The marketing technology (Martech) landscape is hard to keep up with. With new tools hitting the market every day, marketers and agencies are faced with the decision on where to invest their money and which platforms will truly help them better orchestrate and activate their data. Chapter Three of Lotame’s “The State of Data Collaboration: A Global Perspective,” fielded by Cint, sheds light on the key Martech trends and technologies that are shaping the future of marketing.
Marketing automation is no longer just a buzzword—it’s a necessity. In 2024, 64% of marketers and agencies plan to adopt marketing automation platforms, making it the top Martech investment for the year. These platforms are essential for automating repetitive tasks such as email campaigns, social media posting, and customer segmentation, freeing up marketers to focus on strategy and creative work. But their real value lies in their ability to deliver personalized experiences at scale.
By leveraging automation tools, brands can tailor communications to individual customers based on their behavior, preferences, and interactions, increasing engagement and loyalty. The growing focus on customer experience makes these platforms critical in a marketer’s tech stack.
One of the most exciting trends in 2024 is the rise of data collaboration platforms, with 62% of marketers planning to adopt this technology. As marketers deal with the increasing complexity of data management—fragmented data sources, privacy regulations, and the decline of third-party cookies—data collaboration platforms provide a powerful solution.
These platforms enable marketers to combine and analyze data from multiple sources, both within and outside their organizations. By unifying data silos and facilitating collaboration with partners, brands can gain a more comprehensive view of their audience and make more informed marketing decisions. The ability to enrich first-party data with external insights is particularly valuable in today’s privacy-conscious world.
While some technologies are on the rise, others are falling out of favor. Analytics platforms are one such casualty, with 20% of marketers and agencies planning to retire their current analytics solutions in 2024. This trend is likely driven by frustration over data overload and the inability of traditional analytics tools to provide actionable insights.
As marketing becomes more data-driven, the need for advanced analytics that can handle complex data sets has grown. Many marketers are turning to AI-powered solutions and data collaboration platforms, which offer more sophisticated ways to analyze data and drive business outcomes.
Another key trend in 2024 is the continued investment in Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). These platforms, with a planned adoption rate of 58%, are critical for centralizing customer data and creating unified customer profiles. CDPs help marketers overcome data fragmentation by aggregating data from different touchpoints, enabling more personalized and consistent customer experiences across channels.
CDPs also offer valuable features like identity resolution and segmentation, making them a cornerstone of modern Martech stacks. As brands continue to prioritize customer experience, investment in CDPs is expected to rise.
Query clean rooms, once touted as a key solution for data privacy and collaboration, are seeing a decline in adoption. With 24% of marketers planning to phase out query clean rooms in the next year, it’s clear that their technical complexity and resource requirements have limited their scalability.
Instead, marketers are shifting towards more versatile solutions, such as data collaboration platforms, which offer a wider range of use cases without the technical overhead of traditional clean rooms. This shift reflects the ongoing evolution of data privacy tools in the Martech space.
As we move through 2024, several key trends are shaping Martech stacks:
Martech stack trends in 2024 are all about improving data orchestration and activation. For a deeper look at the tools and technologies shaping the future of marketing, download “The State of Data Collaboration: A Global Perspective.” The report provides valuable insights on: