Marketers upbeat in APAC

Warc, 6 March 2013

HONG KONG: Seven in ten marketers across Asia Pacific believe 2013 will be a better year for their brand than 2012, a report has revealed.

The 2013 Marketers' Outlook study, conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and Ipsos, surveyed 372 marketers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Singapore. It found widespread levels of confidence across a majority of the sectors polled, with only retail exhibiting a degree of ambivalence.

Those working in the automotive sector were most positive, with 82% feeling more optimistic than last year. Next was finance on 77%, healthcare / pharmaceutical on 74% and consumer products on 72%. Retail, on 52%, was by some distance the least optimistic sector.

And while marketers were generally confident about their own brands, a smaller proportion displayed a similar outlook about their industry, with just 54% expecting 2013 to be a better year than 2012.

Among the main challenges facing marketers in 2013 was the need to build a more integrated marketing strategy, cited by 58% of respondents.

A similar proportion referred to the requirements of improving effectiveness and enhancing ROI measurements.

Building brand loyalty also featured highly, with 56% of marketers mentioning this as an issue to be addressed.

The balance of media also appears to be shifting. Some 72% felt the role of social media/viral channels in marketing communications plans would be higher or much higher in 2013 compared to the previous year. And 27% also thought this would be the most effective medium over the coming three years.

Mobile marketing was named by 57% as having a higher communications role, while 21% expected it to be the most effective medium.

But while 63% saw online advertising playing a higher role in 2013, just 10% thought it would be the most effective medium in the future.

Another interesting nugget that emerged from the study was that in China, marketers are more likely to outsource social media strategy to agencies while in other countries this tends to be managed in-house.

Data sourced from Campaign Asia-Pacific; additional content by Warc staff