Benni Lucas.
In today’s high-stakes marketing environment, the size of your MarTech stack no longer reflects ambition, but reveals vulnerability. The truth is, most Australian brands aren’t suffering from a lack of tools, but from an excess of them.
In virtually every MarTech category, at least one in four Australian organisations are actively reviewing their current platforms, analytics (42%), customer data management (39%), and personalisation (37%) are top of the list (Resolution Digital State of MarTech in Australia 2025). While it might feel safer to add another tool or pilot the latest AI capability, the outcome is often the same: more complexity, slower execution, and fewer tangible results.
But tearing it all down and starting from scratch isn’t the answer, either. Digital transformation for its own sake rarely delivers. What’s needed is a more pragmatic, sustainable approach, one that evolves what’s already in place to move faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
The Age of Stack Bloat
Globally, the State of MarTech 2025 Brinker and Riemersma report revealed over 15,000 MarTech tools are now in play, a 100x increase since 2011. Yet despite this abundance, many organisations still struggle with basic foundations like unified data, consistent CX, and campaign agility.
In Australia, only 8% of businesses say they can deliver cross-channel personalisation via a unified customer view. While 87% of marketers are experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, fewer than 1 in 5 have integrated them into a stack that can produce end-to-end outcomes.
Across finance, retail, and tech sectors, the symptoms are consistent: bloated stacks, overlapping licences, siloed data, and underutilised platforms. More tools don’t equal better outcomes—they often equal more noise.
Velocity, Not Vanity
The modern MarTech stack has one job: enable speed. Speed to launch campaigns, adapt to customer signals, and automate intelligently. If your ecosystem can’t do that, it’s not an asset, it’s a liability.
Many brands mistake complexity for capability, layering point solutions with band-aid integrations. These Frankenstacks might impress on paper, but in practice they underperform, dragging teams down with inefficiencies, fatigue, and lost opportunity.
Evolution > Transformation
Transformation sounds appealing because it promises a blank slate. But in reality, it’s often costly, disruptive and unnecessary.
Evolution is the smarter path, unlocking more from what’s already in place without rebuilding from zero. You don’t need to start over. You need to extract more value from what you already own.
AI Is a Multiplier, Not a Fix
AI won’t solve stack dysfunction, it will amplify it. Without aligned data, governance, and orchestration, AI becomes another point of complexity, not a competitive advantage. Deploying AI into a disconnected stack is like adding a turbocharger to a car with no wheels. AI should come last, not first.
Strategy Before Software
Buying more software won’t solve strategic issues. Your MarTech stack is only as valuable as your ability to use it effectively. The goal isn’t just integration, it’s orchestration.
That means:
- Seamless customer experiences
- Cross-channel workflow efficiency
- Clean, actionable data
- Commercial impact (not just system uptime)
Without that, software becomes shelfware.
What Winning Brands Do Differently
The brands that succeed in 2025 aren’t chasing the newest tools, they’re focused on using fewer, better.
They:
- Measure value, not volume
- Evolve continuously, rather than waiting for a rebuild
- Build internal capability, not outsource responsibility
The Evolution Starts Now
The future isn’t about having more; it’s about moving faster. From our consulting work at Resolution Digital, we’ve seen how simplifying complexity unlocks agility and value, without starting over.
Because in 2025, the winners won’t be the brands with the most platforms. They’ll be the ones with the fewest barriers to execution.
Benni Lucas, GM of Growth, Product and Innovation - Resolution Digital