How Much Marketing Is Digital?

More than six out of 10 CMOs and senior marketing professionals surveyed in the US said that digital tactics (including mobile) accounted for more than one-quarter of their agency marketing, according to a July 2008 study by Zoomerang for Sapient.

Respondents also said digital marketing was growing in importance. Nearly one-half (45%) of those polled had either switched agencies or planned to switch during the next 12 months to gain access to more digital expertise. Almost eight out of 10 said that agencies' interactive and digital aptitude was important or very important. 

Since the Sapient sample involved fewer than 100 respondents, the results are most useful in a directional sense, but the amount of digital marketing (generally over 25%) CMOs reported seems high. As a point of comparison, digital ad spending growth remains steep compared with other media, yet it still accounts for less than 10% of total ad spending in the US.

The other thing to note is that Sapient asked respondents about marketing activity, not marketing spending. Since e-mail is a relatively low-cost tactic, it can account for a great deal of marketing activity relative to its cost.

Gail Scibelli, vice president at Sapient, told eMarketer that some of the marketing professionals surveyed could have been including e-commerce initiatives in their estimates.

www.emarketer.com | eMarketer | 2008-09-11