ADWEEK The intersection of ad tech and mar

tech has been much debated recently. Can you

offer your assessment as to what this actually

means? For instance, what will the tangible

benefits for marketers be? Less wastage on

media spend, etc.?

DES CAHILL Technically, it’s the capability

to manage customer and prospect identity

and data across the journey. ... Marketers can

benefit by personalizing to the customer from

unknown to known—across customer journey/

lifecycle. More personalization equals more

conversion.

BOBBY JANIA The continued merger of ad

tech and mar tech represents a desire on the

part of marketers to unify their strategies

across all customer touch points and deliver

personalized engagement. Marketers continu-

ously tell us they want to consolidate the view

they have of their customers and be able to act

on immediate insights across multiple chan-

nels, including digital advertising.

CAHILL I think Bobby’s point on “act on imme-

diate insights” is a key thing. Also, the ability to

act across channels with the same insights.

ARUN KUMAR One of the tangible benefits of a

fully connected data technology and services

solution is that it can constantly optimize

consumer engagement and media spend for

marketers. We see this when our clients take

advantage of our integrated stack and publish-

er marketplace as a singular solution.

ADWEEK @Arun Kumar, can you explain how

the integration of Acxiom is helping market-

ers to get better efficiency out of their media

budgets with you?

KUMAR Like some have said before, it helps

us bring the known and the unknown worlds

together. For example, we have an automobile

client who spends budgets on both advertising

and incentives. ... The two were never con-

nected. Why would you bombard a person who

is a lifetime buyer of your product repeatedly

instead of going after growth and new custom-

ers? This results in massive efficiencies but

also a better experience for customers and

better conversion for clients. Ultimately, sup-

pression in media is hugely important.

ADWEEK @Suzanne O’Kelley, your outfit

[Xandr] is in the process of putting together

what some might call a “unique offering” in this

respect. Do you care to offer more on how the

integration of the AppNexus ad tech assets is

progressing the Xandr offering?

SUZANNE O’KELLEY Regardless of the

technology they’re using, marketers are con-

tinuously looking for opportunities to better

understand their customers’ needs. ... Mar

tech platforms generally provide visibility for

a marketer’s engagements with their custom-

ers across a swath of touch points, and may

enable engagement in certain areas—say, blog-

ging or email marketing.

Ad tech platforms have typically been

more limited to helping marketers engage with

customers through ads, and with the work

we’re doing on the Xandr Invest platform, we’re

looking to blur those lines.

[At Xandr], we’re working on pulling togeth-

er all the insights we have access to across a

broad swath of AT&T and other touch points

to help marketers improve their engagements

with their customers, similar to the stories

@Arun Kumar referenced above [through new

ad formats].

ADWEEK In my research for this conversation,

I came across an analyst presentation that

asserts that this convergence has to happen

because the “ad tech/mar tech ecosystem

is broken”—their theory being that there are

fundamental cultural differences between

the pair. For instance: ad tech is focused on

a media model; mar tech has a customer-

centric model. Some would even argue there

are fundamental cultural differences between

both constituencies.

CAHILL Agree on the cultural differences

between ad tech and mar tech on the practi-

tioner side and the vendor side as well. But ...

customers are customers, and I am unhappy

that I am still being retargeted four months

after buying a new car. How many times do

they want me to buy it?

It’s all about creating a central customer

ccording to the latest Gartner CMO Spend

Survey, companies are spending nearly

one-third (29%) of their marketing budgets

on mar tech—up from 22% in 2017—with

9% of participating CMOs claiming that

“marketing innovation” will be a key part

of their practice in 2019.

If the numbers suggest a shift toward

a more data-led practice, Ewan McIntyre,

vp, analyst, Gartner for Marketers and

the report’s co-author, thinks it’s about

time. He says the findings also show that

marketers still predominantly focus on

metrics that hold little meaning outside

of their own departments.

For instance, only 16% of those

surveyed cited “customer acquisition” (via

paid-for media) as a top-three capability.

McIntyre says marketers should start

to lean in on KPIs that demonstrate real

value to their wider enterprises.

In doing so, CMOs will foster a greater

internal appreciation for the value of

marketing efforts and investment, and a

greater understanding that using ad tech

to acquire new customers is the key to

demonstrating such ROI.

Simply put, all customer experience (CX)

programs must create business value, which

is gained through acquiring and retaining

profitable customers, argues McIntyre.

Achieving that value requires better

synchronization of ad tech and mar tech.

Knowing how to successfully synthesize the

two will prove a valuable skill for marketers

looking to further their careers.

Ahead of this year’s Dmexco (short for

Digital Marketing Expo and Conference) in

Cologne, Germany, Adweek held an online

panel conversation via Slack with four

experts in the field to gauge their insights

on how the intersection of ad tech and mar

tech plays out. (The following transcript has

been edited for brevity and narrative flow.)

A

RONAN SHIELDS IS A REPORTER FOR ADWEEK,

FOCUSING ON AD TECH. @RONAN_SHIELDS

22 SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 | ADWEEK

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