Digital advertising platform Criteo this week released its “State of Digital Advertising:2021” report, based on an international survey of 1,000 senior marketing executives. The main takeaway is that, although there was an overall drop in sales, ecommerce sales have risen, up 14% YoY in December 2020.

Other headlines:

• Website sales are the number one influence on marketing planning;
• Omnichannel strategies are critical; and
• There’s concern about over-reliance on walled gardens.

With digital marketing driving success comes increased burden and responsibility for marketing teams. “Seven out of 10 respondents in our study agreed that the marketing function in their organization became more important during the pandemic.” Marketing now has a role in the customer journey from acquisition all the way through to sales and retention.

Why we care. There’s an important message here, which we’re hearing from other sources too. With the entire customer journey leaning towards all-digital, marketers are going to own more and more of it, including the technology and operations which support it.

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Earlier this week, we asked whether any tool which helps a marketer do their job can therefore be counted as a martech tool. The topic led to a series of discussions on LinkedIn. Here are some of the latest contributions.

“Important to not get stuck in definitions/ responsibility silos, and focus on the outcome, together. One thing is for sure, with the rise of no code and specific point solutions, your software is becoming even more a competitive differentiator in the digitial economy, and the clear lines between for example sales and marketing get blurry as well.” Henk-jan ter Brugge, Philips.

“I think labels are becoming less and less important. Yes, it’s important for the charts and analyst reports. Same with titles – Growth Marketer, Demand Generation, Sales Enablement, Revenue Marketing, etc. The important thing is making sure any corporate technology purchases being considered are evaluated by a cross functional team that can contribute requirements and think of ways they can use it or identify tools that might already be available that could become redundant.” Kimberlee Stephens, Hushly.

“I personally think the term ‘martech’ itself really is a market category you choose to position your product in and it should be up to the vendors to choose that category. Impossible to say what feature set makes a valid ‘martech’ product.” Timo Faber, dampioneers.

Read “When martech isn’t martech” here.

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“If ever there was a year of rapid disruption and transformation, 2020 was it. We didn’t just spend more time online, we completely changed the way we manage our day-to-day existence.” Brendan McCarthy, CMO, Criteo (see Advertising above).