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Gartner Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing & Advertising, 2016 Adds Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics

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Real-time marketing techniques, personalization, the use of contextual clues, and the rapid convergence of marketing technology (Martech) and advertising technology (Adtech) are four key forces driving the future of data-centric marketing. The 2016 Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising reflects how the combined effect of these four forces are fueling innovative new uses of analytics, contextual clues enabled by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, machine learning, personalization and a more data-centric approach to driving marketing strategies.

For 2016, Gartner has combined the Digital Marketing and Advertising Hype Cycles into a single report. Synchronizing Martech and Adtech strategies to deliver the best customer experience possible is the new reality for many marketers, as is the need to show measurable value from marketing investments. These factors, along with the shared technologies of marketing analytics, marketing automation, predictive analytics and shared data management platforms (DMPs), led Gartner to combine both hype cycles into a single report.

The Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising, 2016 is shown here:

Key takeaways from the Hype Cycle include the following:

  • Gartner sees an upsurge in inquiries in the areas of Ad Blocking, B2B Marketing Analytics, and Mobile Wallets, driving their inclusion in the Hype Cycle for the first time this year. Gartner reports seeing soaring adoption of Ad Blocker technologies and defines it as the use of software to remove or filter the delivery of content identified as advertising from material published on the internet. In 2015, PageFair and Adobe estimated ad revenue blocked would rise from $5.8 billion in 2014 to$20.3 billion in 2016. That represents about 12.5% of the 2016 global internet advertising revenue forecast by PwC. B2B Marketing Analytics are also on the Hype Cycle for the first time.  Gartner defines these as SaaS-based applications built around data science/machine learning models leveraging both internal (from CRM lead management and sales force automation [SFA] systems) and external data to identify segments, accounts, and leads with a higher propensity to buy.
  • Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics has the potential to increase win rates, improve average deal size, and accelerate sales cycles. Improving close rates with sales reps across direct and indirect channels by selectively offering promotions, incentives and rebates is an area where predictive B2B marketing analytics is also paying off. 6sense, Datanyze, EverString, Infer, InsideSales.com, Lattice Engines, Leadspace, Mintigo, Radius, and SalesPredict are leading vendors in this area today.
  • Personalization continues to be a challenge for the majority of marketers. Personalization ranks among the top three challenges facing multichannel marketers according to Gartner’s 2015 Multichannel Marketing Survey. The study found that marketers struggle with an inability to reach audiences at the right moments using advanced technology (29%). The study also found marketers have difficulty determining which channels best serve their audience (29%) and how best to tailor creative and content for each channel (24%). Marketers also have challenges sourcing, normalizing and harvesting audience data for segmentation (21%). All these areas are essential parts of personalization.
  • Nine technologies have been removed from the Hype Cycle this year. The nine technologies no longer included are Mobile Advertising, Digital Commerce Marketing, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), Social TV, Gamification, Sharing Economy, Neurobusiness, Privacy Management Tools and Lead Management. Gartner found that digital commerce has grown in importance to marketers and is a leading area of marketing technology investment. The Hype Report states that Digital Commerce technology is not a single, discrete system, platform or software application, but rather a strategy and use case that extends across multiple technologies.

Sources: Gartner's 2016 Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising Identifies Four Forces Driving a Data-Centric Future for Marketers and Gartner Digital Marketing and Advertising Hype Cycle 2016 (PDF, free, opt-in reqd).