As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus, the global health crisis is also forcing marketing leaders to contend with shifting KPIs, shrinking budgets and in some cases, a recalibration of entire marketing funnels.
Nearly 150 senior marketers across Asia Pacific have shared their views on how COVID-19 have shifted their marketing KPIs and budgets in the GfK-Campaign Asia Survey Branding and Marketing in the New Abnormal.
The questions the survey asked were primarily focused around four areas: A. What are marketers’ priorities B. How is marketing effectiveness being measured C. How have budgets shifted during COVID-19 D. How has COVID-19 changed the way marketers engage with consumers
From July 27 to September 3 2020, GfK surveyed 144 brand marketers across Asia. They included directors, VPs and managers from 13 countries, encompassing China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. 11+ industries, including automobile, financial services, retail, tech/ telecommunications, FMCG, travel, healthcare and the media, are represented.
The goal of the survey is two-fold: to get a better understanding of how marketing priorities and budgets are shifting, and to allow marketers to benchmark themselves against their fellow colleagues.
Most marketing leads say that COVID-19 has upturned not only priorities and budgets, but the way they arrive at these priorities and budgets. A huge majority (73%) say that budgets have decreased, with those in FMCG and healthcare hit hardest.
A majority (56%) say that business has slowed or come to a screeching halt. Retail is hit hardest, with 80% saying that business has slowed, and 10% saying that it has come to a screeching halt, followed by automotive and consumer durable, with 100% saying business has slowed.
Pre-COVID-19, driving sales was top of mind. Post-pandemic, the need to maximize marketing ROI has increased for marketers across the board.
Looking at marketers’ KPIs post-COVID-19, a focus on short-term sales (54%) and a shift towards ROI maximization (37%) again rank highly, but there is also a departure from pre-COVID-19, in the form of digital transformation objectives being seen as an increasingly important KPI (56%).
While digital marketing has led to the rise of more data-driven measurement tools in the last decade, measuring media reach or virality of social posts remain popular measurement methods.
When respondents were asked to rate their own level of marketing effectiveness, a tidy 30% say they are either ‘game-changers’ or ‘champions’, with 13% giving themselves the highest score.
Over 72% note they’re dissatisfied with the way marketing effectiveness is being measured. While some say their data isn’t integrated enough, others say they’re facing a HR shortage, or that their measurement journey is still in its infancy. Yet, there are also those who say they’re measuring ‘too much’ and neglecting the creative aspect of marketing.
When marketers were asked whether they have shifted budgets towards/away from various channels during COVID-19, while, on a whole, the commonly selected answer is ‘no change’, budgets are generally shifting away from more traditional channels such as trade marketing, OOH and print towards digital channels, including paid search, social media and mobile. South Korea is an outlier when it comes to above. While other regions are shifting away from DOOH and towards paid search, South Korea is moving away from paid search and towards DOOH.
One thing that also stands out is that while 40% say the allocation of budgets is a key concern, 42% within this group have no data-driven measurement tools in place.
To see the preview reports and to download the full report, click here.
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