Econsultancy Global Media Budgets Index

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
Media Budgets Index:
Comparing media
budget allocation to
media consumption
In association with Datalicious

Media Budgets
Index: Comparing
media budget
allocation to media
consumption
In association with Datalicious
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Contents
1. Executive Summary................................................... 6
1.1. Methodology ........................................................................ 8
1.2. About Econsultancy............................................................ 11
2. Foreword by Datalicious...........................................12
2.1. About Datalicious ...............................................................13
3. Country Comparison Index......................................14
4. Introduction..............................................................15
5. State of the Nations ..................................................16
5.1. Singapore: Overspending on print.....................................17
5.2. India: Proportion of time spent on TV double the
percentage of total spend on the channel ..........................17
5.3. US: Bucking the trend; underspending offline..................18
5.4. Australia and New Zealand: Total online spend ahead of
both India and Singapore in the APAC region...................18
5.5. UK: Overinvested in print; broadcast still strong..............19
5.6. Where budgets are currently allocated ..............................19
5.7. How budgets are currently allocated ................................ 24
5.8. Where does the pressure come from?................................27
5.9. Roadblocks to increasing digital spend ............................ 28
6. Customer Behaviour vs. Media Mix ........................ 30
6.1. Where do marketers believe customers are spending their
time?................................................................................... 30
6.1.1. A mobile mystery............................................................31
6.2. What are marketers’ budget priorities? ............................ 33
6.2.1. Web is underrated and display is overrated in EMEA ..35
6.2.2. UK and US more accurate in matching assumed
customer dwell time with budget allocation..................35
6.2.3. ANZ finding it hard to let go of tradition.......................35
6.2.4. Mobile spend to catch up with attention in Asia ...........35
6.3. The time gap ...................................................................... 36
6.3.1. Sourcing the data ...........................................................37
6.4. Balancing spend across the mix ........................................ 38

6.5. Is there flexibility? ............................................................. 40
6.5.1. Test and learn.................................................................42
6.6. Dialling up or down ........................................................... 43
7. Campaign and Mix Optimisation ............................ 46
7.1. Ideal optimisation capabilities .......................................... 46
7.2. Today’s most effective channels........................................ 49
7.3. Understanding attribution ................................................ 50
7.3.1. India ...............................................................................55
7.3.2. Singapore........................................................................56
7.3.3. Global .............................................................................57
8. Country Focus: Singapore ....................................... 59
8.1. Brand spending and customer time.................................. 59
8.2. Selected trends................................................................... 60
8.3. CMO cheat sheet.................................................................61
8.4. Conclusion...........................................................................61
9. Country Focus: India............................................... 62
9.1. Brand spending and customer time.................................. 62
9.2. Selected trends................................................................... 63
9.3. CMO cheat sheet................................................................ 64
9.4. Conclusion.......................................................................... 64
10. Country Focus: United States.................................. 65
10.1. Brand spending and consumer time ................................. 65
10.2. Selected trends................................................................... 66
10.3. CMO cheat sheet.................................................................67
10.4. Conclusion...........................................................................67
11. Country Focus: Australia and New Zealand ........... 68
11.1. Brand spending and consumer time ................................. 68
11.2. Selected trends................................................................... 69
11.3. CMO cheat sheet................................................................ 70
11.4. Conclusion.......................................................................... 70
12. Country Focus: United Kingdom .............................71
12.1. Brand spending and consumer time..................................71
12.2. Selected trends....................................................................72
12.3. CMO cheat sheet.................................................................73
12.4. Conclusion...........................................................................74

13. Appendix...................................................................75
13.1. Asia......................................................................................75
13.2. Australia and New Zealand ............................................... 89
13.3. EMEA (excl. UK)...............................................................103
13.4. UK...................................................................................... 117
13.5. US...................................................................................... 131

1. Executive Summary
Media preference
Despite a strong movement towards digital, certain media channels still prevail. The most
expected of those is TV, which retains its top spot for a variety of reasons. Predominantly, this is
because there is still a significant population that is not digital first. Whether this is due to
geographical restriction or habit, few brands wish to isolate these customer segments.
On an effectiveness basis, executives note that TV is disproportionately expensive. However, it
cannot be denied that it is effective, particularly in a brand advertising or second screening role.
Investment is expected to increase in TV in most areas; however, EMEA and Singapore in
particular are showing caution.
Several traditional media channels are continuing to experience declining investment even
though some, including radio and print media, show a reasonable degree of ongoing consumer
interest.
Digital, however, is where the most consistent growth and investment is being seen, with the UK
and EMEA putting in the most effort and in some cases digital taking up to 100% of their budgets.
Within digital, despite the volume of column inches devoted to mobile, it is websites that receive
the most attention. This is where executives expect to increase their budgets. While most
executives also expect to increase their exposure on mobile platforms, the sector is slightly more
volatile and 6% voiced an intention to decrease their investment.
Email is continuing to enjoy a resurgence, with over 90% of executives stating a commitment to
either maintaining the status quo or increasing their investment. Paid social, however, has a
tendency to polarise, with executives in all regions divided as to whether to increase or decrease
spend in this arena. Clearly, it has yet to establish its value.
Budget allocation
Budgets are still largely allocated on the basis of historical performance rather than customer
behaviour or external insights. However, this is gradually changing. While initially it seems that
executives are saying extra budget is allocated to those who press their business case hardest,
thought is moving in the direction of assessing media effectiveness through ultimate business
success.
Campaign-specific objectives are beginning to gain traction and viewed in concert with the rest of
the multichannel and overall business goals. This will help organisations make objective decisions
about media effectiveness and spend.
Ability to measure customer behaviour is good to middling across the board, but even those areas
with strong measurement capability aren’t necessarily inclined to use it, as only 31% of executives
stated that they based their digital media spend on customer time spent in channel. Executives in
Asia were the most confident about their abilities to pinpoint customer media choice.
Typically, the CMO or marketing director holds media budget responsibility. However, agencies
enjoy a greater level of involvement in Asia where, due to their international networks, they are
able to bring experience to a relatively immature market.
Measurement is noted as being one of the biggest roadblocks to making progress in digital –
either because of the lack of ability to understand outputs or conduct assessments in the first
place. This links closely to both the impact of legacy systems which are unable to manage the
levels and complexity of data produced by digital channels and siloed departments that find it
difficult to interact within a multichannel ecosystem.

Despite the changes in customer behaviour and organisational incompatibility challenges that
marketers are facing, most feel they have achieved some balance within their digital marketing
mix, more so than in offline media. This could well be down to the growing uncertainty of the role
offline media plays in a multichannel media ecosystem.
Being able to adapt to the changing multichannel ecosystem is an increasingly important skill and
not one many marketers feel they have mastered. The majority of those executives surveyed feel
they could be more agile but are generally cautiously optimistic. Many approach the challenge by
ring-fencing the majority of their budget (between 70-80%) for longer-term projects and leave the
rest for test and learn or spontaneous spend.
Measurement
The need for ongoing measurement and campaign optimisation is generally understood, however
there is a lack of consensus as to what makes the most effective digital measurement tool. The
questions include how to translate digital measurement norms back to offline media where
expectations have changed and how quickly an organisation should react to insights revealed by
measurement.
Cross-device campaign management is proving one of the biggest challenges for marketers to
measure and optimise, but it is also one of the answers marketers most desire. A large number of
executives are still focusing on single channel or device-specific measurement campaigns that
help to a degree but are unable to give an insight into the effectiveness of a multichannel
campaign.
The ability to understand attribution or other measurement metrics is by no means universal yet,
with around half of executives finding it either irrelevant, not something they understand or a
tactic that they do not yet use.
Programmatic remains an area that is frustratingly opaque for marketers and while automation
has its temptations, the lack of transparency means it is ranked lowest in terms of companies’
capabilities.
Despite the range of sophisticated measurement tools available and survey results suggesting that
customers may not spend the majority of their time in these channels, marketers believe that in-
store POS, TV and websites are the most effective in terms of delivering on media spend.
To ratify their decisions, marketers are coming back to the simplest yet possibly most revelatory
of metrics: sales uplift and consumer activity.

