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Marketers split on ambush marketing ahead of World Cup kick off

Carlsberg has set the standard for this year’s FIFA World Cup adverts with the most memorable advert from South Africa 2010, according to research byWorld Cup marketing, digital and communications recruiter, EMR.

More than one in four (26%) marketing professionals polled by EMR picked out Carlsberg’s ‘Probably the best team talk in the world’ campaign as making the biggest lasting impression, ahead of Nike’s TV campaign (18%) and Bavaria Beer’s ambush stunt (17%).

Both Carlsberg and Nike opted for high profile tie-ins with sporting icons in 2010. Carlsberg’s advert featured English greats Jack Charlton, Trevor Brooking and Stuart Pearce, while Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ campaign employed modern-day stars including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In contrast, Bavaria – a non-FIFA affiliated Dutch brand of beer – ambushed the Holland vs. Denmark game with a cohort of 36 women who were pictured in the stands wearing short orange dresses carrying its logo: a stunt that fuelled the debate about the rules on ambush marketing to this day, as unofficial sponsors are prohibited from advertising in FIFA venues.

EMR’s research shows marketers are divided on the subject in the build-up to the 2014 tournament: 32% feel ambush marketing should be subject to stricter regulations while 33% feel the opposite, with the remainder unsure.

Just 4% voted official sponsor Budweiser’s ‘Bud House & Bud United’ campaign as the most memorable from 2010, with Bavaria’s stunt also having made more long-term impact than efforts by Pepsi, Coca-Cola (both 13%) and Adidas (10%).

Sportswear giants benefit most from World Cup sponsorship

More than one in four (28%) marketing professionals identified Nike as the brand which benefits the most from its association with the World Cup.

Rival sports manufacturer Adidas was placed second with 19% of the vote, having signed up for the next four tournaments until 2030.

With almost half (47%) of marketers picking out one of the two sportswear giants as enjoying the greatest brand benefits, the results suggest that brands with sponsorships which closely match their business focus have the best chance of standing out.

Coca-Cola and Visa were tied for third place on 14% with both having also extended their sponsorship commitments until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Tournament expected to enhance Brazil’s reputation

Almost half (49%) of marketing professionals predict that the 2014 World Cup will have a positive impact on Brazil’s international reputation. Despite political and social unrest in the build-up to the event, this is twice as many as the 24% who feel Brazil’s reputation will suffer from hosting the tournament.

More than half (51%) believe Brazil’s tourist industry will grow as a result of the World Cup, while nearly a quarter (22%) forecast a rise in international business with Brazil.

One in ten (11%) expect the World Cup will result in more overseas investment in the country, while 7% predict a surge in migration and job relocation.

Simon Bassett, managing director of EMR – which has offices in Leeds, London, Moscow, São Paulo and Singapore – said: “The World Cup will see many of the world’s most recognised brands competing for the attention of a truly global audience. The mix of high drama, national pride and multi-million pound reputations makes the tournament a genuine theatre for marketing excellence.

“Competition is not limited to the pitch, with a galaxy of sponsors joining the host nation in the limelight. Our findings suggest the ultimate prize awaits those brands who can best marry strategic creative concept with memorable execution.

“The 2010 controversy over ambush marketing showed how original thinking and opportunism can also help to make an impact. But, given how challenging it is to stand out in this hugely competitive environment, it is no surprise to see opinion so evenly split about the rights and wrongs of sidestepping the rules governing big-budget sponsorship deals.”

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Americas In the News USA

Learn to Lead, Engage, Analyze and Optimize at major US event

Conference to take place June 3-4 in NYC.

At the USA Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Integrated Marketing Week (IMW14) conference, attendees will immerse themselves in winning IM Weekstrategies and tactics through three dedicated program tracks: Lead, Engage, and Analyze & Optimize — as well as special ‘Funnel’ sessions focused on B2B topics. IMW14, The Event for Integrated Marketing in the Customer Experience Era, will be held June 3-4 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City.

Paul McDonnough, the USA DMA’s vice-president of conferences and events, said: “At IMW14, we’ve set out the roadmap every marketer needs to follow to start, reboot, or fine-tune their integrated marketing.

