the state of always-on marketing study

THE STATE OF ALWAYS-ON MARKETING STUDY | 2014 1

The State of Always-On Marketing Study

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So you think your marketing is Always-On?

IT’S TIME TO GET REAL AND MAKE PLATFORMS, ANALYTICS, CHANNELS AND EXPERIENCES WORK TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE TANGIBLE RESULTSWritten By Mark Taylor, VP, Data-Driven Marketing and Brian Colwell, Ph.D. Associate Director, Data Sciences

In digital, experiences enable business success. The experience is what attracts and engages customers moment-to-moment and drives your business toward your goals. Knowing that successful experiences depend on platforms, analytics and channels working together in an integrated way, Razorfish, a global interac-tive marketing and technology company, and Adobe, the world’s only end-to-end digital marketing solutions provider, wanted to find out how effectively companies are delivering marketing services to their customers in real time. Last year, the two companies surveyed 685 C-level marketing, technology and business execu-tives about how they use marketing technology with services to deliver targeted experiences to the Always-On consumer. The result is The State of Always-On Marketing Study.

“ Razorfish defines Always-On Marketing as data-driven, content-led experiences, delivered across channels and devices in real time.”


Razorfish defines Always-On Marketing (AOM) as data-driven, content-led expe-riences, delivered across channels and devices in real time. The study uncovered some striking contrasts between AOM perception and reality. One of the most startling was that, contrary to executives’ self-assessments, very few businesses are equipped to compete in real time, and most struggle with the most basic technology and marketing programs.

This article will help you evaluate your AOM readiness and close the gap be-tween where you are now and where you want to be, by bringing together plat-forms, analytics and channel management to drive meaningful experiences and, ultimately, successful AOM.

Figure 1: PACE framework identifies business’ ability to support each AOM dimension, from platform through to experience.

How data/content iscollected, aggregated and used

How insights are translated into levers that inform which

channels to engage which customersThe unified brand experiencethat customers engage with

across channelsData converted into customer insights

to fuel business decisions

3 CHANNELS1 PLATFORMS

2 ANALYTICS4 EXPERIENCES

Our study utilizes the PACE Index™, a proprietary tool developed by Razorfish, which evaluates a compa-ny’s perceived state of digital market-ing readiness across four marketing dimensions: platforms, analytics, channels and experiences. It ag-gregates responses from 18 survey questions (see Methodology) into a single scale ranging from a possible low of one to a high of 100. A com-pany’s PACE IndexTM score serves as an initial metric that aids in developing a blueprint to activate Always-On Marketing.

PACEINDEXTM

EXPERIENCESCHANNELSANALYTICSPLATFORMS

Data Collection and Execution

(6 Questions)

CustomerMeasurement(1 Question)

Customer Identification/ Measurement(4 Questions)

Cross-Channel Content Delivery

(2 Questions)

Digital DataStrategy

(1 Question)

Insight/Analysis

(1 Question)

Customer NeedsDelivery

(1 Question)

Insights Applied Across Digital Channels

(1 Question)

ContentDevelopment(1 Question)

Real-time is reality, not theory.What’s driving the need to become an Always-On marketer? The pace of change and intensity of disruption is accelerating, fueled by an increase in socially connected people who are today’s mainstream. These consum-ers access brands multiple times per day — and spend more time online, on more devices and in more locations than ever before.

» In 2013, the average time spent with digital media per day surpassed TV viewing time for the first time in the U.S.1

» More than 75 percent of people in most developed markets, and even more in emerging markets, use social tools.2

» More than half of U.S. mobile sub-scribers owned smartphones in 2013. In Western Europe, smart-phone penetration is expected to jump from 34 percent in 2011 to 67 percent by 2016.3

Consequently, marketers need to embrace the reality that consumers are demanding information in real time and enact change. Executives that Razorfish and Adobe speak to recog-nize this shift and the need to operate in real time — they know they need to leverage available technology and rethink how they are organizing their total ecosystem.

