pace by which its foundational capabilities are evolving,the speed by which those capabilities are being added to new and existing products across the martech landscape,and the rate by which marketers are adopting or at least experimenting with these new capabilities in their work.Adoption curves used to be measured in years.With generative AI,adoption is growing in months or even weeks.Among the many challenges this presents,its hard to report the real adoption of genAI at any given moment in time.Its like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics,a trade-off between measuring the position vs.the velocity of a particle.In our case,the deeper and more detailed one looks at how genAI is being used at any one time(position),the more likely that data will already be out of date by the time the survey is completed(velocity).This has led most surveys of genAI adoption to stay fairly high-level,e.g.,is it being used in any context in marketing and sales vs.IT,legal,finance,HR,etc.,to show that larger trend over time.We decided to go in the other direction and dig into the more granular use cases in marketing and martech.In October,we completed one of the most in-depth surveys of how marketers are currently using generative AI across different martech categories and product segments.While this data is more likely to change quickly with high variance,we believe it is directionally relevant for understanding genAI adoption in martech headed into 2025 adoption across all these martech categories is only going to grow.Inclusive of a diverse mix of B2B and B2C industries,we surveyed 283 respondents globally.3.How Marketers Are Using Generative AI Today&44Martech for 2025Lets start with 50 popular use cases across 49 martech subcategories where generative AI is being adopted:Most Used GenAI Use CasesPopular Martech GenAI Use Cases0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Content Optimization&TestingManagement-Content IdeationContent-PersonalizationContent-Image/Video IdeationData-Knowledge&DocumentationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Competitor ResearchContent-Image/Video ProductionContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityData-Data Extraction&ConversionContent-Website/Page BuildingData-Coding&DevelopmentData-DashboardsSocial-Content IdeationContent-Social Media ManagementData-Data SourcingSocial-Content ProductionData-Audience BuildingContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionSocial-Data InsightsAds-Ads IdeationSales-Sales ContentSales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesSales-Personalization&OptimizationAds-(Contextual)AdsSocial-ChatbotData-Data IntegrationSales-Pitch DecksContent-Audio/Podcasts ProductionSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Ads-Ads ProductionAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Social-Documentation ProductionSales-Playbook/Next Best ActionSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachManagement-Sales AssistantsSocial-Customer Service&SupportAds-Video Ads CreationAds-Social Media AssistantsSales-Pipeline OptimizationSocial-Community&Review AnalysisManagement-Talent Management/RecruitmentManagement-ComplianceData-Compliance&RiskAds-Brand SafetySocial-Shop/Product Assistants69bSIFEDCC986330)(&%$#! %8%7%Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&45Martech for 2025Not surprisingly,content ideation(69%)and content copy production(62%)were the two most popular use cases.Those have been the easiest ways for people to get started with tools such as ChatGPT,Claude,and Gemini,as well as early pre-ChatGPT products such as Jasper and Copy.ai.Many of the other Top 12 use cases are related to accelerating marketings content development pipeline:content optimization and testing(49%),broader content ideation(46%),image/video content ideation(44%),and image/video content production(36%).Content ideation and production are 7 out of the top 12 use cases in marketingThe#3 use case transcription,notes,and summarization of meetings(53%)was also one that predated ChatGPT.Zoom launched meeting transcriptions in 2018.Companies like Gong built entire businesses around the underlying capability to quickly and cheaply transcribe calls.The cost of this capability has plummeted,making it universally available.Not just for calls,but summaries of support tickets,deal notes,email threads,etc.As genAI has exploded the amount of content in the world,the parallel ability to reduce that flood of content down to its essence and key 0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Content Optimization&TestingManagement-Content IdeationContent-PersonalizationContent-Image/Video IdeationData-Knowledge&DocumentationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Competitor ResearchContent-Image/Video Production69bSIFEDCC986%&46Martech for 2025The next most popular cluster of use cases which kind of includes such summarization is using generative AI to more easily find and consume data.Better search functionality across databases,documents,and knowledge bases(43ch in management tools and data tools).The ability to engage with analytics by asking questions in natural language,so-called“chat with your data”functionality(39%)is gaining popularity quickly,accelerating the democratization of at least simple,self-service data analysis.Competitive research(38%)has also gotten a boost from genAI,to both collect and synthesize large quantities of competitive content.Adoption of other use cases starts to trail off from there.But theres still a tremendous amount of experimentation with genAI in different martech tools,albeit distributed across more categories.Empowering marketers to more easily find and consume more data and information are 5 of the top 12 use casespoints for quick human consumption has proven to be extremely useful and appreciated.(This summarization capability also poses a challenge to marketers as their target prospects and customers start using it to collapse marketings perfectly crafted emails and web pages into short bulleted highlights.)0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Content Optimization&TestingManagement-Content IdeationContent-PersonalizationContent-Image/Video IdeationData-Knowledge&DocumentationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Competitor ResearchContent-Image/Video Production69bSIFEDCC986%&47Martech for 2025Ad-related use cases of generative AI were 6 out of the bottom 22We found it a little surprising that advertising-related use cases showed some of the lowest adoption in this survey 6 out of the bottom 22 categories.We have several hypotheses as to why.We surveyed more marketers than advertising agencies or creative freelancers.Marketers may not have as much visibility into the evolution of ad production that theyve outsourced.Marketers may still be uncomfortable turning over more of the“craft”of advertising to AI.Or,its possible that they are actually using AI without even realizing it(e.g.,Googles Performance Max,Facebooks Advantage ).0 0s-(Contextual)AdsSocial-ChatbotData-Data IntegrationSales-Pitch DecksContent-Audio/Podcasts ProductionSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Ads-Ads ProductionAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Social-Documentation ProductionSales-Playbook/Next Best ActionSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachManagement-Sales AssistantsSocial-Customer Service&SupportAds-Video Ads CreationAds-Social Media AssistantsSales-Pipeline OptimizationSocial-Community&Review AnalysisManagement-Talent Management/RecruitmentManagement-ComplianceData-Compliance&RiskAds-Brand SafetySocial-Shop/Product Assistants21! %8%7%&48Martech for 2025With all the innovation happening in the advertising space,however take Adobe GenStudio for one we expect those adoption numbers will grow significantly in 2025.If we aggregate respondents using any use case within the six top-level categories of our MartechMap,this is the distribution of adoption of genAI use cases reported:Content,data,and management use cases are the dominant buckets at least for the audience of marketers who participated in this survey with us.As mentioned earlier,ad agencies would likely index on Ads use cases more,and we expect sales organizations are leaning into Sales and Relationships genAI use cases at a higher rate too.GenAI Adoption Agregated by(AIDARI)Category050100150200250AdsContentRelationshipsSalesDataManagement30y3(aW%Number of respondents283Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribeNote:816 GenAI use cases were mentioned by the 283 respondents of this survey.&49Martech for 2025As we covered earlier in this report,one of the interesting tug-of-wars happening within the context of AI is existing martech vendors rapidly embedding AI features in their products and platforms,while brand-new,AI-native startups are popping up by the hundreds to complement or challenge them.We were curious about the relative adoption of new AI tools vs.embedded AI in existing tools for these different generative AI use cases.Overall,while 23%of the usage by respondents was exclusively with new AI tools,and 17%was exclusively with embedded AI in existing tools,the majority 60%were using both.Heres a more detailed breakdown by category,ordered by popularity of use cases adopted with embedded AI in existing martech products:How do you use GenAI?New AI Tools vs.AI Embedded in Current Martech ToolsIncumbent PlatformsChallenger PlatformsIndie ToolsSubsumingDisruptingM&AUse both:60%Use new AI tools:23%Use embedded AI in existing tools:17%Source:chiefmartec&MartechTribe&50Martech for 2025Adoption of AI Tools(embedded tools and/or new tools)Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe0 0%Management-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Content Optimization&TestingContent-PersonalizationContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityContent-Copy IdeationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-DashboardsContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Content IdeationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Data Extraction&ConversionContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionData-Knowledge&DocumentationContent-Image/Video ProductionData-Competitor ResearchData-Audience BuildingData-Coding&DevelopmentContent-Image/Video IdeationContent-Website/Page BuildingAds-(Contextual)AdsSocial-ChatbotSocial-Data InsightsSales-Personalization&OptimizationSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Social-Content IdeationData-Data SourcingContent-Social Media ManagementSocial-Customer Service&SupportData-Data IntegrationAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Sales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesSales-Sales ContentAds-Ads IdeationSocial-Content ProductionSales-Pitch DecksSales-Playbook/Next Best ActionManagement-Sales AssistantsSales-Pipeline OptimizationManagement-ComplianceAds-Ads ProductionAds-Social Media AssistantsSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachData-Compliance&RiskSocial-Community&Review AnalysisSocial-Documentation ProductionManagement-Talent Management/RecruitmentContent-Audio/Podcasts ProductionSocial-Shop/Product AssistantsAds-Video Ads CreationAds-Brand Safety27! %9%9%9%9%9%9%9%9%8%8%8%8%8%7%7%6%6%6%6%6%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%4%4%4%9%8%7%9%6%6%8%6%9%9%6%4%3%9%8%5%9%5%7%3%6%4%6%8%6%6%5%4%5%3%4%5%6%3%3%6%3%4%3%60%4%5%8%9#%6%7%5%5%5%5%6%5%8%7%7%8%8%5%5%3%8%4%5%4%6%4%6%4%Embedded in existing toolBothNew AI tool&51Martech for 2025The distribution is similar to the overall popularity of use cases,but with some interesting twists.That the top one is transcription,notes,and summaries(27%using embedded AI,17%using new tools,and 9%using both)makes sense again,widely popular tools before the ChatGPT revolution,such as Zoom,already provided this capability.Large sales engagement platforms,such as HubSpot Sales Hub,Salesloft,Outreach,etc.,also added this capability.The next top two use cases for embedded AI were content optimization&testing(31%using embedded AI,either with or without new tools)and content personalization(33%,embedded and both).The existing martech tools in these categories include CMS,DXP,and marketing automation products that are used to create campaign landing pages.And then the next use case was email analysis&deliverability(26%using embedded or both),functionality that is often part of major email service provider(ESP),marketing automation(MAP),and customer engagement platform(CEP)products.Its logical that as CMSs,DXPs,MAPs,ESPs,and CEPs crikey,talk about an alphabet soup!enhanced their products over the past year with generative AI features that a significant percentage of marketers would start to take advantage of them.In many cases,these genAI powered enhancements slipped naturally into their current workflow in their existing toolset.The 5th most common use case,copy ideation(37%embedded or both)obviously had a lot of new AI tool adoption ChatGPT.But the fact that it showed up significantly with embedded usage in existing tools is a testament to how easy it has been for current martech vendors to incorporate things like OpenAIs GPT-4 API into their product experiences for this sort of creative text generation.The last two in the Top 10 well call out are#7 dashboards(23%embedded or both)and#10“chat with data”(23%embedded or both).These are also categories where marketers have had existing analytics tools that theyve been using,often deeply integrated into their workflows and operations.As those products added new genAI features the most common being the ability to ask for a report or a specific answer from a dataset with a natural language query they were often presented in the UI in a highly discoverable fashion,encouraging marketers to try them.