Improving Efficiency and Creative Excellence Tops 2016 Marketing Agendas

Looking ahead to rest of 2016, research indicates that marketing professionals have already defined the most important marketing and advertising initiatives. In the “Readers Speak: Ad Age 2016 Survey,” statistics found that the majority of marketers (55 percent) find it imperative to increase their efficiency this year. Improving creative excellence (54 percent) and finding new ways to reach consumers (52 percent) are also top goals.

Ad blocking was named the top issue by marketers who participated in the survey, making it more important this year to create less intrusive advertisements to connect with their target audience.

In terms of business, growing revenue and improving margins are the primary goals for marketers. However, respondents claimed that they would also like to focus on reaching Generation Z and improving share-of-voice.

Shifting the Focus from Marketing Automation

Each year brings new challenges, and research shows that digital marketers were focused on different challenges back in 2015. The “2015 Digital Marketer Report” published by Experian in April of last year indicated that 36 percent of senior marketers had made marketing automation their top priority.

Approximately 31 percent stated that marketing automation was their biggest challenge to date. About 45 percent said that customer acquisition was their second largest challenge, but only 36 percent had made it one of their top three priorities for the remainder of the year.

When Ad Age asked its respondents to list the main issues facing the marketing and advertising industry in 2016, marketing automation was not included as a top response.