Senior managers are very interested in digital marketing even if they aren’t committing much of their budget toward it, reports a new study conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Canadian Marketing Association, released in advance of the CMA and Marketing’s Digital Marketing Conference this week.
The research revealed that marketers are broadening their priorities from traditional, mass vehicles, like television, to include more targeted Internet and digital marketing tactics.
While digital currently accounts for only 8% of total marketing spend, almost two thirds (65%) of the marketers surveyed strongly agreed that their “senior management is very interested in digital marketing,” and 39% expect spending on TV to decrease over the next two years.
“Thanks to the advent of personal video recorders, video games, the Internet, and other technologies, media consumption is now a much more active and less passive pursuit than ever before,” said Steve Levy, president of Ipsos Reid in Toronto, in a release. “It is no longer just about advertising on TV. In fact, today’s consumer spends almost as much on devices and applications designed to help them avoid advertising as advertisers spend on advertising itself.”
E-mail marketing, online advertising, search-engine marketing (paid), search-engine optimization and interactive consumer websites appear to have become part of the traditional marketing mix, in terms of familiarity and usage.
Social network marketing, e-CRM, viral marketing, blogging, podcasting, in-store digital media, online-video marketing, and mobile marketing are considered to be emerging opportunities, still with low levels of usage even though familiarity within the marketing industry is on the rise.
“Over the past three years, we have seen familiarity and usage of most aspects of digital marketing increase,” said Levy. “Blogging, podcasting, mobile marketing and viral marketing have remained flat over the past two years. This is possibly driven by an increasingly more sophisticated and tech-oriented environment.”
Despite rising interest, 31% of marketers said they still lack knowledge of the digital arena, 12% said they are just starting to explore or consider digital media, while another 12% said they are unsure of its effectiveness.
“For most areas of the digital landscape, it remains the case that agencies are more familiar and express stronger usage than their counterparts, client-side,” said Adrian Capobianco, president, Quizative Inc. and co-chair of the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference.
“The question is whether agencies are doing enough to educate their clients and if not, this could be an opportunity area for some organizations to step into.”
The CMA and Marketing magazine are presenting The 2008 Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto, today and tomorrow.
