Digital Marketing 2.0 Study: CMOs Believe Big Data is a Game Changer, But Acknowledge That They Are Not Yet in the Game

Study Reveals That Most Lack the Tools and Resources to Tap Data for Fast Decisions

BOSTON – Some 75% of enterprise decision makers polled in a recent survey believe that leveraging data will help their companies dramatically improve their business, yet more than half feel they currently lack the tools to mine true customer insights from the data generated by digital and offline efforts.

That was one conclusion of the 2012 Digital Marketing 2.0 Study, an online survey released today that was conducted between December 2011 and February 2012 among 350 enterprise decision makers. The survey, commissioned by DataXu (www.dataxu.com), was conducted by customer strategy firm Human 1.0 and the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), a non-profit think tank.  Respondents included decision makers in management, marketing, communications, digital, IT and social media functions.

The study demonstrates the disconnect between the tools currently available on the market and a company’s ability to aggregate and take action on the data generated by digital consumers. The result: a majority of those polled reported their organizations were unable to sufficiently leverage data to make intelligent business decisions for their marketing efforts due to the evolution of tools, necessary job skills, and business relationships.

“The study makes clear that marketers are grasping the importance of big data to game change, but they are still looking for a way to make business-impacting decisions from the wealth of digital and customer data,” said Mike Baker, CEO and co-founder of DataXu.  “Companies who learn to effectively analyze and make decisions using real-time data will outperform their competition.”

Other study highlights:

58% of respondents said they lacked the skills and technology to perform analytics on marketing data, and more than 70% said they aren’t able to leverage the value of customer data

Only 15% of marketers said they involve the IT department—whose personnel are ostensibly more comfortable with collecting, managing and analyzing data—in marketing technology purchase decisions

90% of respondents believe that digital marketing can reduce customer acquisition costs, but 46% of respondents also agree that they lack the information to communicate the benefits of digital marketing to management.

Respondents identified the lack of a single, cross-channel digital marketing platform as the number one obstacle to the growth of digital marketing.

DataXu and Human 1.0 will discuss the results of the study in a March 29 webinar, “Marketing in the Digital Age: Why Winning Companies Compete in Data & Analytics.” To register for the webinar and download the survey white paper, please visit: www.dataxu.com/download-marketing-in-the-digital-age-whitepaper.

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