What's On The Minds Of Marketers In 2021?
The rise in content demand due to digital experiences has led creative professionals and marketers to embrace technology’s potential. The pandemic has reshaped marketing, and capturing attention is the aim of marketers right now. Needless to say, digital experience initiatives resulted in an increase in the demand for content across marketing organizations. The Bynder’s The […]
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The rise in content demand due to digital experiences has led creative professionals and marketers to embrace technology’s potential.
The pandemic has reshaped marketing, and capturing attention is the aim of marketers right now. Needless to say, digital experience initiatives resulted in an increase in the demand for content across marketing organizations. The Bynder’s The State of Branding Report shows a transformation in perspective as a majority of marketers report they are more willing to adopt technology and automation in new ways, primarily because it relates to improving creativity and scaling content creation.
And there’s no shortage of tactics when it comes to how marketers will meet the challenge.
Bynder, which surveyed 1,600 marketing and creative professionals from a variety of functional roles, company sizes, countries, and industries, found a diverse set of tactics marketers plan to use to keep up with the demand for content.
- 52 percent plan to increase their technology budget to scale content creation
- 51 per cent plan to use technology to automate creative production tasks such as format, size, and copy changes
- 48 per cent plan to increase collaboration with external agencies and freelancers
- 48 per cent plan to increase headcount to accommodate the number of requests
- 45 per cent plan to repurpose customer and partner content in more ways
- 2 per cent have no plans to change the way they approach content creation in 2021
- 1 per cent are unsure if they plan to do any of the above to address growing content demands this year.
Digital Transformation
Brands implemented a huge digital transformation in a year. Half of the marketers worldwide report they have accelerated digital transformation and digital experience initiatives in 2021. An impressive 24 per cent of respondents report they are already ‘fully digital.’ 8 per cent have no initiatives in place. And 18 per cent say that digital initiatives slowed or came to a complete standstill in 2021. While digital transformation initiatives have hit critical mass, some brands have fallen behind, some by choice and some by accident.
The growth in digital initiatives signifies that progress depends on the brand story and a perfect digital experience connected to personalised, compelling content. As content requires rise, it is apparent that marketers require new tools and processes to kindle the creative content necessary to strengthen the digital experience.
Increase in Content Demand
Creating more content to meet rising demand is the most significant impact of corporate digital transformation initiatives. Over 85 per cent respondents reported that they have seen an increase in the demand for content in their organisation due to the pandemic and subsequent shift to an even more digital world. Over 90 per cent of marketers in video, design, creative, brand strategy, and digital marketing roles, said that creating more content to meet the rising demand for content is the biggest impact that comes with corporate digital transformation initiatives. Not a single marketer working in a video, design, or creative role reported that there had been a decrease or even a slight decrease in the demand for content at their organisation.
There was an increase in campaigns and content even in 2020, the year where everything seemed to be slowed down. The volume of campaigns and content increased by 41 per cent from 2020 to 2021.
Can Marketers Meet Content Demands
The marketing departments were impacted globally in the production of a volume of content. 73 per cent of marketers admitted they meant to create more content in 2020 than they actually ended up producing. However, when asked if they could keep up with creative and content requests in 2021, 72 per cent said they felt completely or very confident. Perhaps, there’s added confidence about their ability to meet the demand due to tactics they are employing to help scale their efforts such as increasing headcount or repurposing customer and partner content.
Marketers may be exaggerating their ability to keep up with content demands: 72 per cent of marketers feel confident they are on track to keep up with creative and content requests this year, but 73 per cent of marketers admitted they created significantly less content than they originally planned to in 2020.
How Technology and Automation will Help Creativity
The overwhelming majority, about 89 per cent, of respondents said that technology will help creativity in their organisation’s marketing department. 96 per cent of creative and marketing agencies and 98 per cent of consumer goods brands say tech will help their creativity, more than any other sector. As automation comes to the next frontier of marketing (creative), sentiment about the relationship between automation, technology, and creativity is changing. Over half of respondents said automation will either increase efficiency, free up time for brand team members to focus on more important tasks, and/or improve brand consistency for their organisation.
Marketers have a new view on automation. In 2020, 23 per cent said branding can’t be automated — even portions of it. In 2021, only 1 per cent of marketers said the same, suggesting a shift in acceptance towards bringing automation to all parts of marketing , including branding and creative.
