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Brand-Side Stories
How marketing leaders at brands and agencies actually pick and run their MarTech stacks — from The Human Side of MarTech and our conversations with the people who own the results.
Stories from the buyer side
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How brands actually buy and run MarTech
What do brand-side marketers wish MarTech vendors understood?
That credibility runs both ways and the problem comes before the product. Operators with P&L ownership evaluate tools on integration, proof of outcomes, and whether the partnership will hold up — not on feature lists. The vendors who win lead with the problem they solve, not the product they sell.
How do DTC brands keep customers coming back after the first purchase?
By treating retention as a paid media problem, not just an email problem. Agnes Seville, Head of Paid Media at Little Sleepies, found that most DTC brands confuse activity with loyalty — running retargeting at customers who already bought without a real repurchase strategy. The fix is designing paid media around the customer lifecycle, not just prospecting and rescue discounts.
How do DTC and eCommerce operators evaluate MarTech?
They start from revenue and margin, not novelty. The recurring themes from brand-side guests: own your first-party data, be ruthless about what actually moves the number, and balance channels like Amazon and direct rather than chasing one. The best operators treat every tool as a hypothesis to validate, not a silver bullet.
Where can brands research vendors before buying?
On Blurbs, where brands and agencies compare MarTech vendors by capability and real customer experience — a faster way to shortlist than sitting through demos.
Learn how real teams decide.
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