Businesses continue to ramp up their digital transformation and digital experience initiatives. The latest The State of Branding report from Bynder and OnBrand found that not only are about one-quarter (24%) of marketers and creatives already fully digital, but another half report that their digital transformation and digital experience initiatives have started or accelerated this year.
The impact corporate digital transformation initiatives have had on marketing departments has been positive. The 1,600 marketing and creative respondents from the US and parts of Europe say that their organization’s digital transformation initiatives have resulted in generating more digital content and creative output (59%), implementing new digital experience technologies (58%), investing in customer data and analytics (55%) and gaining efficiencies through automation (49%).
Demand for Content
Altimeter reported that the pandemic forced many marketers to accelerate their digital marketing transformation. The pandemic and the resulting push to more digital marketing has also meant an increased demand for content, with 85% of respondents reporting that they have experienced a significant or slight increase in demand for content since the pandemic.
While respondents say they have some concerns about their 2021 marketing efforts, such as reaching audiences on increasingly crowded digital channels (26% share) and reincorporating physical events into their marketing plans (16%), one-quarter cited keeping up with creative and content requests as their biggest concern.
Keeping up with demand for content is a valid challenge considering that about three-quarters (73%) of the marketers surveyed say that they had intended to create more content in 2020 than they were able to actually produce. That said, 72% are confident that they will be able to keep up with creative and content requests this year, with many saying they will be increasing headcount (48%) or repurposing customer and partner content (45%) to help this along.
However, there is a bit of a disconnect between those in CMO or VP level roles and the creatives that are tasked with the work. Some 8 in 10 (79% of) CMOs or VP level respondents were completely confident in their organization’s ability to meet this year’s creative demands, while only 6 in 10 (62% of) respondents in video, design and creative roles said the same.
Will Tech Help with Creative Content?
Even with the reported increased demand for content, 44% of respondents say they wish their marketing department took on more creative, strategic projects more often. Another 4 in 10 (42%) also wish their marketing department would increase the use of automation. But, is technology the answer to the increased demand for content?
Of those marketers surveyed, 9 in 10 (89%) believe that technology will significantly or somewhat help creativity in their marketing department.
Respondents cited several best uses of creative automation including that it creates content more efficiently (17% share), maintains brand consistency (14%), enables agile marketing to drive experimentation (13%) and enables better personalization (12%). Furthermore, more than half (55%) believe that automation will increase the efficiency of their efforts in 2021.
The full report can be found here.
About the Data: Findings are based on a Q1 survey of 1,600 marketing and creative respondents across the US, UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
