Earlier this month (4 November ), Marin Software released findings¹ that revealed a significant digital spending gap among UK businesses. The findings raised concerns that UK businesses are not taking digital marketing seriously enough. In this piece, we delve into the findings and speak exclusively to Stephanie Carr, VP at Marin Software, (pictured below).

Digital spending gap

  – 61% of respondents said more money should be shifted from offline marketing to digital marketing, up 27% from 2014. Just 35% think their organisation has the balance between on and offline spend right.

– The latest figures show 49% of all UK adult media consumption is via digital channels, yet just 46% of the UK’s £15.7bn total ad spend goes on digital.

– On average 25% of all UK media consumption is via mobile devices, yet only 10% of all ad spend is on mobile. And the amount of time UK adults spend daily with mobile devices is expected to surpass the amount of time spent online via desktop and laptop computers this year.

Lack of senior marketer digital buy-in

– 39% of respondents said their most senior marketer tended to "say it's important but not understand it fully" when it came to digital.

– 62% of respondents also said their most senior marketer didn’t allocate sufficient resources to digital.

– 85% of respondents said that if they were to move jobs, a recognisable senior "digital champion" would be a major draw for them.

Mind the skills gap

– 66% said: "As a department we have struggled to access talent with the required tech skills over the last 12 months."

– 68% say online needs to be better integrated with offline marketing.

– Almost two thirds (64%) say more needs to be done to integrate different digital marketing disciplines (such as paid search, social, SEO, and display) with each other.

Top priorities for 2016

The DMMs priorities have shifted over the last 12 months, pointing to an increasing desire to operate more effectively across channels in order to better reach the audiences that matter. The top priorities for 2016 are:

1. Creating campaigns based on deeper understanding of audiences (up one place from 2014)
2. Effective scaling of campaigns across social media channels (new entry in the top five)
3. Cross-channel digital marketing (up two places from last year)
4. Better integrating of our online and offline marketing efforts (new entry in the top five)
5. Better integrating of our digital marketing disciplines (down one place)

ExchangeWire: The Marin Digital Marketing Manager’s Census showed that for the first time marketers are prioritising "Better integrating of our online and offline marketing efforts" (new entry in the top five). Why do you think this is the first year online and offline integration is appearing in the top 5?

Stephanie Carr: 61% of the digital marketing managers (DMMs) we asked actually said more money should be shifted from offline marketing to digital marketing, up 27% from 2014. Just 35% think their organisation has the right balance between on and offline spend. A wider look at how advertising spend compares to media consumption patterns in the UK seems to suggest they have a point. The latest figures show 49% of all UK adult media consumption is via digital channels, yet just 46% of the UK’s £15.7bn total annual ad spend goes on digital.

The gap is even more pronounced when it comes to mobile (smartphones and tablets). The average time spent per day on mobile is 146 minutes, or 25% of all media consumption. Yet mobile ad spend at £1.625m is only 10% of all ad spend.

However, DMMs do accept offline marketing has an important role to play with 69% of the DMMs saying online needs to be better integrated with offline marketing. This is perhaps not surprising when we think that according to Time Warner 65% of people with a smartphone and tablet are likely to use social media while watching TV.

The priorities of DMMs have shifted over the last 12 months, pointing to an increasing desire to operate more effectively across channels in order to better reach the audiences which matter.

It seems that the gap between the amount of time spent on mobile devices and the amount of media budget allocated to these is widening, despite much coverage of the disparity. What is required for the closure of the gap?

This year’s census reveals digital marketing managers feel much more could be achieved for their organisations if more money was switched from offline to online channels. Our own analysis shows there is undoubtedly a 'digital spending gap', which is most pronounced when it comes to mobile.

That such a gap exists is perhaps not, in itself, surprising. People’s media consumption patterns have been transformed in recent times and the pace of change has accelerated in recent years with the meteoric rise of mobile devices.

We expect the digital spending gap to close in the coming 12 months, particularly as many channels traditionally seen as 'offline', such as TV, become increasingly digitised and are traded programmatically. Mobile ad spend is only going in one direction and we are expecting it to overtake desktop by end of 2015.

John, McNulty, head of global marketing, Marin Software, said: “This year’s census paints a picture of digital marketers feeling frustrated by a spending gap. Whilst overall digital marketing spend has risen significantly, it appears that many companies are still not giving their digital teams the resources they require. The proliferation of new digital channels and devices has also left the industry racing to catch up in terms of cross-department integration and the acquisition of technical skills, especially around mobile, to drive cross-channel campaigns. At Marin we’re working hard to support DMMs with products that take the complexity out of their jobs and help them to do more with less.”

1 Marin commissioned pollsters Censuswide to gather the views of 200 UK-based digital marketing managers working across companies with a combined annual turnover of over £50billion. The survey was conducted in October 2015.