Digital-first PR agency Anamorphiq launches ECP Engage, a full suite of marketing services for eye care providers looking to grow their practice, attract and retain patients

Marketing plays a crucial role in growing an eye care practice and supporting patients. Today, digital-first PR firm Anamorphiq is launching a new service designed to help. ECP Engage is a suite of marketing services tailored specifically for optometry clinics – giving eye care providers (ECPs) access to an experienced team of marketing experts.

“ECPs are focused on delivering excellent care. We’re focused on helping more patients discover it,” said William Doern, CEO, Anamorphiq. “Our team specializes in marketing for optometry practices. We offer a full suite of services designed to help ECPs bring in new patients, showcase their expertise, and strengthen the patient relationships that drive long-term growth.”

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The ECP Engage approach is practical, strategic, customized for each practice, and rooted in experience in the eye care sector. Services include:

• Social Media Marketing & Communications: Build a trustworthy presence on platforms like Instagram and Facebook with educational content, practice news, and engaging visuals.
• Digital Advertising: Run targeted ads on Google and social platforms to reach patients in the local area who are actively looking for eyecare.
• Reputation & Reviews Management: Protect and strengthen the practice’s online reputation with review monitoring and professional responses to online comments.
• Email Marketing: Keep patients engaged with automated reminders, recalls, and newsletters, without adding work for the practice’s front desk.
• Website Maintenance & Management: Maintain a fast, secure, and accessible website that helps patients find the practice, understand its services, and book appointments.

ECP Engage is led by marketing and communications experts with years of experience in the eyecare industry. That means they know the language of eyecare, the challenges ECPs face, and how to communicate value in a way that patients  – and search engines  – understand.

“No longer do ECPs need to manage their marketing on their own,” says Doern. “We’re here to support them with cost-effective tools and strategies tailored to the unique needs of their optometry practice. Our goal is for our customized services to make a practical impact on their bottom line.”

Marketing Technology News: Feature-Rich to Functionally Effective: Adjusting your Martech Strategy

W3era

After helping over 10,000 clients scale their digital presence since 2008, W3era is now doubling down on the one channel that consistently delivers Search.

“In today’s landscape, visibility without results is not enough. We exist to drive performance, and that means blending the best of organic and paid search strategies,” said Vikash Bharia, Head of Digital Marketing.

Why the Shift to Performance-Driven SEM?

The marketing world is no longer about choosing between SEO or PPC. W3era has recognized the need to unify them. This transition allows businesses to tap into complete search visibility, from top rankings to top ad spots.

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Key Focus Areas:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Answer Search Engine Optimization (AEO)
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• AI Powered SEO Tool (Wranker)
• Google Ads and Paid Media Campaigns
• Real-time performance dashboards
• Conversion-focused execution
• Smarter keyword targeting using proprietary tools

SEO Services in the USA

To strengthen its global footprint, W3era is now extending specialized SEO services for businesses in the USA. With proven expertise in local SEO, enterprise SEO, and technical SEO, the agency helps American brands capture top search rankings and convert visibility into measurable growth. From keyword research tailored to U.S. markets to Google Ads campaigns optimized for higher ROI, W3era ensures that businesses can compete effectively in one of the world’s most competitive digital landscapes.

Meet WRanker: W3era’s Free SEO Toolkit

As part of the rebrand, W3era introduces WRanker, a powerful set of SEO tools designed to simplify optimization for marketers, agencies, and business owners. The toolset includes:

• SEO Audits: Analyzer, Broken Link Check, Alt Text Checker
• SEO Planning Tools: Keyword Research, Schema Generator, Twitter Card Generator
• Management Tools: Sitemap Generator, Redirect Checker, Backlink Monitor
• Content Optimization: Readability, Dummy Content, Alt Text Generator
• Performance Metrics: Real-time keyword rankings, web vitals, and traffic analytics

USP: One dashboard. Real-time metrics. Zero cost.

“WRanker was born from our internal SEO needs. Today, it serves thousands of users with clarity, convenience, and cost-efficiency,” added Ashwini Rao.

