Digital marketers in India, Australia more confident about digital roadmap: Survey

Around 63% of marketers believe their organisation's current level of digital marketing proficiency is above average

Consumers around the world are rapidly embracing digital, but the rate of adoption across Asia is nothing less than staggering, said a survey. Around 63 per cent of marketers believe their organisation's current level of digital marketing proficiency is above average, with just over one in four marketers actually feeling that their expertise ranges from pretty good to high.

The survey conducted by Adobe in association with the CMO Council found that India and Australia take the lead in digital confidence, with 42 per cent of marketers in India and 35 per cent of marketers in Australia giving themselves pretty good to high marks.

The survey stated that overall, confidence is spilling over into a belief that digital is enabling engagement through continuous touch points that connect a brand directly with its customers. Some 66 per cent of respondents say digital is enabling additional touch points and opportunities while nearly half say digital is delivering more cost-effective customer acquisition. Interestingly, 41 per cent believe customer loyalty is improving thanks to digital, and 33 per cent say that digital is improving the customer experience and overall responsiveness.

The confidence is also evident on budget spends. The study stated that 79 per cent of respondents indicate that they have increased budgets in the past 12 months. According to 30 per cent of respondents, 25 to 49 per cent of total marketing budgets has been allocated to digital while 37 per cent say that between 10 and 24 per cent is now earmarked for digital engagements. Among the top spenders, 13 per cent are now spending in excess of 50 per cent of their budgets on digital, but the majority of marketers admit that this increase is really just a slight adjustment, as 35 per cent say the increase has been moderate, and 35 per cent call it slight a increase.

The survey polled a total of 648 marketers across the Asia-Pacific region, including close to 95 India based marketers have been surveyed around areas like their digital strategies, spends, priorities and challenges for the 2015-16 financial year.

However, the study found that countries like China is lagging behind (51 percent believe they need improvement or are lagging behind) and South Korea (45 percent believe they need improvement or are lagging)-markets that have been traditionally held back because of sluggish management support to move away from more traditional advertising centric strategies.The CMO council is the only global network of executives among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. The CMO Council's 8,500-plus members control more than $400 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include more than 35,000 global executives in more than 110 countries covering multiple industries.

Marketers across APAC also feel that digital strategy has to move beyond just advertisement and communication channel, shifting marketing's focus to digital as business driver. One key challenge for marketers in APAC could be where strategy is being developed and how this strategy is executed. According to more than a quarter of respondents, a global head office develops strategy, but local regions are tasked with leveraging local insights and market knowledge to optimise execution.