What is the next big thing in Marketing Technology? Always keen to stay ahead of the game GCL Direct's Head of Data went along to the TFM&A event at the London Olympia to find out what the future has in store.
The world of marketing has changed dramatically over the last 5 years with digital and content marketing increasingly encroaching on the world of direct marketing. This overlap was certainly in evidence at the TFM&A event with Marketing Automation tools capable of delivering personalised content directly to prospects dominating the stands. However, there is an increasing distinction between large enterprise style automation providers such as Oracle and Marketo and those providers such as CommuniGator and SharpSpring who offer similar services but at a scale (and price!) far more suitable for SMEs.
Dotted around the show were interesting innovations such as BriteVerify that use mailbox interrogation software to provide a more reliable form of email address verification than the traditional domain checkers.
As usual our B2C colleagues claimed the most eye catching innovations with customer recognition software for personalised ad boards and augmented reality solutions to aid consumer visualisation of their potential purchases.
It isn't just the tech companies at the forefront of these changes, organisations such as the DMA (who GCL are proud members of), the IDM and publications such as B2B Marketing and Data IQ were in attendance and leading the discussions on the big changes happening in our industry.
It was great to meet and speak to so many people who had great ideas about how technology can help us as marketers make campaigns more relevant to our prospects.
