Adobe Digital Roadblock Report 2015 — UK

It’s nev­er been a more excit­ing time to be a mar­keter – in fact in our 2015 Dig­i­tal Road­block report, 68% of UK mar­keters agreed that we are enter­ing a ‘gold­en age’ of mar­ket­ing. And it appears that our pro­fes­sion is indeed flour­ish­ing, we have more choice than ever before when it comes to meth­ods of reach­ing and engag­ing with our cus­tomers. Half of you said that you had heard about a new mar­ket­ing chan­nel or term with­in just the past month and 3 in 5 said that new tech­nolo­gies are the dri­ving forces behind this change.

This brings us to the para­dox of choice, while oppor­tu­ni­ty abounds, how do we make sure we are answer­ing the busi­ness’ needs now, as well as prepar­ing for a future where vir­tu­al­ly every­thing will be a chan­nel to reach audi­ences on? Plus, con­sumer expec­ta­tions are high­er than ever before – they want to engage on their own terms, no mat­ter the time, the chan­nel, the device and the con­tent has to be good. You’ll see from the results that mar­keters are being heav­i­ly chal­lenged with this, and while the major­i­ty are excit­ed about the oppor­tu­ni­ties, they are also con­cerned about how well pre­pared both they them­selves and their com­pa­nies are for this new dig­i­tal age.

But, per­haps one of the biggest sur­pris­es for me in this sur­vey was that mar­keters rat­ed eCom­merce as their most crit­i­cal focus area in the next 12 months –above cross-chan­nel mar­ket­ing, con­tent man­age­ment, per­son­al­i­sa­tion and all the oth­er ele­ments you would have expect­ed. To me this says that marketing’s influ­ence real­ly is spread­ing across busi­ness­es, and per­haps the tra­di­tion­al sales, IT, mar­ket­ing, finance bar­ri­ers are final­ly com­ing down. If this is true, then we real­ly are enter­ing a gold­en age for marketing.

Here’s a sum­ma­ry of the key findings:

UK mar­keters see the indus­try chang­ing dra­mat­i­cal­ly and the change is only accel­er­at­ing; they’re opti­mistic and see it as an opportunity

• Eighty-five per­cent of mar­keters see the changes in mar­ket­ing as an oppor­tu­ni­ty (UK 85%) ; near­ly half (47%) feel opti­mistic and are excit­ed (46%) about the changes.
• While opti­mistic, UK mar­keters wor­ry about their abil­i­ty to keep up (48%, 37% EMEA); they feel under­pre­pared for the changes with­in their indus­try (41%) and feel they are along for the ride rather than dri­ving change (51%).
• Mar­keters believe they are expect­ed to adapt to tech advance­ments to keep pace with the indus­try (73%) , yet only 19% describe them­selves as tech savvy (ear­ly adopter)

New tech­nolo­gies are trans­form­ing how mar­keters inter­act with their audi­ences and how mar­ket­ing effec­tive­ness is measured

• 3 in 5 mar­keters believe new tech­nolo­gies are the dri­ving forces of change (UK 61%, FR 50%; DE 63%)
• Mar­keters believe that inter­net-con­nect­ed devices enable mar­ket­ing to per­me­ate every aspect of con­sumer life (70%). Mar­keters must become skilled in mobile5 (63%) and in deliv­er­ing con­sis­tent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence across mobile and IoT devices to reach these consumers
• New tech­nol­o­gy is con­tribut­ing to the change in con­sumer expec­ta­tions – con­sumers now expect imme­di­ate respons­es (79%), com­pelling con­tent (74%), unique­ly tai­lored mar­ket­ing (62%) and brands to com­mu­ni­cate direct­ly to them (73%).
• 58% agree cap­tur­ing and apply­ing data to inform and dri­ve mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties is the new reality.
• 57% agree that data (met­rics from dig­i­tal ads, cam­paigns, web­site, etc.) are infor­ma­tive in evolv­ing their company’s mar­ket­ing creative.

