Thursday, October 22, 2015

Content Tops Marketing Chiefs' Budget Plans

To keep up with leading marketers, plan to expand spending and refocus on content marketing, with an accent on social media. More than half of marketers not only plan to boost their budgets in the next few years, they will give content the biggest piece of the pie, according to a recent Advertising Age magazine report on a study by IBM and the CMO Club. The online survey of 100 chief marketing officers at b-to-b and b-to-c companies found that 57% plan to boost marketing budgets over the next two to three years. Content development will make up the largest portion of future marketing budgets (13.3%), followed by traditional advertising (11.5%), per the study. Other top areas of investment will be online advertising (11.1%), events (10.9%), website development (10.5%) and public relations (9.6%). Content leads marketing budgets explained Jay Henderson, director of strategy at IBM Commerce, to Ad Age because CMOs are focused on investing across the customer journey, and content requirements differ for the growing number of channels and devices at each stage, plus there is a demand for increased personalization at every stage. The survey divided the customer journey into six phases: discover (initial search), learn (research), try (testing and product comparisons), buy, use (requiring customer support) and advocate (recommending to others). The "discover" and "buy" phases currently receive the most marketer attention (20% and 21% of budget allocations, respectively), compared with the "learn" and "try" phases (16% each) and the "use" and "advocate" phases (13% and 14% respectively). But when it comes to prioritizing by channels, marketing attention is less evenly distributed, with social leading for all but the "buy" phase, when the website becomes the focus. See the full article at http://adage.com/article/btob/cmos-spending-content-buying-cycle/300181/

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Majority of Millennials Block Digital Ads, per Poll

Bad news for digital advertisers aiming for younger consumers: The majority of millennials, those aged 18 to 34, block advertising when viewing digital content, according to a Moz and Fractl survey recently reported by eMarketer. Specifically, 63% of millennial Internet users told the July survey that they use ad blocking software. Millennials don't find all advertising irrelevant--over half in the Moz/Fractl poll said that retargeted ads and social media ads were very or somewhat relevant, for example. But the fast-growing mobile ad category was also the most rejected, rated as relevant by only 28%. So how would the millennials prefer to receive promotional messages? Those surveyed gave a thumbs up to free content, followed by discounts or free offers via direct mail, and then online search results. For more, read http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Nearly-Two-Three-Millennials-Block-Ads/1013007