Integrated campaigns pose problems for decision-makers

In its annual "Getting Media Right" study, the international marketing and market research company Kantar Millward Brown analyzes key challenges from the perspective of international marketing specialists. For the current study, 468 marketing decision-makers from companies, media and agencies worldwide were surveyed.

"Marketers around the world are struggling to measure the effectiveness of their measures. The ROI of activities is currently measured by 40 percent of respondents on the basis of short-term sales increases. However, 85% of decision-makers would also like to see long-term goals such as the development of brand value. Management should therefore think more intensively than before about a sensible mix of short-term and long-term performance measurement," says Bernd Büchner, Managing Director of Kantar Millward Brown in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Other important results of the study are:

Difficulties in linking available data sources in a meaningful way

Only those who precisely understand the wishes and needs of consumers can optimize the performance, creativity and measurability of campaigns. It is therefore not surprising that the integration of data - combined with the aim of gaining valuable insights across channels, platforms and devices - is a high priority for marketers. However, although confidence has increased compared to the previous year, less than half of advertisers are confident that they are sufficiently able to gain insights from available data. Even within creative and media agencies, less than 20% are very confident on this issue. This indicates that there are still major difficulties in linking all available data. In addition, only 7% of the marketers surveyed stated that they had access to all relevant data sources.

The measurability of cross-channel campaigns causes difficulties

Generating relevant insights requires combining the right information and tools to monitor and optimize campaigns, but marketers struggle to understand performance across all channels. 78% agree that it is difficult to assess how well brands are performing across all channels.

Campaign optimization starts earlier

When asked in which phase of the campaign cycle the optimization process starts, 47 percent of marketers responded that they now intervene earlier than a year ago. Many marketers now optimize as early as the idea and strategy phase.

Doubts about your own media mix are only slowly disappearing

Compared to the previous year, advertisers' confidence in their own media mix has risen slightly to 76% (+4% compared to 2017). However, just under half (45%) confirm that their company has not yet found the optimal media mix. And only 13% state that they have very integrated media strategies.

Decision-makers consider their campaigns to be integrated, consumers often do not

As many as 82 percent of marketers consider their marketing strategies to be integrated. However, this does not reflect the opinion of consumers. Our study AdReaction: The Art of Integration (from January 2018) found that only 58% of consumers consider campaigns to be integrated*.

"The lack of understanding of the cross-channel behavior of modern consumers occasionally clouds our view of the optimal media mix. As a result, some organizations miss out on growth opportunities. Marketing decision-makers should therefore focus more on improving the linking of different data sources in order to gain as many insights as possible," concludes Bernd Büchner with advice for marketing decision-makers.

The study is available at this link ready for download.

* For this analysis, the attitudes of marketing decision-makers from the Getting Media Right study were compared with consumer opinions from the AdReaction: The Art of Integration study: http://www.millwardbrown.com/adreaction/integration/.