Research · Flagship study
The State of Marketing Technology in India.
An independent, practitioner-led study of how Indian enterprises choose and run their marketing technology (MarTech): the decision-making behind the stack, the shape it takes in a market that grew up mobile-first, and the ease of integration between its components. Now AI is entering that stack, bringing questions that have never been part of the conversation in the CMO’s office: context engineering, knowledge graphs, ontology, and how answer engines will read the brand. Grounded in primary conversations with the people who make these calls, and held in enquiry rather than conclusion.
In progress · 2026
Why we’re doing this
Building the marketer’s view of India’s enterprise marketing stack.
This study is born of our individual experiences, one on the brand side, one on the technology side. Since the mid-2000s, when eCommerce first pulled Indian marketing into technology, the market has moved at hyper speed: new channels, new platforms, new tools, adopted as fast as they appeared. Much of the stack was homegrown, built because no tool on the market covered Indian use cases, and much of it was driven by startups.
We cannot presume to speak for the market. Our hypothesis, as two practitioners, is narrower: as a community, Indian marketing has never put down a common record of what its enterprise stack looks like, component by component, in the words of the people who run it. Before AI rebuilds marketing again, that record needs to exist. We aim to build it through conversations with a few hundred marketing practitioners across the country, and to repeat the exercise, so the picture sharpens with each edition. It is not a verdict on the market. It is an attempt to understand it.
Who’s doing it
From both sides of the same market.
A study like this needs two vantage points. One from inside marketing automation and technology: how the stack is chosen, stood up, and made to work. One from brand building: what the spend is finally for, and what it costs a brand when the signals are read wrong. Between us we have spent more than four decades on these two sides. This study is, in part, the two of us comparing those notes in the open.
How we’re doing it
Slow, primary, and independent.
Understand before concluding; evidence before opinion. We are led by primary research: direct conversations with a few hundred marketing and technology leaders across sectors, along with the traditional survey mechanism of any robust study. It is India-first, and accountable to the people it is meant to serve.
Participate
Help us build the record.
Participation is by invitation, and limited to people who run marketing, technology, or data, or a founder making those calls. If that’s you, or someone you’d point us to, leave your details and we’ll call you. Everything you share stays confidential, and the study stays independent.
By invitation · we’ll be in touch
Referral
Point us to the right people.
Know someone who runs marketing, technology, or data, whose point of view you think should be captured? The note below is ready to send. Copy it into WhatsApp, email or LinkedIn and edit it as you like.
Thought of you for this. Indian marketing has never put down a common record of what its enterprise technology stack looks like, in the words of the people who run it. Much of that stack was built here, mobile-first and often homegrown, because no tool on the market covered Indian use cases. Now AI is about to rebuild it again, and that record needs to exist before it does.
The State of Marketing Technology in India is an independent study by Gurleen Saraon and Ravpreet Ganesh of ThirdVoice, set up to build that record. They are speaking to people who run marketing, technology or data across the country. It is by invitation, and what you share stays confidential. Worth a look: thirdvoice.in/research
First, who’s behind it. This study is the first thing we’re doing as ThirdVoice. If you’d like to know who we are and why we started here, read on.
About ThirdVoice