Brands are optimistic about emerging marketing channels and will increase their social media spend in 2013, according to an extensive report on the outlook of brand managers by Vizu/Digiday.
Five hundred digital marketing and media professional were surveyed in September/October 2012 on the current and future attitudes towards paid social media advertising.
The brass tacks:
- 64% of those surveyed planned to increase social media spend in 2013.
- 41% of those surveyed had a dedicated social media budget.
- Funds are being shifted from both online and offline buckets to fund this increased spend.
- Metrics are still an issue: The majority of brand managers still name brand lift and sales generated as key metrics. Advertisers “would prefer to use the exact same metrics used in the offline medium, and additional metrics specific to the online medium,” pointing to the continued disconnect between offline/online ROI measurement.
- This disconnect is impacting the growth of paid advertising budgets, with a desire for cross-platform consistency, clear ROI benchmarks and connections between social media and brand lift/sales generated.
- Creativity seems to be lacking --> rather than experimenting on their end, many brand managers are looking to social media networks and media sellers to provide the necessary tools to measure return on spend.
Travel has seen some
great social media successes over the past couple of years. What are your plans for social media spend in 2013?
Vizu's full report can be downloaded here.