salesforce - Martech Therapy

The CDP split is official (and it’s not the one vendors were selling)

For years, CDPs have been stretched like the industry’s Spandex. Data foundation one moment, orchestration layer the next, now even the “context brain” for AI. In this year’s Magic Quadrant, Gartner finally names the split. And it changes how everything should be read.

Reading this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms gave me a familiar feeling.

Not, not that of reading a short novel, with its 46 pages. Not excitement. Not disbelief. More the quiet recognition you get when something you’ve been circling for a while finally lands on paper. The conclusions didn’t come out of nowhere. They arrived right on time for the category.

For years now, CDPs have been asked to stretch in every possible direction. Think of them as the industry’s Spandex. One moment they’re a data foundation. Then an orchestration layer. Then

The reference call that changed everything

A reminder, based on a true story, that even when teams do their homework, the CDP market still stacks the deck, and what to do about it.

Last week, after publishing The CDP Dating Game, my LinkedIn inbox lit up, and the number of subscribers to this Substack jumped. Marketers on the brand side reached out privately with a mix of relief and frustration. Heck, I even spoke to a few at the Martech World Forum who reacted in the same manner. Relief that someone had finally put words to what they’d been experiencing. Frustration that they’re stuck in a market where even defining what a CDP is has become an impossible task.

One marketer admitted in confidence that they no longer bother correcting their

“Who's winning the AI agent war in Martech?”

Michele Nieberding on CDPs, MCPs, and Martech strategy

This one’s been a long time coming. After a few reschedules, I finally had the pleasure of chatting with Michele Nieberding, and we went straight into the deep end of AI agents, the chaos of MCPs, and why marketers need to stop slapping "AI" on triggers and calling it innovation. We covered everything from Salesforce’s latest moves to why Aampe might just be the next unicorn in Martech.

Michele shares how product marketers are finding their way in the new wave of agentic thinking, what companies are getting wrong about AI observability, and her predictions on who’s

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