CMO Council study finds Australia out in front for APAC digital marketing
Australia's digital marketers are the most advanced in the Asia Pacific region, but the region itself is clearly split between leaders and laggards according to a new study by the CMO Council in partnership with Adobe.
Formed around a dinner table in 2001 in the shadow of the dotcom crash a year earlier, the Council has grown in the intervening dozen years into thousands of members worldwide and is regarded now as one of the most authoritative voices in the market.
(Infographic: APAC digital marketing dashboard)
Its research, called the APAC Digital Marketing Performance Dashboard 2013 found a clear split between advanced digital markets like Australia , Singapore, and India and those who are still lagging – China, Japan, Korea. And as the list attests, digital and economic maturity do not necessarily correlate. Instead, demographics appears to be more of a determinant.
According to the research, "In more mature markets, digital is more than just display, mobile or social advertising. It is advancing to a more data-driven, targeted and connected experience with customers. These countries see higher levels of senior management support that are enabling more tools and technologies to be deployed and leveraged."
Across the qualities of digital mindset, marketing readiness and organisational alignment Australia comes first in the region, and is second on the CMO Council's fourth key measure – marketing skills – were India leads.
Indeed a lack of skills and training in the region is identified by the report as the key weakness across the board.
With its younger population, faster growing economies and with an infrastructure less encumbered by legacy systems, the APAC region should be a standout for digital adoption, and there are some encouraging signs. "Customer adoption and affinity for digital channels are continuing to grow across the Asia-Pacific region. According to ComScore, 41 percent of the world’s Internet population now resides in Asia. And of that population, some 78 percent of Asia’s Internet population is under the age of 45."
The report notes that social media numbers are also soaring as one-third of the world’s socially connected individuals are in Asia. "While 46 percent of global consumers use social media to make purchasing decisions, 65 percent of customers in Asia turn to social as a key research and decision-making tool."
Liz Miller, vice president, marketing and thought leadership programs at the CMO Council told Which-50, that three points leapt out of the study.
"The first thing is senior level support, and I think the fact that it has grown year over years is extremely positive."
(Image: Liz MIller. Source Linkedin)
"In Australia, 44 per cent of senior managers provide support and that is a 20 per cent increase year on year."
She said marketers are also getting much better at understanding what they need to measure. These capabilities are growing and improving, she said, but, "...we are not seeing that growth as quickly as we would like ."
For Miller the most striking point about digital marketing in the region is that it is simply not receiving the kind of budget support seen in the rest of the world, although within the region, once again Australia is the exception.
"Almost half of the Australian companies (surveyed) are spending more than 25 per cent of their marketing budgets on digital and the country has a relatively high number who are spending in excess of 50 per cent on digital, but across the regional they are not spending what they need to."
Indeed marketers in Asia Pacific are generally spending less than 10 per cent and certainly under 25 per cent compared to the global average where digital represents is 25 to 35 per cent of the marketing budget, said Miller
Some areas of under investment particularly stand out, for instance data analytics.
According to Miller, "38 percent say data is only being used to report on KPIs. That's like saying data is only really any use for the rear view mirror ."
In fact the study found that only seven per cent see data as a key competitive differentiator. "This is a low number and far lower than the figure globally."
But there is at least a hint in the report that that be may about to change.
"Analytics is the number one area of intended headcount increase YOY from 20102 study." says Miller.
Still, the lack of focus on skills for analytics is emblematic of a wider problem that clearly stands out in the report. The Asia Pacific has a serious digital skills problem. That's problem is not unique to the region but it is certainly more pronounced.
The study notes that across the board, that while APAC marketers "...are hopeful for the customer-centric future that digital marketing can bring to their organizations, but they lack the talent to press forward."
"Talent gaps also challenged marketers as nearly half of respondents believed their current marketing teams simply did not have the right skills, experience or talent needed to take on an advanced digital strategy," says the report.
"Talent across the region proved hard to find, even for those who turned to agencies to bolster capabilities. One in four respondents say they are unable to find the right staff with the right skills while 34 percent say their agency capabilities are also lacking, limiting their ability to execute effectively."
And it says digital agencies aren't really filling the gap. "Agencies, often managed on an ad hoc or project-to-project basis, have not delivered the business-focused results that marketers have been seeking. Yet in-house teams are also struggling to train or hire talent with deep digital knowledge."
Marketers apparently are unimpressed with the caliber of talent and output from their partners. "Agency effectiveness is on a downturn as only 12 percent say partners are extremely effective (down from 13 percent). Some 68 percent of marketers gave agency partners average scores at best, saying they delivered 'moderate results,' but even the average score is lower than the one given in 2012, when 73 percent of respondents indicated their partners were able to deliver “most of the time.”
In fact in some ways the situation is getting worse with 20 percent of marketers saying results are poor – a big increase over 2012. The report says this delivers, "...a clear indictment of the skill set advancement within agencies that are often enlisted as an alternative to hiring or training an in-house team."
But, says the CMO Council, despite these impediments, customers have not slowed in their hunger for unified, connected and synchronized experiences. "More than any single factor, the customer is forcing marketing’s hand to adopt."
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