“This isn’t theory and projection — it’s about proven routes to success. IMW’s three-track agenda features keynotes, industry leaders, and tech entrepreneurs covering the key disciplines for delivering great customer experience.”

Lead: Making It Happen

Thought leaders from top companies such as Nutrisystem, Forrester Research, The Weather Company, and Canon USA will show attendees how to transform their businesses and implement successful change; create winning budgets; and grow their brands across channels.

Lead topics include:

  • Business Agility – or How to be Open to Change
  • CMO or CIO? How Technology is Changing the Marketing Landscape
  • Engagement with a Purpose: the Power of B Corporations
  • How CMOs Can Unlock “Power of One” Marketing
  • Implementing a Global Business Transformation Strategy for the Future
  • Expansion versus Cannibalization: Managing Across Products & Channels at Nutrisystem
  • Getting Buy-In from the C-Level: A Roundtable

Engage: From Customer to Fan and Advocate

Industry leaders from The Economist, OgilvyOne, New York Life, 1to1 Media, Citigroup, Havas Worldwide, Cabela’s, eM+C, Reebok America, and appssavvy will show attendees how to engage across channels for loyalty, retention and advocacy, and how to keep customers in play through branded content, personalization and conversion drivers.

Engage topics include:

  • Logic & Magic: Data-Driven Creativity to Drive Customer Engagement
  • The Secret to Seamless Customer Experience: Responsive Design
  • Understanding Your Customer through Analytics
  • The New Rules of Engagement
  • Connecting with Consumers in an Omnichannel World
  • Timing: The Missing Ingredient in Mobile Advertising
  • Using Behavioral Modeling to Engage Customers Throughout the Decision-Making Process

Analyze & Optimize: Unlocking Data for Actionable Insight

How do you get relevant, timely insight for personalization and targeting? What are the best strategies for delivering high-impact, revenue-generating experiences? Experts from leading companies, including Google, Cisco Systems, Inc., The Martin Agency, Penske, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Target Marketing Magazine, Didit, Scholastic Books, Time Warner Cable, and more, will show you how.

Analyze & Optimize topics include:

  • Integrating the Offline with the Online
  • Creative by the Numbers: Can Great Creative and Numbers Coexist?
  • Turning Big Data into Right Data
  • The New Online Marketing
  • The Profit Driven Marketer: Being There in More Moments that Matter
  • Data Attribution or Media Mix Optimization?
  • Data-Driven Innovation: The Future of Integrated Marketing

In addition to these three tracks, IMW14 offers Funnel sessions: where marketing meets sales in the new B2B, where attendees will learn how to align sales and marketing around a single set of metrics — and gain strategies, tactics, and tools for automated lead nurturing, content marketing, and revenue performance management.

For a full list of tracks, topics, and descriptions, click here

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In the News UK USA

Online and on the loo! The 10% of UK consumers who shop in the lavatory

DID you know that ten per cent of UK online shoppers have made a purchase while sitting on the loo?u8_toilet-smartphoneb

Not only that, but 72% of mums are most likely to make a purchase while in bed.

New research has pinpointed many consumers’ shopping preferences while concluding that 60% of UK consumers shop online every week.

Sailthru, a provider of personalised communications technology, has just announced the results of its market research focusing on consumer online shopping preferences.

The study was conducted by Redshift Research during March 2014. Key takeaways from the findings indicate that UK consumers not only have a very positive response to personalised communication, but actively understand the concept and today are demanding more tailored marketing communications from brands.

In fact, 63% of UK online shoppers are likely to read a personalised message they receive from a brand they know and then complete that purchase (51%) following a personalised offer.

Other key statistics include:

  • 57% of online shoppers prefer to make a purchase on their home computer or tablet, with the most popular place to make a purchase (56%) being from bed.
  • 64% of online shoppers prefer it when a brand recommends products the consumer has previously shown an interest in – such as items on the wish list or in a shopping basket.
  • 60% prefer it when a brand sends personalised communication with reference to a past purchase or browsing history. With almost two fifths confirming that branded emails are ‘very’ or ‘sometimes’ helpful when tailored to their interests.

