Marketers are struggling to maintain up with the ever-changing digital landscape and are likely to continue facing significant barriers in the coming year, according to a new Kantar report.
Among the results from the study “Getting Media Right: Marketing in Motion” is that most marketing leaders are planning sharp rises in their digital expenditure by 2020, along with continuing declines in investment in print advertising. Furthermore, approximately half of the leaders surveyed feel that they still have to strike the correct equilibrium between on-and offline outreach, and more than 75% are struggling with cross-channel measurement.
The report also identified five troublesome trends in digital marketing that even the most seasoned experts are still having trouble navigating:
1. Short-term vs. long-term: Though nearly everyone in marketing understands the necessity of balancing short-term sales and long-term brand building, barely half have figured out how to measure both, with more than one-third still relying solely on short-term sales results to demonstrate success.
2. Integrated campaigns: While more than one-quarter of marketers have not yet implemented integrated strategies across media and non-media outreach, another 25 percent have failed to integrate their organizations at all.
3. Programmatic targeting: The vast majority of marketers already use programmatic targeting in campaigns, but around 30 percent still are not confident they are actually targeting the right audiences.
4. Cookieless advertising: Despite the looming threat of cookieless internet browsing, almost 75 percent of marketers have yet to prepare for that seeming inevitability.
5. Creative context: Most marketers know developing custom content is crucial for success, but nearly one-third still do not quite comprehend the impact of context on the execution of that content, and require further insights into the importance of tailoring content to its specific context.
