Page 40 - Adnews Magazine May-June 2021

How did you fare during COVID-19?
45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00%
0.00%
Sneak Peek
This is an early, top-level look at the survey results of the first AdNews Marketing Pulse, a comprehensive survey and analysis conducted jointly with Hearts & Science (the full results and analysis are under preparation).
Marketing Pulse looks at
how brands, large and small, are responding to not only COVID-19, but to an increasingly complex, yet fragile and constantly changing, environment.
It is designed to create reference points, a benchmark on what organisations are doing post-COVID-19, what they plan and where they sit against other marketers
in the Australian context.
Jeremy Bolt, CEO of Hearts
& Science: “The survey confirmed what we already knew — that marketers are operating in an increasingly complex environment requiring new skill sets. In addition, more technology-driven solutions alongside fragmented publishers and platforms.”
How did you fare during COVID?
1 - much worse than expected
2 - worse than expected
3 - as expected
4 - better than expected
5 - much better than expected
how the collection, management and use of customer first-party data is navigated.
“What was surprising to me was the focus on automation. This can make some clients anxious but
it does tie closely to owned and earned assets (identified as one of the highest drivers in a high ROI), as well as understanding
and mapping the customer journey. This we know is no longer linear and intersects across both brand and performance.
“So marketers have a busy but interesting time ahead, full
of opportunities. Some of these capabilities and requirements may not sit naturally in the marketing function, but need
to be managed and led by marketing; hence the need for new skill sets, high levels of collaboration and the de-siloing of functions within organisations.
“The time is now for marketing to take the lead. Starting with the customer journey and prioritising the capabilities and who will deliver these to support it.”
The survey of more than • 100 found:
Mapping of the Customer Journey.
But the biggest shifts in
• 92% of marketers believe they will grow in the next 12 months.
• Nearly 40% see that growth in excess of 10%.
• Primary driver of growth being to increase market share.
• 47% believe media budgets will increase to drive this growth. “What I found interesting was
what marketers felt was critical to enable this growth, and where they believe these capabilities are now and where they see themselves with respect to these capabilities in 24 months’ time,” says Bolt.
From the survey, the most significant gaps now, where there was either no or basic capability, included:
• ROI & attribution analytics.
• Martech and Automation.
• 1P data
Looking forward 24 months, the areas where 100% of those surveyed wanted a solution included:
• Reporting.
• Collaboration between
business units.
capabilities over the next 24 months were:
• ROI and attribution analytics. • Martech and Automation
• Single Customer View.
“However, none of these issues were expected to be
fully solved by then,” says Bolt. “Mapping the customer journey followed closely behind, in that many organisations are not there yet, but all participants wanted this solved in the next 24 months as priority.”
Bolt finds these insights both fascinating and valuable, but not surprising.
“Knowing how much to spend — and in what channels — is a discussion we have regularly, which our ‘brain’ solution solves,” he says. “First-party data and martech to manage audiences is the next discussion and is largely driven by global privacy changes and how these are manifesting in the larger platforms, as well as
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