1.1. Methodology
Research objectives
This report was designed to examine the relationship between where marketers are spending
their money and where consumers are spending their time. This global study explores media
habits and budget allocation across the UK and US, EMEA, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.
Combining a global survey, desk research and interviews, this report pulls together a picture of
media spend and consumption, in order to better inform media spend across these hugely
different regions.
This is the first time this report has been done, and offers an insight into an area which so far has
not been explored to such an extent: are advertisers wasting their budgets, putting money into
channels their consumers ignore?
The report is therefore designed to pull together findings from new research, and also provide
some updated recommendations on approaches to and opportunities within online and
traditional media spend.
Research methodology
The methodology involved three main phases:
 Phase 1: Desk research to identify what information is already available about how budgets
are being allocated and where consumers are spending their time.
 Phase 2: A series of in-depth interviews with a range of senior digital and non-digital
marketers and ecommerce leads across different sectors, markets and regions. This was to
provide insight into key themes, challenges and opportunities in allocating media spend.
 Phase 3: An online survey (678 respondents) of relevant senior staff across a range of
organisations and sectors, across all regions covered, designed to better quantify feedback.
Figure 1: What best describes your job role?
Respondents: 633

Figure 2: Are you more focused on B2B or B2C marketing?
Respondents: 628
Figure 3: In which business sector is your organisation?
Respondents: 628

Figure 4: Which channels are included when allocating the media budget?
Respondents: 584
Acknowledgements
Econsultancy would like to thank the following people for their contributions to this report:
 Head of Media, EMEA, FMCG
 Deborah Goldingham, Head of Marketing SE Asia, MasterCard
 Jana Mollett, Head of Brand Advertising, NOW TV
 Mark Evans, Marketing Director, Direct Line
 Former Global Procurement Director, FMCG
 Alessandra di Lorenzo, Chief Advertising Officer, lastminute.com
 Jean Thomas, CMO, Vinomofo
 Nick Adams, Director Marketing Enablement, Telstra
 Trevor Johnson, Global Agency Development, Facebook
 Matt Taylor, CMO, HelloFresh Australia
 James Woodbridge, CMO, Antares Restaurant Group (Burger King NZ)
 Will Lin, VP Digital Media, HomeAway US
 Barnaby Dawe, Global CMO, JustEat

1.2. About Econsultancy
Econsultancy’s mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing
and ecommerce through research, training and events.
Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore.
Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to
research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning – all focused on helping
individuals and enterprises get better at digital.
The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability
programmes, training courses, skills assessments and audits. We train and develop thousands of
professionals each year as well as running events and networking that bring the Econsultancy
community together around the world.
Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence.
Call us to find out more:
 New York: +1 212 971 0630
 London: +44 207 269 1450
 Singapore: +65 6653 1911

2. Foreword by Datalicious
This new research from Econsultancy, commissioned by Datalicious, puts the changing shape of
media preferences into perspective. The advertising and marketing industry has talked about
being data-driven for many years now. If that’s the case, then why are we still seeing media
budget inefficiency and disconnected customer experiences?
This report is a unique examination of the spending behaviour and attitudes of major marketers
in across the globe. We commissioned this study because we wanted to see an index of the
disparity between the channels marketers are allocating their budgets, and the channels where
consumers are actually spending time. This has never existed before and it’s a key piece of data in
understanding the factors driving marketing decisions by major from brands around the world.
Whilst it’s common knowledge that digital media – and mobile in particular - is growing at the
expense of traditional media, the rate of change is difficult to determine, especially across regions.
By opening itself up to the digital advertising ecosystem, television is proving far more resilient
than print media, with a small minority of marketers expecting to decrease spend on the medium
this year. For most it remains one of the most effective ways of communicating to prospective
customers, particularly those without a digital-first orientation.
In this report you will see that many are still experimenting in the digital space. The ability to test
and learn means advertisers can see what works and as planners get to grips with what works
best, we can expect some volatility in the digital media used. This need for advertisers to find their
way in the digital world is clearly reflected in this report. However, it is great to see marketers
becoming more confident in their experimentation, as digital provides the kind of data that can
produce more accurate performance reporting and projections than traditional offline channel
reporting.
It’s particularly the case when it comes to attribution. Only a third of survey respondents used
attribution to measure marketing effectiveness. Within that amount a majority were still using
last-click, the least effective attribution model — the majority recognising the benefits of an
effective attribution model. There are still challenges to brands implementing a successful media
attribution program although as the subject has become more commonplace, these challenges are
becoming more easily met.
Online media alone will not achieve the outcomes brands are looking for. The continuing role of
television demonstrates this, along with the importance of out of home, particularly in-store
displays. Advertisers are likely to use a growing range of channels to achieve optimal results, but
it will be difficult to manage this mix without a clear understanding of how each element plays its
part in achieving the final outcome. For that, marketers need to embrace a data-driven approach
to channel allocation or risk wasting budget on sub-optimal performance.
From myself and the team at Datalicious, we hope this report gives you a clear view on the state of
data-driven media budgets and how marketers are responding to the opportunities and
challenges of aligning online and offline budget allocations. And we hope that this report will help
guide your future decision-making as you enthusiastically embrace data-driven insights.
Special thanks to Jefrey Gomez, Jim Clark and the Econsultancy research team for helping put
this significant research together.
Christian Bartens
CEO & Founder
Datalicious

2.1. About Datalicious
Datalicious is a full-service analytics agency and technology firm, providing the tools and insights
to help companies achieve more effective marketing outcomes. From its origins as a specialist
consultancy based in Sydney, Australia, the company attracted investment from the Veda-Equifax
Company and has grown to become an innovative software development company that now helps
many blue-chip clients across Europe and South-East Asia to think outside the box and achieve
data-driven marketing best practice.
Datalicious products include the SuperTag tag manager, DataExchange user ID management tool
and OptimaHub cross-channel marketing analytics platform. Datalicious is also one of the biggest
Google Analytics Premium resellers in South-East Asia.
Datalicious technology drives the attribution capabilities for some of the world’s largest and most
innovative brands so please contact us for a selection of case studies on how other market leaders
are using Datalicious to supercharge their marketing efforts.
For more information visit datalicious.com or email:
 sydney@datalicious.com
 melbourne@datalicious.com
 auckland@datalicious.com
 singapore@datalicious.com
 bangalore@datalicious.com
 london@datalicious.com
 hanover@datalicious.com
 seoul@datalicious.com

3. Country Comparison Index
That marketers are failing to match their media spend to where customers actually spend their
time is clear. However, this trend is by no means uniform across territories or even within
seemingly aligned regions. Singapore, for example, follows the presumed trend by overspending
slightly too much on offline media while underinvesting in online. Its near neighbour India
however, greatly overspends on offline while leaving online under-represented. The country could
stand to move more than half its media investment from offline to online.
Conversely, the US seems to strike almost the right balance (although there are disparities when it
comes down to a per channel basis, see Section 5), with only a 3% margin either way which,
interestingly, sees the nation spend less than optimal amounts offline. Australia and New Zealand
are similarly under-indexing offline and overspending on online but by a slightly larger margin,
around 7%. The UK returns to the presumed trend with a more than 10% disparity in spend
versus consumer time spent and favours offline media more than it should.
Table 1: Media spend vs. consumer time across selected countries
Channel Spending % of total Time / role
Spend
disparity
Singapore
OFFLINE TOTAL $1,413m 87% 62% +15%
ONLINE TOTAL $202.44m 13% 38% -25%
TOTAL SPEND $1,615.44m
India
OFFLINE TOTAL $9,013.8m 89% 79.6% +9.4%
ONLINE TOTAL $1,083.2m 11% 20.3% -9.3%
United States
OFFLINE TOTAL $171,500m 73% 76% -3%
ONLINE TOTAL $64,200m 27% 24% +3%
TOTAL SPEND $235,700m
Australia & New Zealand
OFFLINE TOTAL $6,685m 56.7% 64.2% -6.5%
ONLINE TOTAL $4,715m 43.3% 35.8% +7.5%
United Kingdom
OFFLINE TOTAL £11,956 62% 51% +11%
ONLINE TOTAL £7,194 38% 49% -11%
TOTAL SPEND £19,150