1 “Digital Set to Surpass TV in Time Spent with U.S. Media,” eMarketer.com, August 1, 2013.2 “Social Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the World,” eMarketer.com, June 18, 2013.3 “The Real-Time Marketing Drumbeat Gets Louder, as Agencies, Brands Sign On,” eMarketer.com, May 7, 2013.

Figure 2: PACE IndexTM, a Razorfish proprietary evaluation framework for Always-On Marketing.

“ Very few businesses are equipped to compete in real time, and most struggle with the most basic technology and marketing programs.”


AOM TodayConsumers are now more connected and expect more meaningful brand experi-ences — in real time — than ever before. Companies recognize this and want to respond with real-time experiences and solutions. However, our proprietary re-search found that they struggle with even the most basic technology and market-ing programs. Surprisingly, only 13 percent of businesses can target a recognized segment and measure results — indicating that most companies lack the ability to tie together the various elements of their business required to take action on their data and use technology to execute effective targeted experiences.

The solution is AOM. An Always-On approach ensures that content is not only well planned, but also continually optimized with the ability to respond to con-sumer interactions with brands.

Our study summarizes diverse information about companies’ self-reported effectiveness at marketing through their digital channels. What we found is that making the shift from campaign to real-time experiences is clearly difficult, and marketing executives are unrealistic about their AOM capabilities. We also discovered that the gap between perceived AOM strength and actual ability is significant. The survey revealed that less than 5 percent of the marketing popula-tion is capable of delivering AOM.

Using insights gained from interviewing hundreds of top executives, we can now help organizations coordinate and integrate their marketing efforts across chan-nels. Using an integrated approach, brands can much more readily build a strong services and technology foundation to enable successful AOM.

Real-time is reality, not theory.What’s driving the need to become an Always-On marketer? The pace of change and intensity of disruption is accelerating, fueled by an increase in socially connected people who are today’s mainstream. These consum-ers access brands multiple times per day — and spend more time online, on more devices and in more locations than ever before.

» In 2013, the average time spent with digital media per day surpassed TV viewing time for the first time in the U.S.1

» More than 75 percent of people in most developed markets, and even more in emerging markets, use social tools.2

» More than half of U.S. mobile sub-scribers owned smartphones in 2013. In Western Europe, smart-phone penetration is expected to jump from 34 percent in 2011 to 67 percent by 2016.3

Consequently, marketers need to embrace the reality that consumers are demanding information in real time and enact change. Executives that Razorfish and Adobe speak to recog-nize this shift and the need to operate in real time — they know they need to leverage available technology and rethink how they are organizing their total ecosystem.

1 “Digital Set to Surpass TV in Time Spent with U.S. Media,” eMarketer.com, August 1, 2013.2 “Social Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the World,” eMarketer.com, June 18, 2013.3 “The Real-Time Marketing Drumbeat Gets Louder, as Agencies, Brands Sign On,” eMarketer.com, May 7, 2013.


Our Findings A major executive disconnect exists between segmentation development and digital execution.Fifty-eight percent of all executives interviewed consider themselves strong at tar-geting experiences to segmented groups. So, we expected to find evidence that most execs are maneuvering their technology and marketing programs to pull off a holistic digital marketing program. That is not the case — only 38 percent of those interviewed are capable of targeting a new customer versus a returning customer.

Most lack the ability to use critical behavioral data.Seventy-six percent of marketers are failing to use behavioral data in segmen-tation analysis and targeting execution. While the vast majority of them are only utilizing CRM, demographic and historic sales data, marketers are missing out on high-frequency, real-time data that is only made possible by integrating behavioral data.

Segmentation and measurement isn’t informing digital execution.While execs consider themselves strong at targeting experiences to segmented groups, only 13 percent are delivering segmented experiences and measuring the results. So, even those who believe they have strong targeting capabilities (58 percent) may not be able to quantify that perceived value.

Very few are capable of delivering real-time analytics and experiences. Less than 5 percent are actually able to manage experiences in an Always-On manner. And, of the 24 percent who are using behavioral data, less than 20 percent have the capabilities — technology, creative execution/processes and integrated data— to deliver a targeted experience to a recognized customer across channels.


