3 Lessons from Modern Marketing Experience 2015

Chris Doran shares his experience at Oracle's Modern Marketing Experience 2015.

Last week, I had the pleasure of flying out to Las Vegas to participate in the Oracle Modern Marketing Experience conference with several hundred other marketers. Though a big reason for our participation is the announcement of our “Data Blender” beta for Progress® Easyl™, I love events like this because they give me an opportunity to listen to all the fun, cool and creative things that my counterparts in other organizations are doing. Over the course of many conversations, I realized there are a few pain points that a lot of marketers share. Now that I've had some time to reflect, I can narrow these problems into three big issues:

1. Technology is a Marketer’s Best and Worst Friend

Everyone is using technology, and, honestly, who could survive in marketing without it? Despite that, a lot of people I talked to experience pain either with their disjointed systems or from having their process scattered across too many applications. The most surprising thing I heard about was  that some companies have policies barring marketing from using technology that could really benefit their efforts because it isn’t considered secure or hasn’t been approved by IT.

2. Machines Are Doing All the Marketing

Being a nerdy, tech-minded guy, I was surprised to hear that a lot of folks don’t respond well to the glut of technology involved in marketing these days. I wasn’t expecting to hear about adding humans back into the process at a show focused on technology, but when I took a step back, it was a breath of fresh air. Whether adding phone calls into campaigns or adding direct mail pieces, it was clear that the technology we love has taken some of the personalization out of marketing.

3. Data is Dirty

Everyone I spoke with expressed frustration with the cleanliness of their data. I have to admit, this was music to my ears and validation for our release of Progress Easyl. On several occasions, the problem was described as “garbage in, garbage out.” The most interesting part of this was most people said they have a team in charge of data cleaning, but that team either isn't doing their job or don’t have the tools or time for the job.

Stay Tuned

I want to give each of these issues the time they deserve, so I’ll be digging into each over the course of the next few weeks. Stay tuned, as I intend to explore the root causes of each pain point and offer up a few of the ways marketers are working to address them.

In the meantime, I hope you take some time to check out our “Data Blender” beta for Easyl. We’re really excited for this release, as we believe it will be a game-changer for data preparation. Even though the beta doesn’t start until May 4, you can pre-register for it today!