Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and now Paris-based, Julian Scott co-founded Shaw/Scott in 2007 after working at Responsys, helping grow the independent consultancy from an email marketing specialist into a global customer experience and lifecycle marketing business with teams across North America and Europe.
Speaking to New Digital Age, Scott discusses why many brands are underusing their technology stacks, the growing overlap between adtech and martech, and why the industry is becoming more realistic about AI.
Why are so many organisations struggling to get the most from martech?
The biggest issue is that organisations still operate in silos. Marketing, technology and customer experience teams often work as separate kingdoms when they should really be aligned around the customer.
If I could redesign a corporate structure, customer experience would sit right underneath the CEO, with the CTO, CMO and other leadership roles aligned beneath that. The customer experience should drive everything.
At the same time, there are simply too many martech platforms and too many choices. Businesses are constantly being sold new solutions and promised easy wins, but the reality is that most organisations never fully master the technology they already own.
They spend a year or two trying one platform, then move to another before ever unlocking the real value.
Has the martech market become overcrowded?
Absolutely. There are too many platforms and, frankly, too many consultancies as well.
I think we are heading towards consolidation, either through acquisitions, changing business models or companies disappearing altogether. There are not enough breadcrumbs to go around for everybody.
For brands, the challenge is deciding which partners they can trust long term. Cultural fit matters far more than people realise. If the relationship between a business and its technology partner is poor from the start, they are unlikely to get full value from the investment.
A lot of martech companies are understandably focused on acquisition and growth, but businesses also need to think about what support looks like five years down the line.
How important is the relationship between adtech and martech?
The two worlds are increasingly interconnected. Both sides are ultimately trying to improve customer experience and drive revenue, so they cannot operate separately.
The starting point is usually a central customer database or CDP where information from different systems can be connected. Advertising activity, customer data, app behaviour and marketing responses all need to feed into the same picture.
Privacy changes and tracking restrictions have made this more complicated, but it is still possible.
Even where the technology stack is imperfect, organisations still need people talking to each other. Human collaboration is just as important as system integration.
If somebody is being targeted with one type of advertising message but then receives a completely different experience once they enter the customer ecosystem, that disconnect damages trust.
Why are so many marketers underusing the technology they already have?
Most organisations have bought extremely powerful systems but are only using a fraction of the functionality.
I used the analogy that many marketers have bought a Ferrari but are driving it like a Ford Fiesta. The capability is there, but they are staying in the slow lane.
Part of the problem is training. Martech companies often market their tools as simple to use, but they are still highly complex systems that require expertise, testing and confidence.
Most people also do not want to admit they are struggling. There is pressure inside organisations to appear strategically capable, so instead of asking for support, people stick to the basics.
As a result, teams keep producing one-off campaigns instead of building more sophisticated automated programmes that could create far better customer experiences over time.
Is fear also a factor?
Definitely. Marketing automation carries real risk.
When you are sending a campaign to hundreds of thousands or millions of people, mistakes can have significant financial consequences. Incorrect coding, broken offers or inaccurate targeting can overwhelm customer service teams and damage trust very quickly.
That creates a subconscious resistance to using more advanced functionality.
Even experienced marketers still feel nervous before hitting send on major campaigns. That human anxiety has not disappeared, despite all the advances in automation.
What is your view on the current state of AI in marketing?
I think there is currently a gap between the marketing around AI and the practical reality.
Some AI tools are genuinely useful for speeding up workflows, generating ideas and helping with copywriting. But I do not think most businesses are ready to hand over major marketing operations entirely to AI systems.
We have tested some AI-driven targeting and persona tools ourselves and, honestly, the results were not transformational.
That does not mean AI will not improve, but I think the industry needs a more realistic conversation about where the technology genuinely adds value today.
Where do you think AI can deliver the most value right now?
The best applications are often around solving operational pain points.
For example, quality assurance is incredibly difficult in modern marketing because campaigns can contain thousands of personalised variations. AI could potentially help automate large parts of that testing process.
We are also looking at AI internally for tasks like maintaining employee handbooks across different countries. Those are practical applications that save time and reduce manual effort.
The danger is when businesses start treating AI as a replacement for human judgement rather than a support tool.
Are marketers becoming more cautious about AI?
Yes, I think the industry mood has shifted.
Eighteen months ago there was a huge fear of being left behind if you did not adopt AI immediately. The messaging from AI companies has been extremely effective in creating that urgency.
Now, businesses are becoming more thoughtful. They are starting to ask what tools actually make sense for their organisation, whether the economics are sustainable and how AI fits alongside human creativity and relationships.
There is also growing awareness that consumers can often detect AI-generated content. People still want authenticity from brands.
At the end of the day, marketing is about relationships. If customers feel those relationships are artificial or insincere, brands take a real risk.
