2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study

Equation Research Presents a Marketing Industry Trends Study Created By, and For, Marketers

The 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study is unique in that Equation opened up survey development to the Marketing Community - drawing the survey questions directly from marketers.

The feedback was outstanding - spurring diverse and thoughtful questions. Over 1,450 marketers representing clients (brands), agencies, consultants and non-profits responded to the survey.

And while the crowdsourced approach to research may in fact be the most ground-breaking aspect of all, the study delivers important findings that confirm the growing significance (and momentum) of social media and digital marketing tactics. Some of the key findings include:

• Social media adoption rates - The adoption of social media is well past critical mass--with nearly two thirds of brand marketers (59%) currently implementing social media in their marketing plans.
  
• Tools and platforms - Facebook, Twitter, online video and blogs are the 4 most popular social media tools. Yet none of these are being used in isolation--on average, there are 5 to 7 other social media tools being either actively used or dabbled with by marketers at the same time.
  
• Current marketing spend - While traditional media channels account for the largest proportion of marketing spend; Online, Search and Social Media as a group are approximately a third of all current spend. For smaller companies this increased to over 40%.
  
• Forecasts in spending - Looking towards 2010, brand marketers forecast a shift in spend towards digital tactics, feeling the areas most likely to increase will be Social Media (60%), Online Advertising (53%), Search Engine Advertising (49%) and Email Marketing (41%).
  
• Mobile marketing - While current adoption of Mobile Marketing is low (only 11% of brand and agency marketers had it as a line item), there is interest in experimentation.
  
• Uses of market research - Online ad testing is the type of research most likely to increase in the near future, with a third of marketers planning to spend more in this area.

For additional information and to download a copy of the 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study, please click here