WHO’S IN THE LEAD?We wanted to know the characteristics of the subgroup of leading companies that have adopted digital marketing technology, so we used a statistical model to determine an organization’s likelihood of being a leader. We define a leader as a business that has fully implemented or made improvements toward implementa-tion of digital technology to support data-driven marketing.

Figure 3: Predicted probabilities of being a “Leader.”

Industry U.S. Germany France Canada U.K.Automotive 32% 29% 10% 29% 13%Financial Services 29% 12% 19% 13% 12%Leisure, Travel and Hospitality 35% 38% 11% 20% 22%Business to Business (B2B) 32% 28% 12% 14% 29%Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods 46% 40% 23% 51% 34%Telecom, Media and Entertainment 43% 28% 25% 33% 41%Company Size (Annual Revenue $USD)500 Million to 4.9 Billion 28% 23% 8% 19% 14%5 Billion or Greater 51% 34% 32% 33% 28%

Size matters. Unsurprisingly, company size is considered a significant factor in predicting lead-ership in digital marketing performance. For example, when larger companies in the U.S. enjoy annual sales in excess of $5 billion, they have a 51 percent chance of being a leader. By comparison, being a larger company in France increases the chance that a company will be a leader by three times (3X), and in the U.K. by 1.7 times (1.7X).

Some industries have ground to make up.Companies in both the retail and consumer packaged goods, and telecom, media and entertainment industries generally stand out as leaders more than those belonging to other industry verticals. Conversely, with the exception of France, companies in the financial industry tend to have the lowest probability of leader-ship status within their respective countries.

“ We define a leader as a business that has fully implemented or made improvements toward implementation of digital technology to support data-driven marketing.”


THE PACE INDEX™ PREDICTS LEADERS AND LAGGARDSAlthough the lowest possible PACE Index™ score is one and the highest possible score is 100, actual scores from our sample range from a low of six to a high of 100. The PACE Index™ generally increases when survey responses reflect posi-tive perceptions of a company’s digital maturity. However, a true AOM framework is an integrated marketing approach that is vulnerable to areas of relative weak-ness. Therefore, when a company’s perceptions across the four PACE elements — platforms, analytics, channels and experiences — are uneven, the score is slightly weighted toward the lower perceptions.

Perceptions of AOM performance vary significantly by country.Given differing levels of technology-driven marketing adoption for Razorfish and Adobe clients across national markets, we expected to see a relatively high PACE Index™ score for U.S. companies in particular. However, the U.S. market has a fairly normal distribution around its median score of just 54. Surprisingly, France has a higher median score (63), with nearly half of French companies scoring 61–80. Germany mirrors the U.S. median score, but German companies have a much higher degree of score uniformity — 63 percent of companies rate themselves in the 41–60 range, while only 40 percent of U.S. companies report the same. In contrast to German companies, Canada (median 63) and the U.K. (median 62) both exhibit a lower degree of uniformity around their average index scores.

Figure 4: PACE Index™ demonstrates differences across countries (% of respondents).

2%

23% 25%11%

40%

United StatesMean=54

0-20 21-40 61-80 81-10041-60

0%10%

22%

4%

63%

GermanyMean=55

0-20 21-40 61-80 81-10041-601%

10%

37%

16%

35%

CanadaMean=63

0-20 21-40 61-80 81-10041-60

2% 5%

49%

11%

33%

FranceMean=63

0-20 21-40 61-80 81-10041-60

1%13%

33%22%

31%

United KingdomMean=62

0-20 21-40 61-80 81-10041-60


Executives in these countries are clearly assessing themselves according to diver-gent and perhaps localized standards of digital readiness. As a consequence, a CMO in one market may have an incomplete assessment of the true state of AOM possibilities. If this is the case, companies in countries where AOM is less common may lack knowledge of what’s currently possible and as a result may overestimate their AOM readiness in light of what’s possible in the industry as a whole.

