The unbundling of MaaS

Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) transforms traditional marketing by integrating strategy, AI, data, and partner collaboration to drive growth and measurable business results in a complex buying environment.

Written by Puneet Chaddha

Updated: September 30, 2026 14:05 IST

Marketing is being unbundled, but its mission remains as important as ever: to bridge the gap between customers and company value. (Image/FE)

By Puneet Chadha

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Marketing departments were designed for a different buying environment. Teams were organised around functions, budgets were agreed annually, and campaigns were planned for a fairly clear path from awareness to purchase. That structure made sense when channels were fewer and customer journeys were easier to understand.

That is not how people buy today.

A customer may discover a solution online, research it through industry content, seek opinions from peers, attend an event, experience a demonstration and finally purchase through a partner. The process moves between digital and physical interactions, often across several companies.

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At the same time, many marketing capabilities no longer need to be maintained as permanent internal capacity. Strategy, content, account-based marketing, media, automation, analytics and lead nurturing can now be accessed as specialist services and brought together when they are needed.

This is the unbundling of marketing, creating Marketing-as-a-Service, or MaaS. MaaS should not be seen as another term for outsourcing. Outsourcing usually begins with an activity that needs to be completed. MaaS begins with a business result that needs to be achieved.

The difference lies in accountability. A traditional brief may ask an agency to run a campaign, organise an event or generate leads. A MaaS brief should start with a growth objective, such as entering a market, activating a group of partners, increasing engagement within selected accounts or creating qualified opportunities for a specific solution. The organisation owns its strategy, brand, customer relationships and governance, while bringing in the right expertise, technology and capabilities.

The economic imperative is clear. According to Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey, the marketing budget at 7.8% of company revenue has remained virtually unchanged from 2025, while only 30% organisations are reported to be ready to scale AI across marketing. McKinsey estimates Gen AI could unlock productivity worth 5 – 15% of marketing spend. The opportunity here is not to simply spend less, but to make every capability work together and amplify productivity.

AI can create variations of a message, infer intent, personalised journeys and recommend the next best action. Data can tell us when a prospect has moved from investigating to intending to buy. Automation can engage at scale. But value is unlocked when these levers are pulled together, with insight, imagination, intelligence and integration.

MaaS must evolve into pipeline orchestration-as-a-service as it connects content, data intelligence, campaigns and conversations, partner collaboration and delivers measurable outcomes.

With MaaS, success is measured beyond impressions, clicks, and registrations. Measures such as account engagement, partner activation, qualified opportunities, conversion rates, pipeline velocity, revenue influence and customer experience provide a more complete view.