Even with the rapid advancement of marketing technology, 61 percent of marketers feel that it will never threaten their jobs, according to a new study from PR and digital marketing agency Walker Sands Communications.
The survey found that 56 percent of marketers believe an equal mix of creativity and technology will be the driving force behind strategy five years from now. In fact, more than 40 percent of marketers believe that same equal mix dominates today, according to the firm’s new State of Marketing Technology 2018 report, Maximizing the Value of Martech Innovations.
“Advancements in technology are driving the evolution of marketing to become more technologically-focused, but it would be unwise to predict that technology would replace marketers completely,” said Jennifer Mulligan, marketing technology account director at Walker Sands, in a news release. “Marketers recognize the power behind tools like AI to help them do their jobs better, but the reality is that humans aren’t being replaced now, or even in the foreseeable future. We’ll need the human touch and reason to create and execute effective marketing campaigns.”
The report also found that nearly 70 percent of marketers don’t believe the perfect marketing stack exists today, and it may never
While 56 percent of marketers feel that the martech landscape has evolved rapidly or at light speed over the last year, budget remains the top hindrance to companies investing in martech solutions. This leaves human creativity to fill in the gaps and balance out the challenges that come with new technology.
Additional findings from the report include:
- Only 28 percent of marketers feel their company’s use of martech has advanced at the same pace as the martech landscape.
- One in seven (15 percent) marketers say their company is very agile when it comes to embracing new solutions for their martech stacks, which is causing some real investment pains.
- IoT ranks more popular than other emerging technologies like AI and VR among marketers, with 13 percent of organizations already fully implemented and another 56 percent planning to implement.
Download the full report here.
The Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2018 study is based on a survey of over 300 marketers conducted in Q1 2018.
