#dmexcodiary – 16th September 2015

Tealium has returned to Cologne, Germany to exhibit at DMEXCO 2015 and so far we’re having a great time! If you’ve been to DMEXCO before you’ll know that it’s the biggest exhibition in Europe for digital marketers and therefore the place to be at this time of year.

With so many passionate people and businesses present getting excited about digital marketing, there is a distinct atmosphere of ‘if you’re not here, you’re missing out’.

So who is here? Well, basically any organisation with marketing ambition in Europe. As you would expect the big names are here in force – Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, IBM et al – but a large amount of start ups are also represented and brushing shoulders with the great and the good of digital marketing.

It seems that many have figured out that marketing to marketers means food. Some brands have turned their stands into cafes, wine bars, popcorn and ice cream parlours in an effort to win the hearts, minds and stomachs of attendees. There are also a lot of references to superheroes! This is a natural metaphor to project the superpower of your platform, or possibly an excuse for techies to don a cape. Either way it makes an impression

And then there are the buzzwords. Dozens of buzzwords – ‘customer insight’, ‘multi channel platforms’, ‘customer journeys’, ‘all you need platform’, ‘big data’. The list is endless but it does make me wonder which of these companies can actually deliver what they state as they all seemingly claim to deliver a game changing proposition.

The huge numbers of businesses, both big and small, investing in DMEXCO demonstrates the importance of keeping pace with consumers in the digital age. DMEXCO is a great barometer of the opportunity for marketing technologies to open up and disrupt in the European market as brands seek the competitive edge and judging by Day 1 at DMEXCO 2015, the opportunities are endless.