On Tuesday, March 31, we joined Effin Amazing for a webinar about how marketing teams in any industry can prepare for inevitable upcoming changes. Here’s a description of the webinar and a full recording (with viewer’s guide).
With the crisis of COVID-19 comes the “Stackapocalypse.” In this brave new webinar, Dan discusses what it is and how to thrive—not just survive.As CEO and founder of Effin Amazing, a marketing technology and analytics consulting company, Dan regularly helps people choose the perfect stack. At the center of the stack is MetaRouter, core customer data infrastructure to any data-driven organization. Greg Brunk, MetaRouter’s Head of Product joined Dan to discuss how marketing teams can stay flexible and prepare for inevitable upcoming changes.
In this case, what Effin Amazing has dubbed the Stackapocalypse.
“In 2019, there was over a hundred billion dollars invested into just marketing technology, “says Dan, “With 7,000 different tools, not everybody's going to survive. Even before COVID-19, Gartner predicted that we're about to go into the age of reckoning with companies getting consolidated and, now, some struggling to stay afloat.” From 150 tools in 2011 to more than 7,000 now, we’re clearly in a bubble.
And one thing we know: 2020 is not what we expected. In the webinar, Greg notes how the ad tech industry was already seeing keystone changes with GDPR and CCPA and the constantly evolving regulatory landscape. Browsers have been re-inventing privacy and killing third party cookies.
Now, however, the changes have gotten serious. More than three million people have been laid off. Businesses are frantically adjusting to change, in some cases attempting to pivot their business models overnight.
The challenge with COVID-19, Dan explains, is that it is, in fact, a Black Swan event: it’s completely unpredictable. “We saw these kinds of rapid changes happen in the recession last time when we had the mortgage bubble burst,” says Dan. “The MarTech bubble isn’t a game-changer that affects everybody's life, but we're all impacted. We’re all locked inside. I'm literally battling my family over the internet to use my tools. I have a team member who can't use Salesforce very well because their kids are using too much YouTube. Things are bound to change.”
What does it mean for your martech stack?
After setting the stage Dan lays out how a sample stack might be impacted, and Greg shares MetaRouter’s role in it. With MetaRouter, you're in control of the data integration and you're in control of MarTech stack as much as you possibly can be. “I think that's where you have the best shot at weathering whatever comes,” explains Greg.
From the top reasons companies fail (and how this crisis has magnified those) to why budget cuts will inevitably hit, Dan and Greg don’t sugar coat the situation. But they end on a note of hope: rebuilding is possible. New opportunities are at our fingertips. There are clear next steps we can all take to come out stronger on the other side.
For the full scope of the food news, jump into the webinar! You’ll end with action steps that make sense for you, but here's a viewer's guide so you don't miss a thing:
- Rationale behind the idea of a “Stackapocalypse” (4:33)
- Why this crisis constitutes a Black Swan event (17:24)
- Top reasons companies fail, even in the best of times (22:19)
- Budget cuts will happen for everyone (30:52)
- A look inside a sample stack in uncertain times (35:48)
- How we can rebuild! (37:33)
- A secret savings opportunity (38:50)
- Clear next steps for marketers (57:27)
As always, if you have any questions or want to share creative ways your team is managing the current crisis, reach out anytime to hello@metarouter.io.
*Photo by Augustine Wong on Unsplash
