Data’s 3D’s

When thinking about the critical dimensions of marketing technology, an effective marketer has three levers:

• Scale of the data
• Complexity of the data
• Speed at which the data can be evaluated

For the last 20 years, the marketing technology (or MarTech) space has lagged behind advertising technology (AdTech) and financial technology (FinTech) in being able to deliver in all three dimensions, with MarTech historically focusing mainly on complexity and scale at the expense of speed. The reality is that most consumer-scale marketing technology solutions were built on platforms originally created in the 1990s, based primarily on direct mail and email marketing data. Over time, most solutions simply bolted on additional features and functionality as new channels and data emerged, but never optimized these increasingly complex solutions for speed.

While the MarTech space has generally developed at a slower rate over the past 20 years, AdTech companies like Google and Facebook are at the forefront of the data conversation, leveraging complex algorithms and testing to ensure hyper-relevant content for their vast audiences. DoubleClick’s rise to prominence in the AdTech space culminated in its acquisition by Google in 2007, paving the way for innovative new methods of targeting and reporting for advertising and media clients. Mastery of data this complex, particularly at high speeds, has had a game-changing effect on how advertisers identify and target their audiences.

FinTech solved the data equation even more aggressively in the 1990s and early 2000s. In its pursuit of high-frequency trading, the FinTech space invested in software and broad infrastructure solutions designed to process billions of event-level data in milliseconds to buy and sell assets. In a space where every fractional advantage can mean a difference of millions of dollars, speed became the sole focus for FinTech. The reality is that FinTech has been working with data no more complex than in the MarTech space, but the focus on speed is what enabled the sector to make huge strides in data evaluation over the past twenty years.

Historically, speed has not been as important a factor in the MarTech space. However, looking at the advances in AdTech and FinTech over the past twenty years, it is clear that MarTech is due for a revolutionary transformation. Today, compelling MarTech solutions need to leverage data for deep personalization, one-to-one marketing, and rapid response. These solutions will enable marketing departments to make huge strides in how they evaluate data, just as we’ve seen great progress in the AdTech and FinTech spaces.

What excites us at ActionIQ is that we’ve pulled together the three critical dimensions – scale, complexity, and speed – in order to deliver a solution that leapfrogs those alternatives that have historically relied on outdated technology platforms. While alternative solutions may slap a fresh coat of paint on old technology, we’ve solved the underlying data problem by building a platform from the ground up. This platform enables our customers to scale up to 100% of customer data at speeds never before offered in the MarTech space.  

In bringing together scale, complexity, and speed, we’re enabling marketing departments to operate exponentially more efficiently than before, all with the same personnel. ActionIQ is leading the charge in bringing marketing technology into the 21st century through the world’s fastest database, highly flexible and scalable analytics, and deep marketing insights.

When looking at the revolutionary improvements to data access and analysis in AdTech and FinTech over the past twenty years, we’ve identified a unique and critically important opportunity to put step-change solutions into the hands of marketers today. It is time to usher marketing departments into the 21st century with a scalable, flexible, and fast solution.