Real Results, Real Clients

W3era’s clients have seen dramatic results:

• Healthcare Provider: +210% organic traffic, +25% leads in 5 months
• eCommerce Brand: 3X return on ad spend with SEO + PPC strategy
• Online Community: 300% jump in non-branded search

Recognized by the Industry

W3era is not just a service provider—it’s a trusted partner. The agency has been recognized with awards such as:

• Best SEO Agency (Clutch 2024)
• Top Google Ads Partner (Google Premier 2023)
• Fastest Growing Agency (GoodFirms 2022)

Certified with:

• Google
• SEMrush
• Meta
• HubSpot

W3era is a performance-driven SEM agency based in India, serving clients worldwide with scalable strategies in SEO and PPC. With a team of 150+ experts, W3era simplifies search marketing for SMBs, enterprises, and startups alike.

Marketing Technology News: From MarTech Stack to MarTech Fabric: Weaving Brand, Content, and Conversion Into One Thread

Write in to psen@itechseries.com to learn more about our exclusive editorial packages and programs.

Episode 226 Of The SalesStar Podcast:

The Future of Mobile-first Ad Experiences with Kunal Nagpal, Chief Business Officer at InMobi Advertising

Before we tell you how to use conversion data to enhance your top-of-funnel marketing, let’s brush up on a few fundamentals.

Defining a marketing funnel –

When marketers visualize a consumer’s roadmap from initial contact with the brand to finally purchasing the product, it is called a marketing funnel. A marketing funnel represents a buyer’s journey and helps marketers to optimize each step as the buyer moves through the funnel.

Right from increasing your website traffic to better lead generation, knowing the right way to maximize every stage of a marketing funnel can get you more conversions and better revenues.

Sending the bottom-of-the-funnel data to the top-of-the-funnel

Think of the entire marketing funnel as a loop. What goes in comes out, and what comes out goes in again, but marketing can rework, reshape, and reframe the aim of the data. When marketers want to send the already extracted at the bottom of the funnel to grab the attention of the retaining customers by sending personalized messages and increasing brand engagement, they create a loop.

Data flows throughout the loop and hence, the bottom-of-the-funnel data is retrofitted into the top-of-the-funnel activities. It helps marketers to:

• Decrease the customer acquisition cost.
• Increase customer engagement.
• Understand marketing attribution.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Eric Stine, Chief Operating Officer @ Sitecore

How does data flow from the funnel to the top of the funnel as output?

Before we explain how the data moves throughout the marketing funnel, check the infographic below:

Here’s how the customer data flows from the top to the bottom and again to the top of the marketing funnel.

1. New/returning customers

The first-hand information about the new customers is gathered from various customer acquisition channels and platforms. From websites and social media, to form submissions and app registrations, all the data collected from these touchpoints are added to a central data directory or database.

While the data of the new customers are purposely gathered, the data of a returning customer is already stored in the customer database. With the help of the UTM campaign tracking tag, the first touch data is collected for attributional purposes.

2. Customer data enrichment

For new customers, a minimum data set is collected for account activation, such as email address, phone number, marketing opt-in consent, and so on. When the customer agrees to such activation, email or other forms of brand communication are triggered.

On the other hand, for returning customers, it means collecting some additional information that will help marketers craft personalized messaging and product recommendations in the future. The data is collected through various digital channels, such as emails, websites, social media, etc.

With the help of the UTM campaign tracking tag, the middle-of-the-funnel attribution data is collected. For example, the specific action the prospect took after visiting the page. All the data is sent to the central database.

3. Customer conversion data

Depending on the business model, customer conversion data can take many forms. From online and offline sales, qualified leads generated to form sign-ups, and quality time spent on the app, all come under conversion data. Besides, the non-conversion data is also collected here, such as cart abandonments.

The data comes from various sources. They may come from outside sources and thus, at times conversion data lags in time. In such cases, marketers can use proxy data to move the data through the loop until actual data is received.

