Forrester predicts that marketing technology budgets will “grow by double digits” in 2018 as brands deploy consumer experience technology designed to cozy up to current and prospective users.

If brands don’t take this step, digitally adept firms like Amazon and Apple will continue to serve as gatekeepers between brands and audiences, providing the connectivity, stimulation and emotional experience that customers crave.

Forward-thinking CMOs who “blend tech savviness, an insights-driven mindset and deep emotional empathy with their consumers” will turn their brands into platforms, according to a report released today. They will become obsessed with understanding consumer emotion, measuring it and tapping into it with precision.

In a related trend, more brands will fold the responsibilities of CMOs into the newly created role of chief growth officer: an executive who can blend marketing and tech to drive growth.