Back in 2011 Scott Brinker, editor of the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog, created a graphic representation of the marketing technology (MarTech) landscape with just 150 solutions. Fast forward to 2018 and there are now a staggering 6,829 offerings in his latest 2018 Martech 5000 Supergraphic.

The cover story in the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s PeerSphere quarterly digital magazine published today takes a deep dive into what has become a $32 billion IT spend sector (IDC) filled with bunkers, moats, and other executional obstacles and hazards that handicap marketers seeking to transform and modernize their global marketing operations.

When asked about the state of MarTech by the CMO Council, Brinker offered this: “We are living in the golden age of marketing technology. There is a jaw-dropping amount of innovation, and this gives marketers tremendous choice, leverage and opportunity.”

The PeerSphere article notes: “While the state of MarTech is without question exciting, we also live in an age of confusion and complexity that threatens the operational strength of the MarTech stack and potentially (and quite unintentionally) put customer experience strategies at risk. Platform interconnection (or lack thereof) has become a critical issue as teams accelerate their demand for more digital connections powered by robust customer data and intelligence.“

“Marketing technology has become indispensable…the veritable backbone of the modern engagement strategy, but also the catalyst for organizational transformation purpose-built to drive and optimize revenue generation and growth,” notes Anita Brearton, Founder of CabinetM, a marketing technology management solutions provider, who notes that new technological advancements will play a critical role in customer engagement and marketing performance.

The MarTech stack can either make or crush the modern marketer, Brearton adds. “While we once lamented the dangers of “Analysis Paralysis” and the fear of moving forward without absolute certainty, today’s marketer must address “Technology Mythology” as we eschew the concept of stack perfection and work towards a nimble, best-in-class system that evolves with the pace and requirements of the business and the customer.”

The CMO Council is partnering with CabinetM to provide a comprehensive marketing technology lifecycle management platform at a preferred rate to its 15,000 members worldwide. The subscription-based CabinetM platform is part of a soon-to-be-launched CMO Council Solution Sourcing Center designed to help streamline workflow management among and between teams around planning, researching and management of marketing technology strategy, acquisition and implementation. The CabinetM platform helps teams build marketing stacks to track and manage the tools they buy, build and retire, and the reporting capability allows organizations to identify redundant products, expense and performance issues and gaps in their marketing technology suite. Sitting at the core of the CabinetM platform is the industry’s largest database of more than 8,500 martech, adtech and salestech products that marketing teams can access to find the additional tools they need.

The latest issue of PeerSphere—the CMO Council’s quarterly e-journal—is available today and includes:

• A compelling view of how technology can help banks reshape the customer experience by the CMO of Finastra, a $2 billion FinTech leader


• Valuable insights from Harte Hanks on the four most pressing risks facing CMOs when it comes to data and trust


• What marketing can learn from private equity: The need to adopt a mindset centered on value and accountability


• 13 questions that can help marketing teams better align and sync up with corporate strategic goals


• An in-depth Q&A with Nintendo, Yahoo!, KidZania and Frito-Lay marketing leader Cammie Dunaway, now CMO of Duolingo, who also draws on her board member experience at Planet Fitness, Red Robin, Nordstrom Bank, Marketo and Brunswick Corporation

PeerSphere is available on a complimentary basis to CMO Council members courtesy of our sponsor, Thomson Reuters. For more information or to view the issue online, visit https://cmocouncil.org/thought-leadership/peer-sphere.  

About the CMO Council 

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is the only global network of executives specifically dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 15,000-plus members control approximately $500 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 65,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets.  Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, India and Africa. The council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, and the GeoBranding Center. More information on the CMO Council is available at www.cmocouncil.org.