New Research Reveals Convergence of Martech and Adtech Has Begun to Take Hold, Despite Industry Roadblocks

NEW YORK, June 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveIntent, the industry-leading platform for people-based marketing and advertising focused on the email channel, today announced a new commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, on the growing convergence of the marketing technology (Martech) and advertising technology (Adtech) practices. While more than one-third of marketers polled have already taken action to combine and integrate Adtech and Martech technologies, the research shows that the Marketers' road to convergence is easier than previously thought. Forrester's research reveals that email is still the number one tool that marketers can use to jumpstart their own Martech and Adtech convergence and enable People-based marketing.

The new study- Kick-Start Your Adtech/Martech Convergence* - highlights the current state of convergence, the challenges marketers face in integrating once disparate technologies, and steps they can take to begin the journey for developing a program that allows a stronger one-to-one presence with customers. To download the full study, click here.

According to the study, "Advertising and marketing convergence reflects B2C marketers' need to deploy customer experiences that drive growth for their companies. But they also face a current landscape where connecting and delivering customer interactions across touchpoints and devices is pushing marketers' current analysis, orchestration, and execution capabilities to their limits. Furthermore, they must carefully consider the people, process, and technology changes that will occur under converged marketing and advertising capabilities."

The idea of combining Adtech and Martech has reached such a frenzy because of its implications. The combination of these two technologies provides the foundation for People-Based Marketing - a term broadly defined as the ability to market to a known person on a one-to-one basis (like marketers do in logged-in environments including social, direct mail or email) in channels where brands were previously marketing to a device (non-logged in environments like mobile, web, and video are chief examples). With People-Based Marketing brands can market to a known person with consistent messaging, irrespective of the device that person is using. In order to achieve that, marketers need to be able to combine their Martech operations and data with their Adtech operations and data.

For the study, Forrester surveyed over 100 senior business-to-consumer marketers from large companies and organizations across verticals including retail, financial services/insurance, travel and leisure, CPG and automotive. Key findings from the study include:

    --  Overwhelming support: 93% of firms have discussed, planned or taken
        action around combining Adtech and Martech (35% have already taken
        action to converge technologies)
    --  Benefits for convergence: Half or almost half of all marketers believe
        that convergence will improve customer satisfaction, better
        personalization, stronger customer insights and improved dexterity and
        efficiency around execution
    --  Operations, process and education pose challenges: 42% of marketers say
        the biggest hurdle to convergence is working across internal silos. In
        addition, more than half of marketers believe 25% or more of their
        colleagues don't understand the difference between advertising and
        marketing technology
    --  Cost and technology not as big of a hurdle: Less than one-third of
        respondents indicate cost and the integration of the two technology
        stacks are hindrances to the advent of martech/adtech convergence
    --  Email is still the killer app: 89% say email is most important to begin
        marrying ad-tech and martech and drive data consolidation

"While we're just beginning the journey to marry two often disparate platforms that really do similar functions, we've never been more bullish in helping brands and publishers be more present with their customers," said Matt Keiser, CEO and founder of LiveIntent. "As we move towards less of a reliance on cookies, marketers need to reshape the way they drive their customer memory to achieve an entirely new level of connection and resolution, and there is not a better way than utilizing the deterministic value of email. It's never played a more critical role in getting marketers to bridge Adtech and Martech, extending accuracy, reach and frequency of messages on a one-to-one basis."

*A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of LiveIntent, "Kickstart Your Adtech/Martech Convergence" - May 2017

About LiveIntent

LiveIntent delivers people-based marketing solutions that connect brands to people at every point in the customer journey. We help brands play at the intersection of advertising and marketing, using email as the catalyst to reach 170 million people on a one-to-one basis across 4.3 billion connections through the LiveIntent Identity Graph. Our technology and solutions bring massive reach for brands who are struggling to reach their customers beyond walled gardens, irrespective of channel, device or platform. The company was recognized for the past three years as one of NYC's fastest growing companies (by Crain's) and as one of America's Most Promising Companies (Forbes 2015). LiveIntent is headquartered in New York City, with offices across the United States and Europe. For more information, visit www.liveintent.com.

CONTACT: Adam Berkowitz, aberkowitz@liveintent.com

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SOURCE LiveIntent