Marketing Governance

BITKOM, the German new media trade body

Top of the list is Finland. More than 91% of the Finnish companies have a website.  89% of both Danish and Swedish firms, had a website. Norway on the other hand is in great contrast with the rest of the Scandinavia countries with only 79% of the companies being online.

The Netherlands and Iceland were ranked equal fourth, on 84%, while Germany and Austria both recorded a figure of 82%. The UK followed on 81%, then the Czech Republic on 80%.

BITKOM President Dieter Kempf noted that those companies failing to present an online business card were giving away the chance to develop a relationship with existing customers and, more especially, to attract new customers.

Within Germany, most large businesses were already online, with just 4% of those employing more than 250 people not being there, and 18% of small and medium sized enterprises.

The biggest gap, the study found, was for very small companies, those employing fewer than ten people, where just 45% had an online presence.

Kempf observed that small businesses could get online with little effort and at low cost in order to gain wider attention.

A separate BITKOM survey published recently found that those companies that integrated the internet into their business models were more successful than the rest of the economy.

Some 60% internet-savvy companies expected significant sales growth in the 2013 financial year compared to just 46% of industrial companies for which the internet played a minor role and 38% of service providers in a similar position.

Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Survey. The survey was published April 26th. Some 53 percent of the digital marketers surveyed from around the world say they devote less than 5 percent of their budget to optimization activities. Last year 48 percent of the marketers said this. Only 6 percent of respondents are allocating more than one-quarter of their budgets to these activities, relatively unchanged from last year’s 7 percent. And that is strange, because through optimization companies can reduce the costs of their marketing operations. By calculating the ROI for the optimization projects it can become apparent that the reason not to, is actually the reason to do it; saving budget.

Eye-openers

Adobe conducted this survey amongst 1800 marketers from around the World. “Some of the findings are eye-opening”, says John Cristofano, PR-Manager at  Adobe, “like data showing a majority of the companies surveyed spend 5 percent or less of their marketing budget on optimization activities. Five percent or less, even though it’s also clear from the data that companies investing more get more in return. For example, companies allocating more than 25 percent of marketing budgets to optimization are twice as likely to see high conversion rates.”

With these kinds of results, it’s only logical to ask why there are not more companies are investing in optimization. According to the survey there are two major challenges. Budget and resources are the two most important things, that hold marketers back says almost half of the respondents.

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Ever since 2001 VisionEdge Marketing is conducting a Marketing Performance Management survey to better understand how marketers are using marketing data, metrics, and analytics to inform marketing decisions, predict buyer behavior, improve marketing performance, and forecast trends. The new 2013 issue of the survey is online now.

Survey participants have found the results to be an excellent benchmarking tool. It  provides insight into how marketers use data, metrics, and analytics to inform marketing decisions, improve marketing performance, and report on their contribution, impact and value.  This year’s survey is particularly focused on marketing dashboards, data, and analytics- important capabilities for today’s marketing professionals.

In appreciation for completing the survey, participants will receive:

• An executive summary of the survey results (note: ITSMA members who complete the survey will receive the full report)
• The opportunity to request a copy of the Forrester report resulting from this survey. (note: All Forrester clients will be able to access the report from Forrester.com using your normal subscription login.)
• A chance to win a Kindle Fire (the first 500 survey respondents will be entered into a drawing)

All responses will be kept strictly confidential and reported only in the aggregate. The survey closes at April 30, 2013. If you leave the survey and re-enter, you will be returned to the place where you left off.

The survey can be found here:

Doremus optimism is rising among global executives around the world.

Across four key metrics—global economic conditions, local economic conditions, industry economic conditions, and corporate outlook—more senior-level executives project improvements over the next six months vs. the same period a year earlier some 41 percent are expecting global economic conditions to improve over the next six months, up from the 25% who did so a year earlier.  No more then 52 percent expect improvements in their own businesses over the next six months, up from the 39% who did so in 2011.

The outlook differs by geography: North Americans were the most optimistic overall, particularly about economic conditions locally and within their own industries. By contrast, Europeans were the most pessimistic, particularly regarding local economic conditions.

