Welcome Jimmy Hilvert-Bruce, Marketing Lead, Capability & Enablement, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, sharing his insights on Customer Data, MarTech Stack & Marketing Team Management, as part of the MarTech Thoughts series.

How do you describe your job to a 5-year-old?

The ABC reports news, information, sports, ideas, dialogue, and entertainment. Let’s watch Bluey, I’ll get the popcorn.

What is the one marketing platform/app/solution you can’t live without? Why?

Nice try! It is very important not to have loyalty to a specific tool in the MarTech industry – ultimately audiences and customers don’t care about the technology an organisation uses only their experience. Tools and platforms are replaced over time based on the needs of the organisation and users.

While the MarTech space is broad, I am more focused on the use of data-driven technology in MarTech.

If we zoom out and look at a marketing technology stack or a modern data architecture, while each organisations architecture is unique there is a universal data lifecycle. There are data sources, that data is ingested, stored, processed and activated in marketing channels.

The data lifecycle is an important “chain”, each platform plays a significant part of efficient and effective marketing technology. If one fails, whether it’s the upstream data source quality or the CRM marketing channel, then the whole marketing process can fail.

Of course, there are some marketing set ups where the technologies work independently, however these setups usually end up in a fragmented customer experience.

If I had to choose what was the most important part of this lifecycle, it would probably be where the customer data is stored. This could be the identity management platform, CRM or the data warehouse. The choice of the marketing tool that uses this data would be dependent on the goal, the audience, and the type of business or organisation.

In a media industry context, because content is the ‘product’, delivering content through the web, app, email and social media is an important part of the distribution and marketing.

At your organisation, what tasks in marketing are good to automate and what tasks still need a human touch?”

Any task that requires repetitive, thoughtless behaviour usually can be automated. This could include manual tasks such as routinely merging spreadsheets, re-creating templates, or marketers needing to populate the same information.

Customer service is an area I believe we shouldn’t be quick to automate or replace. You can still have incredible digital and automated service experiences but organisations that rush this part will only have frustrated customers.

Another repetitive behaviour I can think of that can’t easily be automated is going to the gym.

How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?

Managing teams in remote and hybrid structures is an area all marketers should learn how to do well.

I’m a strong believer in self-learning as the main way to upskill as a marketer. I’ve found that reading and researching topics myself has brought me a great amount of knowledge in the MarTech space at a much cheaper price.

I recommend checking out the technology books by O’Reilly. Fundamentals of Data Engineering is a must for MarTech and CRM professionals.

How do you keep your team motivated to get the best out of them during challenging economic times with additional external pressure?

People need the following things to be motivated in a role – Autonomy, Purpose, Belonging, and being Capable.

Autonomy is ensuring your team member has the independence and creative control over their work while still being open to feedback. Purpose is making sure their work has both ethical purpose and has more of an impact than effort being put in. Belonging is ensuring they feel part of a bigger team and are accepted and feel safe to voice their opinions. And being capable is them having the skills, tools and resources to deliver their work.

These are the areas leaders need to focus on to keep their teams motivated.

As for challenging economic times – ensure your team only focuses on what they can control. Ignore problems out of your control like the economy or weather.

What will be the next evolution in marketing technology that we can expect in the coming years?

There is a real focus on data science and algorithmic marketing at the moment. This has been around a long time, however there is a spotlight on this space. Many of the tools that marketers are buying are setting the foundations for effective use of this, such as advanced cloud warehouses, marketing automation platforms, CDPs and reverse ETL activation tools.

I suspect in the future these models may replace customised targeting, orchestration and frequency of digital communications. Marketers may rely more on models than defining their own targeting criteria.

What is the best use of technology you have seen during this time of uncertainty and changes?

I love when an organisation uses customer data and provides it back to them in a meaningful way to provide value. Some examples include Spotify’s wrap up, Commbank’s Spend Tracker, Garmin’s Connect. This could also be letting you know the amount of hours you might have used a meditation app, or the amount of phrases you’ve learned on a language education app.

Businesses who do this have a real opportunity to supercharge their products and build great relationships.

Empowering people with their data creates great experiences, so long as its done in a safe way, allows for choice and maintains that users privacy.

What’s the best advice someone has ever given you?

Be consistent.

This is a good practice in all parts of your life and will improve your discipline, whether its your daily performance at work, working towards a personal goal, spending an hour each day doing something creative, as well as being kind to others.

A big thank you to Jimmy Hilvert-Bruce, Marketing Lead, Capability & Enablement, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, sharing his insights on Customer Data, MarTech Stack & Marketing Team Management, as part of the MarTech Thoughts series.

If you want to connect with Jimmy after reading his MarTech Thoughts, please reach out via his LinkedIn Profile!

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Last updated: Nov 2023