What Happens When Technology Meets Marketing

Tis the night before MarTech, when all is quiet and the pre-event panic has played out. Everything that could be done has been done. So as we wait for D-Day, here are a few thoughts shared by our CEO, Laura Chite. Laura has a solid background in both marketing and technology. With this being our first-ever Africa MarTech Summit, the stakes are high.

You have a rich background in both marketing and technology. What are some of the shifts you have noticed in the industry over the last 10 years to date?

The major shifts have been from the traditional marketing tactics. For example, we have moved from on-ground activations with flyers and lots of giveaways, generic messaging, poor targeting and feedback methods to a more precise targeted, relevant and feedback way of doing things. This has been enabled by technology. It has taken time for those of us who are traditional to accept and adapt to this new way of doing this but in the long run, we have realised that it has improved our reach, frequency and decision-making during campaign planning.

Now that you are in tech, with a background in marketing, you were the perfect person to host The MarTech Debate. What kind of insights surprised you?

This is very exciting for me, especially considering I have been smack in the middle of marketing and technology for the most part of my career. I have been revelling from the impact for MarTech due to working for a tech company and I am looking forward to my fellow marketers embracing this new way of doing things. I do know for sure, that part of the problem is the lack of information of what is available out there for marketers to take advantage of. We do know the power of social media with regards to sharing information but the bigger picture is how do you convert this info to work for you from a business perspective and show ROI on your budget.

How do you make sure you are still relevant to your audience, how do you know what your customer is saying about your brand out there, how do you respond to the customer in real-time? All these things are very important for any brand to survive today. Customer retention and acquisition is the reason why we are in business, and our budgets are being slashed daily due to the shrinking business environment.

So, I expected the speakers and panelists would share their insights, experience, and knowledge of how we can also take advantage of the tools that we have today to works for us without fear. Embrace the new way of doing things and be a little more adventurous and remain relevant. Our partners have some of the most amazing solutions to offer that will blow away our delegates and our speakers are experienced marketers who have embraced technology and seen tangible and amazing results to date. So, we must learn as a community to share and support each other. This is why CIO East Africa is hosting the first-ever MarTech Summit as a leading organisation in marketing and technology.

What were you looking forward to the most about the Africa MarTech Summit?

The tech solutions that are out there and how we can immediately take advantage of them. We are in the 4th Industrial Revolution, technology is supposed to make everything much easier than before, so how do I immediately hit the button and get moving in 3 days with my campaign and start seeing results? How do I break down this conversation with my team so that they understand why we are making the shift to technology in the way we do things? How do I show results immediately to the company and turn around the business especially after a hard 2020?

Can you tell us a little about The MarTech Debate?

The idea behind this debate was to create a conversation between the old and the new ways of marketing. We would like our delegates to start thinking about how they are doing things currently and are they willing to try a new way? Are they agile enough for the future? Are we making too much noise about MarTech and maybe it doesn’t really matter? So, we are going to start the conversation, but hope to continue it during the MarTech Summit.

We are looking at a good mix of CIOs and marketers in a virtual event. How do you think they will interact with each other?

This is one of the biggest partnerships that has been waiting to happen. Remember that technology has now become a partner of all the business divisions in organizations today. We are looking at a two-way learning process here – Marketers will understand why it is important that technology understands what they are trying to achieve and can now work together in reporting great results. The building of dashboards, data analytics, and more require the support of the technology department.

For the tech department, a better understanding as to why marketers do what they do, why they campaign, how can they make it better using tech insights for a better understanding of the brand…and best of all – how to demystify tech for the rest of the organisation and build a brand around it for their colleagues.

Remember our technology people have a big problem with how they communicate the amazing things they do. With marketing, this will be a great opportunity for them to learn something. Finally and most importantly to me as the CEO of CIO East Africa, is the value of CIO 100 Awards. We build a great partnership between the two divisions and can see more winning opportunities with marketing supporting tech with the application process.

Who are some of the partners who have come on board and what makes them exciting?

We have Google, Meltwater, Oracle, KeNIC. These are great organisations and market leaders in their own right. They drive great tech solutions in the marketing space and have invested in the R&D of solutions that are agile, easy to use, and execute ASAP. What is even better is that they have local resources that will support any of the solutions that all the marketers are interested in. I am looking forward to their content and hoping that we can engage our delegates further after the Summit as they cannot share all their amazing solutions in the Summit.

It is not too late to register for the Africa MarTech Summit 2021.