This one is for the marketers - ever felt like a kid in a candy store when it comes to MarTech? One minute you're eyeing that sleek new CRM system promising to streamline your customer data, and the next, you're obsessing over the latest social media platform du jour. And with what the recently released State of MarTech 2024 report shows, the candies (read: tools) aren’t getting any less.

Talking numbers, the MarTech landscape now includes 14,106 products — 27.8 per cent more than the 11,038 on last year’s landscape. Since the first landscape in 2011, the overall count of MarTech solutions has grown by 9,304 per cent. Annualised, the industry has expanded at a 41.8 per cent CAGR.

Gen AI, Again?

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Generative AI has led the entire MarTech growth YoY.

Deepali Naair, Group CMO, CK Birla Group, agrees that compared to last year, there's been a noticeable uptick in the use of Gen-AI-based creatives. According to her, there's also a growing discussion about when videos and images created by Gen-AI will become truly lifelike.

“The past year has been marked by the rapid adoption of generative AI, particularly in the context of content creation and idea generation. This trend is likely to continue in 2024, with AI-powered tools becoming even more sophisticated and integrated into various aspects of marketing and advertising,” added Jacob Joseph, VP - Data Science, CleverTap.

However, for a considerable amount of time, the trend for most marketers across the world has been that whenever there’s a discussion around fancy words like Gen AI or ML or tech or whatever is the current hype, everyone tends to jump on the bandwagon to explore and experiment. Do they really know what they are doing? Hard to tell, considering that while Gen AI exploded as a terminology, it didn’t quite fit right in a lot of MarTech stacks for long.

Naair noted that there are not enough use cases about integration of Gen-AI into the current marketing suite of tools. “Advertising agencies are yet to share widespread usage of Gen-AI, but consulting companies have approached us regarding Gen-AI's application in certain marketing operations. There is a lot of chatter around Gen AI usage in MarTech but only in pilot space. Overall adoption seems slow,” she said.

What’s the hype?

Well, generative AI is just an example of marketers suffering from the ‘shiny object syndrome’. With the massive growth that the landscape just saw, are marketers prepared to fight the syndrome? Industry observers suggest that the marketing community is getting there, maybe slowly, but they have caught the track.

For instance, a majority of marketers last year fell under pressure to cut tech spends, because they couldn’t crack the ROI Riddle.

Joseph shared that clients are now demanding a clearer picture of the ROI from their MarTech investments. They don’t just want any hyped tool, they want to see concrete data on how these tools are impacting things like lead generation, customer retention, brand awareness. “Gone are the days of buying a bunch of disconnected marketing point solutions. Clients are now looking for integrated MarTech stacks that allow them to centralise data, streamline workflows, and gain a holistic view of their marketing efforts,” he added.

Some marketers that have cracked the code, shared that the key to not falling for this syndrome lies in not getting overwhelmed and remaining focused. Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer and Head of Strategy at Bajaj Capital said, “To avoid getting overwhelmed by the plethora of MarTech tools available, our approach focuses on aligning tool selection with our specific business objectives and audience needs. We conduct thorough research and prioritise platforms that seamlessly integrate with our existing tech stack.”

Rajat Abbi, Vice President Global Marketing & Chief Marketing Officer, Schneider Electric echoed a similar voice and said that the brand’s strategy to combat the 'shiny object syndrome' and craft the optimal MarTech stack is based on a rigorous evaluation. “Central to this approach is a steadfast focus on organisational objectives. By crystallising our goals, we have been able to identify essential tools for driving tangible results, sidestepping distractions from flashy but ultimately irrelevant options.”

Citing another example around jumping onto the hype, Abbi highlighted how the exploration of the Metaverse as a marketing avenue did not yield the anticipated results which marketeers expected. “While interest in the platform was high initially, challenges such as limited audience reach, data security concerns, and network accessibility hindered its performance,” he mentioned.

From the lens of a MarTech company, Clevertap’s Joseph shared that clients are approaching MarTech with a more strategic mindset. They're not just throwing money at the latest shiny tool; they're looking for solutions that align with their specific business goals and can demonstrate a measurable impact.

However, despite all the efforts that the industry is making, marketers still tend to underutilise or deploy more than required tools, just because it might have worked for someone else in the market. Naair highlighted how according to a Gartner survey, marketers report utilising just 42% of the breadth of capabilities available in their MarTech stack overall, down from 58% in 2020. “This is worrisome,” she added.

As the MarTech landscape continues to expand, this dilemma is set to continue. But now is probably time for that part of the marketing fraternity which is still chasing hype, to sit back and ask itself - ‘are we truly harnessing the power of MarTech, or are we merely collecting souvenirs from the candy store of possibilities?’