With individuals now interacting with a brand across multiple mobile devices, every brand experience needs to be optimised for mobile to mitigate low conversions and/or basket abandonment. In fact, 42% of online shoppers have abandoned a purchase because it was too complicated to complete on a mobile device and 60% still prefer to use a laptop over a mobile device, due largely to a poor mobile experience.

Consumers are telling brands loud and clear that they want their online browsing experience optimised for mobile. They would be more likely to increase both average order value and purchase frequency if every brand experience were optimised for their chosen device – 45% of shoppers said they were likely to make an online purchase if the website was easy to navigate on a mobile.

Neil Capel, founder and CEO of Sailthru – which has its HQ in New York City – said: “The research shows that consumers are very clearly demanding personalisation from their online and in-store shopping experiences. In order to meet this demand, brands must understand their customers on an individual level, deliver content that is interesting, timely and relevant to each user and also optimise that content to render on any device. It’s about giving every individual what they want, when they want it and recognizing that need even before they do.

“This is the future of successful brand to consumer marketing.” Capel concluded: “Now, more than ever, brands need to stop toying with the idea of personalisation and make moves to provide relevant and platform specific communications to their customers or risk being left behind. The innovative brands that we work with have moved away from ineffective segmentation and instead created personalised experiences for each of their customers that tailors content across any device – whether that is via email, mobile or web.

“The results our clients are seeing speak volumes about the power of personalisation.”

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In the News USA

USA DMA: ECHO awards competition now open

Deadline for submissions Is May 23.

In recognition of the world’s top data-driven marketing campaigns — measured by strategy, creative, and results, the USA Direct Marketing Association echo(DMA) has announced that the 2014 International ECHO Awards competition is underway.

The awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in October in San Diego, California. The deadline for submissions is next month: May 23. Registrations received before Friday May 2, will receive a $100 discount.

Linda Woolley, DMA’s president and CEO, said: “The ECHOs exemplify the heights of success that can be achieved through great data-driven marketing and equally great creative.

“As the incredible wealth of data available to us increasingly fuels our economy and our data-driven lifestyles, and when combined with superb creative that snags us and holds our attention, it’s truly exciting to see how these things drive outstanding results in exceptional marketing campaigns.”

Winners will be selected in 15 business categories — automotive; business and consumer services; communications and utilities; consumer products; education; financial products and services; information technologies; insurance; nonprofit; pharmaceutical and healthcare; product manufacturing and distribution; professional services; publishing and entertainment; retail and direct sales; and travel and hospitality/transportation.

The ultimate team award

Jenny Abreu, DMA’s director, awards & recognition programs, said: “This year’s call for entries competition continues the theme, ‘The Ultimate Team Award,’ and new tag line ‘Achieve the Ultimate with a Common GOOOAL!’ honouring this year’s BIG game — which couldn’t be more fitting.

“After all, ECHO-award winning campaigns exemplify outstanding team work — as they incorporate the ECHOs’ three pillars — for creative, strategic — and game-winning results.” The integrated marketing effort supporting the entries is developed by Quinn Fable Advertising, Inc. (New York).

This year’s ECHO competition will honour excellence in integrated and single-channel direct-response campaigns spanning a diversity of channels, such as alternative media, banner ads, catalogue, direct mail, email, mobile, print, search marketing, social media, telemarketing, television/video/radio, web advertising and web development.

Tedd Aurelius, vice-president, director 1-2-1 engagement, The Martin Agency, is chairman of the DMA International ECHO Awards Board of Governors. He said: “We’re seeing that the best customer engagement efforts are coming from all over the world, not just the US — and each year, the winning ECHOs serve as a benchmark for direct response brilliance that is both measurable and accountable.

“Our Gold, Silver and Bronze ECHO winners are selected from hundreds of entries, ranging from acquisition, to penetration, to retention programs, which showcase brands using data-driven insights to power their strategy, generating fabulous creative ideas that achieve amazing results.”

Each year, ECHO entries include data-driven campaigns from the US and more than 50 countries – and 2014 entries will be judged later this spring and early summer in Australia, Denmark and the US.