4. Inputs for top-of-the-funnel activities

At this stage, the customer conversion data is used to create a segmented audience for campaigns. It helps to acquire new customers and help push customers through the loop, such as retargeting for cart abandonment.

It even helps to create proprietary algorithms to help identify which customers are more likely to convert and in which channel.

Wrapping Up

Every marketer wants to reduce the cost of customer acquisition to improve ROI. It is easy to incline towards using the bottom-of-the-funnel insights as inputs for the top-of-the-funnel activities. Additionally, the transfer of data from the bottom to the top can happen automatically depending upon the martech stack you own. Since all the tools and systems are well-integrated, data can be periodically passed from one platform to another.

Such activities are essential when you want to serve your returning customers. Using the conversion data the top-of-the-funnel will always have updated data to guide the customers to the final purchase.

Marketing Technology News: The Content Crisis: How can Martech Solve the Disconnect?

Smartly, the leading AI-powered adtech company, has been recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies, Q4 2024. According to the Forrester evaluation, “Smartly strategically unifies workflows to produce, personalize, and measure creative, negating various point solutions.” “To us, this recognition validates our unwavering dedication to providing creative advertising technology that fuels the success of all stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem,” said Laura Desmond, CEO, Smartly. “We believe our placement as a leader in the Forrester Wave underscores our commitment to transforming advertising with AI-driven technology that unifies creative, media, and intelligence for high-impact results.

Smartly Creative, the company’s creative technology suite, enables brands to produce, personalize, and power full funnel intelligent creative at scale, delivering the volume of assets marketers need, at the velocity consumers expect — all while maintaining brand governance. With its predictive and generative AI technology, the platform generates 1 billion creative variants daily, ensuring that campaigns are relevant and engaging.

Shaping the Future with Intelligent Creative

In the report, Smartly received the highest scores in the strategy and current offering categories among all evaluated companies and the highest possible scores in the innovation and vision criteria.

Smartly offers a comprehensive suite of tools for creative automation, dynamic creative optimization, and media management, enabling marketers to streamline their workflows and deliver results such as 3.3x faster campaign set up, optimization, and reporting, 5.5x ROAS, and 42 minutes saved every hour.

Findings on Smartly from The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies report:

• Ranked as a leader with the top score in the strategy category and the highest possible score in the vision criterion
• Top score in the current offering category
• “Smartly’s platform is powered by extensive data inputs and feed-based capabilities for personalization as well as automated tagging tying creative with media data.”
• “The platform features solid assembly and versioning capabilities appealing to editors of all skill levels as well as sophisticated resizing using Smartly’s AI technology.”

Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company transforming ad experiences for brands and their consumers. Our comprehensive advertising platform seamlessly integrates the capabilities of media, creative, and intelligence to power more than 800 billion impressions and generate more than 300 billion creatives annually, delivering tangible business outcomes for brands and advertisers. We are the only company managing creative and media for 700+ brands worldwide and $5B in ad spend across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok. Our end-to-end technology, unmatched access to media platforms and exceptional customer service help Fortune 500 brands to reach and engage consumers and learn what performs best. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.

AI-driven advertising hinges on four key principles: transparency, fairness, privacy, and accountability. These principles aren’t just abstract concepts; they directly influence how brands create campaigns, connect with consumers, and build lasting trust. Let’s explore how each principle shapes advertising strategy and why it is critical for success.

Transparency: Building trust through clear AI use

Transparency means being upfront about how AI is used to create, target and place ads. For consumers, this transparency builds trust; they want to know why they’re seeing certain ads and how their data is being used. If they feel misled, brand trust can suffer.

Adopting transparency practices is essential for advertisers to meet emerging regulations like the EU AI Act. This involves clearly communicating when AI is involved in ad decisions. Brands that embrace transparency can differentiate themselves by actively demonstrating how they responsibly use AI.

Incorporating transparency into your advertising strategy means offering clear, accessible explanations of how AI makes decisions; aligning with disclosure protocols like C2PA; considering radical transparency such as watermarking for consumers; and staying ahead of legal requirements.

