By Michael Deluca
From MarketingCharts.com, comes the intelligence that most marketers believe that their spending on digital marketing will soon exceed their traditional media spending, if it hasn’t already. Marketing analysis firm ThinkVine originally fielded the survey of some 200 senior-level marketers in April 2014. It discovered that digital has already surpassed traditional media in spending for one-quarter of respondents. An additional 31% believe their digital marketing spend will exceed traditional marketing this year (15%) or next (16%).
Some markets appear to be making the shift more quickly than others, as more than one-third of respondents in the insurance (40%), entertainment (38%), finance (36%), and technology (35%) sectors already claim to already dedicate a majority of their budgets to digital marketing. It should be noted that when broken down into individual sectors, the sample sizes are very small and should therefore be treated with caution.
The survey did not cover agriculture or horticulture marketers, but the trend is clearly in that direction in the markets served by Meister Media Worldwide (MMW) brands. 2014 saw a 22% increase in customers who engaged with MMW audiences via advertising on website, eNewsletters, video, direct marketing, website design and development and custom email newsletters.
Marketers’ projections are also bullish in relation to survey results released in 2013 by Webmarketing123, which found respondents indicating that they spent on average 25 percent of their budgets on digital marketing, including content marketing and social media.
Another indicator of where digital stands is the growing percentage (35%) of US ad agency revenues it represents.
While TV is still the largest advertising medium in the US, digital budgets are increasingly targeting their spend toward online video ad spending, and two-thirds will draw those budgets from TV.
About the Data: The ThinkVine survey polled 200 CMOs, marketing vice presidents and directors at companies with less than $100 million (17%) to more than $1 billion (36%) in brand revenue about their marketing budgets and spending projections.
Michael Deluca is the Chief Digital Officer for Meister Media. He can be reached at 440/602-9193 or [email protected].