This year’s Awards Ceremony and Gala will be held on Tuesday October 28, during the DMA2014 Annual Conference & Exhibition: The Global Event for Data-Driven Marketers, at the San Diego Convention Center.

In addition to the Gold, Silver and Bronze ECHO awards, four special awards will be presented: the Diamond ECHO Award for the most prestigious and, considered, the top campaign overall; the Personal Connections ECHO Award sponsored by Pitney Bowes; US Postal Service Gold Mailbox Award; ECHO Green Marketing Award; and Henry Hoke Award.

For more information about the International ECHO Awards, which will be presented Tuesday evening, October 28, 2014, during DMA2014m click here. The DMA2014 Annual Conference & Exhibition will be held October 25-30 in San Diego, California.

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In the News UK USA

NSA ‘used Heartbleed for years’

Insiders at the US National Security Agency claim that the organisation has been exploiting the so-called Heartbleed bug for nearly two years to capture datansa-used-Heartbleed-for-years-300x212 on individuals instead of informing the rest of the online community.
The claims, denied by both NSA and White House chiefs, follow whistleblower Edward Snowden’s allegations that it was common practice for the organisation to deliberately introduce vulnerabilities to security software.
NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said in an email: “[The] NSA was not aware of the recently identified vulnerability in OpenSSL, the so-called Heartbleed vulnerability, until it was made public in a private-sector cyber security report. The reports that say otherwise are wrong.”
The Heartbleed bug could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of web and email servers which run open source software and has triggered major warnings across the world.
Online users are being urged to change all their passwords and usernames where possible as the bug went undetected for more than two years.
A blog post by Tumblr last week even urged people to “call in sick and take some time to change your passwords everywhere – especially your high-security services like email, file storage, and banking, which may have been compromised by this bug”.

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Australia Europe In the News UK USA

Demand for key digital roles 'fuelling salary inflation'

Account directors earning $125k (£75k)-plus up 45%, creative directors command 41% more in North America versus Europe, technical architectsSalary-increase-200x150 wanted worldwide, says report.

Competition for talent at digital agencies and production companies is leading to sharp salary rises and remuneration gaps of up to 45% between some regions.

Globally, there’s never been a better time to be in the three most sought-after digital roles: account director, creative director, and technical architect. Senior-level strategists and user-experience leads also command strong salaries, although these vary according to where they live.

These are key findings the annual Salary Report by SoDA, the invitation-only organisation that represents top digital agencies and elite production companies worldwide.

The number of account directors earning more than $125k (£75k) increased by 45% between 2012 and 2013; while creative directors commanded up to 41% higher salaries in North America compared with their European peers.

Last year, the average salary for technical architects in North America was between $101-$110k (£60-65k) compared with $91-$100k (£54-59k) in Europe and Australia. The result suggests uniform global demand for this area of expertise, particularly in light of the sometimes significant salary gaps between these regions for other roles.

The SoDA Salary Report underscores a significant – and in some cases widening – salary divide between regions such as Europe and North America. In Europe, average salaries for project managers, creative directors, producers, graphic designers and copywriters stagnated last year as the cost of living rose.

While salaries for some of these positions in North America were also stagnant, they were, on average, 42% higher than salaries in Europe. This fact could lead to some top talent exploring expat opportunities.

The SoDA Salary Report also reveals:

  • Account directors earned 11% more on average last year compared with 2012.
  • Creative directors’ salaries rose by eight per cent, the most common salary range in 2013 was between $126-$150k (£75-90k).
  • Unlike some corporate sectors where CEO pay has risen significantly, compensation for CEOs and managing partners in the study actually dipped 16% in 2013, from $200-250k (£120-150k) on average in 2012, to $176-200k (£105-120k)in 2013. This decline can partly be explained by a shift towards incentive-based pay (not captured in the study’s baseline salary figures).
  • SoDA’s findings also suggest that top executives are shouldering some of the burden associated with tough economic times, in order to maintain or increase the salaries of key talent.