The gap between perceived strength and actual ability is wide.

Figure 5: Percentage of senior executives who claim they are strong at optimizing their customer experiences and have the ability to distinguish a customer segment.

61%

USA

43%

DE

36%

FR

50%

CA

53%

UK

Upon further analysis, we discovered significant disconnects in France and Germany. Less than half of executives in France (36 percent) and Germany (43 percent) who consider themselves strong at delivering targeted experiences actu-ally have the ability to do so. Depending on geography, markets face different con-straints, and disconnects like those illustrated in Figure 5 prove that execs don’t have nearly as much control as they think. Perception and piecemeal evaluation is not enough to drive AOM readiness. If you think you’re ahead, you could be at a competitive disadvantage by failing to embrace available possibilities to execute and manage your PACE ecosystem for healthy AOM. To become AOM-ready, a quantifiable PACE assessment is essential.

Use of technology for competitive advantage varies by country.When we employed a statistical model to explore the relationship between company size and technology adoption — while holding industry verticals con-stant — we saw that the U.S., U.K. and Canada all show statistically significant differences in their scores when they have more than $5 billion in annual revenue and use technology to support data-driven marketing. In the U.S., this represents a 64 percent difference in their PACE Index™ score.1 However, using the same criteria, France and Germany don’t show any statistically significant difference in their index score.

1 Statistical significance is set at the 95% confidence level.


Figure 6: PACE IndexTM scores for company size and use of technology to support data-driven marketing.

44

71

PACE IndexTM Scores, Controlling for Technology and Business Size

United States

5463

Germany

6674

France

6679

Canada

61

84

United Kingdom

>$5B and Not Implemented

>$5B and Have Implemented

Companies in the U.S., Canada and U.K. that have adopted technology perceive themselves a more “ready,” according to their PACE Index™ scores. Figure 6 shows that companies in the U.S., Canada and U.K. have a greater understanding of what AOM requires. In these markets, greater awareness of what is possible may lead to a greater sense of readiness on the part of CMOs after adopting the requi-site technology for AOM. Conversely, CMOs in these markets who have not adopt-ed technology for AOM may experience a suppressed sense of readiness because they are more aware of their vulnerabilities in the modern digital marketplace.

While there are certainly many factors at play in these findings, differences be-tween the American and European systems of digital privacy laws could provide one explanation. For example, under the European regulations affecting France and Germany in particular, digital businesses are more constrained when it comes to performing basic data collection and profiling of individual customers. The U.S. and Canada, on the other hand, have no equivalent to Europe’s general data protection law (other than medical and financial records), and the U.K. has adopted a more pragmatic self-regulation position that arguably enables greater flexibility to maneuver in the real-time marketing context. So, the U.S., U.K. and Canada appear to have a greater advantage when creating a cohesive way to action data for better AOM.


Get Real If You Want Tangible Results

At this point you’re likely feeling really excited… or highly inadequate. The point is to not procrastinate any longer if you’re behind, or to take advantage and move ahead if you’re already a leader. Since technology roadmaps typically have about an 18-month horizon, businesses need to adapt fast to maximize their full set of investments. It’s not enough to perceive that you are using these capabilities. You have to quantify your actual ability in order to deliver AOM in a meaningful way.

1. EMBRACE NEW EVALUATION TECHNIQUES TO BECOME AOM-READY. A business-wide self-evaluation is crucial to determine where you are, and how you can improve in each part of the PACE framework so that you can drive suc-cessful AOM and, ultimately, deliver more meaningful experiences.

Conventional discovery engagements take too long to determine how to take advantage of organization and technology investments. AOM requires a radical change to these old-fashioned approaches in order to understand how your business aligns tools with strategy, so that you can quickly generate insight from marketing tools and identify how to drive higher return from these investments.

This is best accomplished by using a new breed of rapid evaluation solution of-ferings like Razorfish BoostSM, which is an example of an industrialized approach developed exclusively in partnership with a technology partner (Adobe) for this very purpose.

