NEW YORK, NY — September 8, 2008
— Chief Marketing Officers at many of the biggest brands in the nation
are seeing a major shift in the marketing landscape. Almost two-thirds
(63%) of the 175 marketing executives surveyed see an increase in their
spending on interactive/digital marketing while 59% report a decrease
in traditional marketing spend.
The survey additionally describes the tough challenges that top CMOs
face in this current economic climate: 65% say that the money spent on
advertising as a whole will decrease due to the current economy. In
contrast, 94% of CMOs and marketing executives agreed with the
statement, 'A tough economic period is precisely the time when
marketing plays a key role.'
CMOs are shifting to more targeted and measurable marketing
strategies. When asked how their firm determines their target market
for each channel, 50% stated that they use data driven marketing
techniques: 31% of respondents agreed with the statement: "e
You use sophisticated modeling tools to analyze existing customer data
(behavioral, preference and demographic) 'and 19% said that they
'analyze past purchase behavior. 'In contrast, 28% said they made
'rough estimates based on past experience.'
According to Mike Iaccarino, CEO of Epsilon, a leading marketing
services firm, "Epsilon's first survey of the nation's Chief Marketing
Officers presents a unique look at the changing dynamics of the
marketing landscape. In this economic climate, marketing executives are
seeking accountability and measurable results. Data driven marketing is
an increasingly important component of corporate marketing campaigns as
senior marketers employ sophisticated segmentation strategies to
recruit and retain customers."
The survey was conducted in August 2008. Participants included 175
U.S. Chief Marketing Officers and marketing executives of some of the
largest brands in the nation. 27% of respondents work at companies with
$10 billion or more in annual revenues last year.
Marketing Mix:
CMOs of the biggest brands have been early adopters of new media
with social computing and blogs receiving the most interest whereas
instant messaging and interactive TV ads were the least popular.
- Social computing (including word of
mouth, social networking sites, viral advertising, etc.) was the most
popular emerging channel with 42% of marketing executives expressing
interest in adding it to their marketing mix.
- Blogs were the second most popular emerging channel: 35% of marketing executives want to pursue blogs and 19% already use blogs
- Almost
one-third of CMOs mentioned Podcasting as an area of interest: 31% are
interested in adding Podcasting to their marketing mix and 18% already
have.
- Mobile devices also elicited interest: 29% are
interested in Mobile Devices (Phones/PDAs) and 22% have added them to
their marketing mix.
About Epsilon
Epsilon is the industry’s leading marketing services firm. Ad Age ranks
Epsilon #1 U.S. Marketing Services Firm and #1 U.S. Direct Marketing
Agency. Services include strategic consulting, database and loyalty
technology, proprietary data, predictive modeling and a full range of
creative and interactive services including brand and promotional
development, web design, email deployment, search engine optimization
and direct mail production. In addition, Epsilon is the world's largest
permission-based email marketer. Epsilon is an Alliance Data company.
For more information, visit www.epsilon.com or call 1.800.309.0505.
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