&52Martech for 2025If we reorder the list to sort by the popularity of using new AI tools indie tools and challenger platforms we see this reshuffling:Adoption of AI Tools(new tools and/or embedded tools)Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionContent-Image/Video IdeationManagement-Content IdeationData-Knowledge&DocumentationManagement-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Image/Video ProductionData-Competitor ResearchContent-Content Optimization&TestingManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsContent-Website/Page BuildingContent-PersonalizationData-Data Extraction&ConversionData-Data SourcingSocial-Content IdeationContent-Audio/Podcasts ProductionContent-Social Media ManagementData-Coding&DevelopmentSales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesData-Audience BuildingAds-Ads ProductionSocial-Content ProductionSales-Pitch DecksAds-Ads IdeationSales-Sales ContentSocial-ChatbotAds-(Contextual)AdsAds-Video Ads CreationSocial-Documentation ProductionContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityData-Data IntegrationSocial-Data InsightsSales-Personalization&OptimizationManagement-Sales AssistantsAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Sales-Playbook/Next Best ActionSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Social-Customer Service&SupportData-DashboardsAds-Brand SafetyAds-Social Media AssistantsSocial-Community&Review AnalysisManagement-Talent Management/RecruitmentManagement-ComplianceSales-Pipeline OptimizationData-Compliance&RiskSocial-Shop/Product Assistants30#%9%8%8%8%8%8%7%7%7%6%6%6%6%6%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%5%4%4%4%4%4%3%9%9%8%9%6%6%5%9%4%7%9%6%6%4%6%6%8%3%4%3%6%8%6%9%8%4%4%5%6%6%5%3%7%5%3%3%3%5%3! %9%9%4%9%8%5%7%6%7%8%9%9%4%5%8%9%9%6%8%6%5%9%8%5%5%5%6%6%5%4%EmbeddedBothA specific,New AI tool&53Martech for 2025The top 10 use cases are again mostly about content(6 out of the top 10 categories)and data,but weighted more towards the production of content,including image and video content.There has been a wave of cool AI image generation and video indie tools over the past two years,which we see in these results(ideation tools at 2.4%,production tools at 2.2%).Top 10 Use Cases Embedded Tools vs.New Indie/Challenger ToolsSource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionContent-Image/Video IdeationManagement-Content IdeationData-Knowledge&DocumentationManagement-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Image/Video ProductionData-Competitor ResearchContent-Content Optimization&TestingManagement-Knowledge&Documentation30#%9%9%8!%Management-Transcription,Notes,SummariesContent-Content Optimization&TestingContent-PersonalizationContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityContent-Copy IdeationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-DashboardsContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Content IdeationData-Chat with Data&Insights27! %9%8%7%9%60%4%Top 10 Use Cases of New ToolsTop 10 Use Cases of Embedded ToolsEmbeddedBothNew AI toolEmbeddedBoth New tool&54Martech for 2025But,as any martech stack manager knows well,adoption isnt binary.An adopted product can be purchased,but not really used;used,by only occasionally;or used frequently,as an integral part of peoples regular work habits.As part of our survey,we asked about the frequency of usage of these different categories of genAI tools daily/weekly,monthly,no longer using,or not tried(yet).Here are the results sorted by those most frequently used daily or weekly:Frequency of GenAI Tool Usage by Use Case and CategorySource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribeFrequency of GenAI Tool Usage by Use Case0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Transcription,Notes,Summ.Management-Content IdeationContent-Content Optimization&TestingContent-PersonalizationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Knowledge&DocumentationContent-Image/Video IdeationSales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesSocial-Content IdeationSocial-Content ProductionData-Coding&DevelopmentData-Competitor ResearchContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityData-Data Extraction&ConversionContent-Image/Video ProductionData-Data SourcingSales-Personalization&OptimizationSocial-ChatbotSocial-Data InsightsData-DashboardsSales-Sales ContentContent-Social Media ManagementData-Audience BuildingContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionAds-(Contextual)AdsManagement-Sales AssistantsContent-Website/Page BuildingAds-Ads IdeationData-Data IntegrationAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Social-Customer Service&SupportSales-Pitch DecksSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachAds-Ads ProductionSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Sales-Playbook/Next Best ActionAds-Social Media AssistantsContent-Audio/Podcasts ProductionSocial-Documentation ProductionSales-Pipeline OptimizationData-Compliance&RiskAds-Video Ads CreationManagement-ComplianceManagement-Talent Mgt./RecruitmentSocial-Community&Review AnalysisAds-Brand SafetySocial-Shop/Product Assistants51DC1)(&#!%9%9%8%7%7%7%6%6%5%5%4%4%3 #$%3%9%7!%7%5%9%8%9%5%7%5%6%8%9%7%7%6%4%9%6%7%8%4%4%2%2%2%6%5%2%3%2%2%2%2%No longer usingMonthlyDaily or Weekly&55Martech for 2025For the most part,the top 10 categories of tools used daily or weekly are consistent with their overall popularity.However,the next few ranked categories show several notable differences.While using genAI in social media has relatively low adoption overall,those marketers who are using it for ideation or production in that context use it frequently.The same goes for using genAI for coding&development and data sourcing.This is likely reflective of more specific jobs in marketing:social media managers,app and web developers,and data analysts.Not everyone needs those tools,but those who do,use them regularly.Relatively few categories had significant responses of people“no longer using”tools that they had previously tried to adopt.This shows 0 0%Content-Copy IdeationContent-Copy ProductionManagement-Transcription,Notes,Summ.Management-Content IdeationContent-Content Optimization&TestingContent-PersonalizationManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationData-Chat with Data&InsightsData-Knowledge&DocumentationContent-Image/Video IdeationSales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesSocial-Content IdeationSocial-Content ProductionData-Coding&DevelopmentData-Competitor Research51DC1)(&#! #$%9%7!%3%6%2%2%1%1%2%1%1%1%1%1%1%1%No longer usingMonthlyDaily or WeeklyTop 15 GenAI Use Cases Most Often Used(daily or weekly)&56Martech for 2025While early versions of genAI image creation tools certainly delivered an initial“wow,cool!”factor the first release of DALL-E,for example they were hard to control for precise design and often produced weird artifacts,e.g.,people with three arms and 7-fingered hands.This likely accounts for their relatively larger tried-but-stopped-using contingents.However,the state of the art with generative AI image generation has advanced significantly over the past year.Midjourney,Adobe Firefly,Flux,Recraft,and more are now highly capable and regularly used by artists and designers,even if only to rapidly prototype ideas for clients.If its been a while since youve tried.AI generated video is still in its formative stages,but as models such as OpenAIs Sora become available,we expect these use cases will gain considerable adoption in 2025.Finally,if we sort the list by the use cases that marketers have not tried yet,we get a sense of where new opportunities to apply generative AI exist:how sticky genAI is,even on such an accelerated adoption curve.The only two with even noticeable drop-off were image/video ideation and creation.Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe0 0%Content-Image/Video IdeationContent-Image/Video ProductionContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionContent-Copy IdeationContent-Copy Production6%5%3%2%2%Top 5 GenAI Use Cases Martekers Used but Abandoned&57Martech for 2025Use Cases That Marketers Have Not Tried(Yet)0 0%Content-Audio/Podcasts ProductionData-Compliance&RiskContent-Social Media ManagementContent-Lead Scoring&DistributionManagement-Talent Mgt./RecruitmentContent-Email Analysis&DeliverabilityManagement-ComplianceContent-Website/Page BuildingManagement-Sales AssistantsData-Data IntegrationData-Audience BuildingContent-Image/Video ProductionData-Data SourcingContent-PersonalizationData-DashboardsData-Coding&DevelopmentContent-Content Optimization&TestingData-Data Extraction&ConversionContent-Image/Video IdeationSocial-Shop/Product AssistantsData-Competitor ResearchData-Chat with Data&InsightsSocial-Community&Review AnalysisAds-Brand SafetySocial-Customer Service&SupportData-Knowledge&DocumentationSales-Pipeline OptimizationAds-Video Ads CreationSocial-Documentation ProductionAds-Social Media AssistantsManagement-Knowledge&DocumentationSocial-Social Media Analysis&Mgt.Sales-Playbook/Next Best ActionSales-Lead Sourcing&OutreachAds-Ads ProductionContent-Copy ProductionSocial-ChatbotSocial-Data InsightsManagement-Content IdeationAds-Media/Ads Mgt.Sales-Pitch DecksAds-(Contextual)AdsSales-Personalization&OptimizationAds-Ads IdeationSales-Sales Support&Meeting NotesSocial-Content ProductionSales-Sales ContentContent-Copy IdeationManagement-Transcription,Notes,Summ.Social-Content Ideation51FCCA8641)&%$#%9%9%9%9%8%8%7%7%6%5%5%5%4%4%4%3%3%Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&58Martech for 2025The top yet-to-be-tried use case,audio/podcast production,is somewhat surprising,as there are a number of excellent genAI tools that turn text into high-quality audio:ElevenLabs,Murf,and WellSaid to name a few.This is a terrific way to repurpose or remix existing text content such as blog posts into multi-modal content.Its an easy way to generate voice overlays.And it also works well for producing translated versions of podcasts and audio tracks.If you havent yet tried Googles NotebookLM to turn large amounts of content blog posts,PDFs,YouTube videos,whole websites,Google Docs,etc.into snappy podcasts with multiple synthetic(but realistic sounding!)hosts discussing the key points and perspectives within,you should check it out immediately.Beyond“chat with your data”,this is more like listening to your data chat with itself.Fascinating.&59Martech for 2025We also asked respondents if they had a policy in place for how generative AI could/should be used within their organization.The results were about 50/50 48%had no policy in place,leaving individual teams free to decide acceptable uses.A bare majority,52%,had a genAI policy.Most of those with a policy had it set by a centralized team that spanned departments across the organization.A small number had a policy controlled by a decentralized“AI labs”function that limited AI to a separate team experimenting in a more sandboxed fashion.The presence or absence of a policy showed material effects on genAI use case adoption.For example,when we asked people why they stopped using generative AI tools,the most common answer other than the maddeningly vague“Other”was that it didnt save time(35%).Compliance reasons for stopping were cited only 12%overall.Do you have a GenAI policy?Generative AI Policy and Impact on Usage0 0%No,Its free for each teamYes,via a central teamYes,(decentralized)Labs.48D%8%Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&60Martech for 2025But when we segment the answers to why people would stop using generative AI tools based on having or not having a genAI policy,some interesting differences appear.Naturally,stopping for compliance reasons had a substantial delta:8%for those without a policy vs.19%for those with one.More interesting was that those with a genAI policy were more likely to stop using a tool because it was too expensive(14%vs.3%for those without a policy),suggesting that a governance framework helped raise awareness and/or enforced guidelines around the cost of genAI usage.Why did you stop using GenAI tools?And do you have a GenAI policy?0 0%Didnt save timeCompliance ReasonsToo expensiveOther35%6G%0 0%Didnt save timeCompliance reasonsToo expensiveOther335%8%3I%With policyWithout policySource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribeSource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&61Martech for 2025Those with a policy were less likely to give the indeterminate“other”reason for stopping usage as well 35%with vs.49%without also signaling a sharper understanding of genAI and when to use it.That explanation of greater AI maturity is also bolstered by the data that those with a policy were less likely to say a use case wasnt saving them time:33%with vs.40%without.One other difference worth noting:those with a policy were more likely to use genAI embedded in existing martech products and platforms(43%with vs.32%without).Inversely,those without a policy were more likely to use stand-alone,specific AI tools(43%without vs.30%with).It would make sense that those without a formal generative AI policy yet are still experimenting with isolated and/or inexpensive tools theres no shortage of free generative AI tools on the Internet.As a company matures their AI strategy and operations,theyd be more likely to adopt genAI capabilities in their primary martech products and platforms,with clearer governance.What GenAI type are you using?Do you have a GenAI Policy?0 0%Embedded in existing toolsA specific,new AI toolBoth4302C%With policyWithout policySource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&62Martech for 2025Which industry does your company operate in?Demographics of Survey Respondents38%Technology 25%Professional Services10%Telecommunications,Communications,&Media5%Pharmacy,Healthcare,&Life Sciences4nking&Financial Services4%Retail3%Public sector,Government,&Education3%Manufacturing3%Travel&Hospitality2%Building&Construction 2%Consumer Products 1%Automotive 1%Charity 1%Energy&Utilities 0.5%Industrial&Chemical 0.5%Transportation&Logistics100%Source:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&63Martech for 2025What is your role?100%Chief Executive Officer16%(External)Project Manager/Consultant14%Marketing Director10%Marketing Operations Manager,MRM Manager10%VP,SVP or EVP of Marketing7%Marketing Manager5%Sales Manager4%IT Manager4%Marketing Executive/Coordinator8%Chief Marketing Officer4%Program Manager Operational Excellence1%Creative Director 1%Marketing Procurement ManagerSource:2024 GenAI Survey,chiefmartec&MartechTribe&64Martech for 2025A conversation with Chris ONeill,CEO of GrowthLoop.The following is an edited transcript of our discussion.Chris,were so excited youre joining us.You took over as CEO of GrowthLoop earlier this year.Could you start by telling us a bit about GrowthLoop and your background?Youve done fascinating work in this industry from a number of different angles.GrowthLoop is a data and AI platform that helps enterprise teams get more value out of their customer data by launching highly targeted,impactful campaigns directly from their data cloud.Our tool helps teams ingest,organize,and activate data across any marketing or sales destination.After re-ingesting campaign results back into the cloud,our AI engine can analyze those results and make recommendations on how to improve future campaigns.We call this The Loop,and it helps marketing teams launch