4. Introduction
If only marketers could be as confident as John Wanamaker when he claimed that 50% of his
marketing budget was wasted1, he just didn’t know which half. The media landscape today is so
fragmented and fast-moving that the 50% you wasted yesterday could be money well spent today.
And vice versa.
Are we still fighting the tension between traditional, offline media and the digital vanguard? Or
have we finally found a way for each media element to live together in perfect harmony?
This report is the culmination of extensive global research into the media habits of marketing
executives in a number of critical markets: the UK and US, EMEA, Asia and Australia/New
Zealand. These markets were chosen for the way they reflect the subtle (and not so subtle)
differences in media approach as a result of exposure to technology, market maturity and
resource availability.
Critically, this report debunks a number of myths that, over time, have become accepted wisdom
among marketers and media strategists. Yes, mobile is a vital channel that is seeing growth, but it
is far from a lone panacea. Several traditional channels that have been all but written off as being
too old-school to be cool are seeing a quiet resurgence and in several territories can prove the
‘make or break’ element in campaign success.
Finally, we attack the measurement issue which continues to perplex marketers on a number of
fronts. What should be measured, how much and how often, and will the results be of any use? If,
that is, marketers can find people with the right skills and amount of time to get measurement
under way.
Editorial note: The charts included in the body of this report refer to the global average,
consolidated from the entirety of our survey sample. For detailed geography-specific charts please
see the Appendix.
1 Statement credited to both John Wanamaker (1838-1922) and Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925).

5. State of the Nations
There is an increasing sense that marketers need to refocus their media budgets to reflect
consumer behaviour and the massive consumption drift towards online channels. However,
marketers are unsure as to how to prioritise spend, particularly given the fluid nature of
consumer interaction. Not all channels remain a high priority while others are often used in
conjunction with one or two others.
Here we make an exclusive comparison between data that reveals where customers are spending a
great deal of their media time versus where marketers are prioritising spend. With regional
breakdowns we are also able to see the distinct gaps where marketing strategy is failing to keep
time with customer behaviour.
Figure 5: Please rank the following channels in order of the amount of time
customers spend on the channel.
Respondents: 493

The averaged assumptions of nearly 700 survey respondents worldwide is that:
 The majority of consumers spend most of their time on websites.
 Far fewer consumers are assumed to put TV as their favourite media channel over digital
media.
 TV is expected to be more of a first choice of media than mobile but overall executives expect
consumers to spend more time on mobile than TV.
 Traditional, offline media outside TV and print are not assumed to contribute much consumer
interest at all.
5.1. Singapore: Overspending on print
Table 2: Media spend vs. consumer time in channel – Singapore
Channel or
platform
Spending % of total Time / role
Spend
disparity
Television $425m 26% 29% -3%
Radio $140m 9% 23% -14%
Print $672m 42% 10% +32%
OOH / POS $176m 11% - -
OFFLINE TOTAL $1,413m 87% 62% -15%
ONLINE TOTAL $202.44m 13% 38% -25%
5.2. India: Proportion of time spent on TV double the
percentage of total spend on the channel
Table 3: Media spend vs. consumer time in channel – India
Channel or
platform
Spend
disparity
Television $3,413m 33.8% 67% +3.8%
Radio $305m 3.0% 6.1% =
Print $2,566m 25.4% 6.5% +21.6%
Direct mail $2,343.8m 23.0% - -
OOH / POS $386m 3.8% - -
OFFLINE TOTAL $9,013.8m 89% 79.6% +9.4%
ONLINE TOTAL $1,083.2m 11% 20.3% -9.3%

5.3. US: Bucking the trend; underspending offline
Table 4: Media spend vs. consumer time in channel – United States
Channel or
platform
Spend
disparity
Television $70,600m 30% 37% -7%
Radio $16,200m 7% 21% -14%
Print $31,600m 13% 18% -5%
Direct mail $45,700m 19%
OOH / POS $7,400m 3%
OFFLINE TOTAL $171,500m 73% 76% -3%
ONLINE TOTAL $64,200m 27% 24% +3%
5.4. Australia and New Zealand: Total online spend ahead
of both India and Singapore in the APAC region
Table 5: Media spend vs. consumer time in channel – Australia and New Zealand
Channel or
platform
Spend
disparity
Television $3,554m 31.2% 34.5% -3.3%
Radio $960m 8.4% 23.8% -15.4%
Print $1,140m 10.0% 5.9% +4.1%
Direct mail $480m 4.2%
OOH / POS $551m 4.8%
OFFLINE TOTAL $6,685m 56.7% 64.2% -6.5%
ONLINE TOTAL $4,715m 43.3% 35.8% +7.5%

5.5. UK: Overinvested in print; broadcast still strong
Table 6: Media spend vs. consumer time in channel – United Kingdom
Channel or
platform
Spending
(000)
% of total Time / role
Spend
disparity
Television £4,911 26% 33% -7%
Radio £575 3% 15% -12%
Print £3,616 19% 3% +16%
Direct mail £1,835 10%
OOH / POS £1,019 5%
OFFLINE TOTAL £11,956 62% 51% +11%
ONLINE TOTAL £7,194 38% 49% -11%
TOTAL SPEND £19,150
5.6. Where budgets are currently allocated
Unquestionably, the overarching trend for media spend globally is skewed towards increased
digital exposure.
Figure 6: What best describes your planned media spend for the following
channels in 2016?
Respondents: 581

TV still dominant
That said, an examination of total spend across online and offline channels in several major
advertising markets shows that TV advertising continues to dominate budget allocation.
Despite any number of indicators determining that the customers’ time spent online is increasing,
TV remains the central pillar of most brands’ advertising strategies. According to research for this
report, 50-60% of executives across markets consistently plan to keep their TV commitments the
same over the next year.
Voice of the marketer
“You have to be cognisant of the life stage of the business, local sensitivities and really understand your audience.
Customer segmentation is key and measurement with consistent benchmarking across your markets is vital.”
Barnaby Dawe, Global CMO, Just Eat
“We are heavily dependent on TV but we have an approach that makes us look where the consumer is going to be
most receptive to our message. They may be watching TV but they’re also texting. The attention to TV has gone.”
Head of Media, EMEA, FMCG
A little over a third plan to increase their TV spend over 2016 in the US, the UK and Asia.
Combining the number of executives who plan to maintain or increase investment, it makes TV
the offline channel least impacted by the growing interest in digital.
“At Facebook, we recently commissioned custom research conducted by Nielsen that showed that boosting TV
campaigns with Facebook video ads drives incremental reach, increases efficiency and improves effectiveness.
According to that research, when TV and Facebook were combined, advertisers saw a 19% increase in targeted
reach versus TV alone. Secondly, when millennials were the target audience, incremental reach increased to
37%.”
Trevor Johnson, Global Agency Development, Facebook
There are minor exceptions. In Asia as a whole, outdoor and in-store point of sale (POS) see a
couple of percentage points more than TV in terms of executives planning to increase investment.
In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), only around a quarter of executives plan to increase
investment in TV. However, the proportion of those planning to decrease investment is on a par
with the rest of the world at 19%.
EMEA (except the UK) and Singapore buck this trend. There is much less interest in
increasing investment in TV (only 8% of executives plan to do so over 2016), but EMEA has the
largest proportion of executives who plan on keeping investment levels the same.
Overall, however, this leaves the region with the largest proportion of executives who plan to
reduce their investment in TV. Only print media, in-store POS and radio are expected to see
greater cuts.
Country-specific markets can see large differences, with more than twice as many executives in
India as in Singapore keen to increase investment in TV. Singapore is also the only territory
singled out by this research where TV can be shown to have been significantly impacted by digital
and is expected to see the third biggest decline in investment, alongside direct mail and radio.

