MarTech is less than two weeks away: Thursday’s Daily Brief

MarTech’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s digital marketing leader. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and not all brands are quite there yet.

I hope you download and read our new MarTech Replacement Survey. Not only is it free; we don’t even ask you to fill out a form. The overall takeaway is that digital transformation is accelerating. Not a surprise, I know, but it was interesting to put some numbers on it.

Personally, I’m pleased to see brands paying attention to their marketing technology stacks, looking for better solutions, more seamless integrations and superior features. Because not every brand has things working smoothly quite yet. Okay, here are three stories I have, just from yesterday morning.

I bought silver polish from Amazon a week ago and I am being re-targeted already for more silver polish. Like it’s something you buy four times a month. I bought a couple of soap products online and the company is re-targeting me everywhere on the web for the exact same products, like maybe I hadn’t discovered them. And Instagram suggested someone for me to follow -— and how they would know that I know that person I cannot imagine. Creepy!

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Kava brand Leilo is using tech to create a new category 

New York City Football Club is a little more mellow this year with Leilo as the team’s Official Relaxation Partner. What is Leilo? It’s a carbonated beverage made from kava, a plant from the Pacific Islands that has sedative and euphoric effects in drinks made from its root. The team created the “relaxation partner” category specifically for the Leilo sponsorship.

Since launching last fall, Leilo (pronounced “lay low”) has deployed a data-driven grassroots movement with out-of-the-box sponsorships, as well as digital channels that stitch together the largely local communities that drink kava beverages and the patchwork of stores that sell Leilo. Thus far, Leilo’s methods provide a useful blueprint for any product looking to break into a new category.

They seek to connect directly with each and every customer and prospect and build a community around them. For Leilo, this involves getting as many emails and SMS numbers as possible from passionate fans on social media and at in-person events like soccer matches and reaching out to them using marketing automation platform Klaviyo.

At the heart of Leilo’s grassroots presence is a geography-based community platform called Grog Maps, with whom Leilo is partnering. The app was developed by Founder, Samuel Morales. When users download the app and share their location, they can find the closest place to get kava. 

Grog Maps allows kava enthusiasts to create their own accounts and connect with like-minded individuals and post messages about the kava bars they visit. It also allows sellers to connect with the platform.

Read more here.

MarTech is just 12 days away 

We’re featuring keynotes by Chief Martec himself Scott Brinker, author and email guru Kath Pay, rising marketing ops star Darrell Alfonso and our own Kim Davis.

Those are included in over 70 sessions packed with actionable information to hone your stack and your strategy.

It’s all yours. And it’s all free. Secure your pass now.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join thousands of senior-level marketers to learn how to make data-driven decisions that power organizational success.

Psst… Hungry for more? Expand your training with a live, deep-dive workshop on agile marketing, buying technology, customer experiences, CDPs, and attribution analysis — just $149 each. (Buy more than one to unlock 15% off registration!)

The agenda and registration link are here.

Mediavine open sources its WordPress theme framework  

Trellis, the WordPress theme framework used by customers of ad management platform Mediavine, has been rolled out on the open internet for beta testing and is now available for purchase by any WordPress user. A theme framework is a template within which customized child themes can be developed.

Trellis is already in use on over 1,000 sites run by publishers in the Mediavine network. 77% of these publishers are passing all three of Google’s Core Web Vitals (compared with 4% of internet sites overall). Trellis comes with multiple pre-built child themes and features native and feed placement ad units.

Why we care. The adtech space is, of course, for-profit. Nevertheless, there are increasing signs that it’s rooting for the open internet in the belief that all boats will rise together. The Trellis tool can now be used by any WordPress-based publisher and not just by Mediavine clients. Like the Trade Desk and Unified ID 2.0, Mediavine isn’t seeking to hoard a solution that seems to work well.

As Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green recently said, “I think there’s two types of companies in the world. Those that are trying to control the internet and those that are trying to enable it.”

Quote of the day

“Community building will only increase in B2B brands for the next 3-5+ years. People crave tribe to extend identity. And if we know consumer brands/DTC to be an extension of one’s personal identity, what are B2B brands an extension of? I think identity as well, just a different aspect of it, i.e., less personal aspirations and more those associated with professional growth and status.” Frank Rocchio, Brand Strategist, Lone Fir Creative