D.C.’s Marketing Tech Boom is a True Sign of the Times

January 25, 2018

We’re a company town.

Think of industries in D.C. and it’s all politics, government, and advocacy. The more technically astute among us might also think of D.C. as leaders in security, Internet services, and data centers. Few think of D.C. as a powerhouse in marketing technology, or MarTech for short.

Yet, peek behind D.C.’s marketing technology scene and you see D.C.’s industrial heritage – of politics, advocacy, technology and even security and intel – looming large.

Right now, according to WaveLength Analytics research for D.C. Marketing Tech Talks, there are about 85 local marketing technology firms. A handful started outside the U.S., like Eloqua did, but significantly expanded in D.C. Salescycle, a platform that helps marketers increase conversion rates, recover abandoned sales, and drive customer loyalty, is a good example. They started in the UK, but moved their headquarters to the D.C. area in the early part of the decade.

There’s also another handful of companies that started here, got bought by a company outside the region, and remain here. Two good examples are Vocus and AddThis. Beltsville’s Vocus, a public relations software app was bought in 2014 and ultimately merged with Chicago-based Cision. Tysons’ based AddThis, an audience intelligence platform, got bought in 2016 by Silicon Valley powerhouse Oracle.

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