A new study by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Circus Street has highlighted concerns among multinational marketers that they won’t be able to recruit the experts they need in the years to come.
Artificial Intelligence was cited as the main area of concern by 73% of respondents, who predict a serious gap in company knowledge and capability in the future.
Other areas of concern included their ability to develop in-house resource which can trade media programmatically (62%) and having the skills to manage the Internet of Things (52%). Data privacy and AR/VR were also highlighted as skills where companies had concerns about their ability to recruit.
The study, based on responses from 22 multinationals in WFA membership with more than $25 billion in annual global marketing spend, also highlights areas where marketers recognise that their current performance is not as good as it should be, with the biggest gaps between priority and performance occurring in digital integration and e-commerce.
82% said digital integration was one of the highest areas of priority – ranking 4.4 out of 5 overall, where 5 is a top priority – but 41% said performance ranked in the lowest category (1 or 2).
For e-commerce, there was a gap of one point, while participants also mentioned relevant gaps in marketing innovation and turning data into strategic insights.
By contrast, 91% of respondents ranked brand position as a high priority but no one listed it as an area of low performance.
When the WFA last conducted research in this area in 2014, marketers named e-commerce, CRM and Shopper/POS marketing as key gaps in delivery. Digital integration was only fourth.
“The pace of change within our industry is steadily accelerating, and it’s clear that digital transformation is not a one-time thing, but rather requires that we build organisations that can continue to roll with the punches,” said Richard Townsend, CEO at Circus Street.
“Successful businesses will be the ones that can provide their entire workforce with the skills they need to operate in the digital world, from the mailroom all the way to the boardroom, and this is something that will need to continue long after initial ‘digital transformation’ objectives have been achieved. It’s therefore critical that CMOs consider the most scalable and accessible approaches to improving digital capability.”