For the first time in nine years, senior execs ranked improving market share/competitive position (47%) as their top goal for the year. That shift pushed cost cutting into the No. 2 spot (43%), while developing/marketing new products/services (39%) ranked No. 3

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Measuring is knowing, people say. Theres no difference for marketingdepartments. Because when you measure your results, you measure your succes. And when you measure, you can hold people accountable.

For measuring results you need data, and theres no lack of data nowadays. Customer and businessdata is more available then ever, says Jonathan Lewis on marketingprofs.com. But the sheer volume of data increases the chance on misunderstanding and misinterpreting it significant.

According to Lewis there are five common errors that must be avoided when measuring results.

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Warc, wich combines trends observed in marketing budgets, trading conditions and staffing levels, the index has risen to a 56.2 in February, where 50 represents a positive trend. That is 1.2 point increase compared to January.

The biggest rise can be found in Asia Pacific. The headline GMI in this region stood stood on 53.8 in January, and has climbed to 56.2 in February.

The Americas are the most optimistic. It’s headline GMI went up from 58 to a firm 59.5 points.

Europe is lacking behind in this all. Although the trend is positive and  the index went up 1.2 points, it stills keeps a low score at 53.1 points in February.

(graphic by marketingprofs.com)

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Over the last year we have seen some initiatives on Augmented Reality (AR) applied to marketing collateral and editorial content. But now AUDI is launching an AR campaign to promote the R8 supercar.

AR is recognition technology that allows a person to see additional content such as a video, 3D imaging or web editorial when scanning a symbols on a printed media. So you think here we go again. Another piece of technology which is difficult to incorporate in daily marketing processes, another investment needed from your superiors with no real arguments, another nifty gadget with its true potential unknown.

But AR is different. For years we have been focussed on creating multichannel campaigns, aligning collateral production workflows and creating channel agnostic content. AR now brings it all together. We can use this technology to engage our customer and we can now track the use of mass media like its direct media. We can expect marketers to struggle with the application of AR and the integration into the marketing processes. But we will offer our customers a great 21^st century experience and in that process become 21^st century marketers.

Watch the movie at Audis UK Facebookpage

Do you rely on hearsay when it comes to your marketingcampaigns? No you say? Feedback on your marketingcampaigns, showing results and measuring effectiveness. It sounds like every marketer would own one or more processes to do so, but do they?

Most senior marketers say they either have a formalized process or are using one when the situation calls for it. “But when it comes to the types of local market data used to impact campaign performance, those same marketers appear to be too reliant on ‘hearsay data’,” the CMO Council states in a new study.

Marketers are twice as likely to gather insights from field and business development teams as they are to examine online voice of customer listening and analysis (57% vs. 29%).

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New Media Forecasts report, ZenithOptimedia found that the leading country in 2012 terms of new media adoption was Norway, with an average penetration rate of 38.8% across three key digital technologies – smartphones, tablets and IPTV.

It was followed by France on 35.7%, the Netherlands on 35.1%, Sweden on 31.3% and Denmark on 31.2%. However, balance will shift a little towards 2015. ZenithOptimedia expects the Netherlands to be on top in 2015 with a penetration of 65.1%, followed by France 60.8% and Ireland 50.2%.

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All you Marketing Managers, Mkt. Ops. FirefightersMobile Marketing Jedis, Data Storytellers, Transcultural Anthropologists, Truth Engineers, Gesture Writers, Casting Agents, Content Archivists, Details Despots , Sustainability Czars and Community Executives, welcome back to MarketingGovernance.com.

We have great news for you, 2013 will not be boring! The pressure is on and many marketing transformation programs, which have been on the drawing table in 2012, will finally see the daylight this year. We cannot wait and will continue to update you on a daily basis on whitepapers, trends, press releases and events.

Let’s start with three interesting posts from last week to catch up.

1. The Top 5 Obstacles to Customer Experience Management Success in 2012 looks back to see trends and creates a benchmark.

Six things every CMO needs to know in 2013 talks about the importance of mastering the Transmedia challenges.