I've spent the week in the modern marketer's paradise: a convention center temporarily dedicated to HubSpot's software. Everything from the billboards to the floorboards has been emblazoned with HubSpot's advertising. We've had all twenty thousand eyeballs on HubSpot's leaders, as they told us what's the latest in the wider world of go-to-market and how the HubSpot software will respond with new feature after new feature. Even the colors are new: HubSpot's brand underwent a redesign. It's been a totally new week dedicated to totally new things. All eyes forward.Funnily enough, I was here 10 years ago, talking about the all new modes of data-driven marketing:
Just look at that hair! And who wears a tie? We were all talking about "marketing reimagined" when Marketo released their "real-time personalization" tool. It made a splash in the Moscone Center; it dominated the hallway talk; our Marketo reps let us talk with the technical founders of the company Marketo bought to acquire the feature. It was new! And I don't think we ever actually even tried it. We went back to our offices and sent the emails with the links we wanted people to read, ignoring new personalization tactics in favor of the tried-and-true editorial approach.
Don't get me wrong: when the facts on the ground change, anyone who doesn't adapt their tactics or revise their strategy won't succeed. Sometimes "new" absolutely matters. Having done this for a while, though, I've been asked the people I talk to about what has captured their attention and also about how they will adapt their strategy. The first question is a lot easier: the new, the flashy, the included-in-current-subscription announcements capture a lot of attention. But when you ask people to focus on what they're actually going to do differently, there's not a whole lot of movement. Few mention things they'll stop to make room for things that'll work better. Few want to spend the time adapting their strategy when just "using" the new stuff appears to be an option. That's probably why productive uses of AI lag way behind the interest in AI, at least for most of the sales, marketing, and service professionals I've been talking with.
Like most of our recent technologies, AI has been most impressive for the developers and folks in closely related industries and roles. It's been a little slower at changing how normal uses of traditional SaaS software go about their roles. There's a reason the go-to-market teams at these companies are all SaaS veterans trotting out the SaaS playbook from the last twenty years. The AI companies have gone to market like traditional SaaS companies—at least like they did in the days of zero interest rate policy, with little attention to profits, lots of attention to subscriber growth, and an impressive R&D burn rate for feature advancements.
Much like "technology", I am not sure if "new" indicates true desirability. Indicators of progress don't necessarily have the moral valence we sometimes assume—new doesn't mean "should have." Because of course technology advances, it has to! Whether its advancements really matter to us or really change anything more often remains to be seen. Just ask anyone who's AI'd their way into a document or deck and then spend umpteen hours getting the wording and formatting to be the way they want it to be.
On the other hand, sometimes new is distinctly better. People who liked nicotine used to die from smoking: Zyn gives them the nicotine with none of the cancer and emphysema risk you'd get from smoking. (Plus, you don't smell like a rotting garbage barge.) Media companies liked giving away articles for free, getting their clicks from social and search, and making it all up on ad revenue. Now, they're seeing far less traffic and, if the interviews linked below are to be believed, focusing on original reporting, better journalism, and serving their subscribers. That's a strategic shift for the better! The reading this week closes on a more sober note, about the folks looking for, and perhaps finding, friendship among the chatbots.
Why did Swedish nicotine pouches become a generation's go-to fix for blasting through long work days and longer nights out?
News websites are losing readers because Facebook and Google are changing how they show news, making it harder to get traffic. Publishers are now focusing on building direct relationships with loyal readers through apps, newsletters, and subscriptions. They also try new ideas and original reporting to stand out.
Millions of people are turning to AI for companionship. They are finding the experience surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and profoundly confusing, leaving them to wonder, ‘Is this real? And does that matter?’