With US marketing budgets set to rise 4.6% in 2015, new research claims that pressure will be on c-level representatives to cut through the noise to produce actionable insights.
According to Randy Giusto of advisory firm Outsell, a rise in spend will also present an array of challenges for those in charge of the purse strings, as they attempt to track the return from their efforts.
“Chief marketing officers are drowning in data and suffering from analytics angst,” says Giusto.
“They’re struggling to accurately measure return on marketing investments, and they have increased pressure from CFOs to justify additional spending.”
Outsell’s questioning of brand representatives in the US shows that companies are set to spend $452 billion on marketing this year, with digital channels expected to see a rise of 9.3% compared to 2014.
Offline gets connected
Seeing a need to move with the times, Outsell’s report backs marketers to invest heavily in ad tech solutions which can be used to create highly personalised forms of messaging. The study expects their campaigns to get “behaviourally driven”, which could enable brands to get closer to the audiences they hope to reach.
The survey tipped mobile, social and video advertising to reel in spend of $44 billion, up from $38 billion last year.
Despite the growth for digital channels, budgets for the traditional tri-factor of TV, radio and cinema advertising are set to account for a far higher total, of $97 billion for 2015. However, Giusto says these channels owe a great deal to their digital support.
“Traditional and digital media channels now increasingly connect thanks to the use of hashtags, URLs, and app store logos in print and TV ads.
“Driving people back to a richer brand experience on digital channels opens up new opportunities for companies to serve advertisers with cross-platform delivery and measurement tools,” he added.
Outsell’s findings are based on a survey of 1,500 marketers in the US, who stated their commitment to 36 different marketing categories.