North/South America highlights

Overall, the highest salaries are paid in North America, with some roles such as account managers ($91-$100k or £54-59k) and social media directors ($101-110k or £60-65k) standing out. This contrasts with Europe and Australia where account managers earned between $61-$70k (£36-41k) and $51-$60k (£30-35k) in Latin America.

Salaries for top digital talent in Brazil remain above the rest of Latin America for many positions such as executive creative director, senior graphic designer, copywriter and front-end developer. But the gap is beginning to narrow given the economic strength of other markets in the region, such as Colombia.

Last year a senior Latin American producer could command between $41-$50k (£24-29k) compared with $71-$80k (£42-48k)in the UK and $101-$110k (£60-65k) in New York.

Europe highlights

Creative directors earned $126-$150k (£75-90k) in North America compared with $91-$100k (£54-59k) in Europe, $61-$70k (£36-41k) in Latin America and $111-$125k (£66-74k) in Australia.
While salaries for most key positions in Europe stagnated in 2013, the role of technical architect bucked that trend, rising more than 100% last year. APAC highlights

The Australian bull run of salaries in 2012 abated in 2013, with pay for producers, creative directors, graphic designers and copywriters declining last year.
Median pay for Australian executive creative directors fell from between $176-$200k (£105-120k) to $126-$150k (£75-90k)– the same as Europe. This reflects tightening margins on the continent, increased competition, with clients cautious over the direction of the economy keeping control of budgets.

Chris Buettner, SoDA’s executive director, said: “On a global level, most salaries analysed by SoDA were either stable or slightly up on 2013, despite the slow economic recovery in many regions. One of the reasons is that the world’s leading digital agencies and production companies are fighting hard to keep top talent from jumping ship to start-ups that offer high salaries and promise a golden lottery ticket.

“SoDA’s international growth over the past year has allowed us to segment the response data in more ways than ever before. In this year’s Salary Survey we are seeing pockets of salary inflation due to global demand for top talent in areas such as design, user experience, strategy and technical architecture.”

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In the News USA

Safeguard consumer data – USA DMA re-issues rallying cry

Board approves new ethical guidelines; calls for new measures to enhance data security 

In response to the recent spate of data security breaches on retailers and others, the USA Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has issued a call to actionLinda Woolley DMA2012 (WEB)to all data-driven marketers to recommit to the organisation’s long-standing commitment to ensuring the security of consumer data.

The call to action derived from the approval of new Business Ethical Guidelines around data security by the association’s board of directors, and outlines several new steps that the DMA will take to guide industry best practices and advocate strong data security protections before policymakers at the federal and state levels.

DMA president/CEO Linda Woolley (pictured) said: “Earning consumer trust requires proactive, purposeful action.

“Recent headlines have been full of news about data breaches and, while such situations are a risk of modern business and difficult to prevent, DMA believes that the best defence is a strong offence. DMA standards help businesses ensure that they are protected and ready.”

DMA has championed the setting of guidelines and representing the business community before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on issues of data security and breach notification. It is now calling on every data-driven marketer to take proactive measures to further enhance data security across the industry, and to:

  • Develop and implement a data integrity and governance programme;
  • Read and utilise in all marketing practices the principles and guidance outlined in the updated Ethical Guidelines for data security and other marketing practices issues by DMA as part of our public trust with consumers;
  • Continue to work as part of DMA with policymakers to enact a national standard for data breach notification. DMA has been supportive of a federal breach notification law; and
  • Work with internal and industry stakeholders to identify additional data security measures and practices to help reduce the risk of data breaches across the ecosystem.

The DMA board has approved revisions to DMA’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice, which have provided data-driven marketers with generally accepted principles of conduct and formed the basis for industry-wide self-regulatory enforcement for more than 40 years. The updates are in the areas of data security, mobile applications and retailer data.

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In the News USA

Digital marketer? Get set for a golden era: veteran recruiter’s view from the top of the year

US-based digital and direct marketing recruiter Jerry Bernhart (pictured) makes some predictions for 2014.Jerry Bernhart _028retCropped (WEB)

 

 

I believe that because of enduring economic and social forces, we are in the very early stages of a golden era of employment for those who sell and market products and services over the web, and the battle is on to lure the best talent available.