“ You have to quantify your actual ability in order to deliver AOM in a meaningful way.”


Figure 7: The Razorfish BoostSM process.

GOALS

OBSTACLES

CAPABILITIES BENCHMARK QUICK WINS ROADMAP

PLATFORMSANALYTICSCHANNELS

EXPERIENCES

1. EVALUATIONAlignment to your vision, key business drivers and stakeholder input on issues and goals.

2. OPTIMIZED SOLUTION DESIGNAlignment with your colleagues on the solutions that will amplify your existing investments, augmenting service offerings with product capabilities.

3. VALUE DELIVERY ROADMAPRoadmap for prioritized services and technology with detailed marketing action plan.

INVESTMENT

ROI

SERVICE OFFERING MATURITY

High

Low

High

PRODUCT CAPABILITY

MATURITY

PHASE 3PHASE 2PHASE 1

SITE TARGETING AND TESTING PLANS

LTV

CROSS-TEAMREPORT DELIVERY

ATTRIBUTION

CROSS-CHANNEL REPORTING

TARGETING OFFER STRATEGIES

TAG MANAGEMENT

TAGGINGREMEDIATION

SITE REPORTING

SEGMENTATION ENABLEMENT

SEGMENTATIONDESIGN

DATA AUDIT

LAST ACTION REMESSAGING

DASHBOARDDESIGNS

DATA COLLECTION

MEASUREMENT

Leveraging more than 10 years of best-in-class evaluations, these new codified methodologies provide the diagnostic first step you need to quantify your AOM readiness, and get up and running in weeks, rather than months. Razorfish BoostSM quantifies and aligns your AOM performance issues to the PACE area for resolu-tion — taking into account your specific business goals and marketing objectives to deliver a customized recipe of products and services to drive value immediately, and shows you where to make smart investments over the next two to three years.

Figure 8: Razorfish BoostSM client results comparing PACE IndexTM scores by industry, country and company size (blinded).

All Up PACE Index™

Respondents

Competitor Performance

Criteria: Financial Services,

Country & Size

Client PACE Index™ Score

(Blinded)PACE Index™ Score 59 60 58(P)latform 58 62 58Data Collection and Excecution 61 58 46Digital Data Strategy 56 64 71(A)nalytics 60 61 66Defined Customer Measurement 58 52 57Insights Analysis 61 74 76(C)hannel 65 76 57Customer Identification & Measurement 66 72 73Organizational Capability to Deliver on Customer Needs

65 79 43

(E)xperience 54 54 49Cross-Channel Content Delivery Enablement 50 51 48Customer Insight Used Across Digital Channels 61 64 54Content Development 50 48 46


2. EVOLVE YOUR AOM MARKETING AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION TOGETHER. Once you have identified opportunities to improve your AOM capabilities, you can quickly establish your digital marketing blueprint. You will also need to think about both the internal corporate governance, process and leadership required to realize data-driven marketing, in addition to the regulatory big picture (chang-ing national legal oversight). Your unique blueprint will help siloed teams ensure you focus dollars efficiently, while providing customers with an experience that is optimized to meet their needs.

Working in an integrated way requires clear relationships and fluid governance with technology vendors and agency partnerships. Businesses have a strong de-sire to connect with the technology community, but limited resources to system-atically evaluate new partners, leaving the door open for competitors to leapfrog their AOM capabilities. We therefore recommend a lead partner that does not just work well with internal and external marketing staff, but also has the technical ability to provide objective evaluation of technology and media partners.

3. COMPETE HARDER, MOMENT-TO-MOMENT.It’s hard work, but the potential payoff is worth it. Figure 9 illustrates a real Razorfish client example of how targeted AOM experiences are built in iterative phases: Phase 1 and Phase 2 show targeting payment and ROI revenue projec-tions. The black line in this typical targeting roadmap indicates very pedestrian growth if the client continues business as usual, void of net-new AOM dollars for technology and services.

Figure 9: Cumulative net cash flows ($ ’000), blinded client example.

