Most CMOs Increasing Digital Marketing Spend

Chief marketing officers at many large companies are shifting their advertising spend to interactive marketing, according to some new research figures.

Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of the 175 CMOs and marketing executives at some of the country's largest companies surveyed last month by Epsilon for its first quarterly Epsilon CMO Survey said they're increasing spending on interactive/digital marketing. At the same time, another 59 percent reported a decrease in traditional marketing spend.

In addition, while 65 percent of survey respondents said spending on advertising in general will decrease due to the current economy, 94 percent agreed with the statement, "A tough economic period is precisely the time when marketing plays a key role," according to the Irving, Texas-based marketing services firm.

CMOs also are shifting to more targeted and measurable marketing strategies, according to the Epsilon report. When asked how their firm determines their target market for each channel, 50 percent said they use data-driven marketing techniques, and 31 percent agreed with the statement, "You use sophisticated modeling tools to analyze existing customer data (behavioral, preference and demographic)." Meanwhile, 19 percent of respondents said they analyze past purchase behavior, and 28 percent said they made rough estimates based on past experience.

CMOs of the biggest firms have been early adopters of new media and social computing. They've expressed the greatest interest in social computing and blogs and the least in instant messaging and interactive TV ads, the Epsilon study points out.

• Social computing — including word of mouth, social networking sites and viral advertising — was the most popular emerging channel with 42 percent of respondents expressing interest in adding it to their marketing mix.
• Blogs were the second most popular emerging channel, with 35 percent of respondents saying they want to pursue blogs and 19 percent noting that they already use them.
• Nearly one-third of CMOs mentioned podcasting as an area of interest. In fact, 31 percent said they are interested in adding podcasting to their marketing mix and 18 percent already have.
• According to the survey, 29 percent of respondents said they're interested in mobile devices — such as cell phones and PDAs — and 22 percent have added them to their marketing mix.

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