According to a new Millward Brown Digital study, “Getting Digital Right 2015,” digital has become a part of everyday life for most Americans. Smartphones, Tablets, Smart TVs, and Wearables are everywhere and new technology is perpetually on the horizon. Words like “multiscreen” and “programmatic” have taken over the conversation. Now marketers face the challenge of keeping abreast of all this while coming up with innovative and efficient ways to execute winning marketing strategies
Only 14% of marketers feel their team effectively uses the consumer, media, and transaction data available to them. Even more surprising, says the report, this represents a decrease in confidence from the 2014 report.
Knowing consumers and where to reach them is essential to effective marketing. Nearly 50% of brand marketers, and over 65% of media and agency marketers ranked the ability to reach target audiences as a key factor in media budget allocation. However, only about half of media and agency marketers are confident they have an optimized media mix, while even fewer brand marketers do, only about 25%.
Brand Marketers’ Confidence In Big Data Usage Within Their Organizations | ||
Year | 2014 | 2015 |
% Confident | 39% | 14% |
Source: Millward Brown Digital, July 2015 |
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Prioritizing Digital Best Practices is the hallmark of a strong Marketing research program. Brands are particularly unsure about their understanding of digital best practices; only 38% said they felt confident that they were up-to-date. Media companies and agencies felt they had a better grasp, with over 60% of respondents confident in their knowledge. This indicates that brand marketers have the opportunity to lean on their partners and insights experts to help bolster gaps in digital expertise.
Consumers are embracing digital to power their personal brands, altering the nature of the relationships they build with external brands. The advent of connected devices has increased the complexity of marketing to the right consumer, with the right message, at the right touchpoint, on the right screen, at the right time. Understanding the connected consumer journey is essential to optimizing marketing.
In 2014, marketers reported the need for advancements in behavioral research tools as mainstays in their insights toolkit. For 2015, the trend shows no sign of slowing. 67% of marketers use behavioral data as an influential component of their research program, and 69% expect it to grow over the next three years.
Currently Using The Following Research Tools To Influence Marketing Decisions | |
Research Tool | % of Respondents Using |
Consumer behavior insights | 67% |
Audience measurement | 61% |
Brand tracking | 39% |
Marketing mix modeling | 30% |
Creative testing | 29% |
Source: Millward Brown Digital, July 2015 |
Nearly 50% of brand marketers, and over 65% of media and agency marketers ranked the ability to reach target audiences as a key factor in media budget allocation. However, only about half of media and agency marketers are confident they have an optimized media mix, while even fewer brand marketers do, only about 25%. According to brand marketers, a best-in-class media allocation looks like:
Best in Class Allocation of time and effort on media channels | |
Media Channel | % of Respondents |
Website/content development | 18% |
Traditional advertising | 17 |
Online advertising | 14 |
Social | 13 |
Mobile advertising and apps | 12 |
Search | 12 |
Email marketing | 7 |
Direct mail marketing | 4 |
Events and conferences | 3 |
Source: Millward Brown Digital, July 2015 |
For most channels, this represents a change from 2014, with Mobile seeing the largest increase and Email Marketing seeing the greatest decrease.
Percent Change In Usage | |
Category Change | 2014-2015 |
Mobile advertising and apps | +4% |
Social | +2 |
Search | +1 |
Traditional advertising | +1 |
Direct mail marketing | 0 |
Website/content development | -1 |
Online advertising | -2 |
Events and conferences | -2 |
Email marketing | -3 |
Source: Millward Brown Digital, July 2015 |
In 2015, only 43% of brand marketers were confident in their organization’s integration of digital into their marketing strategy. However, since 2014, there has been a 10% increase in the volume of organizations integrating digital into their centralized marketing strategies. It’s no longer a question of whether to include digital in the marketing strategy, but rather when, where, and how much.
Demonstrating ROI is the lone universal truth in marketing, says the report, making the ability to prove ROI against marketing efforts a top priority, says the report. The ability to track ROI through various channels continues to grow in importance, though expectations are higher for digital. A majority of marketers would increase investment in digital channels, like Social, if ROI measurement for those channels improves.
Over 70% of marketers would increase their budget in Digital, Mobile, and Social channels if ROI measurement was improved.
Would Increase Media Spend With Improved ROI Measurement | ||
Medium | Would Increase Spend | Change Since 2014 |
Mobile | 79% | +25% |
Digital | 78 | +13 |
Social | 74 | +33 |
Traditional | 47 | +4 |
Source: Millward Brown Digital, July 2015 |
The report concludes with four silver bullets for best-in-class:
To access the complete report as a PDF file, please visit here.
As with all of these surveys, even if we take them with a few grains of salt, it would be so much more informative if there was distinction between digital and "traditional" media. For example, only 61% of the reswpondents use audience measurement in making their decisions. Obviously the figure would be far higher for TV or magazines but much lower for digital. The same applies for "creative testing". This is a prerequisite for many national TV ad campaigns, but not for digital.