2020 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

All Content > Enterprise News Story > Northeast

Awarded to

Alison Weissbrot, Senior Editor; Ryan Joe, Managing Editor

Entry details

Oversold And Overpromised: Marketers Move Away From DMPs

Issue or publication date: December 16th, 2019
Publication name: AdExchanger
Publishing company: Access Intelligence
Website home page: https://adexchanger.com/

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

AdExchanger’s mission is to demystify the esoteric digital marketing and media space. We empower marketers, publishers and others with information that counteracts the rising complexity that has resulted from an influx of data and technology.

There are a few ways we do this:

We help readers understand the technology. The overcrowded ad tech and marketing technology landscape poses a daunting challenge to marketer and publisher executives who need to rationalize their vendor selection process. Some estimate there were more than 6,000 marketing and advertising technology companies operating in 2018.

We help readers understand the marketplace. Among this crowded advertising and marketing landscape, Google, Facebook and Amazon dominate advertising spending and account for most growth, leaving smaller players to find ways to survive – or get acquired.

We help readers understand the data. Platforms and devices have multiplied, leaving huge trails of data for marketers to interpret as they strive to send the right ad to the right person at the right time.

Our news and features illustrate these dynamics, along with thought leadership from industry experts, two podcasts and a cheeky weekly comic strip featuring AdExchanger Man.

We engage readers via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We keep them abreast of regular news coverage in a daily newsletter and send breaking news alerts as stories develop. We also bring readers and leaders together at three US conferences per year.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

A decade ago, marketers became enamored with the data management platform (DMP), sold as a technology to manage and segment all of their data before using it to put their marketing budgets into action. Marketers bought into the expensive technology, and early DMPs saw multimillion-dollar exits to tech giants Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle, which acquired DMPs as they built their marketing cloud technology stacks.

Today, marketers feel a palpable frustration with DMPs. Senior editor Alison Weissbrot spoke with marketers and agency executives who felt they were sold a dysfunctional piece of technology that didn’t deliver on what it promised. Marketers were forced to spend thousands of dollars on consultants to do cost-heavy integrations and get their DMPs to work properly. Some hired talent in house just to manage the DMP full time.

In today’s regulatory environment with increasing privacy protections, marketers are wary of the DMP’s focus on data collection. So after years of frustration and millions of dollars, marketers are now abandoning the technology across the board.

This story required getting marketers to publicly discuss a sensitive topic involving three of the world’s largest technology providers. Alison got multiple high-level marketers to speak candidly about their frustration with DMPs in a story that highlights what happens when companies buy into the latest shiny tech object.

This story struck a nerve, receiving an outpouring of feedback from industry leaders supporting claims made in the article. It was Alison’s most-read article ever and one of AdExchanger’s Top 10 articles of 2019.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://adexchanger.com/platforms/oversold-and-overpromised-marketers-move-away-from-dmps/

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