“To a certain extent, there’s still a reliance on certain channels. Traditional TV spend would take up a large
portion of above the line (ABL) and that’s still the case. It’s the furthest reaching medium and it’s still the most
efficient at getting a broadcast message out to as many prospects as possible. We still spend 60% of our budget
on TV. That doesn’t mean there isn’t an appetite to spend more on more efficient channels.”
Jana Mollett, Head of Brand Advertising, NOW TV
Radio, direct mail and print continue to experience declining fortunes, largely
showing the greatest propensity to suffer budget cuts and minimal growth in investment.
There are a couple of notable exceptions. Asia, for example, has a much higher regard for outdoor
than most other markets. The biggest drop in investment is in EMEA, where nearly half of all
executives plan to reduce investment in both printed media and radio.
The digital surge
There is an undeniable trend towards greater investment in digital media worldwide. The amount
varies from territory to territory depending on the digital maturity of the market, but overall the
increase in investment is marked and consistent.
Figure 7: What proportion of your organisation’s media budget was allocated to
digital channels in 2015?
Respondents: 539
The shift has been primarily in the number of executives allocating a higher proportion of media
budget to digital channels, as the 1-10% and 11-20% brackets saw a drop. The growth was
predominantly in the middle of the field, where more executives were allocating between 21% and
60% of their media budget.

“Digital spend is the one that is increasing quarter on quarter. Our spend across video on demand (VOD) and
display increased 100% between our key summer campaign and our Christmas campaign last year. That reflects
an appetite to do more digitally because of scale as well as the targeted reach. Perhaps people are still reliant on
TV, it just depends on the campaign objectives. For us, if we are trying to get broad reach there is no better
channel, but we will always incorporate digital elements.”
Locally, ANZ, the US and Asia are most cautious, with growth being seen largely in the 11-20% to
51-60% brackets, while the UK and EMEA are shifting more towards growth in the 71-80% and
81-90% brackets. These are also the only two regions with significant proportions of executives
(26% in EMEA, 13% in the UK) committing 91-100% of their budgets to digital.
Figure 8: What proportion of your organisation’s media budget will be allocated
to digital channels in 2016?
Respondents: 539
Table 7: Average proportion of media budgets allocated to digital channels
2015 2016
UK 50% 56%
EMEA (excl. UK) 46% 55%
US 36% 40%
Asia 33% 39%
Australia and New Zealand 40% 46%
GLOBAL 38% 43%

Websites and mobile still critical
More than half of the executives surveyed in every region plan to increase spending in at least two
digital entities over 2016, most commonly on websites and mobile channels. EMEA and ANZ
showed no appetite to decrease spend on websites at all, while the proportion of executives
planning to do so in the US was negligible (2%).
“In our shift to digital, we have the largest spend in the country, built up over two to three years in programmatic
and content. We’ve divested ourselves quite heavily of magazines and press, while out of home may have been
dying at one point and yet now there is a resurgence so we’re riding that wave too.”
Nick Adams, Director Marketing Enablement, Telstra
“Everyone knows that people have moved to mobile and are consuming more video than ever before. Those stats
have been presented at every trade show for the past two years. Marketers are also starting to understand that
their audiences are using both mobile and traditional media – like TV – together more than ever before. This
means structuring campaign strategies to meet people on both screens.”
Mobile and/or apps showed a little more volatility, with up to 9% of executives planning to
decrease their investment in the channel. This is countered overall, however, by the large
volumes of executives in different markets expecting to increase spend (51%-62%) in
the mobile channel.
Email continues to perform strongly overall, but varies in value to executives.
Around a third to just under a half indicated they would increase spend, but overall no less than
90% of executives stated they were at least maintaining the status quo or increasing their
commitment over 2016.
“We have an in-house Digital Services team which gives us greater agility in the digital space. One reflection of
this is that we have moved rapidly into ‘always on’ content and have invested in our social media effectiveness,
which was recently endorsed by a Harvard Business Review that named us as the most empathetic brand on
Twitter globally.”
Mark Evans, Marketing Director, Direct Line
“We also know that people respond better to native. On Facebook’s Audience Network alone, which is 83%
native, we see native ads perform seven times better compared with banners. These are the places and formats
that audiences are adopting. I think marketers understand that, which is why we are starting to see dollars shift.
I think you will continue to see marketers explore how to combine mobile, native and video to drive the most
value for their businesses and audiences.”
Paid social is gaining traction as advertisers see the value in native, programmatic and
content marketing.
However, compared with the UK, which has the strongest showing in terms of executives
planning to increase their spend (66%), paid social has the least support in APAC. The results are
somewhat contradictory, with 58% of ANZ executives planning to increase spending but 15%
planning to reduce it. Similarly, only 41% plan on increasing spend in Asia while 11% plan to
decrease it, rising to 13% of executives in India where only 37% plan to increase spend.
Social media is becoming a headline trend in digital marketing and is blurring the boundaries
between paid, owned and earned media. The platform is still changing rapidly and brands are
continually adjusting strategies in the channel to figure out how best to engage the consumer. As

messaging becomes an important part of the social advertising mix over 2016, we can expect the
complexity of paid social to grow.
“We’ve piloted a number of new techniques with Facebook, putting our toe in the water. Some have worked well
and we’ve rolled in other markets where it’s not been so successful. It’s a lot of test and learn whilst we ensure we
stay focused on our core campaign objectives.”
Deborah Goldingham, Head of Marketing SE Asia, MasterCard
Search and display will continue to see increased spending, with around half of
executives in most territories planning to increase spend in this area. Only Asia and the US saw
lesser commitment when it comes to SEO, with 32% (US) and 42% (Asia) of executives planning
to increase spend in this area.
5.7. How budgets are currently allocated
Executives have clearly been taking the lessons about measuring and metrics on board, as survey
results show that, in one way or another, digital media spend is almost always based on some
form of evidence-based reporting. This is not to say that the evidence is accurate, however.
“Measuring the true business value of advertising happens when you can prove, unequivocally, that an ad played
a role in driving a business outcome. That can only happen when ads reach real people and marketers are able to
properly measure them. Unfortunately, marketers aren’t having an easy time getting to that point. There are two
main reasons why:
 Over-reliance on proxies: While clicks and CPMs may be the currency of the last decade, they are only
proxies of value and business outcomes. People-based measurement is the crucial foundation for helping
marketers accurately understand the role their ads played in the path to purchase.
 Rapid shift to mobile: The technology that supports current measurement systems (cookies to track
exposure and tie to behaviour, and clicks as a proxy for sales) is not sufficient in a world where people use
multiple devices throughout the day and the majority of purchases still happen in a physical store. People are
consuming more media than ever across multiple devices and it is impacting the ability of marketers to target
and measure their advertising effectively.”
The majority of those allocating digital media spend are basing their decisions on
incremental change from the previous budget depending on performance. While
seeking to improve on past activity is certainly a route to improving overall performance, there is
no guarantee previous campaigns have been based on solid insights themselves.
“One of the challenges is that we have to break the TV-centric mindset and think more agnostically and plan with
neutrality.”
Nick Adams, Director Marketing Enablement, Telstra

Figure 9: Which factors best describe your organisation’s approach to allocating
digital media spend?
Respondents: 531
Figure 10: Which factors best describe your organisation’s approach to allocating
offline media spend?
Respondents: 531