faster,smarter,and more powerful campaigns that ultimately drive real business outcomes.In terms of my background.Ive been in this game for a while.I was really fortunate to be at Google for about 10 years,from 2005 to 2015.4.Five Perspectives on Martech for 2025End-to-End Marketing on Your Data Cloud with AI&65Martech for 2025Ive had a variety of roles since,leading teams at other tech companies including Glean,Xero,and Evernote.I also serve on the board of Gap,given my interest and background in retail.It was a really nice run at Google,and Im happy to be back in the marketing technology world.I found myself back in this space because of the GrowthLoop team and the promise of what artificial intelligence can unlock for enterprise marketers.During my time at Google,martech was essentially born.I witnessed Google go from kind of an afterthought to being,of course,an important part of every marketers arsenal.It was also the early days of machine learning,and we started to see what it could really do for the industry.I see the same promise now with AI and its incredible potential to transform our field.Similar to that time period when you were leading Google Canada,and martech was taking off,were now in another major wave of innovation and transformation with AI.How similar or different is it this time?And what lessons should we bring with us?That time at Google was really a story of movement in media,from analog to digital.If you think about artificial intelligence,its not a new concept.Its been around for a long time.In fact,it was coined in the 70s at my alma mater,Dartmouth College.There are three required conditions for any big leap in artificial intelligence.1.The availability of near-or real-time,high-quality data.2.Task-specific algorithms3.Courage.It takes courage from practitioners to say,“Theres a better way to do things,and were going to try it.”So,if you think about Google in the early 2000s and 2010s,it was applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to advertising.Historically,media mix was determined by gut and feel.It was much simpler then,but as channels proliferated and we had actual data to&66Martech for 2025quantify the impact,that all changed.You had the availability of real-time data,both on the demand side and the supply side for advertising.You had task-specific algorithms that would measure if we served ads,and if people responded,clicked through,or took an action downstream.And then you had a lot of courageous people.Those were the folks I enjoyed working with the most:courageous,ambitious people who were bold enough to try something new by leaning into digital instead of newspapers and TV.Those conditions have existed,whether youre talking about Moneyball with baseball,AlphaGo,or self-driving cars.It comes down to the availability of data,task-specific algorithms,and courageous practitioners who push the edge of whats possible.So thats the backdrop and similarities of what happened at Google back then.So,whats different,whats changed,and why are we seeing so much excitement?Why am I so excited?There are three driving forces:The first goes back to the growth and adoption of the cloud data warehouse.Over the last 10 years,more teams have seen the value in centralizing their data in platforms like Redshift,Snowflake,BigQuery,or Databricks.Thats huge.The second is the rise of composability in martech,or the ability to have tools that serve a specific function and can plug and play with one another.With a composable tech stack,youre not locked into one system and one vendor.Instead,you can mix and match and have best-of-breed tools that fit your specific needs.The third,and arguably the biggest,is the rise of agentic AI the ability to have autonomous or semi-autonomous agents do specific tasks like data ingestion or data scoring.These agents can also manage outcome-specific tasks,such as building audiences or customer journeys.In other words,name an outcome youd like from a campaign,and the AI can generate the audience or journey that will deliver that outcome.&67Martech for 2025Were starting to see some seismic forces,these tidal waves of innovation happening in the form of data clouds,composability,and an agentic AI boom.Speaking of courage,a category of martech thats had an absolutely meteoric rise over these past five to eight years is composable CDPs.But that category is now going through interesting shifts given whats happening with AI.How do you see the category evolving?I think a lot of change has happened,but at the same time,there hasnt been much change at all.What I mean by that is you had the formation of SaaS and stand-alone systems of record.It started with monolithic systems that each sat within a different area of the business:finance had NetSuite,HR had Workday,and marketing had ExactTarget and Salesforce.But now there are more channels and more cross-channel orchestration opportunities to talk to different customer segments in different ways,meeting each customer where they are.Teams had to bring these systems and data together,not just optimize within a particular silo.This drove the need for a new kind of system of record called a Customer Data Platform,or CDP.Traditional CDP development was very important at that time.Now that seems to be fading in favor of composability and the gravity of the data clouds.Thats what is most exciting to me.Its not just that the data lives there in the cloud.There are obvious cost advantages,security advantages,and agility advantages to keeping data in fewer places.And thats why were seeing the beginning and continued boom with the data cloud.But now we have the ability to use artificial intelligence at every step of the way.Agents will be really good at analyzing data and thinking of data schema and those sorts of things.Were already experimenting with that(and seeing success)in our product.Next,how can we orchestrate customer journeys intelligently?How can we extract the right information,get suggestions,and act upon them?How can we figure out the right permutations of the best journeys,determined by the outcome that you care most about:&68Martech for 2025preventing churn,acquiring a new segment,navigating a category slowdown.I see a world where theres outcome orientation and AI agents that serve that objective,in partnership with humans who bring their own level of ingenuity and creativity.I believe these things will come together to create audiences,to orchestrate across surfaces,and most importantly understand whats working so it can,in proverbial“Moneyball”terms,do more of what works and do less of what doesnt.And then start it all over again with more suggestions.Its definitely a compelling picture youre painting.Can we get more concrete about how this is working today?Can you explain“The Loop”and how your customers are using it?Whether you use BigQuery,Snowflake,Redshift,or Databricks,were native to those cloud environments.Artificial intelligence is going to have a multiplying effect on both the amount and quality of campaigns marketing teams will run using the data in the cloud.Very tactically,you can say,Create some interesting campaigns or audience ideas for me.Or you might type&69Martech for 2025very specifically,We are lagging in customer consumer electronics in the West.Come up with some interesting audiences that