Karla, welcome. You’ve spent over two decades helping marketing leaders optimize operations. What first led you to identify martech overload as such a critical and under-reported issue?
“The martech industry has ballooned. There are now more than 15,000 martech tools out there, with hundreds more arriving every year. The outcome is companies have built these huge, messy tech ecosystems where nobody really knows who owns what.
“Is it IT’s job? Down to individual marketing teams? This fragmentation isn’t just inefficient – it’s stopping marketers doing their actual jobs. CRM used to involve a single email address – now it’s capturing and managing hundreds of data fields. So, we’re seeing marketers buy yet more tools in the hope that they will work together, when the reality is they just won’t unless you approach this integration with a plan.
“And it gets worse when we look at who controls what. When IT owns the marketing tech, marketers queue for weeks for simple changes. When individual marketing teams own it, you get silos with no central governance. When different regions pick their own solutions, you end up with this patchwork of incompatible tools that makes company-wide campaigns nearly impossible.
“The real issue isn’t the technology itself – it’s what it’s doing to the people trying to use it. When marketing teams spend 60% of their time just managing systems rather than talking to customers or working on creative projects, that’s not a technology problem – that’s a people problem, a Marketing Experience problem.”
There’s been a surge in AI-driven martech tools promising efficiency and automation. In practice, are these tools actually helping marketers—or are they complicating things further?
“The past 12-18 months has seen marketers looking at AI tools and asking what they can deliver for their business. The next year or so will see an efficiency drive as people look at their existing AI stack and where AI has been added to existing tools to understand what is adding value.
“AI works best when people use it to do the simple things that save time. Tech and marketing leaders looking to make real savings don’t necessarily need more technology – they need to step back and look at how their people actually work.”
Based on IMG’s research and your client work, what are the real-world consequences of martech bloat for CMOs—operationally, strategically, and even emotionally?
“There’s a financial hit that comes with martech bloat – tech costs rise and it’s a greater proportion of a marketing budget that most businesses are looking to trim. At the same time, customer satisfaction is at an all-time low, which highlights that teams probably don’t know how to make the most of the martech they already have.
“You can’t be the best CMO you could be if you’re spending all your time on tech issues rather than creativity and leadership – which is what you’re actually measured against. Plus, you’ll find yourself dealing with under-pressure CIOs and CTOs more than ever, if they own the tech stack. If technology has taken over your team, do you end up employing tech people rather than marketers?”
Martech inefficiency isn’t always obvious at first glance. What are the most common signs that an organization’s tech stack has become counterproductive?
“If the reports your marketing team produce are becoming a tsunami of numbers and data, and you’re struggling to clearly present your story, or even demonstrate whether or not your marketing has been successful, then you’re fighting your tech.”
Beyond the visible costs like platform fees, what hidden or indirect costs do organizations incur from maintaining an overloaded or poorly integrated martech stack?
“All those martech tools have licenses and renewal costs and it all adds up. On top of that, the total cost of ownership of an overloaded martech stack is significant – you have to hire and train tech people to manage it and there are product development programs and processes to handle.
“But perhaps worst of all, creatives don’t want to spend all their time managing poorly integrated technology. People feel frustrated – and so will you as the CMO! That means team members leave, which means expensive rehiring.”
IMG has seen remarkable success—500% revenue growth in two years—by helping clients simplify their martech ecosystems. What’s driving this demand, and what’s resonating most with your clients?
“Demand has been driven by marketers caught off-guard by how fast the martech world is moving. They were like frogs in slowly boiling water, not realizing there was a problem until it was too late. For most of them, managing a ‘Frankentech’ stack isn’t what they signed up for.
“Thanks to martech, marketing is often now the most complex, tech-heavy department in many businesses. People are crying out for ways to make their day-to-day experience better.”
Could you share an example where a client significantly improved performance or ROI by decluttering and streamlining their martech tools?
“A financial trading firm operating across 20+ countries approached us thinking they had a technology problem. In reality, they had a classic case of global marketing dysfunction.
“Their 300-person marketing team was spending almost half their time navigating disconnected systems and manual compliance checks. Each region had their own tools, their own processes, and unsurprisingly, their own problems.