Fairness: Mitigating bias to ensure inclusive advertising

Fairness in AI is not just an inclusion issue; it’s a business imperative. If not properly managed, AI systems can unintentionally reinforce societal biases, potentially alienating specific consumer groups. For instance, in 2015, Amazon had to abandon its AI-based recruitment tool after it was discovered to be biased against women, as it had been trained on a decade’s worth of applicant data, predominantly featuring men.

Incorporating fairness into your strategy involves regular audits and ensuring diverse development teams catch potential biases. Fairness isn’t just about compliance; it’s about creating campaigns that resonate with a broad audience. Ensuring fairness through regular algorithm checks and diverse team input prevents costly reputational damage and ensures your ads appeal to all demographics. 

Tools like Pencil Pro’s Bias Breaker proactively ensure better representation by identifying and reducing biases related to gender, age, ethnicity and ability thus creating more inclusive and equitable outcomes. 

Privacy: Balancing personalisation with consumer rights

Hyper-personalisation is powerful, but it needs to be balanced with consumer privacy. Advertisers must navigate laws such as GDPR and CCPA, which have clear guidelines on how personal data can be used in targeting. Failure to respect privacy can lead to scandals, as seen in Clearview AI’s 2020 privacy violations.

However, innovations such as federated learning allow advertisers to personalise ads without directly accessing sensitive data. This technology enables advertisers to deliver relevant content while protecting user privacy and aligning with growing consumer concerns.

To maintain consumer trust and avoid legal repercussions, brands need to adopt privacy-conscious advertising strategies, leveraging technologies that allow for personalised experiences without overstepping privacy boundaries.

Accountability: Who’s responsible when AI goes wrong?

Brands must be accountable when AI-driven ad campaigns malfunction or yield unintended consequences. Establishing clear lines of responsibility is vital, especially when ethical concerns arise. A ‘human-in-the-loop’ approach ensures that while AI automates many processes, human oversight remains in place for high-stakes decisions.

An example here relates to Air Canada, whose AI-powered virtual assistant gave incorrect advice to a customer. The airline argued that it can’t be made liable for information provided by its chatbot. The tribunal member disagreed, claiming that the airline didn’t take ‘reasonable care to ensure its chatbot was accurate’. In Air Canada’s case, a lack of accountability led to backlash. 

By adopting frameworks like the Digital Advertising Alliance’s AI-Focused Privacy Principles or the upcoming EU AI Act, brands can prepare themselves for increased regulatory scrutiny. And implementing accountability measures, including human oversight, allows advertisers to safeguard their campaigns from ethical mishaps and align with new regulations.

Practical steps for advertisers

• Start with transparency: Be clear about how AI is used in ad placements and targeting. Implement tools to explain AI-driven decisions to consumers.
• Focus on Inclusion: Regularly audit AI systems for bias, and involve diverse teams in model development and model use. Use tools such as IBM’s AI Fairness 360 Toolkit to mitigate bias.
• Prioritise privacy: Adopt technologies such as federated learning to balance personalisation with privacy and stay compliant with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.
• Establish accountability: Implement a ‘human-in-the-loop’ approach to ensure AI decisions are made responsibly, and teams are held accountable. Adopt frameworks such as the EU AI Act to stay ahead of future regulations.

The question of how to regulate AI in advertising is indeed complex, but it’s also an exciting opportunity for innovation. While government regulations like GDPR provide a solid foundation for data protection, the rapid evolution of AI calls for more agile, industry-driven approaches.

Responsible AI isn’t just about ticking boxes for compliance, it’s a significant competitive advantage. Brands that prioritise ethical AI practices, such as transparent decision-making, deployment of diverse teams and unbiased targeting, are better positioned to build strong, lasting relationships with consumers. Conversely, irresponsible AI practices can severely damage a brand’s reputation, as we’ve seen in cases like the Air Canada incident.

