digital iq index 2014

How prepared are Brand, Agency and Media organisations to meet digital marketing challenges?

What are the differences between Brand, Agency and Media organisations in terms of digital marketing preparedness?

How do Brand, Agency and Media organisations stack up in terms of Online Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing and Data & Analytics expertise?

1 DIGITAL IQ INDEX™ 2014

Executive Summary:Despite a growing shift of resources and budget to the development of digital marketing strategy, platforms and channels, the actual skill levels to effectively manage and execute digital marketing programs are absent outside of digital teams.

Consequently, investments in this area are failing to return optimum ROI. Traditional reliance on the part of brand marketers on external parties to bridge this gap isn’t proving effective — because these external stakeholders are just as unprepared as the brands. There is a positive lift in skills relating to Owned Media, but this growth in skills is still overshadowed by a large majority who are not proficient in this area. Finally, there are large gaps in both the pioneer discipline of Online Advertising (indicating that this discipline is constantly re-inventing itself) and in the relative newcomer Data & Analytics, which requires an entirely new skill set based on data manipulation and analysis.

Four major insights were uncovered by the 2014 Digital IQ Index™

THE SKILLS PARITY OF BRAND, AGENCY AND MEDIAThere is virtually no daylight between brands, agencies and media in terms of skill levels. All three sectors are effectively unprepared to manage and execute digital marketing campaigns. If agencies are unable to provide more value in this area, brands will have no option but to develop internal expertise quickly to remain competitive and will force a re-examination of the brand-agency-media relationship.

DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE STILL RESIDES IN SPECIALIST TEAMSThere is a significant gap of knowledge between general sales & marketing teams and digital specialists. Individuals who scored well were generally from digital teams, and that knowledge wasn’t distributed outside of those teams. Digital knowledge still resides in a very small percentage of media, brand and agency staff, at the same time that digital is becoming a central focus of marketing. As digital becomes more complex, there is a danger that the gap between the digital have’s and have-not’s will accelerate.

GROWING STRENGTH IN OWNED MEDIA CATEGORIESSignificant portions of both brand and agency teams were found to have proficiency in both Social Media and Content Marketing (Media respondents were not assessed on either of these disciplines). This may represent an intersection of classic below-the-line marketing responsibilities, a generational familiarity with online content and community, and a drive to reduce costs. One concern is that this expertise tended to exhibit itself in a core part of the team and not as a general skill set (Specialists versus Generalists).

2

1

3

4OLDER AND EMERGENT SECTORS REQUIRE ADDITIONAL FOCUSDespite arguably being the first widespread digital marketing skill set, proficiency in Online Advertising remains, almost twenty years after the first banner ad appeared, to be woefully low. This lack of proficiency extends across all three sectors, including Media, whose business model is most tightly associated with it. One reason for this lack of knowledge might be the continual reinvention of this discipline, with constant evolutions involving developments like programmatic buying and online video requiring skills updating. Not surprisingly, both brands and agencies are also failing to cover the skills gap in the newest digital discipline of Data & Analytics.


Objective: Provide stakeholders in the Australian marketing community with insights into the current levels of digital marketing capabilities among working sales and marketing professionals.

Digital Chameleon launched the Digital IQ Index™ in No-vember 2012. The first Index

focused on the results of 350 partic-ipants to a Learning Needs Assess-ment, in which respondents were queried about their own levels of con-fidence around a number of standard digital skills areas, ranging from dis-play (online) advertising to social me-dia. In addition they were surveyed as to their attitudes towards digital trends and learning modalities.This assessment is taken by all partic-ipants in Digital Chameleon programs.

The 2012 Index revealed a definitive dig-ital skills gap that existed among brand marketing, media and agency teams.

The results of that report may be accessed at: www.digitalchameleon.com.au/white-papers.html.

The 2014 Index builds on the initial findings and provides deeper per-spective on the digital skills levels at the sector level (ie. brand marketer, media, agency).

Methodology: The Digital IQ Index™ 2014 focuses on actual skills DVVHVVPHQW�UHVXOWV��:KLOH�WKH�¿UVW�,QGH[�XVHG�D�VWDQGDUG�self-reporting survey methodology, the 2014 Index relies on actual results from a standard skills assessment tool.

The Digital Skills Assessment (DSA) is made up of 32 ques-

tions and is accessed online by learn-ers in Digital Chameleon programs. These questions capture familiarity with common concepts, processes and definitions used in basic digital marketing planning and execution. Four major digital marketing dis-ciplines were reflected in the DSA, including Online Advertising, So-cial Media, Content Marketing and Data & Analytics. Eight questions related to each of these four disci-plines were asked of the respondents.

There were a total of 625 respon-dents, who took the DSA during FY 2013 and 2014. There were 361 media respondents, 131 brand respondents and 133 agency respondents. The Brands group represented both prod-ucts and services. The Agency group included creative, media buying and full-service firms. The Media group included magazine and newspaper teams. Team sizes ranged from 20-180 people.

Please Note: Media respondents were only assessed on Online Advertising (this being the only immediately relevant discipline for this sector), while agency and brand marketer respondents were assessed across all four of the digital skill sets (Online Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing, Data & Analytics).

