Mattia Santin, CMO at Hotjar: “The escalating integration of AI in digital marketing is ushering in a new era”

Because Dust or Magic is our series of interviews with marketing leaders, we tend to dwell on the impact of technology on them. However, Mattia Santin, CMO at Hotjar, makes an excellent point here: that users’ expectations are also increasing.

The good news is that he believes technology can keep up. “AI-powered tools will revolutionise customer interactions and expectations by enabling hyper-personalisation, predictive analytics and automated decision-making,” he said, before adding that this is great news for marketers too: it means “more targeted and effective campaigns”.

Before you dig into the rest of the interview, allow us to explain why Mattia is well wort listening to. His 20-year career not only spans multiple industries – think e-commerce, retail, mobility, travel, healthcare, analytics – but he has also worked for industry-leading brands such as Adidas and Uber. And startups like Leavy and Atida.

No wonder he has so many insights to share…

Why Dust or Magic? That stems from a quote by legendary American advertising creative director, William Bernbach: “An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.” (And if you’re wondering where you’ve heard the name, Bernbach was the inspiration behind Don Draper of Mad Men fame.)

Could you please introduce yourself to our audience? What motivated you to pursue a career in marketing, and how did you embark on your journey in this field? 

I have worked in marketing for almost 20 years across B2C and B2B companies in several verticals: online retail and e-commerce, travel, mobility, health and pharmacy, and SaaS. Working in marketing allows me to work on a few passions of mine: driving growth, solving complex problems, and having a direct connection with people.

I currently serve as the CMO of Hotjar, a company that leads the way in Product Experience Insights. I’ve been with Hotjar for nearly a year and I am responsible for the company’s global marketing strategy and vision, scaling its growth, and building long-lasting relationships with our customers.

While my passion for marketing started with growth and media, I have enjoyed expanding my learning to new disciplines over the years which prepared me for the CMO role I have today.

What are your thoughts on the escalating integration of AI in digital marketing and its potential influence on the future of marketing, Martech and social media?

The escalating integration of AI in digital marketing is ushering in a new era. It is reshaping marketing, Martech and social media landscapes through its ability to analyse vast datasets in real-time, empowering marketers to deliver hyper-personalised content, and enhancing customer engagement and conversion rates.

Predictive analytics, fuelled by AI, allows marketers to anticipate consumer behaviours and trends, optimising strategies for maximum impact. Additionally, it greatly impacts efficiency, allowing marketers to focus on strategy and creativity, while automation handles some time-consuming tasks.

Our newly released Hotjar AI aims to help our customers take that first step into AI through what is essentially their virtual assistant. Hotjar AI can help review surveys and make recommendations for improvement, allowing for more targeted customer approaches and solving pesky issues like cluttered layouts, which according to our new research drive 92% of users away. 

How do you ready yourself for an AI-driven landscape as a marketing leader? What new skills do you need? 

The best way to ready yourself is to educate and lean into new technologies, and encourage your teams to do so as well.  Even if your company is not prepared to launch its own AI-powered tools, as a leader you should be educating yourself on how these tools work, what doors they open up for businesses and customers, and what others are doing in the industry. By upskilling your understanding of these tools you can make informed decisions about where AI fits into your workflow and what rate of adoption is best for you and your business. 

Related reading: AI copyright: should your business be worried?

Do you anticipate any significant disruptions in marketing and sales technology for 2024? If so, what?

Many of the disruptions we’re going to see in the space are going to be a result of AI. In addition to the adoption of AI by businesses, we’re also going to see a change in customer expectations due to the rise in the popularity of AI. AI-powered tools will revolutionise customer interactions and expectations by enabling hyper-personalisation, predictive analytics and automated decision-making, allowing for more targeted and effective campaigns.

These targeted campaigns will become increasingly necessary as well. We recently put out new research on how consumers feel about navigating the online world and found that 71% of consumers say that the first impression they get from a company’s website influences their brand loyalty.

We’re finding more and more that when customers are looking to make purchases, the online experience needs to be worth searching for. With the help of AI, businesses will be able to push out these targeted campaigns faster and more effectively.

How do you think AI might evolve B2B marketing and/or ABM strategies in 2024?

I believe 2024 will be a key year for AI integration in the B2B marketing space. Now that we’ve had a full year to play with and understand the ways that AI can be utilised, more businesses will begin to integrate this tool into their existing workflows for customer surveys and content development. 

AI-powered personalisation will have a large impact as it allows businesses to tailor content and messaging as well as analyse vast amounts of customer data to understand preferences, behaviours and buying patterns. This will enable marketers to deliver highly targeted and relevant content to individual businesses, fostering stronger connections and increasing the likelihood of conversions.

Whether it’s integrating AI-driven analytics into CRM systems or leveraging AI-powered chatbots for personalised interactions, the cohesive integration of AI will help build a unified and efficient marketing ecosystem.

Could you share some of your most noteworthy accomplishments that you take particular pride in?

All the experiences and the people I worked with over the years have helped shape the person I am today. Working across so many industries (and countries) has been an experience that has shaped my current leadership style.

I have a lot of accomplishments I’m proud of, but I think the one that comes to mind has been my ability to transition from so many different industries in both B2B and B2C. I’ve loved being able to learn and continue to learn within the marketing space.

To add a few specific moments in time::

• Going back in time, I was part of the team that launched the Adidas Group’s global websites growing it from two to 50+ sites that consumers around the world could shop on. It was a very memorable experience in my career. 
• While leading Uber’s EMEA performance marketing team, I had the opportunity to manage large-scale media budgets across 45 different markets and four verticals. We were able to drive major incremental revenue while I was there working with the incredible team. 
• Most recently, we launched Hotjar’s first flagship event HOTSAUCE which brought together over 600 marketing, product and UX professionals to talk digital experience. It will remain one of my proudest moments! 

Related reading: What will the digital landscape look like in 2028?

What piece of advice would you offer to fellow marketing leaders that has been particularly beneficial to you personally?

Your most important job is to empathize with your customers. That really should be at the heart of what your company is doing. Our CEO at Hotjar, Mohannad Ali, is great at driving this point. In marketing, the biggest hurdle you face is finding a way to connect with customers, and that really cannot be done until you take a step back to understand where they’re coming from, as well as where you’re looking for them to go. 

What Martech technology has your company recently embraced and what difference has it made to your business?

Like many other businesses, Hotjar has recently begun incorporating AI into our product.

Hotjar AI was launched earlier this year and serves as an AI-powered research assistant to help product and marketers create surveys, analyse customer responses and provide actionable recommendations. It has been great to witness this first step into the utilisation of AI for marketing teams and has provided a great example of how AI can be used to beneficially assist marketing teams, without threatening the integrity of the work. This successful launch has opened our eyes to what is possible with the help of AI and how it can be successfully integrated into our workflows and streamline our tactics.