The results of our study combine the opinions of nearly 700 advertising executives across the world with Kantar data to get a full view on consumer behaviors and attitudes, as well as trends in advertising expenditure.
Our findings include:
1. Data access and data control: advertisers seek the optimal balance
To some extent, marketers are feeling some form of data paralysis, confronted with the need to pivot faster, and to strive for greater efficiency and greater impact in their media and creative strategies, in an always-on, competitive landscape.
82% of advertisers want to take more control of their media spend. And 76% believe that data should be used ‘by everyone: us and our agencies’. This ‘dynamic dialogue’ between brand and agency, can only be successful when access to data is consistent and meaningful.
2. Beyond first-party data: equipping brands with a 360-degree view of their consumers and removing data blind spots
81% of advertisers believe their brands should be looking beyond their first-party data to have third-party, trusted data that can enrich their understanding and remove data blind spots. It’s clear that the way forward for customer success strategies is for brands to prioritize the activation of first-party data by combining it with other relevant data sources to ultimately drive performance. This will guide relevant message formulation and better targeting, and improve impact across the sales funnel.
“The findings clearly show the industry has some way to go to leverage all the data sources at our disposal. First-party data isn’t the only game in town!
We need to be bolder, more aggressive with how we use the right mix of data to fuel brand growth strategies. We need a complete view of brand performance, leveraging competitive intelligence and other directional data sources better to illuminate insights and inform better marketing strategies.”
3. Data is only as good as the insights that can be actioned from it.
Despite the desire for better access to more data, only 28% of advertisers currently see syndicated data as providing actionable insights and 18% as easy to customize. While advertisers understand the value of competitive advertising intelligence, they see it as frustrating to access, which in turn makes it hard to derive actionable insights.
Kantar’s newly reconfigured Advertising Insights software makes data more accessible and powerful. Analysis can be customized to be relevant across an organization, providing actionable insights on competitive brand advertising strategies, key competitive advertising and market activities and the latest creatives to evaluate messaging execution.
The report also examines how successful advertisers can overcome the barriers to insight and better understand their competitive set. The full report is available for download now. It forms part of our 2021 Media Navigator series, a provocative perspective that looks at how data can keep you competitive in an increasingly dynamic, connected world.