“We created a completely integrated Marketing Experience – not just implementing technology, but redesigning how teams worked across borders. The centerpiece was a work management solution that gave them a single gateway while ensuring regulatory compliance. We even built real-time capacity planning through HR system integration.
“The transformation saved them hundreds of thousands in resource costs annually. But just think about what would have happened if we’d only focused on new technology. Their compliance risks would have skyrocketed as teams found workarounds. Regional silos would have deepened. And without addressing the fundamental workflow issues, they’d have continued wasting massive resources.”
AI capabilities are evolving fast, but many marketers rush to adopt without clear use cases. How can CMOs evaluate new tools more strategically to avoid adding unnecessary complexity?
“There’s a frenzy to adopt AI tools at present, with CEOs asking CMOs for shiny new AI toys. No preparation. No clear plan. No strategy.
“The first step therefore has to be to take a step back. Ask what the business is specifically trying to achieve – and where can AI help it do that. Put AI adoption at the end of the process, not the beginning.”
Do you think martech vendors are doing enough to support stack simplification and interoperability, or is the current ecosystem pushing marketers toward fragmentation?
“Many vendors are trying to simplify, but for their own benefit – they want you to stick within their own closed ecosystem. They’re selling solutions to solve the CMO’s tech stack problems, saying, ‘we can simplify it and do everything’, but that might not mean they’re doing everything as well as it could be done.
“CMOs are smart and tend to see through that, but they still want to simplify their tech stack. The trick is doing so in a way that still employs the best tool for the job.”
How can CMOs begin the process of reclaiming control over their martech stack—especially if they’ve inherited a complex, multi-layered setup?
“Marketing Experience is critical. Understand every touch point the marketing team has with tools, data, people, processes and content. Before you can improve your Customer Experience, you have to create a better experience internally for the team who are building that CX.
“It’s often seen as too big a job. CMOs don’t have time to fix it. But it can be done – by moving swiftly and with clear objectives. You won’t have 12 months to implement a new approach, because by then you’ll have different people and a different business strategy.”
Finally, what’s your long-term vision for martech maturity in the industry? Do you believe the trend will shift toward leaner, more modular stacks, or will complexity continue to rise?
“Sadly, I think we’re not done yet with complexity creep just yet, as AI still needs to be bedded down. But we may then come to a time when the number of new tools slows down due to vendor consolidation. The issue is that costs will continue to rise as people are forced to pay more for functionality they don’t actually want.
“Some companies will build new tech stacks from scratch, some will sit inside walled gardens and others will have leaner stacks. The most agility will probably come from midsize enterprises, as they’re not constrained by the same inertia as the really big players.”
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Karla Wentworth, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of Intermedia Global
With over 25 years’ expertise, Karla is a leading MarOps transformation consultant and co-owner of IMG consultancy. She has held key leadership positions in FTSE250 and Fortune500 organisations, partnering with global enterprises like dentsu, IG, and The Adecco Group to revolutionise their marketing operations.
Her methodology emphasises understanding organisational culture and challenges before implementing solutions, focusing on strategic, sustainable transformation rather than simply deploying the latest technology. Through this approach, she has consistently delivered measurable success in building high-performing Marketing Operations teams and optimising martech infrastructure to drive organisational growth and effectiveness across diverse business environments.
Beyond her professional achievements in marketing, Karla brings a unique perspective shaped by her varied experiences. As an additional business owner of “Ladies Love Golf,” she coaches women into the game, building community and breaking down barriers in a traditionally male-dominated sport. For a decade, she served as a volunteer police officer, navigating high-stakes scenarios that honed her skills in negotiation, conflict resolution, emergency response, and persuasive communication under pressure.
Karla is passionate about marketing operations at this critical crossroads, where technology has reached a breaking point and process-driven efficiency has become essential. Her blend of corporate leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and frontline public service gives her an unmatched ability to understand complex challenges from multiple angles and implement transformative solutions that deliver lasting results.
These proven strategies and diverse experiences have positioned her as one of the industry’s most trusted advisors in Marketing Operations transformation and change management, guided by her fundamental belief that great marketing starts with a great marketing experience.