Offline media spend is still largely dependent on campaign-specific objectives. Goal-oriented
metrics are important as they help the business make sure it stays on track to deliver projected
growth. However, even in the offline environment, in-depth measurement is increasingly possible
and companies should be making sure that campaigns don’t just deliver on
objectives, but do so efficiently.
Only 31% of executives surveyed globally stated that they based their digital media spend
decisions on customers’ time spent in channel, with an even smaller proportion basing their
decisions on ROI reports from attribution modelling. In the offline sector, these numbers
decreased yet further to 25% and 20%, respectively.
This should frustrate executives who clearly have the information at hand. In the survey, a third
of respondents said they had a good idea of where the customer spent their time
and a further 49% stated that they were able to measure to a degree but not across
the board. More executives than the average from the UK, EMEA, the US and ANZ agreed with
this latter point, with Asian executives having the most confidence in their ability to monitor
customer time spent. The UK was the least confident about measuring customer time
spent, with a quarter of executives stating that they couldn’t do so.
Figure 11: Is your organisation able to measure the time spent on channels where
media is purchased?
Respondents: 487
EMEA (including the UK) performs particularly poorly when matching consumer time spent in
channel with media budget allocation while Asia is the polar opposite. Time spent in channel
is a vital metric for Asian digital media spend (52% of executives agree) and only slightly
less important for offline media spend (38%).

5.8. Where does the pressure come from?
Research for this report suggests that politics can still play as much of a role in media
budget allocation as hard facts (see Figure 9 and Figure 10). While at the bottom of the pile
overall as a deciding factor for media spend, the option of ‘whoever puts forward the best business
case gets the budget’ accounted for a fifth of executives.
“Pressure comes from all areas of the business. Like any company, there are only finite resources, and I need to
justify my budgets continually, otherwise it will be allocated elsewhere.”
Matt Taylor, CMO, HelloFresh Australia
Responses for this category tended to be marginally higher in the offline media spend category
and remained consistently at around the 20% mark, indexing slightly higher for the APAC region
(max 27%). There is clearly scope for more rigour in measurement, reporting and campaign
analysis.
“Any budget pressure comes from the CMO and Board. Traditional marketing channels have a defined ROI
process but new initiatives quite often don’t. To manage this we have an agreed percentage that is ring-fenced for
Fast Fail testing and no ROI is measured until we see success and can scale.”
James Woodbridge, CMO, Antares Restaurant Group (Burger King NZ)
Figure 12: Who is ultimately responsible for allocating and approving spend
across the media mix?
Respondents: 519

In the vast majority of cases, media budget responsibility including allocating and
approving spend, comes down to either the CMO or head of marketing and is an
internally assessed and established strategy – with one notable exception. As is perhaps to be
expected of a developing nation only just beginning to build its own marketing culture, India is
vastly more reliant on media agencies to allocate media spend across the channel
mix (38% compared to Asian average of 29% and global average of 13%).
“There isn’t a great deal of pressure on spend as long as the ROI is good. If there is a $1m budget but $1.5m is
spent and the profit is good, then that’s okay. Generally, our key metric is new customers. As long as that cost
isn’t too high then we’re good.”
Jean Thomas, CMO, Vinomofo
Singapore, on the other hand, favours handing this responsibility to the head of marketing (38%),
but survey respondents noted that media buyers also play a strong role (29%), stronger even than
for India (20%), although their reliance on media agencies in the region is lower than the global
average, at 10%.
Agency experience is particularly valuable for local brands who, while enjoying scale at a national
level, have not been lucky enough to be influenced by group members or partners from more
mature markets. Many agencies, even national ones, tend to be part of global networks and
benefit from colleagues’ experience.
“All agencies working together is where the knowledge comes from. We have created a best practice objective and
a knowledge transfer where we’re literally hard coding that knowledge into the scope of work and we as the client
are aligned when allocating media spend.”
“The ecosystem is still fragmented. Some advertisers are much more advanced than others. Some are taking
programmatic in-house and others are outsourcing everything. It varies widely, even between Northern and
Southern Europe for example.”
Alessandra di Lorenzo, Chief Advertising Officer, lastminute.com
5.9. Roadblocks to increasing digital spend
It is clear that executives are increasing spend in digital. However, while the trend is definitively
upwards across all regions there are few large movements. The majority of projected changes are
in the order of one, two or three percentage points. In such a rapidly changing environment and
with a philosophical acceptance of the effectiveness of digital in every industry sector, why is
adoption not increasing more rapidly and penetration deeper?
Sheer proliferation and interdependency of channels is making the media landscape hard to
navigate. It requires a new way of working internally at client brands and also between clients and
agency partners. Often, it brings in other departments within the brand that previously had no
involvement in marketing.
It is unsurprising that an inability to understand or measure channel performance,
legacy systems and siloed departmental structures are the top three challenges
executives face (Figure 13). The high proportion of executives citing legacy systems and siloed
departments is particular to the Asian market (47% and 45%), with ANZ suffering from silos more
than most (50%) while lack of resources to manage the data-driven elements of
marketing is strongly impacting the UK (54%) and EMEA (48%).

The scale of the challenge of advertising via the immense and rapidly evolving digital landscape is
not concerning executives as much as questions over data and organisational structure. Around a
quarter of executives are concerned by the scale of the digital landscape to some extent, but for
most, it is near the bottom of the priority list. Understanding data, managing technologies and
integrating departments will be key to accelerating digital advertising volumes.
Figure 13: Which three factors prevent your organisation from spending more on
digital channels?
Respondents: 522

6. Customer Behaviour vs. Media Mix
Section 4 examined the macro and organisational pressures impacting marketers’ budget
allocation across online and offline media. Section 5 includes an up-to-date snapshot of the media
landscape as marketers understand it and examines if attitudes towards media are
matching the reality.
6.1. Where do marketers believe customers are spending
their time?
“It’s important for us to understand consumers’ media consumption, so that we can be in the right place at the
most relevant time. This is particularly pertinent within insurance; given that it has an annual purchase cycle.
Working closely with our agency partners ensures that we are on the front foot and as a result, we have seen
improved media efficiency in recent years that more than offsets media market inflation.”
In a question covering both online and offline media consumption worldwide, marketers felt that
customers spend the majority of their media time in the web channel – 45% stated this was their
first choice. Only 12% of marketers believe customers spend the majority of their time in the TV
channel.
Radio performed poorly in every locality, scoring 3% in ANZ and single digits in the cumulative
score of top three preferences for customer dwell time elsewhere. Printed media performed
strongly (25%) relative to other offline channels and even some digital, particularly in view of the
little investment (and growing cuts) it currently receives from marketers.
Direct mail and display also perform poorly, proving to be online and offline equivalents, as
programmatic risks reducing display to spam and a history of poor targeting sends direct mail on
a direct route from letterbox to recycling box.