might help me address this top-level business objective.And out pops,in mere seconds,a whole bunch of audiences built from your own first-party data in the cloud.Then you can say,“Lets act on this,this,and this.Were going to test this through 5%or 1%holdout to understand what the true incrementality is.”You then set the campaign journey up to send an email,serve up personalized in-app messaging,whatever it is.The journeys can be simple or as elaborate as they need to be to achieve the goal.You launch those campaigns across your channels.And then you re-ingest the performance from the various platforms back into the data warehouse.We have a dashboard,which is basically a lightweight business intelligence tool that reports in business terms,that details what happened across campaigns.Suppose youre trying to change consumer electronics sales in the West and launched a set of campaigns across various channels.You can use this intelligence tool to see whether you actually moved the needle.Should you do more of the things that work?Should you shift your approach?The audience creation is where we started just getting marketers unrestricted access to their first-party data for campaign creation.Its the beginning of The Loop.But thinking about how you orchestrate and optimize into the different downstream surfaces is something were training AI on right now by using all sorts of different LLMs.Were earlier in that journey,but have some brave customers,some courageous customers,who are with us on that journey and having fun with it.Lets talk a bit more about this hot subject around AI agents and agentic capabilities.From your perspective,whats real and what is hype?Well,theres definitely no shortage of hype.Lets be clear about that.But there are a lot of real solutions deployed in market now.For example,Glean uses agents for internal knowledge discovery.&70Martech for 2025You can index and understand all the information that lives inside your company so you can know what your company knows.I helped launch Glean out of stealth and had so much fun.That team is doing really great and Im so proud of them.Theres another company Im involved with called Ema.They use persona-oriented agents to augment horizontal workflows tailored to a specific persona or a specific vertical use case.I think youre going to see a lot more agents serving tasks and outcomes.Well start with tasks because thats where the semi-autonomous or the purely autonomous nature of agents can really have an outsized impact.Theres a lot of grunt work or not-sexy work that needs to happen just to make sure data is in the right place.I also see a role for it governing data processes,making sure that agents are behaving and that your governance models are being enforced.Thats where Im seeing interesting players think through task orientation and then outcome orientation.So were creating audiences that way now.And then were working on journeys and decisioning and campaigns.Then the real magic starts when you can optimize across all of those different outcomes with a higher-order business outcome in mind,such as churn or customer lifetime value.As Bezos wrote about Amazon,a companys job is to maximize its intrinsic value,which is really the discounted cash flows.If you want to roll all the way up to enterprise value,thats how I see the full game being played.AI is now added on top of so many other innovations that marketers already have to deal with.So its almost like a plane that you need to upgrade while flying it.Do you have any tips and tricks,ideas,or observations around this?My advice:it has to start with the data.The expression weve used for a long time that came straight from our CTO,Tameem Iftikhar,and is starting to take hold:you dont have an AI strategy if you dont have a data strategy.You have to get the&71Martech for 2025data in the right place.You have to have governance.Without that,the rest doesnt really matter.So I think that thats where it starts.Thats my first bit of advice.I also think there needs to be a shift away from splashy demos to more of a focus on outcomes.You cant test for wow factors.I think thats the phase weve been in with AI you got me with the“wow”.But how do you show me the“how”and the“now”of the impact of AI?Thats the era that were moving into.People need to be clear about the outcomes theyre trying to achieve.What is a specific business problem youre seeking to solve and utility youre looking to get from these models or tools?And then really demand to know how the AI tool can scale.Its one thing to do a fun one-off demo.But if it doesnt scale to meet your compliance and your data and your governance requirements,then it just doesnt work.Its not worth it.So thats where I think we are right now.Were in that“show me”phase.Earlier you mentioned good data and courage.We love that youre combining technology on the one hand and human factors on the other.What organizational changes are going to be necessary for businesses to unlock the potential here?Yeah,I think a bunch about this.When we engage in conversations with senior executives,Id say the wiser ones ask this question:How do I bring about change?First,Ill come back to acknowledge that the data assets themselves are incredibly valuable and you have to invest in them and remove potential silos or barriers that exist.The data has to flow and there has to be clarity of ownership over that.You have to assign clear accountability.This game begins and ends around the data.Then I encourage cross-functional behavior.So if you think of Amazons two-pizza team concept,part of the beauty of that model&72Martech for 2025is that they bring a designer,an analyst,a product person,and an engineer together as a small team to build things 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say to business leaders is to encourage a culture where it is okay to fail.When youre doing this,the courage part is creating time and space to allow people to experiment so they can find better ways.Often theyre not Eureka things.Theyre compounding little things.Thats the nature of this.So the mindset isnt,“Eureka were going to all of a sudden unearth some silver b
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The Paradox of Personalization:Balancing Consumer Expectations with Privacy ConcernseBook 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 2 Table of ContentsIntroductionThe State of Empowered ConsumersWhen Consumers Want Personalization in the Customer LifecycleHow to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer Lifecycle5 Key Questions to Ask When Considering Personalization Technology0304 06 08 14 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 3 IntroductionCompanies obsess over personalization,especially in marketing.According to Forrester,its the most employed marketing strategy,with 64%of marketing leaders saying they use personalization to reach consumers.1Yet personalization is paradoxical.While consumers crave personalized experiences,they also despise companies knowing so much about them.Increasing concerns over privacy have made consumers more careful about the data they share with brands and when they share it.For personalization to remain an effective strategy,companies must comply with their customers preferences and implement personalization from a customer-led