FICCI-EY report sheds light on priorities & challenges for CMOs in 2021

FICCI-EY report sheds light on priorities & challenges for CMOs in 2021

Over 50 per CMOs plan to revive offline engagement with customers.

FICCI-EY

NEW DELHI: 2020 was a very challenging year for marketers and business owners, as the Covid2019 pandemic literally reshaped the way in which they functioned in the past. And now, a new FICCI-EY study report has shed light on the priorities and challenges for marketing heads in 2021. 

Marketing spend efficiency: The foremost priority

The study report suggested that marketing spending efficiency will be the most important priority for CMOs in 2021. 80 per cent of the CMOs who took part in the survey highlighted marketing spend efficiency as one of their top two priorities for 2021 given the impact of Covid2019 on marketing budgets. 

Considering the rising popularity of OTT platforms, 65 per cent of the respondents are working towards finding a balance between television and OTT spends. Over 50 per cent of the respondents suggested that they are planning to revive offline engagement opportunities with customers. 

Challenges faced by marketers in 2021

The survey report suggested that the key challenge faced by marketers is self-reporting by walled gardens on ad performance, as it demonstrated a clear need for a layer of assurance on digital spends. Most marketers face a dilemma while evaluating lead quality before additional amounts are invested, and many of them are using a trial and error mechanism to evaluate the same across platforms, formats, etc. 

A majority of the participants who took part in the survey revealed that digital ad fraud remained an issue for most of them. 41 per cent of the marketers trust their digital ad agencies or the platforms to manage ad fraud for them. 31 per cent rely on using third-party tools to detect ad frauds. 

Respondents in this survey also talked about how their organisation accesses the state of future-readiness in terms of digital maturity. 92 per cent of respondents were actively monitoring their digital readiness, while 53 per cent of respondents are dependent on their digital agency partners to know more about leading practices in their digital transformation journeys.

Six per cent of the respondents revealed that they are growing at their own pace, and made it clear that the state of future-readiness in terms of digital maturity does not interest them. Two per cent of the marketers admitted that they are not aware of the state of future readiness in terms of digital maturity.