Ten years ago, marketing looked very different.
Channels were fewer. Expectations were lower. And most teams were still trying to make sense of their performance in spreadsheets.
When we founded Adverity in 2015, the problem felt obvious to us. But not everyone saw it that way.
I still remember sitting in a meeting, explaining what we were building. The response was immediate. “We don’t need this. I’ve got a whole team for that.” as they gestured across the room to a group of people manually pulling data, copying it into spreadsheets, and stitching reports together.
At the time, that was normal.
The industry did not think it had a problem.
But we saw things differently. Businesses were investing heavily in marketing, yet they lacked a clear, reliable way to understand what was actually working and what to do next.
Data was everywhere, but teams still struggled to turn it into action.
That gap is what we set out to solve.
And, while over the past decade a lot has changed, in many ways, that core challenge has not.
The explosion of data changed everything. And nothing.
Marketing has become exponentially more complex.
More platforms. More tools. More channels. More data than any team can realistically manage. Each source comes with its own structure, definitions, and limitations.
At the same time, expectations have shifted just as quickly.
Marketers are no longer asked to report on performance. They are expected to prove impact. In real time. Accurately and with confidence.
Now, AI is raising those expectations even further.
For the first time, teams can analyse vast amounts of data instantly, surface patterns, and generate insights at speed.
This should have solved the problem.
But it hasn’t.
Despite better tools, more data, and now AI, many teams still struggle with the same fundamental issues; data is fragmented, numbers don’t align, and insights, impact, and actions remain elusive.
That is what we mean when we say everything has changed and nothing has.
The tools are more advanced. The data is more abundant. The expectations are higher.
But the outcome is often the same.
Teams still struggle to move from data to decision.
Because the problem was never a lack of data or the need for AI.
It was the inability to bring your data together in a way that is consistent, reliable, and usable.
This is why Adverity has grown alongside this change.
Not because the problem is new.
But because that challenge has only become harder.
From a small team to a global platform
When we started we were a small but committed team of 4 people in a single office in Vienna.
What drove us was simple; if we could make data easier to access, more consistent, and more reliable, everything else would improve.
And, over time, that belief proved right.
Today, Adverity has grown to more than 250 employees, across multiple countries and offices, supporting more than 600 leading businesses and organisations.
But what matters more than scale is impact.
Over that time, we have seen our customers move from manual reporting to automated workflows. From fragmented data to aligned definitions. From spending time preparing reports to actually using them.
That is the real measure of progress.
What comes next
The way marketers interact with data is changing.
It is becoming more direct, more intuitive, and increasingly AI-driven.
Teams are moving towards faster ways of working with data, getting answers, and making decisions.
But there is a gap here too.
Many AI tools are general purpose. They are not built for the realities of marketing data. They lack the context, structure, and understanding needed to deliver outputs that teams can actually use.
What marketers need however is something more specialized.
Tools designed specifically for marketing. Tools that understand marketing data, its nuances, and how it connects to real decisions.
Because without that context, AI can generate answers. But it cannot reliably drive action.
That is why we built Data Conversations; a native AI designed specifically for marketing marketers and that works directly with your marketing data.
The point is, this is not a radical departure from our original goal. It is a continuation of the same idea.
Helping teams turn data into action, more consistently and with more confidence.
A decade in…
The pace of change in marketing is accelerating. The volume of data will continue to grow. The pressure on teams will continue to increase. And the expectation to turn data into impact will only become more immediate.
What gives me confidence is not just how far we have come, but what we have seen from our customers.
Teams that once spent days preparing reports are now able to focus on decisions. Organizations that once struggled with fragmented data are now building a foundation they can trust. Marketers who relied on instinct are now supported by evidence they can act on.
Ten years ago, teams had data but couldn’t act on it.
Today, they have more data than ever, and still struggle to act on it.
And in many ways, that early conversation still reflects where we are today.
The tools have changed. The expectations have changed. But too many teams still can’t act on their data, held back by fragmented systems, inconsistent definitions, and processes that don’t scale.
That is the gap we saw then.
And that is the problem we will keep solving.