Figure 14: Please rank the following channels in order of the amount of time
customers spend on the channel.
Respondents: 493
6.1.1. A mobile mystery
Only 7% of marketers worldwide believe customers spend most of their time on
mobile. This runs contrary to the accepted wisdom that mobile is dominating customer
attention. Why are marketers giving such low credence to the mobile channel?
Cumulatively (in an aggregation of executives who cited mobile as either the first, second or third
choice of channel where customers would spend most of their time), 27% of executives agreed
customers spent most time on mobile, but this still seems low particularly in view of the column
inches devoted to mobile marketing.
In the US, 56% of marketers cited the web as their first choice for where customers
were spending their media time, again with surprisingly few putting mobile at the top of
their lists. Overall, 29% of American executives believed that mobile was one of the top three
media destinations for customers, placing it fourth overall behind print media (32%) and email
(39%), with web far outstripping other channels at a total of 75% of executives making it their
first, second or third choice for customer time spent in channel.
In the UK, the situation is even more inexplicable, with only 2% giving the mobile channel the top
spot and overall only 12% ranking it as anywhere within the top three choices for customers. Paid

search and email far exceed mobile for customer time spent as anticipated by marketers, at 37%
and 47% respectively. Cumulatively however, UK executives believe customers spend less time
overall in the web channel than US marketers, at 59%.
The story is similarly low for EMEA, where no respondents hold mobile as the first choice for
customer time spent and web again dominating at 80%. Email continues to show its
strength as customers’ secondary channel of importance, with 5% of executives stating it
is their first choice for majority of customer time spent.
The mobile picture improves in Australia and New Zealand, still dominated by
executives giving top billing to customer dwell time on websites (36% as a first choice, 27% as a
second and 12% as a third). Mobile overall is given top-three customer dwell time scores by 24%
of executives, only three percentage points behind TV, but trailing email by 28 percentage points.
In fact, Asia is leading the field when it comes to recognising the growing influence of
customer dwell time in the mobile channel. While still a low proportion (10%) cited mobile
as the channel customers spend most time in, overall 32% of executives ranked it in the top three
and in this case only marginally behind email (35%), TV (36%) and then web occupying its
customary top spot (55%).
This makes it clear why China in particular is leading the charge when it comes to moving
marketing into the purely mobile channel through messaging and the market-dominating
WeChat. While it is often lambasted for being behind the curve in adopting maturing digital
strategies, Asia is leading the way in the key future battleground of mobile.
“The majority of customers in most markets are coming to us from mobile, either mobile web or app but
proportionately, mobile marketing is much smaller and further down the conversion funnel. However we are
increasing spend in all markets across mobile, primarily in Facebook which is a great app download platform for
us. You have to navigate the complexities of mobile in that it offers both a platform and a channel.”
“Mobile is fantastic because it gives you the mobility information from customers plus location-based activities.
It fits into a broader scope multi-channel campaign that can then itself be the backbone of a wider TV campaign.
It’s not about either/or. It’s about being complementary.”
Alessandra di Lorenzo, Chief Advertising Officer, lastminute.com

6.2. What are marketers’ budget priorities?
As seen in Section 5.1, it is clear that marketers believe the web remains the channel
where most customers reside. Email, TV, paid search and paid social are also expected to
harbour large audiences. More old-style channels, including display, outdoor, direct mail and
radio, have fallen far out of favour.
We should expect marketers’ budget allocation preferences to match their assumptions about
customer dwell time.
“We relied on search to do most of the digital marketing but SEO is very reactive. It’s great when the intent to
convert is much stronger but you have to go out and reach users too. One of our metrics is new visits to the site.
Facebook is very important for learning about new users but we also have TV and brand promotions. It’s very
important to market holistically.”
Will Lin, VP Digital Media, HomeAway US
“No-one gets fired for buying TV? That’s about to change. If you are just moving wallpaper, you won’t sell
product. There’s a role for digital and TV to work together but when budgets become really stretched, suddenly
there is an ‘aha!’ moment and you start to interrogate every other medium with more attention than anyone ever
did with TV.”
In the self-reported findings of the survey, by and large these do match up; however, it is possible
to see from the global study that marketers continue to overspend in channels that the
executives themselves note are declining in customer popularity.
When seeking customers, it is possible that marketers have lost sight somewhat of where they
should be focusing their energies, according to James Woodbridge, CMO of Antares Restaurant
Group (Burger King NZ):
“Common sense seems stupid to say, but in many big corporates having plenty of budget
to research to the nth degree is inefficient and quite often common sense is just as good.
It’s just unfortunate that common sense is not so common these days. Be pragmatic.”

Figure 15: Please rank the following channels in order of proportion of media
budget allocated (from most budget to least budget).
Respondents: 506
According to the global survey, executives are:
Underspending in: Matching time spent with
budget for:
Overspending in:
 Website – 66% (top choice for
customer dwell time) vs. 56%
(top choice for budget
allocation)
 Paid search – 23% vs. 26%
 Printed media – 25% vs. 31%
 Email – 39% vs. 32%
 Mobile / app – 27% vs. 21%
 Paid social – 19% vs. 14%
 In-store POS – 8% vs. 8%  TV – 25% vs. 33%
 Display – 14% vs. 20%
 Direct mail – 12% vs. 14%
 Radio – 5% vs. 7%
 Outdoor – 6% vs. 7%
 SEO (organic search) – 13%
vs. 14%

“TV networks have been slow to respond to the shift in consumer behaviour change driven by technology.
Unfortunately, we still need to be on TV but we are paying too much for it. TV is a great example of diminishing
returns for advertisers.”
6.2.1. Web is underrated and display is overrated in EMEA
Investment in website media is 40% less than what executives themselves estimate customers
give their attention to in EMEA (57% vs 80%). However, investment in display is dramatically
overrepresented. Only 5% of executives in the region believe that customers spend the majority of
their time (and even then it is the second choice for all respondents) on display and yet,
cumulatively, it’s in the top three choices for 38% of executives to devote media budget to the
channel.
Almost across the board, ANZ executives are devoting disproportionate amounts of media spend
to channels where they themselves consider customers are not devoting the majority of their time.
6.2.2. UK and US more accurate in matching assumed customer
dwell time with budget allocation
As a rule, budget allocation in the UK is a few percentage points lower than the numbers
marketers suggest are spending the majority of their time in each channel. But there is nowhere
near the same discrepancy as seen in the ANZ region. Overall, executives seem to be pitching
spend ten percentage points lower than their estimated customer volumes.
The US paints a similar picture, although executives ascribe more than double the importance to
printed media (11% make it their first spend choice, compared to 5% feeling it is the number one
media channel for consumers).
6.2.3. ANZ finding it hard to let go of tradition
Unlike the nations above, where spend does not meet the estimated customer dwell time in the
majority of cases, ANZ tends to overcompensate across channels, particularly in offline media.
Offline, elements such as display are higher up the preference scale (executives’ first choice for
investment against customers’ third choice for media dwell), if not exceeding the spend versus
volume of customers’ ratio overall.
Outdoor bucks the trend for tradition, with only 3% of executives placing it in their third choice
for spend (the highest rank it achieves), compared with the same proportion believing it’s a
second choice for customer dwell time and a further 6% stating it is a third choice.
6.2.4. Mobile spend to catch up with attention in Asia
Despite being the most advanced region in terms of acknowledging customer mobile channel use,
marketers’ spend still has to match up. However, the discrepancies between budget allocation and
presumed customer time spent is minor across all channels, again with the tendency to
underspend relative to time spent.

“[In Australia] TV is a blunt instrument used for air cover that drives search. Radio is good for awareness in
markets where we have bigger budgets but we always try to get a value add, such as promotions and content in
Australia. However, the UK is heavily regulated and as a responsive tool is hard to measure. It’s a tricky one to
get right.”
“In the US we saw uplift in SEO, PPC and direct referral when we ran TV nationally rather than targeted via
demographic.”
“None of us is getting mobile 100% right. Consumption is far higher than the amount we spend in every single
one of our markets. However, there comes that point when the customer is looking at Facebook on a tiny screen
without the sound up and you have to ask – are they getting an experience on mobile or not?”
6.3. The time gap
From the above assessments, it is easy to understand the importance of integrating customer
dwell time per channel into budget allocation calculations. It is only one of many contributing
factors and should not be used in isolation. It cannot be denied, however, that understanding
where customers spend their time, either online or offline, is vital to landing media campaigns.
Figure 16: Which of the following best describes how time spent data is used in
your organisation?
Respondents: 486
It should be of some concern to advertisers to learn that the majority of UK advertisers (51%) do
not use the data around the time customers spend on media channels. Of those that do, a third
state that it is one of the variables informing future media spend. The picture darkens further for
the rest of EMEA, where 53% of marketers do not count time spent data at all (accounting for the

