Exploring the Growing Relationship Between Technology & Marketing

While acknowledging that transformation is a word that's said a lot at industry conferences, Sebastian said transformation will continue, but it will change. 

"It's not going to be about the loyalty program, and e-commerce and delivery. No doubt, those are going to be top of mind, but we're going to expand the discussion around technology to include these big words: automation, mobile-first platforms and cybersecurity," he explained during a panel titled "Driving Success: The Power of CMO & CIO Collaboration."

Looking at the roles of CMO and CIO, Sebastian noted some differences:

• Marketing leaders are good at painting a vision and a strategy because they're very customer-focused and they're looking ahead.
• Technology leaders are strategic and think through things very logically. They've had to adapt to a lot of change over the past few years and they are thought of in terms of technical expertise, change management and resource optimization.

"We need to begin to merge these skills," he said. "These new technologies will require marketing and technology to work closely together. The roles are beginning to converge and right now, we need to get tighter aligned."

But how does an organization get there? A shared vision, trust, communication and shared goals, according to Sebastian.

On the Right Track at RaceTrac

The role of marketing has evolved over the years as the importance of personalization has grown, Ryan Blumenthal, director of marketing technology and digital guest experience at RaceTrac Inc., told conference attendees. 

"Our guests today expect a personal experience from the brands that they love and we are focused on that personalization," he said. "It is something we learned a lot about in the past year."

Driving that personalization is data, explained Tyler Grubbs, executive director of digital and store technology at RaceTrac. "It's not just who they are, but the trip occasion. Where are they along the journey? Ultimately, how do we gather more data, action it and enrich it? Without that foundation, you will be casting wide nets," he said.

An example of the growing relationship between technology and marketing is the recent rollout of RaceTrac's next-generation mobile app. 

In May 2024, the Atlanta-based convenience retailer unveiled an upgraded mobile app experience for its loyal customers. The redesigned RaceTrac Rewards app enhances the chain's "Whatever Gets You Going" brand of convenience through improved functionality and new features, the company stated at the time. 

As Blumenthal noted, RaceTrac knew there were problems with its mobile app — namely, stability issues and slowness, and people didn't know how to use it. When developing the next-gen app, the retailer focused on personalization, better accessibility, a simplified loyalty experience, and awareness around finding the nearest store with desired features and amenities.

Judging from the positive response from customers, Grubbs called the project "a testament to the vision and the strategic priorities of the organization" layered with the marketing team's input on what features were important and what experiences they wanted to bring across the app.

"And then ultimately, the collaboration to turn those strategies into features into actual deliverables from a code perspective was amazing to see," he said, adding that the project had buy-in from the entire organization.

The 2025 Conexxus Annual Conference took place Jan. 26-30 at Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson.