It was 50 years ago that British prime minister Harold Wilson gave a speech on how the “white heat” of technology was changing Britain. It was a clarion call to adapt or be swept away to the fringes of history. For marketers, however, the same white heat of digital technology has been duly noted, but has perhaps blinded many. In the past few years marketing technology (martech) has grown immensely, promising much but, in many instances, on closer scrutiny, failing to deliver. This we know: If you ask marketing people to spend money on tech, there are bound to be a number of bad calls. Promising much Programmatic advertising was one of the more notorious ones. The pitch was absolutely amazing – the ability to buy digital advertising for a fraction of the price you had been paying. It transpired that a lot of that advertising inventory was what you would find on the stable floor after a day at the races. It eroded value and exposed brands to very dodgy neighbourhoods. It shows that ...
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