Competition for audience engagement is at an all-time high and brands need the right tools to cut through the clutter

The growing abundance of marketing technology has brought with it a palpable sense of uncertainty. At this point in the history of marketing, and humanity for that matter, one would think marketers would have discovered the mystic formula for sustained growth and customer retention. Fortunately, at least for marketing service providers, nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that customers are as erratic as ever with the daily glut of promotions and products pitched their way. A piece of advertising can offer entertainment value, go viral on YouTube, obtain millions of views and still not equate to an influx in revenue. That’s not to say it can’t – just ask Wren about their post-“First Kiss” sales spike – but it’s nearly impossible to control what will catch fire in the public conscious and direct customers through the purchase funnel.

Cats, for example, will always be cute and prone to partake in shenanigans. But they too have a saturation point and are not a direct bridge to sales growth.

So what does all this mean for iGaming marketers and counterparts in other industries?Earlier this month, Scott Brinker of the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog posted an article detailing the growing prominence of marketing technology. Brinker’s “Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic” included a stunning 1,876 vendors that specialize in some form of marketing technology, across a range of categories and sub-categories. That’s up from 947 companies identified at the start of 2014, representing a 98% increase.

Inspired by LUMA Partners, which compiles its own sector landscapes for gaming, content marketing, display, search, video, mobile, social and more, Brinker then segmented the vendors into five core areas: Marketing Experiences, Marketing Operations, Middleware, Backbone Platform and Infrastructure.Without even getting into the nitty-gritty of the report we can see there are more markets, channels and solutions providers than ever before. There wouldn’t be 1,876 (and presumably more) marketing technology firms out there if there wasn’t an emerging need as result of this diversity. Even if there was a paint-by-numbers guide to viral videos, breaking the internet and setting the Twitterverse aflutter, it’s not something that would translate universally across industries or markets.

The supergraphic serves to remind us that yes, marketers too are human, and need a little help sometimes. It also lets us know that the help is there as long as we can figure out how we want to build our brands and the direction in which we would like to steer them.

Marketers should already be adept at narrowing their focus to strategize in response to defined objectives. The combination of this skillset and a comprehensive listing, such as that provided by Brinker, will help savvy marketers become more informed and offer more educated guidance to their executives.

Another purpose served by the graphic is to help marketers appreciate what level they are at in grasping the state of marketing in 2015. Should a marketing professional conclude they are not as up to speed as they would like to be, it will help them to more accurately pinpoint where they can gain further knowledge and elevate their value within their particular organization.

Regardless of what is taken away from the graphs and sector landscapes, there is one crucial thing that must be remembered by marketers: just because there are more companies emerging with the goal of providing answers to marketing’s questions, they will never act as a replacement for the research and diligence needed to make the best decisions for a particular organization.Contact Income Access Technologies for more information about affiliate marketing, mobile tracking, ad serving and how to make the most of your marketing in 2015.