As AI becomes more sophisticated in generating human-like content, new ethical challenges arise. Using synthetic media in advertising opens up creative possibilities, but it also raises important questions about authenticity and the risk of misuse. Clear guidelines and disclosures are essential to ensure consumers are not misled. Moreover, as AI reshapes the advertising landscape, equipping the workforce with technical skills and ethical training is crucial.

Navigating the intersection of AI and ethics in advertising requires a thoughtful strategy. By embracing transparency, fairness, privacy, and accountability, brands can not only comply with regulations but also deepen consumer trust and enhance campaign effectiveness. The future of advertising lies in harnessing AI responsibly to drive innovation while safeguarding consumer interests.

The time to integrate these principles is now. Every stakeholder, from advertisers to tech providers, must take proactive steps to ensure that AI strengthens, rather than erodes, consumer trust. By working together, the industry can shape a future where AI-driven advertising is both effective and intentional.

Personalization Has Come a Long Way

Taking a brief look back at personalization, the earliest examples of website personalization date back to the 1990s when retailers gained the ability to make product suggestions based on the history of a customer’s purchases using simple algorithms. Next, cookies made it possible for websites to track a user’s behavior and leverage that data to personalize experiences on their website. Despite being limited to a single device—a real disadvantage in today’s multichannel world—cookies do have their place. Then came the onset of machine learning, which analyzed behavioral data to make predictions about what users might be interested in, and finally, the explosion of social platforms, which enabled companies to make significant strides in personalizing experiences based on interactions with the platform.

And now that we are officially in the age of artificial intelligence-powered personalization, marketers can provide more tailored product recommendations, customized content creation and seamless omnichannel experiences based on real time data. Artificial intelligence in personalized marketing is a field poised for growth. It is expected to expand at compound annual growth rate of 27.1%, growing from 1.18 billion USD in 2023 to 77.5 billion USD by 2030 according to Future Data Statistics. Such growth is clearly sending marketers a message that those that do not embrace AI to deliver personalized experiences will be at clear risk of fewer conversions and diminished customer satisfaction rates and loyalty.

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Propensity Scoring Further Harnesses AI

Building on the growing capabilities of AI-powered personalization is the relatively new AI propensity scoring. Propensity modeling generates a propensity score which represents the probability that a visitor, lead or customer will take a specific action that can help predict the likelihood of a lead converting to a customer.

With conversion rates for most hovering between 2 – 4.3%,  means that for most, 95% of visitors don’t convert into paying customers. Using propensity scoring enables companies to better allocate resources in a more informed manner.

Propensity scoring can help an organization predict customer lifetime value, the total value of a customer’s transactions over their lifetime with a company, helping to identify who will buy more products and generate more revenue over their lifetime. This information can help marketers create targeted marketing campaigns and improve customer retention rates.

Propensity scoring can also be used to predict churn rates, helping to identify which customer data factors are associated with churn rates and direct efforts to keep customers onboard.

More Effective Target Marketing

When all is said and done, AI propensity scoring is a powerful, rather new tool that offers a competitive edge to businesses by enabling them to target their marketing efforts more effectively. Having the capability to anticipate customer behavior across multiple channels, coupled with the ability to customize and personalize interactions accordingly, not only enhances the experience for the user, but also optimizes conversion rates. By analyzing touchpoints and customer journey milestones, AI propensity scoring helps marketers ensure that every dollar spent is an investment towards a more predictable and profitable outcome. AI propensity scoring can help you achieve:

1. Segmentation Precision:

Categorizes potential customers into high, medium and low likelihood segments based on their probability to perform a specific action (for example making a purchase, attending an event, store visit) enabling laser-focused marketing strategies.

2. Targeted Engagement:

Predicts which users are most likely to engage to allow for the creation of targeted campaigns that resonate more effectively with these groups, thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion.

3. Efficiency in Resource Allocation:

Helps align marketing budgets with predictable outcomes to optimize the allocation of efforts and resources, concentrating them on campaigns and audiences with the highest potential for ROI.

