SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Marketing leaders in Australia and New Zealand are increasingly making technology decisions for their organisations, according to a new study by emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.
Telsyte’s Australian & New Zealand Digital Marketer Study 2015 surveyed 255 CMOs and marketing leaders in large organisations found that almost all (91%) are making purchasing decisions on technology products and services for their requirements, which has traditionally been the sole responsibility of the IT department. Furthermore, more than half of organisations surveyed indicated that the marketing department has a dedicated IT budget.
This rapid change in the role of the CMO has been driven by the digital transformation imperative in Australian and New Zealand organisations, the widespread availability and acceptance of cloud-based software and computing, and the elevation of the CMO as the custodian of big data and insights functions.
“Marketing’s transformation has moved on from just buying digital advertising to building scalable approaches that provide a single view of the customer, support meaningful measurement, and enable real-time decision-making,” Steven Noble, senior analyst, Telsyte says.
Web analytics or split testing software is the most common purchase, with 39 per cent of marketers reporting their departments buy this class of software. CRM purchases were also very common, at 38 per cent. Furthermore, 36 per cent are using big data analytics for customer transaction analysis.
“Marketing measurement and customer-centricity are the left and right legs of digital transformation,” Noble Says. “This is why Web analytics and CRM are the types of applications marketers are mostly likely to buy.”
Marketing and IT leaders have conflicting perspectives on marketing technology
Marketing departments are investing in IT because they need flexibility, according to 57 per cent of all marketers, and 70 per cent of marketers who mostly use their own budget to source IT. Meanwhile, 45 per cent of marketers said they were investing in IT because they knew more than the IT department about their own needs.
Marketers that buy their own IT claim they are more likely to have the technology products they need. A high 84 per cent of those that mostly use marketing’s own budget agree or strongly agree with “our marketing function has the technology it needs to be effective”, compared with 71 per cent of those who mostly use IT’s budget to buy IT.
Despite the fact that marketers are highly satisfied with their technology purchases, IT leaders are concerned. In a separate Telsyte survey of 336 CIO and ICT leaders that have lines of business that purchase IT products and services, some 36 per cent say their organisations have experienced problems. The greatest problems were with integration requirements (cited by 36%), inconsistent technology selection (33%) and security (32%).
For further information on the report or media enquiries contact:
Foad Fadaghi
Managing Director
Tel: +61 2 9235 5851
Twitter: @foadfadaghi
Email: ffadaghi@telsyte.com.au
For sales and consulting enquiries please contact Foad Fadaghi on +612 9235 5851 (ffadaghi@telsyte.com.au).
About the Telsyte Australian & New Zealand Digital Marketer Study 2015
The Telsyte Australian & New Zealand Digital Marketer Study 2015 is a comprehensive 70-page report available to subscribing organisations and includes:
Trends in marketing budgets and spending intentions across major digital marketing categories
Digital marketing drivers and barriers
ROI experiences with digital marketing
The role and status of online publishers and marketing software vendors
The study was created using an online survey of 255 CMOs, marketing directors and other marketing decision makers, conducted in August 2015. Of the respondents, 221 were in large and very large corporations in Australia (defined as having greater than 100 employees), while 34 were in large and very large corporations in New Zealand (defined as having greater than 50 employees). Telsyte estimates the sample is representative of the largest 12,000 Australian and 4800 largest New Zealand businesses.
About Telsyte
Telsyte delivers strategic insights and advisory services to businesses that are producing, or are impacted by, disruptive technologies. Telsyte publishes studies into emerging consumer and business markets and provides custom research and advisory services. Telsyte is a wholly-owned independent business unit of UXC Limited. UXC is an ASX-listed Australian IT services company and the largest Australian-owned ICT consultancy firm with over 2,500 customer organisations in the private and public sectors across Australasia. www.telsyte.com.au
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