perspective.This eBook is a distillation of thoughts from a recent webinar with BlueConic Principal Customer Success Manager Khurram Moiz and Forrester Senior Analyst Jessica Liu,where they discussed the strategies,data,and technology required to successfully design and execute customer experiences that address the personalization-privacy paradox,including:The state of empowered consumersWhen consumers want personalization throughout their lifecycleHow to effectively deliver these personalized momentsWhat data and technology you need to succeedTo hear it in their own words,listen to the complete webinar.Listen to the Webinar1“The State of Consumer Personalization,”Forrester,2022.2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 4 2“Consumer Benchmark Survey,”Forrester,2022.Consumers are much more empowered today than they have ever been.There is more willingness to experiment(particularly true of younger cohorts),greater self-efficacy,a desire to optimize their own experience,and significantly more information savviness,says Lui.She notes that consumers know where to find relevant information and share that information often and quickly with one another.At the same time,there is greater digital and physical integration in the consumer experience,such as options to buy online and pick up in-store.Devices also dominate today,with more consumers relying on devices to assist with purchasing and decision-making.The State of Empowered Consumers4.4devicesAccording to Forrester,US consumers are connected,on average,to 4.4 devices,4.4.platforms,and 5.3 channelsmany of which are natively mobile.24.4platforms5.3channels 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 5 To meet consumer expectations amid this complex digital landscape,brands need to create moments.”Creating these moments requires personalization.But where an individual is in the customer lifecycle may influence their desired amount of personalization and the amount of data you need to deliver it.Balancing these limitations can create significant challenges to getting personalization right.The State of Empowered ConsumersMoment:As defined by Forrester,a moment is a point in time and space when a person interacts with the brand to get what they want immediately and in context.2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 6 While marketers tend to lean heavily into personalization in the pre-purchase stage,Forrester has discovered that this approach is in opposition to when most consumers actually want and trust personalization.More than half(54%)of people in the US are unwilling to share personal information to receive more relevant advertising from companies.3 Even when it comes to non-paid channels like email,most consumers still resist personalization.Only 27%of US adults were interested in receiving personalized emails.4 However,consumers are more open to personalization once theyve established a relationship with a company and have become loyal customers.For instance,42%of US adults say personalized experiences are an important component of loyalty programs.But paradoxically,only 42%of marketing leaders say they use personalization in loyalty efforts.5To provide maximum customer value and get the most out of any kind of personalization efforts,companies need to fixate less on those earlier stages of discover,evaluate,and commit,and better balance personalization in the latter initiate,participate,actualize,and advocate stages,says Lui.Moiz concurs.Making personalization more prevalent and relevant based on a better understanding of consumer preferences,interests,and behaviors as they move through the lifecycle is where we found our customers to have a ton of success.When Consumers Want Personalization in the Customer Lifecycle3“The State of Consumer Personalization,”Forrester,2022.4 Ibid.5 Ibid.So,heres the paradox.Companies are heavy handed with personalization in the pre-purchase stages of the customer lifecycle and less focused on the post-purchase stages,where its more welcomed and more vital.”Jessica Lui,Senior Analyst at Forrester“2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 7 Lovesac Unifies Data Throughout the LifecycleLovesac,a furniture retailer,is well known for its large beanbag-style chairs.Using BlueConic as its customer data platform,the company is able to capture different types of online and offline data in unified customer profiles,including behavioral,transactional,demographic,consent status,and more.This unified,actionable,and privacy-compliant data gives Lovesac a holistic view of the customer and the ability to be mindful of how personalization occurs throughout the customer lifecycle.For example,in addition to identifying and converting anonymous web visitors to known visitors,Lovesac can use the platforms built-in segmentation,lifecycle orchestration,and activation capabilities to provide a very targeted execution of personalized moments in real time and where it matters most.How to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer LifecycleEffectively delivering personalized experiences requires three fundamental pillars:strategy,data,and technology.In this section,well look at each in more detail.2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 8 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 9 StrategyBefore embarking on personalization use cases,its important to define what is meant by personalization and how to execute it.Getting these answers starts with four questions:Whats the consumer need?Whats the business objective?Whats the tactic?Who needs to be involved?Not only should customer preferences and data lead the way,but you must have specific key performance indicators(KPIs)in place to measure success.Then,you need to apply specific tactics at specific points in the customer lifecycle either at a single moment in one phase or multiple tactics orchestrated across all stages of the lifecycle.Finally,because personalization requires collaboration across departments,you need cross-departmental cooperation to understand the context,channel,and trigger for when to create a personalized moment.To develop your personalization plan,start thinking about where in the customer lifecycle youre trying to make an impact.Remember that personalized moments are most impactful on the backend of the customer lifecycle,as you often know more about your customer and they trust you more as well.How to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer LifecycleStart thinking about where in the customer lifecycle youre trying to make an impact.And remember that personalized moments are most impactful in the back end of the customer lifecycle,but you should also be looking at how to balance at all stages of the customer lifecycle.”Jessica Lui,Senior Analyst at Forrester“2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 10 Data is what fuels contextual understanding of your customers.It informs the content,channel,and trigger all the important components of a moment.There are four different types of data you can use to support personalization:Zero-party data:A sub-set of first-party data that a customer intentionally shares and grants the brand permission to use.First-party data:Data about a companys customers that is collected and owned by that company,including website data,CRM data,loyalty IDs,behavioral and transactional data,consent for marketing,implied interests based on browsing behavior,and customer scores calculated from analytics.Second-party data:Data shared between two parties that have a relationship with each other,such as a consumer goods company and a retailer that want to combine their customer data sets to discover new insights,measuring marketing overlap and impact,and activate new lookalike audiences.