British mar­keters recog­nise that a fun­da­men­tal change to mar­ket­ing is need­ed (59%, FR 54%, DE 42%), but tech­no­log­i­cal changes haven’t enticed them to aban­don tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing approaches

• Hold­ing onto old meth­ods con­tin­ues to be the trend as British mar­keters are less like­ly to imple­ment new tech­nolo­gies (UK 58%, FR 68%, DE 67%) and are more like­ly trust their gut when mak­ing deci­sions (UK 55% ‚FR 41%, DE 38% )
• Areas iden­ti­fied as most crit­i­cal in the future, such as IoT and mobile mar­ket­ing, are also the areas where per­for­mance is weakest

Mar­keters wor­ry about their company’s abil­i­ty to keep up (51%)5, as resources and lack of train­ing in new skills are bar­ri­ers to success

• UK mar­keters see marketing’s influ­ence on strat­e­gy decreas­ing (UK 61% strongly/very strong­ly in 2015 vs. 70% in 2014)
• UK mar­keters are less like­ly than their Euro­pean coun­ter­parts to believe that the mar­ket­ing func­tions is increas­ing­ly respon­si­ble for con­tri­bu­tion to future rev­enue (UK 64% vs, FR 73%, DE 71%)
• Lack of resources (41%) and train­ing in new mar­ket­ing skills (30%) are named as the top bar­ri­ers to success
• Mobile Mar­keter, Data Ana­lyst and Dig­i­tal Mar­keter are the most under­rep­re­sent­ed roles (29%, 28%, 27% respec­tive­ly) – and these roles con­tin­ue to be the top areas for hir­ing need year over year

Take a look at the full results of the Adobe Dig­i­tal Road­block Report to see what UK mar­keters are think­ing about now:

Adobe Digital Roadblock Report 2015

United Kingdom

Read the EMEA Adobe Dig­i­tal Road­block report here.

Most agree the pace of change in mar­ket­ing is accel­er­at­ing, they are divid­ed on how that change is happening

… with near­ly half feel­ing chal­lenged and opti­mistic about indus­try changes

New tech­nolo­gies are a dri­ving force behind indus­try change

These tech­nol­o­gy changes affect per­son­al approach­es to marketing…

…And feed the expec­ta­tion that mar­keters should keep up with advance­ments in tech, mobile, and social

Con­sumer expec­ta­tions are high­er than ever –imme­di­ate respons­es and deliv­ery of com­pelling con­tent are key

Mar­keters are pre­pared to imple­ment new tech­nolo­gies to meet these demands

The mar­ket­ing func­tion has increased in influ­ence in the past five years

Influ­ence on com­pa­ny strat­e­gy remains strong, with a quar­ter say­ing mar­ket­ing con­tributes most to future revenue

Mar­keters are wor­ried about their abil­i­ty to keep up, more so than their company’s abil­i­ty to do so

While strug­gles vary, near­ly a quar­ter name big data and mar­ket­ing mea­sure­ment as challenges

1 in 3 cite short­ages in tech and data relat­ed roles. Dig­i­tal Mar­keters and Data Ana­lysts are still high­ly sought after

A suc­cess­ful mar­keter is seen as tech savvy, but only a fifth of mar­keters describe them­selves in such terms

A dis­con­nect exists between impor­tance of cross-plat­form con­sis­ten­cy – and abil­i­ty to solve for it

2/3 see con­sis­tent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence on wear­ables as impor­tant in three years

The need to adapt is imme­di­ate: mobile mar­ket­ing, e‑commerce, and con­tent man­age­ment are pro­ject­ed to be less impor­tant in 3 years

Areas iden­ti­fied as crit­i­cal in the years to come are the areas where per­for­mance is lowest

Lack of resources and bud­get are the key bar­ri­ers hold­ing mar­keters back

• Lack of resources/budget was also the top con­cern in 2014

Changes are seen as an oppor­tu­ni­ty and the begin­ning of a gold­en age of marketing…

Mar­keters feel they have the skills and are pre­pared to imple­ment new technologies

1 in 2 claim to have heard about a new mar­ket­ing chan­nel or term with­in the past month

Many see orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­tures as not well set up to meet mar­ket­ing changes

• 66% of EMEA believe com­pa­ny struc­tures are well set up

For new tech­nolo­gies, mar­keters’ con­fi­dence in pre­pared­ness to deliv­er falls below actu­al performance

Tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing is where mar­keters feel per­for­mance is strongest

2 in 3 mar­keters feel they have the nec­es­sary skills to per­form successfully

• 66% of EMEA believe they have all the skills and resources need­ed for suc­cess as a marketer

While many real­ize the need for skill devel­op­ment, 41% plan to learn from experimentation

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion across chan­nels and tal­ent recruit­ment rise to the top as key for effectiveness

Over 1 in 3 believe that part­ner­ships with sales are crit­i­cal in mak­ing dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing work…

…And inte­gra­tion across busi­ness func­tions can be improved

Method­ol­o­gy

• Online sur­vey among a total of 1,311 Euro­pean marketers
• Research man­aged by Edel­man Berland
• Field­work: March 31- April 16, 2015
• This study is a refresh of research con­duct­ed with a com­pa­ra­ble audi­ence (350 Euro­pean mar­keters) in May 2014

View report on Slideshare