Andrea Martens.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Andrea Martens, CEO, the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA)
2024 has been a year of seismic shifts for marketers. As we navigate this era of transformation, one question looms large: Are we ready to lead through change in 2025?
It would be easy to focus on the challenges of the past year, but 2024 has also shown us what’s possible when our industry comes together. Marketers have proven time and again that we are resilient, resourceful, and ready to adapt.
As I reflect on the challenges and opportunities of the past twelve months, two critical themes stand out: regulatory reform and the capability crisis. These issues have tested our resilience, demanded adaptability, and highlighted the importance of working collectively as an industry to shape a better future.
As we look to 2025, a year poised for even greater change, we must ask ourselves a crucial question: How can we ensure marketing remains not just relevant, but indispensable, in a world of accelerating disruption?
Preparing for regulatory reform
This year, the marketing industry faced one of its most significant regulatory challenges with the first tranche of updates announced to the Privacy Act. Whilst the first tranche of updates was a slimmed down version of what was expected, and included greater transparency around automated decision making, a new statutory tort to address serious invasion of privacy, development of a children’s online privacy code to name just a few of the changes, it also outlined stronger enforcement powers for the Australian Information Commissioner and creation of a tiered penalty structure. These changes, designed to strengthen consumer protections, impacts businesses and marketers and forces them to rethink how they collect, store, and use data.
This is no easy thing to do, and I would encourage any business to ensure they are providing their marketers with practical, actionable tools that will arm them with the skills they need to navigate this rapidly changing regulatory environment.
Next year, my hopes are that marketers’ key focus in this space will transition from being how they can meet the bare minimum for compliance, and instead move to how they can use this as an opportunity to innovate responsibly in a new regulatory environment.
After all, I don’t believe I’m alone when I say that I believe the future of marketing lies in creating value for customers through transparent, innovative, respectful, and ethical data use.
As businesses work to navigate the complexities of regulatory reform, it’s clear that the skills required to adapt are evolving just as quickly. Meeting new compliance standards demands not only a strong understanding of data use and privacy regulations but also the ability to innovate responsibly within this new environment. This intersection of regulatory reform and the capability crisis highlights an urgent need: equipping marketing teams with the knowledge and skills to succeed in an increasingly complex landscape."
Understanding the Capability Crisis
If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that the rapid evolution of technology and consumer expectations have outpaced our ability to keep up. The capability crisis has become a defining issue for our industry, with many marketing teams grappling with a widening skills gap.
Artificial intelligence, increasingly complex customer journeys, and the growing need for specialised roles within marketing have made it clear that traditional marketing skill sets are no longer sufficient. Paradoxically, Mark Ritson recently pointed out that 67% of marketers in Australia have no training in marketing however training budgets have continued to shrink, leaving many marketers feeling ill-equipped to tackle the challenges ahead. What’s more, he added that too many marketers believe their education ends at the tertiary level. In fact, many marketers aren’t appropriately trained in the very craft they practice. That’s why even marketing essentials like the four Ps are often overlooked, with an overwhelming majority of marketers choosing to focus primarily on promotion over the others, not to mention the lack of training in the more specialised skills that are required for the modern marketer to thrive.
At this point, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is exactly why ADMA launched the Capability Compass this year, a tool built by leading CMOs from across the industry to help marketers identify their strengths and developmental opportunities, and to support marketing team leaders to better understand skill gaps across their teams, empowering them to tackle these head on and enabling them to deliver on their organisational mandates.
But tools alone aren’t enough. We need a cultural shift - a renewed commitment to continuous learning and investment in our people
Embedding upskilling at every level of a career, from junior all the way through to senior management, is the only way in which we can solve this crisis.
Moving into 2025
As we step into 2025, I believe the marketers who will succeed in difficult times are those who not only adapt to change but lead it. Thriving in this landscape requires bold decisions, resilience, a focus on collaboration, and a commitment to building a sustainable future for marketing.
Let’s commit, as an industry, to not just react to change, but to shape it. Together, we can ensure marketing remains a force for innovation, trust, and value in 2025 and beyond.
At ADMA, we stand ready to support marketers on this journey. From advocating for balanced and pragmatic regulatory reforms to providing tools like the Capability Compass, we are committed to equipping marketers with the resources, knowledge, and support they need to navigate these challenges and seize the opportunities ahead.
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