What does this mean for job-seekers in the year to come? It means more and better offers and abundant opportunities like we’ve never seen before.Here’s my top five forecast for 2014:

5. More multiple offers.

Back in the days of the Great Recession of 2008-2009, receiving just one job offer was something to brag about. How things have changed. Among actively looking candidates, those who are the most sought after are now routinely getting multiple offers. You know the ones I mean, the ones with proven track records who’ve moved the business forward everywhere they’ve been.

There’s a message here for employers: Snooze and you’ll lose. When it comes to attracting and hiring top achievers in online marketing, time is your enemy. Drag your feet, and I can practically guarantee you’ll lose them. A bird in the hand beats two in the bush any day, particularly when it comes to the best and brightest digital marketers. If you have a bird in the hand and it’s a bird you really want to hire, move quickly and make sure you make a highly competitive offer, which leads me to number 4.

4. More competitive offers.

I negotiated some amazing compensation packages last year. In one situation, one of my clients extended an offer which included a 33% bump in salary, an increase that was almost unheard of just a few years ago. While this definitely represents the exception rather than the norm, there’s no question that top candidates in recent years have benefitted from what I call ‘salary creep’ as the war for marketing talent has heated up. I look for more of the same in 2014 and, in fact, I look for those incremental increases to creep even higher. This trend is inexorable.

Many companies have come to realise that the differential value created by the most talented digital and direct marketers, the ones who can re-conceive the business and inspire people, can be enormous. Better talent makes a huge difference. Power is shifting from companies to the individual and that’s giving talented candidates more negotiating leverage than ever before.

3. Lengthy hiring process.

One of the biggest frustrations I hear from candidates is how they get strung along for weeks or months before companies finally make a hiring decision. One candidate I recently worked with, interviewing for a manager level position, met with 11 different department heads during a one-day visit and that was on top of a separate meeting with an industrial psychologist.

These marathon interview sessions used to be commonplace only for top retained searches at the C-level. While this example is extreme, I can tell you from my own experience that the average duration of the interviewing process in digital and direct marketing has easily doubled over the past ten years. The reluctance to pull the trigger and make candidates jump through so many hoops is understandable. Hiring managers face a wall of worry including fears that the fragile economic recovery will sputter and hurt their business. But perhaps more importantly, there’s the fear of hiring the wrong person, a fear that has become much more pervasive since the Great Recession.

Studies have shown that a bad hiring decision can cost a company up to five times the annual salary of the person hired and that carries with it some potentially hefty implications for the manager who did the hiring. The decision to hire is the biggest decision a business leader makes. Unless the need is urgent and the company is losing big money while a desk remains vacant, expect hiring delays to continue to be the norm in 2014.

2 More counter-offers.

I am not a fan of counter-offers, but like them or not they’re a fixture of the recruitment landscape and they’re driven by this inviolate law: as the supply of sought-after talent diminishes, the frequency of counter-offers goes up.

Talent shortages are already appearing in small to medium-sized markets, particularly in the red hot field of digital analytics. Your need for an ace digital marketer is exceeded only by the pain another company will experience if they lose one, so it’s no wonder that counter-offers have been on the rise and, for better or worse, we’ll see more of them in 2014.

1. More opportunities!

It may be hard to imagine for those of us who work in this space, but there are still tens thousands of companies out there that have little more than a rudimentary web presence. I regularly receive calls and emails from companies that are still very rooted in traditional marketing. Their online marketing strategy starts and stops with an ecommerce shopping cart and an occasional email blast.

For many of those businesses, digital marketing is becoming their need of the hour. In 2014, traditional media will continue shrinking, digital media will continue growing and career opportunities for digital marketers will only become brighter.

Jerry Bernhart is the owner of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, established in 1991.

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Americas In the News USA

US survey: Big Data marketing budgets rise again in 2014, but hiring slows

Infogroup Targeting Solutions survey at DMA13 Conference finds companies continue to make technology investments, but focus on data analysis couldguidelines suffer without adding people

Most companies will continue spending heavily on big data marketing initiatives in 2014, but fewer companies plan to hire for data-related positions compared to a year ago, according to a Stateside study from Infogroup Targeting Solutions.

