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Marketing industry in deep step change due to the pandemic

Vin DeRobertis Americas CEO 21 October 2020

A new survey of marketers by Savanta and Next15 delves into how marketers have had to adapt to the pandemic and whether or not new trends and ways of working will be carried forwards

Consumers are devouring more content than ever in this unprecedented time

Together with Next15, we have taken a deep dive into the marketing landscape and explored the impact of COVID-19 on the marketing industry as a whole. With insight drawn from marketing executives across a range of different companies, our new marketers report hones in on the global state of play in the industry, particularly in the UK and the Americas.

Our top 5 insights from the report show that COVID-19 isn’t just causing businesses to make minor adjustments – it is fundamentally changing how they operate:

  1. Nine in ten (91%) marketers expect there to be changes in the way that they take their product to market going forward
  2. 58% of marketing activity is currently via digital channels, marketers predict that it will climb to 75% in 12 months
  3. Top three areas expected to become more of a priority for business over the next year are content marketing, social media and virtual events
  4. Just 15% of companies say their business model will remain the same over the next year – with one in five (20%) saying it will change dramatically
  5. A quarter (24%) of marketers will make significant changes to agency partner and supplier relationships in the next year – 32% are expecting to consolidate and 19% are looking to diversify – ROI and data driven decisions are biggest priorities

The pandemic has been an undoubtable force for change for marketers across the globe, with an almost overnight switch to new ways of working – from virtual events to bolstered content marketing strategies and more webinars than we care to count.

The data in our new report shows that while major changes will certainly occur as a result of COVID-19, marketers are not averse to it. In fact, the pandemic has enabled businesses to see where they can really make an impact, and what their consumers actually want from them.

Consumers are devouring more content than ever in this unprecedented time, whether that’s news articles, videos or social posts – so it really comes as no surprise that the majority of marketers surveyed say that their business will be putting an emphasis on content, social and webinars going forward.

Could this be the end of marketing as we know it? Well, marketing has been heading this way for a long time. The rise of digital marketing has enabled businesses to reach more consumers than they ever would have before, and the pandemic has simply been the nudge it needed to transcend outdated traditional methods. We are all waiting with bated breath to see how the marketing landscape adjusts over the next 12 months or so, and those who adapt and adopt sooner rather than later may be best placed to benefit from the turning tide of marketing.

To download the UK version of our marketers report, click here. To access the Americas version, click here. To find out more or speak to one of our team, please get in touch.