Less than one in five marketers are very confident in their ability to integrate data for insights.
Failure to understand cross-channel behaviour and uncertainty around optimising media investment are the biggest challenges to assessing marketing performance.
This is the key finding of Kantar’s new annual state of marketing study, Getting Media Right released today based on input from 468 senior marketers globally across advertiser brands, media companies and agencies.
Kantar Australia head of media and digital Mark Henning said many marketers are missing opportunities for growth.
“40 per cent of marketers globally are still using ROI measurement approaches primarily focused on short term-sales; yet only eight per cent believe short-term sales is the most important approach to ROI.
“Focusing only on short-term sales can result in marketers understating the true ROI of their marketing efforts.”
The report also shows that despite the plethora of data we have available to us in the digital world, less than half of advertisers are confident in their ability to create insights from this data.
Even within agencies and media, less than 20 per cent are ‘very confident’, indicating the industry is struggling to manage all the data that is available.
“Creating insights is dependent upon pulling together the right information and tools to monitor and optimise campaigns, yet marketers are struggling to connect the dots on performance across channels,” adds Henning.
Key findings
- 78 per cent strongly or somewhat agree that it is difficult to assess how well brands perform across channels.
- 47 per cent have moved the optimisation process up earlier in their campaigns than last year, with most now starting in the ideas and strategy phase.
- Female marketers are leading the charge on earlier optimisation – half indicated it has moved earlier in the campaign lifecycle (versus 44 per cent of male marketers)
- Advertiser confidence in their media mix has grown slightly from last year,but 45 per cent are still not confident that their organisation has the optimal media mix
Kantar global head of media, insights division Jane Ostler said: “Marketers should aim for the best of all worlds. They need to create a framework to monitor impact on business AND brand metrics while harmonising measurement tools and insights to improve performance across all channels.
“Getting Media Right is a clear indication that marketers are continuing to struggle with measuring and proving ROI, primarily due to their approach.”
Now in its fifth year, Getting Media Right examines the current state of marketing in a connected world.
It reveals an industry that continues to diversify its media usage and increasingly requires better understanding of how ideas, content and media need to be activated in tandem to create holistic marketing that drives brand growth.
The new 2018 report can be downloaded here.
