According to the findings of the “National Brand Use of Digital in Local Marketing” study, a survey of national brand marketing executives in North America commissioned by Balihoo, national brands are betting big on local marketing with 91% surveyed expecting to spend more or the same on local marketing in 2013 as they did in 2012. Expected 2013 Marketing Spend (% of Respondents) Expected Market $ SpendMarketMoreSameLess Local 47.3% 44.0% 8.6% National 47.4 41.2 11.1 Source: Balihoo, November 2012 Digital tactics will play an important role across the board for national brand marketing planning, with 67.5% surveyed reporting digital marketing as extremely or very important to national brand success. Importance of Digital Marketing For National Brand SuccessImportance% of RespondentsRevenue ≥ $500MRevenue $100-250M Extremely important 38.8% 45.0% 34.0% Very important 28.65 Important 27.6 Unimportant 4.17 Source: Balihoo, November 2012 When asked about local digital tactics they’re currently using, national brands ranked Other Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), Facebook and SEO as their top priorities. National brand marketers were also asked about local digital tactics they’re not currently using but would like to begin using in 2013. Use of Local Digital Tactics (2012 & 2013; % of Marketers) % of RespondentsDigital TacticUsed in 2012Not in 2012; Possible 2013 SEO 66.15% 14.84% Local search registration 22.66 19.53 Pay per click advertising 44.27 19.01 Digital display advertising 50.26 14.06 Mobile marketing 32.03 35.42 Facebook 69.27 12.24 Other social media 75.52 14.58 Online customer reviews 22.14 30.99 Local websites 46.35 16.15 Local blogs 26.04 31.51 Source: Balihoo, November 2012 Additional local digital priority findings: