As we move into 2025, marketing faces a pivotal moment. The old ways of thinking about technology—by category, feature, or acronym—are giving way to a deeper, more transformative approach. Success will depend on embracing tools that unlock data's full potential, creating meaningful, consumer-first experiences.
Customer data platforms (CDPs) are uniquely positioned to lead this charge, driving innovation amid AI advancements, industry consolidation, and shifting marketing priorities. Here’s how CDPs will shape the next era of marketing—empowering teams to work smarter and faster than ever before.
1. From platforms to powers: technology buying changes forever
We need to think about technology differently, shifting our focus from categories to concepts, from acronyms to architectures, and from features to future possibilities. In a world with thousands of software providers about to be irrevocably disrupted by AI, the more profound transformation is how we think about the technology.
And we’ve been thinking about it wrong. Why buy a CDP when you should be investing in relevant data that drives resonant experiences? Why compare a DMP vs. a CDP when you should design for the consumer and then find capabilities that bring it to life? Why debate composable vs. packaged when you should think about how your jobs to be done can be done better with the right tools?
Ultimately, embracing a holistic and consumer-centric approach to technology will not only drive better outcomes but also position us for success in an ever-evolving landscape.
2. Consolidation benefits buyers
Vendors will consolidate to bring more modern capabilities to buyers, which will put further pressure on the lack of innovation coming from marketing clouds but that they’ve gotten away with during the lock up of M&A of the last few years.
As Tomas Tunguz explained recently, "If a supermajority of acquirers in purchasing potential are sidelined, the urgency to innovate is lessened. That’s why a vibrant M&A market is essential to innovation."
Consolidation in the CDP space is inevitable, especially driven by buyer demand to streamline their technology stacks and/or show a higher ROI per dollar spent on technology. Some CDPs will be acquirers and others will be acquired but we'll certainly see consolidation in the coming years.
3. Someone other than a walled garden cracks clean room monetization
A Media Operator's Jacob Donnelly wrote a great piece recently in which he said, "The media industry is not going to die. At least not the one that I pay attention to. But for many of the big publications that gutted their brands in the quest for massive scale, it’s going to be painful. It’s going to require an intense refocus on serving their audiences. And unfortunately, the people at the top today haven’t thought about the audience for a long time. They may be too late."
The criticality of delivering a product the audience wants will lead to further fragmentation in media but also the opportunity for better premium products that blend programmatic elements for those who have the scale to offer it. For those without the scale on their own, clean rooms are an opportunity for cross-publisher data cooperatives that can then be monetized with brands. A similar trend will play out as retail media networks jockey for position and we see an entirely new generation of shopper marketers shift budgets informed by first and second party data.
4. Marketers stage a comeback.
After two years of being the first on the chopping block for budget cuts and the easy target for tech team takeover, marketers get their mojo back in 2025 as the economy improves and, more importantly, companies realize that spending 9 months on a big consulting project only to have it deliver next to nothing - no improvement in operational efficiencies or business performance - is not the path to success.
Furthermore, while integration with cloud data warehouses will be a standard option, hybrid CDPs that support composable and a standalone packaged offering will become the norm, as buyers confront the very different use cases and needs that the business requires to drive growth, not just manage data or generate insights. The "final mile" of segmentation and activation that happens in CDPs is a critical bridge that is often under-valued when technical-only teams are making the CDP decision.
5. AI goes from breathless to oxygen.
The hyperbolic and hypothetical of AI mainstreams by becoming a ubiquitous part of business operations, though still experimental and incremental. And for good reason. Privacy. Compliance. Governance. Things that have always been challenging and critical are exponentially more so when AI is involved.
Because marketing workflows will be transformed by AI, so too must the way CDPs deliver value: by balancing the human and the automation, the privacy and the possibility, and the creativity and the control. These are all tensions that have existed but are amplified multifold by AI and CDPs have a critical role to play in managing these potentially competing priorities so that marketers can harness the AI in a way that supports their core jobs to be done in new ways.
As marketing enters a transformative new era, the role of CDPs will be more vital than ever—bridging innovation, strategy, and execution to empower teams to thrive. Ready to future-proof your marketing efforts? Ask us how we can help you turn 2025’s challenges into opportunities today.