In part due to the widespread news coverage of generative AI, artificial intelligence has clearly taken center stage. But in reality, businesses and marketers have been using predictive technologies for decades, beginning with retailers 30 years ago gaining the ability to make product suggestions based on the history of a customer’s purchases. With AI capabilities today, including propensity scoring, having the ability to analyze larger and larger datasets in real-time, gives marketers powerful new tools to further personalize interactions, enhancing the user experience while boosting conversion rates.

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Also Catch – Episode 204 Of The SalesStar Podcast: Website Personalization Best Practices with David Brutman, Chief Product Officer, Co founder of Folloze

Nexxen, a global, unified advertising technology platform with deep expertise in video and Connected TV (“CTV”), today announced the launch of its Cross-Screen Measurement solution in Australia. Designed to enable advertisers to effectively measure unique and co-viewer reach as well as audience demographics across CTV and linear television, Cross-Screen Measurement offers a more comprehensive view of advertisers’ campaigns and audiences.

Additionally, Nexxen has upgraded its Total Attribution solution to include linear TV sources; it integrates online digital activities – including CTV streaming and now linear TV – with website visitor behaviours to offer comprehensive insights into the impact of omnichannel campaign strategies across all digital screens. Together, these offerings empower advertisers and agencies to directly link activation to specific campaign goals, leverage insights to refine advertising strategies and measure the effectiveness of their investments.

Cross-Screen Measurement and Total Attribution are part of Nexxen TV Intelligence – a full suite of audience insights, activation and measurement solutions – and both are powered by exclusive automatic content recognition (“ACR”) data from more than 1.3 million opted-in devices across Australia, provided by VIDAA – the leading Smart TV operating system powering Hisense, Toshiba and other original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) brands.

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“Advertisers know too well the challenge of measuring TV and digital campaigns together effectively,” said Jay Kim, Director of Analytics and Solutions at Nexxen. “Through our exclusive ACR data, we have been able to supercharge our measurement and reporting capabilities. giving our partners even deeper insights into audience behaviour and campaign performance. As a result, they’re able to optimise their advertising strategies with greater precision and achieve higher ROI across both linear and digital platforms.”

Nexxen empowers advertisers, agencies, publishers and broadcasters around the world to utilise video and Connected TV in the ways that are most meaningful to them. Comprised of a demand-side platform (DSP), supply-side platform (SSP), ad server and data management platform (DMP), Nexxen delivers a flexible and unified technology stack with advanced and exclusive data at its core. Our robust capabilities span discovery, planning, activation, measurement and optimisation – available individually or in combination – all designed to enable our partners to reach their goals, no matter how far-reaching or hyper niche they may be.

Nexxen is headquartered in Israel and maintains offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and is traded on the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NEXN) and NASDAQ (NEXN).

The Martech Weekly (TMW), a Melbourne-based global leader in Martech news, has today officially announced its partnership with Alium, a New York-headquartered buyer intelligence platform that shares what end-users are really saying about enterprise tech.

Globally, marketers have spent up big on shiny new Martech, navigating the minefield of 14,000-plus solutions. Indeed, many marketers have rushed into ill-advised and expensive purchases, fearing their business was at imminent risk of being outcompeted by earlier-adopting competitors.

How we got here

Marketers are experts in marketing, not technology. Even if they have above-average tech literacy, C-suite decision-makers are usually not entirely confident about being able to identify the appropriate solutions for their organisation’s needs.

Sensibly, CMOs and executives typically seek expert advice before making a significant Martech investment.

But that ‘expert advice’ is frequently of questionable provenance and reliability.

The data around the worryingly low utilisation of Martech suggests that something is going wrong somewhere along the line.

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This is where prominent tech-industry players Alium and TMW have spotted a gap in the market. Their new joint venture will provide reassuringly transparent market intelligence. Market intelligence that prioritises providing honest customer reviews to those charged with making high-stakes purchasing decisions.

