Nielsen: 82% Of CMO's To Increase Digital Spending

In an in-depth survey of chief marketing officers, Nielsen reports that 82% of them expect to increase their spending on digital media in the next year, but only 30% plan to increase the share they parcel out to ad buys in traditional media.

According to MediaPost, these CMOs, on average, say they expect the digital spend to increase by 49% in the next 12 months. In traditional media, nearly half expect a decrease in spending there, with the average prediction being about 5%.

But they also admit they maybe flying blind. In terms of measurement, only one in four marketers reported high levels of confidence in the ability to measure the return-on-investment  (ROI) of their media spend, regardless of type or the trade spend, Nielsen reports. Not surprisingly, 79% expect to increase their investment in marketing analytics and attribution in the next 12 months.

Over 44% of the marketers agreed that they are getting the most out of their media budget with the data they have. But about 28% say they don’t have enough quality data. Only 26% feel “very” or “extremely” confident they have the right technology and resources  to do the job, but 30% are on the opposite side of that question. For Nielsen, which is in the data business, the findings seem to be a mixed bag of answers.

“The marketers we spoke with and surveyed made it clear that it’s not more data they are looking for, rather better insight. They’re aflush with dashboards, yet only a quarter are highly confident in ROI measurement,” Nielsen’s report says.

Social media tops on the food chain

Among digital media types, 79% think social media is tops on the food chain, compared to 73% for search (and search gets high marks through most of this report). Less important is mobile display (44%) and, last of all, over-the-top/connected TV which only 23% feel is a “extremely important” or “very important” part of the digital constellation at this point. Nielsen points out that OTT is a the new kid on the digital block, and the findings support that.

In terms of effectiveness, social media and search both top that list, too, with a matching 69% of respondents rating them effective, compared to 60% for mobile, 54% for programmatic and 28% for OTT.

The report says that 55% of its respondents allocate at least 40% of their ad budget to traditional (TV, print, radio, etc) media, with one in ten giving 80% or more. But 49% say digital media makes up at least 40% of its spend, with 19% spending 80% or more. More than 51% say Television is either highly or extremely important in their marketing plans. 30% ranked TV as “extremely important.” No other traditional media reached 10%.

Chief marketing officers were also asked to rate the effectiveness of media channels for their business with 46% finding broadcast radio to be an effective channel. Of that, 19% gave radio the highest marks – 6% ranked it extremely effective and 13% very effective. Another 27% called radio somewhat effective.