37% OF MARKETING GENERALISTS FEEL HIGHLY PROFICIENT

OF DIGITAL MARKETERS FEEL HIGHLY PROFICIENT

48%

66%Of all marketers state

companies won’t succeed unless they have a digital

marketing approach

Source: Digital Distress: What Keeps Marketers Up at Night? Adobe

Less than half of

digital marketers feel

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marketing

Generalists are

even less

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DID YOU KNOW:

WHY ARE WE

SHARING THIS?

Digital Chameleon is a learning & development business that engages with companies to help mainstream

digital marketing literacy across entire teams. Digital Chameleon uses

a standard assessment as part of its methodology to measure digital

literacy among these teams. The data in the Digital IQ Index comes from

these assessments. Our intent was not to produce research, but to share

what we’ve learned through our normal course of business training media and marketing professionals in Australia.


In summary, the 2014 Digital IQ Index™ confirms that the digital skills gap is more than self-perceived. It empirically exists, as demonstrated by the results of the Digital Skills Assessment used to capture the data. Digital literacy amongst brands, agencies and media is as low (if not lower) than the self-re-ported concerns highlighted in the 2012 Digital IQ Index™.

For organisations that are prepared to fill their digital skills gaps, this will be a period of opportunity and growth. For those that are not, the next few years will become much more competitive and challenging and, potentially, brand-ending.

DID YOU KNOW:

According to the Accenture CMO Insights Survey, only 7% of CMOs believe their performance in digital is leading edge and 64% of CMOs believe their external partners are

weak on execution and delivery.

0RVW�FRPSDQLHV�UHO\�RQ�GLJLWDO�DJHQFLHV�IRU�things like optimizing

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never develop a full

understanding of

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Seeing such capability building as an investment

may change the logic of using third parties.”

Source: Measuring the full impact of digital capital, McKinsey & Company

Digital IQ Index™ Timeline

Summary

2012 Surveyed sales and marketing professionals on how digitally literate they considered themselves to be around core digital disciplines (online advertising, social media, content marketing and data & analytics)

2014 Determined how knowledgeable brand, agency and media professionals actually were around core digital disciplines (online advertising, social media, content marketing and data & analytics) through a formal assessment

2015 Will track actual increases in digital proficiency around core digital disciplines by sales and marketing professionals via a pre- and post- assessment methodology

About Digital ChameleonDigital Chameleon helps clients mainstream digital knowledge and capabilities across their teams. Digital Chameleon works with companies worldwide to integrate digital into the DNA of their businesses via its “Seven Stages of Digital Transformation” process.This scalable, tailored, metrics-driven approach to digital learning closes the talent gap and provides clients with a demonstrable return on investment. Digital Chameleon’s learning solutions have been endorsed by the Media Federation of Australia and the Digital + Direct Marketing Association Asia.

To learn more about Digital Chameleon, please visit us at: www.digitalchameleon.com.au+61 2 9997 7002


NUMBERS ROUNDED UP TO NEAREST INTEGER

Results by sector:Respondents were grouped into one of four quartiles: Uninformed (unable to engage), Partially Informed (barely able to engage), Proficient (proficien-cy in basic concepts), and Highly Pro-ficient (highly proficient around topic).

Respondents residing in the first two quartiles (Uninformed, Partially Informed) were deemed as lacking sufficient knowledge to engage in digi-tal marketing decision-making around that discipline. Those in the second

two quartiles (Proficient and Highly Proficient) were deemed as having the skills and knowledge to make effective decisions around that particular digital marketing discipline.

BRANDS: INCLUDES PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

AGENCIES: INCLUDES MULTINATIONAL, REGIONAL, CREATIVE, AND MEDIA

MEDIA: INCLUDES MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

BRANDS 131 participants

53%

unable to engage effectively around the topic

11%


20%


48%


41%

barely able to engage effectively around the topic

48%


47%


41%


6%

proficient in basic topic concepts

34%


28%


11%


0%

highly proficient around topic

7%


5%


0%


ONLINE ADVERTISING

SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT MARKETING

DATA & ANALYTICS


AGENCIES 133 participants

MEDIA 361 participants

47%


29%


15%


11%


59%


46%


60%


42%


56%


37%


5%


11%


38%


25%


4%


2%


0%


5%


8%


0%


ONLINE ADVERTISING

ONLINE ADVERTISING

SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT MARKETING

DATA & ANALYTICS



COMBINED Brands and Agencies: 264 participants

COMBINED Brands, Agencies and Media: 625 participants

50%


38%


13%


16%


54%


44%


53%


45%


51%


39%


6%


9%


36%


26%


7%


0%


0%


6%


7%


0%


ONLINE ADVERTISING

ONLINE ADVERTISING

SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT MARKETING

DATA & ANALYTICS



1st quartile 2nd quartile

UNABLE TO ENGAGE EFFECTIVELY AROUND

THE TOPIC

BARELY ABLE TO ENGAGE

EFFECTIVELY AROUND

THE TOPIC

PROFICIENT IN BASIC TOPIC

CONCEPTS

HIGHLY PROFICIENT

AROUND TOPIC

THRESHOLD OF DIGITAL COMPETENCY

LEGEND

ONLINE ADVERTISING



94% below threshold

of digital competency

93% below threshold


MEDIA 361 participants

89% below threshold


Results by discipline:

3rd quartile 4th quartile


SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT MARKETING






59% below threshold


57% below threshold


67% below threshold


67% below threshold




DATA AND ANALYTICS



89% below threshold


96% below threshold


digital iq index 2014

Leadership & Management