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Will ad blocking be a boon or a burden for marketers? It is a question that has fuelled many an industry event and roundtable within the past 12 months — and this publication has weighed in with its fair share too — but a new study in the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) intends to provide a more authoritative answer.
The study, which was in partnership with YouGov and included interviewed with 255 marketers across England, Wales and Scotland, discovered that for more than three quarters (76 percent), advertising blocking will promote greater creativity among the livelihood. 38% of respondents nevertheless fear that it might lead to a decrease in marketing.
If this extra stress was not enough, half (49%) of entrepreneurs surveyed said the tumultuous nature of businesses such as Amazon and Uber have ‘raised the bar’ on client expectation, meaning that they need to be similarly disruptive in their roles. One in five said customer experience was the focus for their organisation, with 28% saying they do not have the investment necessary to make change that was sufficient.
Chief executive of the CIM, Chris Daly, said that the research’s greatest surprise found that while companies are talking the talk, they are finding it more difficult to walk the walk. “One by one, businesses are being disrupted by organisations which rip up the rule book, and that won’t stop this year,” he informed MarketingTech. “People who don’t become really customer-centric and fully embrace the technology that is available hazard sinking without a trace”
Firmly entrenched in technology that’s not likely to be accessible, of course, is ad blocking, an issue Daly describes as being ‘one of the largest challenges confronting digital marketers over the course of 2017’, adding that relying solely on banner advertisements is a “very outdated approach”.
“Creative thinking will have a vital part to play in overcoming the advertisement blocking barrier,” he said. “That’s why it’s so reassuring that our research showed 76% of marketers believe that ad blocking could really be a fantastic thing. The business has a proud and long history of utilizing new technologies and overcoming problems raised by change. This mindset will ensure ad blocking — or some other technological shift for that matter — doesn’t have a catastrophic effect over the coming year.”
In terms of technological change, does this mean that anyone with ambitions to move in the CMO office should bulk up their tech abilities? Daly says it’s a bonus, but perhaps not at encyclopaedic level.
“While all entrepreneurs do not have to get a deep understanding of the ins and outs about how technology functions to advance to the CMO role and beyond, they need to have a firm grasp on how it may be employed to better understand and engage customers,” said Daly. “Gathering data, conducting analytics, using info to personalise experiences and powering new platforms are difficulties CMOs should be assured in dealing with.
“Marketers know customers,” added Daly. “The increasing strategic importance of placing marketing and IT together to better understand and serve customers make for a perfect storm that may propel CMOs around the position of CEO.
“In an environment in which the client’s view is able to reach to the very heart of businesses, this career path is set to become commonplace over the upcoming few decades.”
The report found that for one in three respondents, the lines between IT, advertising and digital are becoming increasingly blurred, while a quarter of 18-34 year olds say that they wish to enter marketing as it offers a larger career path to management.
