Marketers raise the bar for digital agencies in 2015

AGREE OR DISAGREE: The brand with the largest, most engaged, online audience in its category has a significant competitive advantage.


89% of respondents agreed with 11% disagreeing.

“Brands that engage everyone can lose cachet and exclusivity when the target audience is the whole world. Some products are less democratic than others and a buckshot approach will cheapen them. To paraphrase Marx, when a counter-culture idea catches on, the means of production (big capitalist companies like P&G, Kraft, etc.) will swallow up that idea and make it their own, like the Herbal Essence products that rose out of the sixties’ small hippie-made soaps, and others. If too many people embrace you, you run the risk of being copied (and possibly improved). These are things an intuitive agency team has to strategize about and plan for — like a giant chess game. Bigger is not always better, sometimes small and solid works really well.” 

What are the top 5 issues that keep digital marketers up at night?

• Gaining useful insights into the target market (70%)
• Increasing online audience engagement (69%)
• Measuring the effectiveness of online efforts (68%)
• Being more strategic online (67%)
• Increasing online audience size (66%)
• Effectively managing a multi-language/cultural presence (66%)

“Issues with operation on multiple markets, language, and resource issues related to that. ”

“Isn’t the main challenge – still to this day – that too many managers don’t see the value of online activities?”

“Integrating online activities into the broader marketing effort.”

“Online/social competitor analysis stats. Would be good to know what benchmarks competing brands are setting, and this is hard to find using current tools.”

“Unless a company has a dedicated in-house advertising/marketing staff, there’s always going to be a half-ass approach. These are functions that need full-time attention if a company is going to stay afloat and evolve in the market. Outsourcing to experts makes a lot of sense even with a dedicated point person at the client end. I once engaged a man who had the business of getting a consumer the best price for a new car, payment in advance. When I asked him why I should trust that he could save me so much money, he made it clear. “Lady, I buy ten cars a week. I’ve been negotiating car deals for ten years. You will probably own ten cars in your lifetime, so don’t imagine you can do better than I…” You can learn how to build a house, but do you want to live in a house you built or do you want one from an experienced builder? This holds true for advertising and marketing functions in today’s world too. Knowing when to hire an expert can be a pivotal moment for a brand. The economy of doing it yourself seems cheap, but can turn expensive in the long run.”

Our interviews revealed that clearly there was room for improvement in the digital marketing arena. None of the marketers we talked to felt their company (ranging from Fortune 50 to mid-sized) had nailed their online marketing, to the contrary. Most echoed the deficiency in strategy we saw earlier in the survey. One recurring theme that came out in the interviews was the disconnect that many marketers felt between their online activity and business growth. The particulars of why they felt this way varied in relation to the size of their organization as did the degree to which it preoccupied them.

Larger companies, more narrow concerns

In general larger multinationals were focused on more specific online marketing issues. These often revolved around improving certain metrics that were problematic for them, such as engagement or conversion. Since these companies also tend to have a larger web presence, they expressed more needs with regard to the management and governance of their web assets around the world and dealing with multicultural/time zone/language issues. They wanted to ensure more consistent communication of brand values and sharing of best practices. And, they were always on the lookout of the next big idea. There was less of a need for training expressed by this group presumably because of their ability to hire the expertise they require.

Smaller companies, more broad concerns

Marketers in mid-sized companies (annual revenues of $10M – $100M) were most adamant about wanting the internet to deliver real business growth and not just Facebook likes. Increasing brand awareness and their brand’s online audience were often cited as areas in need of improvement. While they realize the internet’s potential, they want more control, accountability, and value from their online marketing investments. They are online because they feel they have to be. Although many feel their current efforts are ineffective, they are less certain about why that is so or how they can improve the situation. This is compounded by the fact that the majority of these marketers feel they and their staff are behind the curve with regard to their online marketing skills.

Both groups felt that marketing consultants, ad agencies, web design firms, SEO consultants, and content marketing firms, along with a fragmented field of other digital experts, all offer pieces to the puzzle, but none deliver a holistic digital marketing solution. This was seen as more of a problem for mid-sized companies, who often lack the resources to manage the myriad experts required to compete online in their home market, no less internationally.

That’s what we know so far. I want to thank all of you who participated. Your input has been invaluable. We have taken the challenges you raised and used them to set the bar for our own innovation. We’ve been working over the last year to find new ways to use or skills to grow your business. We’re scheduled to launch our new concept this March and will let you know when it’s ready. Stay tuned.