thought leadership - Martech Therapy

Why skipping the RFP isn’t always an option and how to avoid the biggest traps

Four practical steps that help teams protect themselves when the process can’t be avoided

If you have been following my latest articles, The CDP RFP Dating Game and The Reference Call That Changed Everything, you will understand this article even more. This article, a follow-up in a sense, eventhough my goal was not to make a series, was partly inspired by Tealium’s Jay Calavas comment on my LinkedIn post, stating:

“Skip the RFP and focus on use cases and measurable outcomes!”

And I’ll be frank, Jay is right: use cases should lead. I’ve even worked on projects where we skipped the RFP entirely and validated tools

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

When the customers speak, even Gartner listens

Hightouch’s Strong Performer nod shows how Voice of the Customer reshapes the CDP debate

Gartner released its 2025 Voice of the Customer report for CDPs at the end of August, and, well, I don’t want to say I told you so, “this was identified early on as a likely outcome”.

Memedroid on X: "I told you so #memes #professional #learning #itoldyouso #funny https://t.co/IRPCi2lj1x" / X

As I suggested in my earlier pieces on Gartner and the CDP market, where, based on Peer Insights, I generated a ‘review-driven’ alternative quadant, Hightouch scored a ‘Leader’ position compared to being completely excluded from the original report.

Based on the newly published official ‘review-driven’ quadrant, Hightouch has now earned a Strong Performer recognition. It’s always interesting when predictions line up with

The real Martech ROI equation

Revenue minus stack costs does not equal a return on investment, so what does?

Have you ever seen this quote:

“The first time you go through it, you don't understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don't understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn't bother you anymore.”

If you are reading this article, you might be inclined to think that this quote is from some notable Martech leader describing your Martech stack. Nothing is further from the truth. The quote is

Before you deploy your CDP, train your crew

From naval drills to Martech deployments, why practice still makes the difference

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating → CDP projects don’t just test your tech stack, they test your team. And most of the time, that test happens in real time, under pressure, with stakes that no one thought to rehearse.

After I published the piece on CDPs as a kind of digital transformation stress test, the comments and direct messages lit up with something that felt oddly familiar. People weren’t just reacting to the tech insights; the internet is filled to the brim with those. They were describing moments of confusion, panic, last-minute scrambles, and hard

Hotel 626 was “fun” until the phone rang

How far marketers went before privacy caught up... back in 2008!

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch with my son, letting Youtube autoplay its way into the stranger corners of the internet, when we landed on a video from the channel Visual Venture. It was a video titled “Kids Games Too Disturbing For Kids” which included a piece on a sinister game from 2008 called Hotel 626.

He laughed at the grainy graphics and theatrical jump scares. Don’t judge him, he was born in 2013 and never experienced graphics like we did. I sat there thinking, this was the kind of lead magnet marketers could

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