Scott Brinker, Pokémon Go, and mobile table stakes – VB Engage

Here ye! Here ye! This episode is a good one, as we chat with the “Godfather of Martech,” Scott Brinker.

Last week, Scott published an article on his website in which he shared that his now-famous marketing technology landscape was missing over 1,900 companies. The latest iteration, the one released at this year’s Martech Conference in San Francisco, already had about 3,800 solutions included.

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How did he find the missing solutions? Boston martech consulting firm, CabinetM, collaborated with Scott to assemble a master database that helped him fill in the blanks.

So, at latest count there were at least 5,700 different marketing technologies out there, and there are still six months left in 2016. Who knows how many will exist by the time the ball drops in New York.

Also this week, we discuss why Pokémon Go is such an interesting innovation and is one that everyone in marketing should pay attention to. Nintendo seems to have hit the magic formula of combining mixed reality with a strong brand and an audience of rabid fans — the very people you want on your customer list — who have arguably been waiting decades for a game like this.

While mixed reality is in its early years, Pokémon Go could help indicate whether the entire genre will succeed or not. But be careful out in the real world, especially if you are out trying to catch Pokémon at night in some random yard. Be safe out there, Pokémon warriors!

But enough of catching ’em all — let’s get into the world of mobile marketing technology with Scott Brinker.

Right off the bat, Stewart asks Scott about mobile. After all, that’s what we should all care about right now, isn’t it? Scott shares that with so many areas of martech to focus on, he can’t possibly consider himself an expert in all of them, but he does say that a great mobile experience is now expected.

The industry has come to the acceptance that pretty much everything needs to work well within a mobile context. – Scott Brinker

During the news segment of this show, Stewart mentioned that less than 10 percent of small-to-medium-sized businesses even use marketing technology. So if someone is looking to begin building out their martech stack, what is the silver bullet that can help get the ball rolling? Scott explains this in some detail, thankfully.

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As Scott lays it out, even if you are a small business owner, the capabilities that are available for you today in the world of digital marketing are astounding. The bottleneck isn’t technology, in reality — it is time and resources.

And Scott shares data to back that up. According to the new Gartner report, organizations are beginning to spend more money on marketing technologies than they are on paid media. In Scott’s eyes, martech is a bargain, because you can pinpoint your customers very effectively with the right tools. That can often be a much cheaper route to acquiring new customers.

By the way, if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about influencer marketing with Andrew Grill, former CEO of Kred and current head of social consulting for IBM.

Next Tuesday, check out our amazing and inspiring interview with Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out and ShankMinds.

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