(Read more about the growing relevance of second-party data.)Third-party data:Data that brands buy or utilize from a third party to augment consumer segmentation for market research,prospecting,or cross-selling.DataHow to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer Lifecycle 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 11 You also need static and dynamic data:Static data:Data that is used to create defined audience segments,such as people over 50,specific zip codes,etc.Dynamic data:Frequently updated data like a consumers energy consumption,bank balance,or biometric activity,as well as data like time,temperature,or location.This data needs to be fast,it needs to be updated frequently(maybe even constantly to be in real time),and it needs to be used quickly,such as to send out a mobile push notification to someone entering a store.To use all of this data effectively,you need to:Identify what data you need:Determine the minimum viable data you need for a specific personalization use case and whether or not you have that data.If not,design a method to capture this data,such as explicitly asking customers for the data or providing an equitable exchange of value.Locate where the data lives:Most companies have a wealth of data available to them,but since its often siloed in disparate systems and sources,its important to know where the data lives across departments.Create a plan to access and activate the data:Consult with each data owner to ensure you can conform to their data integrity plans and follow the proper governance and integrity protocols.Verify data quality:Apply data hygiene and identity resolution processes to help ensure your data is accurate and complete.Data fuels personalization,but it must be the right data for the type of moment you want to create,and it must be accurate,accessible,and easily activated.This is where having the right technology can play a critical role.How to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout theCustomer Lifecycle 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 12 TechnologyExecuting any personalized moment requires an integrated ecosystem of technologies that can help you gather the necessary insights and support the decisioning,delivery,and,ultimately,the optimization happening throughout the customer lifecycle.Your technology also needs to enable you to use data effectively and in a privacy-compliant manner.A customer data platform like BlueConic can address these requirements by providing marketing,customer experience,digital product,and other growth-focused teams with access to a unified view of the customer,paired with the tools to activate that data when and where they need it.Using out-of-the-box connections to other online and offline technologies,BlueConic captures and unifies privacy-compliant first-party data into profiles that provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date record of what you know about your customer.The high quality of the profile data accounts for everything from consent status,to frequency of data updates,to identity resolution.Equally important,BlueConic delivers that unified profile data back to business teams in a format that their tools can use to improve how they build segments,conduct modeling and analytics,and engage customers throughout their lifecycle.Marketing and other growth-focused teams no longer have to wait on internal IT teams or external agencies to create customer scores and pull lists for segmentation processes that not only take weeks and cost thousands of dollars,but also effectively neutralize efforts to interact with customers in a timely,personalized way.How to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer LifecycleExecuting any personalized moment requires a very integrated ecosystem of technologies that can help you support those insights,the decisioning,the delivery,and,ultimately,the optimization happening throughout.You need all of that to deliver personalization across touchpoints throughout the customer lifecycle.”Jessica Lui,Senior Analyst at Forrester“2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 13 Finally,BlueConic recognizes that you dont need every piece of granular information associated with prospects and customers that is stored across your entire technology stack to carry out your preferred personalization use cases.By gathering an initial set of customer data(known as your minimum viable data),BlueConic enables you to quickly execute on priority use cases that are important to the business,while building on your data foundation and expanding your use cases over time.How to Deliver Personalized Moments Throughout the Customer LifecycleWhat we want to do is empower broader teams and those that are going to be hands-on to quickly execute on priority use cases to create a point of differentiation.”Khurram Moiz,Principal Customer Success Manager at BlueConic“Page 14 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights reserved.1.What skill sets will you need to deploy the technology?Consider who your end user of the technology is,and whether the technology requires some kind of specialized skill set or if its easily adoptable by anyone.2.What level of personalization are you trying to achieve?Consider the different depths of personalized moments,from segmentation all the way to anticipating what customers want next.Different technologies can achieve those at different depths.3.What level of identity resolution do you need?There is a spectrum of anonymous to known customers.Different technologies have different levels of capabilities in terms of matching anonymous to known users.4.How automated is the decision-making process?Does the technology use rules-based decision-making,machine learning,or a combination of both?The type of automation does impact the speed,volume,and delivery of those personalized moments.5.How does the technology track,measure,and optimize each moment?Make sure you understand the analytics capabilities of the technology,including how and how quickly it is optimizing experiences.5 Key Questions to Ask When Considering Personalization Technology 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights Page 15 Personalize Per Customer PreferencePersonalization will be at its most powerful when its done according to your customers preferences both where they want personalization in the consumer lifecycle and at the level of privacy they prefer.When youre able to combine a strong personalization strategy with the right data and technology,you can execute personalized moments when,where,and how your customers prefer.Learn how to transform and perfectly time your personalization strategies to your customers preferences with our customer data platform.Request Demo 1 888 440 2583 2023 BlueConic Intellectual Property B.V.All rights reserved.
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