($1,000.00)

($500.00)

$0.00

$500.00

$1,000.00

$1,500.00

$2,000.00

$2,500.00

$3,000.00

$3,500.00

Payback in 8 weeks Payback in 3 months

Phase 1 1.5X ROI

Phase 2 8X ROI

Phase 1 demonstrates an easy eight-week setup of basic analytics and targeting activities, where investment would put the client into the “red” temporarily for their $200K investment, with breakeven at eight weeks, followed by 1.5 times (1.5X) ROI. Phase 2 represents a more involved technology investment with a longer setup and investment, but it pays off with an even higher incremental ROI — eight times (8X) — paying for itself in just three months.

“ Not only does incremental success finance incremental technology and service phases, but this also develops political capital across the business with an evidence-driven, customer-centric approach.”


A more advanced version of this Razorfish solution allows our clients to deliver a uniquely tailored message to their target audience every time. We’ve seen a four times (4X) increase in ROI and a two times (2X) increase in vendor co-op media investment YoY. With early success, we extended the program to new platforms in first-to-market fashion:

» Within video, we can personalize a data overlay with products viewed on-site (40+ percent increase in video completion rates with this overlay).

» Within social, we target .com visitors and personalize messaging to increase traffic on Facebook and Twitter (50 percent lift in engagement rates).

» We were the first advertiser to test cross-device retargeting (mobile-to-mobile and desktop-to-mobile) with dynamic, last-action product creative in 2013.

What does this mean? Brands that continue this cycle programmatically in Razorfish are seeing triple-digit growth and, in some cases, upwards of 23 times (23X) the fully loaded (agency fees and technology costs) ROAS. The payback from each previous phase essentially allows a continual “crawl, walk, run” investment cycle. Not only does incremental success finance incremental technology and service phases, but this also develops political capital across the business with an evidence-driven, customer-centric approach.

Brandon Geary, SVP Strategy, contributed to this study.

Can you truly quantify your AOM Capabilities?Given the common gap between per-ceived digital marketing readiness and the reality of executing AOM, consider how well your marketing technology investments are aligned to reach the Always-On customer. Start by figuring out how you’d respond to these four questions:

» How confident are you that the data you capture provides a unified, cross-channel view of each customer’s brand interactions and experiences?

» When you receive insights on cus-tomer behavior, how empowered do you feel to carry those insights forward into concrete action plans?

» Are your technology solutions and skill sets both available and suffi-ciently synchronized to address each customer’s particular needs, regard-less of channel or device type?

» Are you delivering the relevant cus-tomer-facing experiences in each moment better than your competi-tors are?

You have the opportunity to help your organization get real and close the gap between perception and reality. Prepare your organization now by integrating the technology, governance and leadership required to get ahead in AOM.


Learn MoreLEARN ABOUT SERVICE OFFERINGS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO DEVELOP YOUR AOM STRATEGIC ROADMAP

RAZORFISH BOOSTSM

Razorfish BoostSM is a strategic evaluation that rapidly identifies the roadmap you need to extract the most value from your Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions. Boost arms you with an actionable plan to fill the gaps between your marketing goals and identified roadblocks using Adobe products and Razorfish marketing services for positive investment return. There are three primary deliverables:

» PACE Index™ benchmark: an evaluation of how your company is performing compared to your industry in order to determine areas where there is potential to achieve competitive advantage.

» 100-day plan with detailed steps and associated scope for projects that con-figure technology and modify or launch associated marketing programs.

» An 18-month roadmap that shows what additional technology configurations and marketing programs are needed.

ADOBE MARKETING CLOUDAdobe Marketing Cloud is the most comprehensive and integrated set of digital marketing solutions available. It includes a complete set of analytics, social, ad-vertising, targeting, Web experience management and cross-channel campaign management solutions along with a unique set of shared capabilities that helps customers go from data to insights to action more efficiently and effectively than ever. Visit www.marketing.adobe.com to learn more.