The report, based on a survey of almost 400 marketers at the USA DMA13 Annual Conference, found for the second straight year that more than 60 per cent of companies expect their big data marketing budgets to increase. But the majority of marketers do not plan on adding new employees to handle their data efforts in 2014, a reversal from a year ago when most companies said they did expect to hire for big data positions.

“The survey findings also indicate that marketers are moving from the information-gathering stage to the analytics phase of big data adoption. But a downturn in hiring could stall big data implementation, as the need for human capital is greatest during the analysis and action stages”, said David McRae, president of Infogroup Targeting Solutions.

“Big data is meaningless without manpower,” McRae said. “While it’s exciting that most companies are making bigger investments in big data, marketers should not forget that it takes people to make sense of the information. Hiring before reaching the analytics stage enables companies to become data-led and act on the data.”

Marketers seeing positive ROI

Big data early adopters will be spending the most in 2014, likely because they are already reporting a positive ROI. Two-thirds of marketers who have already made big data investments expect to see increased budgets this year, ten per cent higher than those who have not started yet.

When it comes to specific big data investments, the most popular technology in 2014 will help marketers with enhanced analytics (42 per cent). Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of marketers say data analysis will be more of a priority this year, and a quarter plan to hire data analysts or strategists.

The ITS findings show where data-driven marketing is headed in 2014: 62 per cent of marketers expect an increase in their data-related budgets, down six per cent from last year.

Only 43 per cent of marketers plan on hiring for data-related positions, compared to 56 per cent in 2013. Among survey respondents who are hiring, 59 per cent intend to onboard data analysts or strategists.

More than half (54 per cent) of marketers have already invested in big data. Among those early adopters, 61 per cent are already seeing positive ROI.

Thirty per cent of marketers plan to invest in big data for the first time in the next two years; of the 15 per cent who plan to invest for the first time in 2014, 86 per cent expect to see positive ROI in the first or second year.

Eleven per cent of marketers have no plans to invest in big data solutions. Big data implementation is a multi-year process that requires sustained investment in technology and talent,” McRae said. “To maintain momentum, marketers need to create an intentional roadmap because big data cannot be tackled in a day.”

Infogroup Targeting Solutions surveyed 370 marketers in person on tablet devices at DMA13 in Chicago from Oct. 14-17, 2013. The full report, ‘Big Data’s Big Step: Analytics Takes Center Stage for Marketers in 2014,’ can be downloaded here. 

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Americas MENA Middle East USA

The Middle East – an incubator for women entrepreneurs

 Can women entrepreneurs be more common in the Middle East than in Silicon Valley? Columnist Doug Sacks (pictured) ponders the question.

Yasmin Elayat, an Egyptian-American born and raised in Silicon Valley says yes. She feels “the ecosystem of investors, business mentors and other entrepreneurs in Egypt and the Middle East was more supportive than those in the U.S. or Europe…”

While a study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) suggested women in MENA were the least likely in the world to start a business, the study did not include data from startup powerhouses Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE and Qatar (Israel was included separately).Doug Sacks WEB

In Jordan, the number of female-led startups is closer to 33 per cent, near the global average of 37 per cent, and in Egypt, about half of the businesses invested in so far involved mixed-gender teams. The number of women entrepreneurs throughout the region probably lies somewhere in between, at about 15-20 per cent. Compare this with the GEM study findings that 10 per cent of the US adult female population and 5 per cent in Europe was involved in entrepreneurial activity in 2012.

While the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Middle East are vast, there are reasons for their rise in the Middle East:

Multiple business incubators and accelerators have opened in major cities across the region in the last three years, along with organisations and competitions specifically targeting women.

The World Bank says more women in the Middle East now attend university than men.

Girls throughout the Arab region are funneled into the hard-to-enter university science courses because of better high school grades than boys.

The number of women-led startup businesses could flourish further because the internet enables highly educated women to start a home-based business if, as in Saudi Arabia, her family might object if she went outside to work.

To read more, click here. 

Doug Sacks is International Business Development, Focus USA. Read his blog, here.