One in two at ADMA’s Global Forum expect their marketing budgets to increase over the next year, with 56 per cent indicating their marketing team is larger than the same time last year, according to Oracle Marketing Cloud’s survey of attendees at ADMA’s conference.

The survey of 235 senior marketers was conducted in early August 2015 at the ADMA Global Forum in Sydney. It set out for the second consecutive year to understand the impact of cloud technology on marketing as well as trends in marketing budgets and strategies, and the current pressures facing marketing department as they plan for 2016.

Findings include:

• More than half (56 per cent) of marketing teams were larger than they were a year ago. This was up on the 2014 surveys respondents, where only 44 per indicated their team had grown during the previous 12 months. The result clearly demonstrates the growing importance organisations are placing on marketing, creating an increased demand on marketing skills, as technology expertise becomes a required skill for marketing professionals.
• The majority of survey respondents also forecasted their marketing budgets would increase during the coming year. Of those surveyed, 56.5 per cent (up from 55 per cent last year) said they expected a boost while 37 per cent said their budget was likely to remain the same.
• Of those surveyed, 84 per cent described their marketing role as ‘challenging’, while a further 8 per cent likened it to ‘rocket science’. This demonstrates the growing complexity faced by marketing professionals as they implement campaigns in a rapidly evolving environment, with over one third expected to implement cloud marketing technology over the next three years.

“As consumers demand more personalised and relevant relationships Australian marketers are adapting fast, leveraging cloud technology to drive business growth. They have become comfortable using data and technology no longer seeing this as the domain of rocket scientists,” said Paul Cross, vice president of customer success, Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan.

“The growth of budgets and teams suggests that organisations are linking smart marketing investment to revenue and profit growth. Today, customer centricity is at the core of modern marketing. Marketers are looking for tools which will allow them to deliver real returns from cross-channel marketing using highly personalised customer outreach but in an automated and orchestrated manner.”