Digital marketing budgets will grow

Warc, 14 July 2014

SINGAPORE: More than three-quarters of senior marketers in Asia-Pacific think digital, mobile and analytics will change the face of the industry over the next five years, a recent survey has revealed.

According to the regional segment of Accenture's global study of 600 CMOs in 11 countries, 39% of its 180 APAC participants also expect spending on digital to account for over 75% of their marketing budgets over the same period.

But even though another 42% forecast that their marketing spend on digital will increase by more than 5% next year, only 23% expect their company to be known as a digital business within five years, Campaign Asia reported.

This prompted Accenture to warn industry practitioners that they need to embrace digital in order to survive.

"To be part of the enterprise digital transformation that every business needs to undertake for survival, CMOs need to extend their vision of marketing and its scope," the report said.

Patricio De Matteis, managing director of Accenture Interactive for APAC, urged marketers to make best use of digital opportunities while also taking account of the customer experience.

"Senior marketing executives are well positioned to assume this role because the opportunities, as well as the potential, lie in the customer, the brand, the interface with the customer and how the customer is empowered," he said.

He noted that an increasing number of companies are now hiring staff specifically to manage the customer experience and said "the key to success" is in developing an effective omnichannel experience.

This would appear to be an area requiring improvement because nearly three-quarters (73%) of the survey respondents believe it's "essential" to deliver an effective customer experience, yet only 61% think their company is doing this well.

Data sourced from Campaign Asia; additional content by Warc staff