How Blockchain AdTech Gets Into the Enterprise…

TL:DR; Crypto MarTech solutions will enter at the director level of the enterprise, much like the waves of disruption that preceded it.

Yesterday, Donny’s post, Why 48 companies step up to Blockchain AdTech, gave a great overview of the huge amount of attention that the intermediary-heavy sector of AdTech is getting from companies.

All of them believe blockchain affords a better way to deliver value to the enterprise.

There are plenty of naysayers out there that blockchain systems and AdTech will ever work, but there are plenty of people (and I am one of them) that think the promise of blockchain (remove intermediaries in a value exchange) offers a solution to the mess that is the current AdTech system.

We’re revamping the Blockchain MarTech Landscape for version 3 and we’re seeing continued growth across the board as well as in AdTech in particular, so more and more companies think there’s a “there” there.

That’s great from the supplier side, but what about from the client side?

How Blockchain/Crypto AdTech Penetrates the Enterprise

A few weeks ago, I was the keynote speaker at the IAB Tech Lab blockchain event. All of the key players in the blockchain ad tech space were there, as well as some of the most forward-thinking agencies and brands.

In my presentation, I shared a hypothesis, based on my experience at Sprinklr and having studied the intersection of marketing and new technology for 20 years now.

While the CMO and VP levels are certainly aware and possibly intrigued by the potential of blockchain MarTech, I suggested that what would happen is that people at the Director level in brands and leading agency personnel would start conducting their own tests. They’d buy tokens on exchanges and expense it in small enough amounts that either no one would notice or their bosses gave them tacit approval to execute.

They would run tests, working with small boutique consulting firms (like the Blockchain MarTech Research & Insights Unit of Never Stop Marketing– now you know why we started it), and engage directly with the vendors.

Once they had some proof-of-concept working, they could confidently go to their boss (and boss’ boss) to pitch larger scale implementation.

We saw this happen in Social Media. The Director level (and sometimes even the Manager level) would start a Facebook Page or Twitter account. That’s how it took hold in the enterprise and it forced the hands of upper management (combined with the massive growth on the consumer side, of course).

So, I threw that out there.

Right and Wrong

Afterwards, I got a lot of feedback on the presentation and it turns out that I was both right and wrong.

I was right in that many people agreed that this was indeed the path that crypto would take in the enterprise.

But I was wrong in the sense that….it’s already happening.

I had a number of agency folks come up to me and tell me that they are, in fact, already doing what I had suggested would happen.

Now, whether blockchain and AdTech is just a hype machine or a true liberator of value remains to be seen, but what is pretty clear is that there are a huge number of experiments going on from the product side (as Donny pointed out and our Landscape demonstrates).

Going all the way back to Dandelion Marketing days, I am fairly convinced that with enough tests out there that (in the grand scheme of things) are not that expensive, someone is going to figure it out.

Now, we see that there’s real, legitimate demand on the buy side, since there is obvious pain.

We will be tracking this closely and helping enterprise clients understand how to make sense of what is going on.