Introducing the new generation of market intelligence disruptors

Juan Mendoza is an Australian entrepreneur based in Melbourne. He worked for The Lumery, Conversionry and Fusion MusicTech before starting a marketing and technology newsletter at the height of the Covid lockdowns. Four years on, The Martech Weekly (TMW) is a fast-growing company whose content is avidly consumed by senior figures at some of the world’s largest media, technology, consulting, advertising and research companies. (Think Google, Facebook, The New York Times and many major global consulting brands.) TMW has an increasingly global presence, with customers and subscribers in over 65 countries.

Jonathan Sherry is a seasoned entrepreneur based in New York. In 2008, he co-founded CB Insights. Over the course of his 11+ years as its COO, he built and led the company to become the venture capital industry’s preeminent source of research and intelligence. In 2022, Sherry launched Alium, a buyer intelligence platform providing unfiltered access to what buyers are saying about enterprise tech. Alium is backed by Greycroft and Primary Venture Partners.

The introductory email that sparked a promising enterprise

Both Mendoza and Sherry believe the market-intelligence behemoths are torn between conflicting financial incentives.

Mendoza explains the venture was born out of a long-simmering frustration with the status quo. “What have CMOs who want a worthwhile insight into the capacities and performance of a marketing technology typically done?” he asks.

“Maybe they pay a consultant $50,000 to take responsibility for the decision. Perhaps they just buy from a brand in the upper right quadrant, believing they’ll never get fired for doing that. Whatever is happening, it’s not working. Until relatively recently, businesses were spending ever more on Martech but then failing to make much use of it. Inevitably, companies have now reacted by reducing their spend on Martech. That’s understandable, but short-sighted.”

After Mendoza published an essay highlighting, yet again, the unsatisfactoriness of the current arrangements, Sherry emailed him out of the blue. First, an online friendship and then a business plan was born.

“Like Juan, I’ve long had issues with the established players,” Sherry adds. “They clip the ticket at various points, taking money from both tech buyers and sellers. This leads to conflicting incentives, which degrades the quality of the analysis they provide.”

What the future looks like

Mendoza and Sherry have concluded the $50 billion technology research industry is ripe for disruption. Both have runs on the board, so it would be risky for complacent incumbents to assume they have little to fear.

With negotiations now finalised, Mendoza and Sherry are excited to announce their new joint venture. Here’s some further information on how the TMW-Alium tie-up will function.

Alium, a new entrant into the buyer intelligence space, interviews experts with first-hand experience purchasing, implementing, and using marketing technology. Alium compiles this data to provide unparalleled insights into the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of various marketing technologies from the people whose opinions matter the most: practitioners.

TMW keeps busy marketing technology leaders ahead of the industry with their Wednesday Martech briefing and in-depth Sunday essays. Additionally, TMW identifies the most promising and innovative marketing technologies each year with the TMW 100, ranking the 100 most innovative marketing technologies globally from 1st to 100th place, decided by the marketing technology community and a panel of nine global experts.

From July 1, Alium and TMW will join forces to bring greater clarity to how marketing technology is being used, bought and sold. This will give marketing-industry executives an unprecedented, long-overdue understanding of which Martech tools are worth the outlay.

“We’ve settled on the slogan, ‘Transforming the Martech decision-making landscape’, ” Mendoza says.

“And that’s exactly what we’re about to do,” adds Sherry.

The Martech Weekly (TMW) is a media company that creates content consumed by leading marketing and technology executives in more than 65 countries. TMW also hosts the TMW 100, an industry-first awards program recognising the most innovative marketing tech companies from 1st to 100th place globally.

Alium optimises enterprise technology purchasing for buyers and sellers through actionable zero-party intelligence that is shared by both parties. Buyers leverage Alium to discover, select and evaluate vendors that meet their needs. Vendors use Alium to drive transparent, measurable ROI for their go-to-market teams. We help sales teams source and close more deals. We help customer success teams avoid churn and drive upsell. We help marketers optimise ad spend and unlock competitive intel. Alium is backed by Primary and Greycroft, and is built by the team that founded CB Insights.

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