large anomalies in Section 5.2.1 above, perhaps) and only 18% incorporate it in their suite of
variables.
In ANZ however, 48% stated time spent was the key variable in determining future spend,
although this result is somewhat contradictory considering only 3% of respondents suggested that
they actively monitored time spent online to adjust spend mid-campaign (see agility above,
Section 5.5). This was an overarching trend across all regions, except Asia, where 14% of
executives actively monitored customer media consumption.
This is not a uniform APAC behaviour however, as a substantial proportion of executives in India
(27%) don’t use time spent data at all, compared with 7% of executives in Singapore who admitted
this was also the case. Overall, companies in India relied less on customer time spent data than
those in Singapore. However, both nations roughly reflected the area as a whole on other counts.
This compares unfavourably to the global trend, where only 25% of executives overall stated that
they didn’t use time spent data to inform campaigns and furthermore, that nearly a third (31%)
stated it was a key variable for future media spend.
The US, in comparison, had a lower-than-average proportion of executives dismissing time spent
as a variable and 47% stated it was one of their contributing factors.
6.3.1. Sourcing the data
Again, reflecting on the difference between the relative maturity of the markets contributing to
this report, more established digital markets such as the UK, EMEA and the US all showed
majorities for sourcing customer dwell data from in-house tools. This ensures accuracy and
maintains data security across reporting.
Figure 17: Where do you get the data around the time spent on your media
channels?
Respondents: 486

Of secondary importance were third-party data providers and agencies normally came third –
except in the case of ANZ and Asia as a whole, where around half of executives (15+ percentage
points more than Western nations) relied upon data provided by agencies. Within the Asian
region, India was most dependent on agency help, as per Section 4. Neither Singapore nor India
felt confident relying on in-house measurements (32% and 20%, respectively), with the majority
of Singaporean executives seeking assistance from third parties (68%).
6.4. Balancing spend across the mix
As a result of the findings above, it is unsurprising that, globally, the majority of executives
(42%) feel that they are very much average when it comes to finding the ideal offline
budget balance, stating that they are ‘neither balanced nor imbalanced’. Nearly a quarter (24%)
would go as far as to say they are ‘quite balanced’. However, only a tenth consider their budget
strategy to be ‘very balanced’.
In terms of managing the digital mix (Figure 19), however, global confidence is high, with 33%
stating they feel it is ‘quite balanced’ and a further 39% feeling their approach is average.
Figure 18: How balanced is your offline media mix/spend?
Respondents: 490
The US, which by and large had managed to match its spending patterns to customer time spent,
also considers its offline mix to be average, while it is more confident regarding its online mix
(36% consider their strategy to be ‘quite balanced’ compared to 24% for offline).
“Singapore has a huge opportunity in cinema and mobile. Getting any messages across there is very much
dependent on print. Whereas with the Philippines it still needs out of home and broadsheet which is ironic when
you consider the high penetration of social there. It’s a real challenge and when we’re building our media strategy
in the region, we have to be very focused on the consumer audiences.”

The UK is more pessimistic about its ability to achieve an offline spend balance, despite its similar
spend/time patterns to the US. Its confidence in digital spend, however, matches its North
American cousins.
Executives in EMEA claim to be similarly unbalanced to the UK in terms of offline, but
surprisingly given the discrepancy between spend and time spent online in both
web and display described above, 30% of EMEA executives consider their digital mix
to be well balanced.
Considering its attachment to traditional ad spend, it is perhaps unsurprising that executives in
Australia and New Zealand feel their approach to the offline mix is ‘quite balanced’ (36%) and are
less confident in the digital mix (33%). However, the dominant sentiment across all regions from
around half of all executives surveyed is that their budget strategy is ‘neither balanced nor
imbalanced’.
Figure 19: How balanced is your digital media mix/spend?
Respondents: 492
“Overall we’re moving more towards digital. We heavily invested in digital last year and this year we’re looking at
getting more of a balance between digital, out of home and print.”
“It’s so important to think in an ‘always on’ approach to customers. Particularly in FMCG there are people in the
audience who are enormously tech savvy and many who are completely not. You need to be able to talk to all of
them.”

6.5. Is there flexibility?
“While it can be tempting to jump on every new media opportunity that comes along, we must start with what
best delivers our business objectives. However, there is also a risk of getting left behind, so we experiment
regularly, but sensibly. Specifically, we carve out a reasonable proportion of our budget for media channel
agnostic ‘test and learn’.”
Many executives interviewed for this report noted that there was certainly a portion of their
budgets set aside for ‘test and learn’. A handful of those also identified that a tranche of the
remaining budget was established with flexibility to respond to market trends. Unsurprisingly it
would appear that brands inhabiting entrepreneurial or technology spaces tended to be more
responsive than blue chip organisations.
“Our rule has always been to spend it where it is most cost effective. Roughly we attributed 80% to our ongoing
efforts and put 20% into testing. When we find something that does well, it becomes part of the ongoing budget
and something else gets kicked out. The customer changes a lot and we have to follow.”
In the executive survey globally, companies were cautiously optimistic about the relative
agility of their media budgets (Figure 20). Nearly half stated they were ‘quite agile’ (48%),
while a little under a fifth claimed to be ‘very agile’ (18%). Around a third (28%) were pessimistic
about their ability to flex budgets while a relatively small number (6%) claimed to be rigid on
spend.
“More and more we are trying to set aside budget or looking for efficiencies where we can be more reactive. For
example, in digital or radio we can buy late in the day and certain channels like programmatic display can be
switched on and off quickly. Certain technology such as Sky Ad smart do let television advertisers be more
reactive. This could be changing the way TV is bought.”

Figure 20: In a typical campaign, how agile is your organisation with the media
budget?
Respondents: 519
In local markets, EMEA comes top for budget flexibility, with a trend-busting 44% of
executives claiming to have a ‘very agile’ response to media spend and a further 28% claiming to
be ‘quite agile’. Asia is the most agile territory overall; however, most of its executives
(52%) only consider themselves ‘quite agile’.
“We have established a digital engine that fuels 50% of our campaigns across the region. It’s very much rooted in
digital and social media. Based on what is happening and trending we adapt our media bias to those needs: 80%
is baked in, 20% is adjusted.”
India is particularly bullish, with 37% of its executives claiming to be ‘very agile’, compared with
Singapore’s 10%. This trend is reversed in the ‘quite agile’ section, however, with 65% of
executives in Singapore compared with 46% in India.
The UK matches the overall trend most closely, while ANZ and the US are most cautious
about their budget flexibility, as the proportion of executives stating they are ‘very agile’ with
media spend is in single figures.
“We track our budget every day and from that we forecast so there are no real surprises. The dashboard will tell
us if our forecast is on track and then we can have a quick meeting to see how to improve on it. If you have
technology, then flexibility can be normal. Big businesses have too many chiefs with so many layers of
management. Digital is not that hard, it’s the complicated structure that makes it difficult.”

There is certainly room for improvement in advertisers’ flexibility and responsiveness,
particularly in view of the low numbers of executives using customer time spent data to adapt
campaigns in-train (see Section 5.3). As Hello Fresh’s Matt Taylor advises:
“All our campaigns are measured every single day, and as soon as something begins to
stop performing it is gone. We can’t afford to take the view of, ‘oh we’ve done it before, I
guess we’ll just keep going as is’ in such a dynamic business.”
6.5.1. Test and learn
The ability to adapt whole campaigns, both online and offline, while the campaigns are active, still
proves difficult for many. Traditional channels continue to be run on long lead times with
concrete commitments. For some, this is restrictive and they are diverting spend to channels that
give them the freedom to experiment. For others, such rigidity saves them from jumping on every
unnecessary bandwagon.
Figure 21: To what extent does your media budget allow you to test and learn?
Respondents: 519
Most executives, regardless of sector, have managed to carve out at least some space
in their media plan for a test and learn allocation. Globally, a third of executives
identified that an allocation had been set aside for experimentation, regardless of channel. A
further quarter (28%) noted that there was no such entrenched budget partition, but if a business
case could be made for it, then extra funds could be found. Almost as many executives had parsed
out budget per channel for test and learn activity (25%), while only 13% admitted that there was
currently no scope for testing in the media budget.

