Australia can boast that more money has been ploughed into data-driven marketing and advertising (DDMA) compared with global counterparts this year but that trend is unlikely to continue into 2015.
Spending on data driven marketing in Australia grew at a slightly more pronounced pace over the past year compared to global benchmarks according to a Global DMA report by the Winterberry Group which analysed key findings from 17 countries. It's the first global report of its kind to attempt to benchmark progress.
ADMA CEO Jodie Sangster, told AdNews that there were some findings that solidified what the market already thought to be the case, and some surprising findings.
What it did show however was that Australian marketers are pushing into data “for the right reasons” she said.
“What it shows is that Australian marketers and moving into data for the right reasons. To make marketing investment more efficient, and to make business a more customer centric. We are a country that's definitely focussed on the right reasons,” she said.
“What's not surprising is that it's budgets, buy-in from above and talent that continue to be issues. It's anecdotally what we hear all the time. On talent it's almost a good sign that it's not just us a s a single market facing a talent issue – it's a global worldwide problem.”
What is surprising about the global benchmarks was around regulation, said Sangster, was what it revealed about how Australian marketers feel about regulation.
The report found that Australian marketers struggle with burdensome regulatory barriers slightly less than their global peers; panellists benchmarked such guidelines at 2.81 (on a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 indicating that regulation “substantially” limits DDMA practice). This compares to the global index score of 2.94. Within individual markets, panellists in Germany and France indicated they are most encumbered by regulation, assigning regulatory barriers index scores of 3.50 and 3.29, respectively. Panellists in the United States and New Zealand, by contrast, were least bothered by regulation, assigning the lowest relative index scores of 2.61 and 2.67.
Despite having less arduous regulatory controls than other regions, marketers are more afraid of the regulation than they should be. That, added Sangster, is because traditionally, Australia has been very “conservative” around its use of data, but it is improving.
Australian brands and agencies have invested more in social media, mobile apps, user-generated content (UGC) and digital display than any other areas listed among DDMA efforts. Investment in websites/e-commerce ranked at 4.02 points of a maximum five during the past year and that is expected to climb to 4.12 points in 2015, beating the global averages of 4.02/4.06 respectively.
Social media ranked high, being assigned 3.92 points this year and is also expected climb to 4.06 next year, but that is slightly less than the global average of 4.11 predicted for 2015. Mobile apps and UGC were assigned a score of 3.81 points for this year and 4.08 next year – again, slightly less than the
global expectation of 4.15 points. Finally, investment in local digital display came in at 3.83 points for this year, but next year’s prediction of 3.85 next year falls short of the 3.92 global average.
Australia is in the top nine of 17 countries where data-driven marketing is seen as important to a clients’ marketing and advertising efforts.
Three key areas lead the way for Australian marketers, brands and agencies. At the top of the list is a focus on offers, messaging and creative content, where 72.3% of marketers’ efforts are concentrated, compared to 68.5% globally. In second place, 57.9% of work in the DDMA sphere goes towards data-driven strategy and/or product development (compared with 52.4% globally), while in third place, 54.1% of time and effort is spent in audience analytics/measurement – a strong figure given that this was only allocated 44.4% by global total respondents.
Marketing budgets are on the rise, says the report. Globally, 63.2% of panellists said that their spending on data-driven marketing and advertising grew over the last year—with another 10% (73.5 percent of the panel) expecting that budgets will rise yet again over the next year.
However, in Australia 55.4% said limited marketing budgets represents the single most significant barrier to effective data marketing efforts. The global average score for this was 47.1%, showing that Australians feel they are more held back by budget limitations than most countries which took part.
More than a third (34%) also felt that outmoded and/or inappropriate internal business processes hinder their efforts, compared to 31.2% globally.
Poor understanding of “data-driven marketing and advertising” and its contribution (cited by 31.8% of Australian marketers) also hinders DDMA business – slightly more than the 30.4% global average.
However, even though lack of experience/ knowledgeable talent came in as the third-most cited reason for hindering DDMA business (41.7%), it was slightly less than the global average of 42.1%.
Sangster reckons the report will being to become more valuable to the marketing coming years.
“It's in its first year and it gives us the scope to see what we need to address, but where it will really become valuable is in the years to come as we can compare how it is evolving and progress,” she said.
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