The Global Virtual MarTech Summit EMEA Track on 21 February 2024 provided a comprehensive look at the latest developments and strategies in marketing technology. Themed “Elevating MarTech Globally: Where Ideas Transcend Boundaries,” the event covered essential topics such as AI & Data, Personalization, Customer Experience, SEO, Data-Driven Marketing, E-Commerce, and Digital Trust. With over 20 experts sharing insights on MarTech’s challenges and trends, the summit featured 100% live sessions, interactive Q&As, and on-demand playback options. It emphasized APAC & EMEA market insights and hosted a global session with 1400+ professionals discussing future marketing trends.
Now, the spotlight shifts to our invaluable audience. Let us identify insights from their perspectives by examining the results of the poll questions.
The first part was related to team collaboration; it is clear that over 40% of attendees spend more than 1 hour a week with their sales team. However, over 50% attendees spend less than 30 minutes. Multiple team collaborations are the main way how the organization is responsible for better customer experience.
Addressing another important theme, the Future of Work, Apart from Data analysis & customer centricity, AL & ML also attract people’s attention.
Talking about AI, AI-driven personalisation become a very hot topic in marketing, however, more than half of attendees’ companies are only at the very early stage of implementation.
Back to the data theme, most of the attendees still have a hard time sourcing data with high integrity (accuracy, completeness).
Apart from above-inspired questions and results, here comes our MarTech community’s favourite part, the notable quotes and key takeaways we highlighted from the summit:
“Customer Experience (CX) transcends merely facilitating a superior purchase journey; it mirrors a brand’s essence and commitment to its audience, necessitating a deep, value-rich interaction that genuinely connects with customers on an emotional level. ” – Sinem Soydar, Global Head of Digital & Social Media Strategy, Shell
“Focusing relentlessly on the customer, accepting the imperfect nature of attribution and the complexity of customer paths, is crucial. It involves always assessing actions from the customer’s viewpoint, ensuring marketing initiatives are genuinely beneficial to the customer rather than solely serving marketing objectives. ” – Jessica Hall, Marketing Director, IDEO
“Sales and marketing aren’t as dissimilar as you might think, swap roles sometime!” – Chris Gold, Former Director, Acquisition Marketing, American Express
“Change is inevitable, growth is optional. Align with Sales and come out of the room as one growth opportunity ” – Vasilios Sarakiniotis, Global Performance Marketing, JDE Peet’s
“Our power is in our people – data and tech should be there to enable and empower. ” – Meg Lowe, Head of Marketing Technology, NatWest Group
“Which of your customers’ pain points does your brand/product solve? Use your marketing powers wisely to build strong relationships within your department and across the wider business to focus on articulating that solution across your customers’ community” – Adrian Coxon, CMO, Exante
“The right culture makes all the difference, and should include support for training, the best-fit tools and space to fail fast.” – Heather Hurd, Senior Director, Global Content Studio, FIS
“You need to take care of the right tool, the right service, the best possible data quality and internal knowledge to understand how to generate your value from the data. But the potential is so enormous that it’s worth it.” – Thomas Tauchner, Co-Founder & CEO, JENTIS
Noteworthy quotes and takeaways from the event include the significance of Customer Experience as a reflection of brand commitment, the need for customer-focused marketing initiatives, and the power of data and technology in empowering personnel. Emphasizing cross-departmental relationships, culture, and data quality, the speakers provided valuable insights for marketing professionals.
Our Takeaways:
Throughout the summit, our team has distilled key insights from our outstanding speakers, and here are our key takeaways:
Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration: The summit emphasised the importance of cross-functional teams in driving MarTech innovations. This approach is crucial for integrating diverse insights from sales, digital, and content management to enhance the customer journey.
Advancements in AI and Personalization: The discussions highlighted that AI’s role in marketing is evolving from a supportive to a central one, enabling unprecedented levels of personalisation. However, the challenge lies in scaling these capabilities across diverse markets.
Data Integrity and Utilization: A recurring theme was the struggle with sourcing high-quality data and the emphasis on employing advanced tools and strategies to leverage this data for actionable insights, demonstrating the ongoing challenge of marrying quantity with quality.
Cultural Shifts and Organizational Growth: Speakers underscored the significance of cultivating a culture that supports continuous learning, agile methodologies, and risk-taking. This cultural foundation is vital for organisations to remain competitive and innovative in the rapidly evolving MarTech landscape.
Future-Proofing Marketing Teams: There was a clear call to action for marketing teams to adopt more digital and data-driven approaches, ensuring they are not only equipped for current challenges but are also future-oriented and adaptable to emerging technologies and methodologies.
Looking ahead, we believe MarTech industry will continue to grow and evolve at a rapid pace. With new technologies emerging all the time, businesses must stay on top of the latest trends and developments if they want to remain competitive. The Global Virtual MarTech Summit was a valuable step in this direction, and it will undoubtedly continue to be an essential event for MarTech professionals in the years to come.
Thank you all again for having joined us at this edition of the Global Virtual MarTech Summit to share a moment of learning and networking. For those who couldn’t make it to our live sessions and felt like you’ve missed out, don’t worry, you still have the opportunity to relive the summit on-demand here or on our video learning platform – BEETc On-Screen.
Join us for our upcoming Global Virtual MarTech Summit featuring an all-new agenda, spanning across both the APAC and EMEA regions. Check more details below:
Of course, there are more exciting in-person events throughout the year:
- The MarTech Summit Asia, 23 & 24 April 2024
- The MarTech Summit Jakarta, 26 June 2024
- The MarTech Summit Manila, 3 July 2024
- The MarTech Summit Hong Kong, 9 July 2024
Secure your seats now!
Lastly, enjoy the Summit Trailer we had on YouTube for the Global Virtual MarTech Summit and follow our social media accounts to see our upcoming updates!
By: Namsa Kangzhu