“We are encouraged to be innovative and to test and learn. The budget model we operate on is a 70-20-10 split.
70% of digital is allocated to the baseline of tried and tested strategy, then 20% is testing new partners or new
technologies. Finally, 10% is for innovation and doing something quite different.”
This remains the picture by and large across most regions, with only the UK and US showing a
minimal increase in companies with no testing allocation (19% and 17%, respectively). Within
Asia however, Singapore – surprisingly perhaps for a nation that has shown itself otherwise to be
with or ahead of the curve in technology-led or inspired media trends – also has one of the
highest proportions of executives with no testing budget (15%).
6.6. Dialling up or down
There are clear gaps between executives’ assumptions about where customers spend their time
online and offline and the budget allocated to each of these channels. Before examining these
gaps, however, it is pertinent to look at which three channels executives (based on experience,
evidence or perhaps gut feel) would increase or decrease their media spend on. Results suggest
that, despite some anomalous behaviours noted above, there is at least a general understanding of
where future trends are leading.
Figure 22: For which three channels would you increase your media spend?
Respondents: 489
Globally, most executives would increase spend on websites (53%), followed closely
by mobile (40%) and email (32%). Radio (4%) and outdoor (5%), unsurprisingly perhaps,
receive the least attention.

Figure 23: For which three channels would you decrease your media spend?
Respondents: 489
Conversely, printed media is the first for the axe, with nearly a third (32%) of executives making it
their first choice for budget cuts, followed by direct mail and radio. Outdoor finds itself in the
middle of the field, despite receiving little support in terms of either customer spend time or
media allocation (see Section 5.2).
ANZ executives’ choice for increasing or decreasing spend continues to demonstrate the
traditionalism shown in Section 5.2. While they would agree to increasing their commitment to
the top three digital channels identified by most executives as important (website at 52%;
mobile/app at 33% and paid search at 30%), ANZ executives also highlight email as the
top candidate for a reduction in spending (39%).
TV’s reputation for wastefulness hits home in the EMEA region, where 45% of executives would
reduce spend in the channel. The same proportion would like to cut the radio budget, while
printed media (40%) and direct mail (30%) also come under scrutiny.
Perhaps still seen as sacrosanct (given the vast sums spent on the Super Bowl, starting at $5m for
30 seconds) in the US, TV is only in the middle of the table for reduced spending, while printed
media is at the top of the list for cuts. Websites continue to enjoy the lion’s share of the budget
increases in North America.
Print continues to suffer in the UK, while broadcast media and digital are less likely to suffer
reduced investment. The nation goes against the tide only in terms of executives’ desire to
increase investment in SEO (organic search).
Asia defies expectation, with 37% of executives suggesting that they would increase
spend in TV, third only to mobile and website. Paradoxically, a further third would also
reduce investment in TV, the top choice for making budget savings. Once again however, the
region is not homogenous and executives in Singapore are more reluctant to cut TV budget than

radio, direct mail or paid search, while it is the top choice for executives in India, on a par with
email. Radio is the most consistent channel to suffer restrictions across the board.
“We have a global performance team that drives best practice through all our markets from acquisition to
retention. There is a lot of predictability which helps markets understand trends so they can make more sense of
the media mix.”

7. Campaign and Mix Optimisation
Measurement is frequently a sticking point for organisations looking to maximise their media
spend. Philosophies around how and what to measure always seem to be changing; agencies and
vendors create proprietary metrics that lack equivalence across the industry. The landscape and
consumer behaviours are changing so fast that the option to measure is one a time-poor
marketing department doesn’t always have.
“Just because they’ve been blinded by science, the average marketing manager thinks digital is complicated.
Everyone understands return on investment. The first thing people want to know is: is this going to deliver? All
media is the same. How much reach is there? Will it engage my audience? You have to drill into it to make sure
the metrics aren’t smoke and mirrors as well as monitoring fraud but in the end it’s down to good, old ROI.”
7.1. Ideal optimisation capabilities
Learning from and improving on past campaign performance is often the starting point for most
organisations’ optimisation journey. As a result, most respondents rated ‘optimising
campaign budget based on historical performance data’ either a ‘critical’ or ‘very
important’ capability to have (74%), as seen in Figure 24.
“Marketing has always been a merge of creativity and science. Understanding consumer behaviour with strong
analytics and connecting the dots with engaging creative to reflect and inspire their needs. Nothing is
untouchable these days and although historical patterns give us some comfort in making decisions, it is not going
to help you when predicting where your brand needs to be in two years’ time. We use a Fast Fail & Scale process
with new ideas. We are robustly testing several new ideas, learning fast and scaling what works.”
Cross-device behaviour was also identified as an important piece of the puzzle in optimising
campaign spend, with executives rating it only marginally lower than historical data. That said,
actually delivering device-specific campaigns came in lower still at 64% of executives. This is still
a large volume of marketers focusing on device-specific campaigns. However, it also shows that it
is more important to understand how consumers are interacting rather than creating specifically
for devices themselves.
“It’s all very well to bring in automation, but you’ve got to know what you’re automating. We’re not running at
speed on everyday basics. Singapore, for example, does a lot of learning, but how do you transfer those skills
across the organisation. The technology is in every market but how do you scale the skill?”

Figure 24: How important are your organisation’s capabilities in the following
areas to business success?
Respondents: 523
Programmatic buying was the only option to be cited by less than half of those surveyed.
Marketers realise its importance, particularly in the efficiencies automated buying can deliver.
That said, it is at a stage in its maturity where challenges are becoming more apparent –
viewability, ad fraud, brand safety – and may explain executives’ lower enthusiasm.
With interesting candour, one experienced former global marketing procurement director notes:
“Investing in media, we have made decisions now with zero backing them up. Why did
we go into the internet? Because everyone else is. There’s not enough talent at the
moment to support the understanding of all the activity in the digital space. Mobile and
tablet advertising is going to be enormous and we’ve been saying this for five years. But
the number of people who really know about it is small and we all want a piece of
them.”
“The programmatic side is driving me nuts. Agencies are so opaque, it feels really cloak and dagger.”
Despite noting that delivering campaigns with device-specific media was not as vital as
optimisation or understanding cross-device behaviour, it is currently the best-executed capability,
with 66% of executives claiming their organisation was either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ at it (Figure 25).

Figure 25: How would you rate your organisation’s capabilities in the following
areas?
Respondents: 487
While 52% of executives stated that they were either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ at identifying customer
engagement across devices and even more were ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ at measuring that activity
(54%), only half were confident about tracking the purchase path across devices.
Double the proportion of executives felt that their organisation was poor at tracking (20%) than
were poor at delivering campaigns (10%). It would seem that delivering campaigns is not an
issue but measuring their effectiveness might be.
From a local perspective, the US and Asia as a whole matched the global trend of being slightly
more confident than average that their organisation had identified the critical optimisation tasks
and was capable of executing them.
“Most of the US strategy is also fairly global so we have centralised the teams. There are regional differences and
customs but in general our overarching strategy is similar across regions. Even though we call this digital
marketing, it’s actually performance marketing. Everything we do, even from a brand standpoint, is looking for
ROI and performance.”
UK and EMEA, on the other hand, were very pessimistic about their ability to deliver on these
tasks, with only a third to a half of executives confident about delivering campaigns. In every
other task, less than a quarter felt capable, while as many as 40% of executives in EMEA alone
stated they were poor at both tracking and measurement.
ANZ was not bullish about its capabilities as a whole. Those executives stating their capabilities as
‘excellent’ were in the low teens. However, over half of those surveyed felt they were at least
‘good’, with programmatic buying coming out as their top skill.

Econsultancy Global Media Budgets Index

Econsultancy Global Media Budgets Index

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