RAZORFISHRazorfish, the only digital agency to receive back-to-back rankings in Advertising Age’s 2011 and 2012 A-List, creates experiences that build businesses. As one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world, Razorfish helps its clients build better brands by delivering business results through customer experiences. Razorfish combines the best thought leadership of the consulting world with the leading capabilities of the marketing services industry to support our clients’ business needs, such as launching new products, repositioning a brand or participat-ing in the social world. Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Clients include Mercedes, Unilever and McDonald’s. Razorfish is part of Publicis Groupe. Visit www.razorfish.com for more information. Follow Razorfish on Twitter @razorfish.

ADOBE Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.


Supplemental Material METHODOLOGYIn August 2013, Razorfish and Adobe jointly commissioned a reputable third-party vendor to collect data from companies on perceptions and adoption of digital mar-keting technologies. The questionnaire consisted of 46 questions, and addressed perceived marketing challenges, digital marketing maturity and specific technolog-ical capabilities.

There were 685 CMOs, or similarly situated budget-setting marketing executives from five countries and six industry verticals (Figure 10), who participated in the study. Each respondent represents a single company whose annual revenue exceeds $500 million U.S. dollars.

Figure 10: The State of Always-On Marketing Study sample counts by country and industry.

U.S. Germany France Canada U.K.Industry

N=Automotive 21 34 22 18 20 115Financial Services 24 32 14 22 21 113Leisure , Travel and Hospitality 22 33 22 20 20 117Business to Business (B2B) 25 25 21 21 19 111Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods 22 31 23 19 20 115Telecom, Media and Entertainment 24 31 19 21 19 114Country N= 138 186 121 121 119 685

National differences can affect results for either methodological or substantive reasons. Methodologically, respondents may interpret and answer the same set of questions differently, purely based on differences in cultural norms and con-versational conventions. Of these two sources of concern, past cross-national research on survey response bias does not reveal marked differences in response patterns among the countries included in the present study.

Substantive factors may include, but are not limited to, market size, regulatory constraints, digital technology adoption, international affiliations and general macro-economic vitality. Figure 11 highlights a few of these unaccounted for cross-national differences that can be reasonably expected to shape our results.


Figure 11: Technographic differences that demonstrate cross-national differences.

U.S. Germany France Canada U.K.Mobile Broadband % Penetration (ITU Estimates)

75% 41% 52% 50% 72%

Smartphone % Penetration (Google Estimates)

56% 40% 42% 56% 62%

% of smartphone owners that have made a purchase on device (Google Estimates)

46% 32% 26% 27% 39%

Per Capita Spend On e-Retail (USD) in 2007 (Kshetri Bebenroth, Williamson 2010)

286.44 207.77 196.36 59.45 442.43

Figures from the United Nations International Technology Union show that mobile broadband penetration in 2012 was much higher in the U.S. and U.K. than it was in other countries. Inclination to shop on a mobile device (Google, Our Mobile Planet) and the amount spent on ecommerce per capita (Kshetri, Bebenroth, Williamson 2010) are also higher in the U.S. and U.K. It is not clear how differences such as these might impact perceptions, since perceptions of how “well” one is doing are typically benchmarked against others. Across countries, the benchmarks that might inform respondent perceptions are not the same.

The limited number of countries in the dataset prevents us from statistically confirming or ruling out either substantive or methodological factors as possible explanations for any observed cross-national differences.

FIGURE 2Predicted probabilities were obtained with a Poisson regression model using ro-bust standard errors to overcome the mean — variance equivalence assumption. Poisson model results were compared with those from negative binomial models with very little differences in coefficient output. Poisson model results were adopt-ed based on superior model fit statistics; however, both methodologies produce roughly the same probability estimates.


PACE INDEX™This study utilizes the PACE Index™, which evaluates a company’s perceived state of digital marketing readiness across four marketing dimensions: platforms, analytics, channels and experiences. It aggregates responses from 18 survey questions (see below) into a single scale ranging from a possible low of one to a high of 100. A company’s PACE Index™ score serves as an initial metric that aids in developing a blueprint to activate Always-On Marketing.

PACEINDEXTM

EXPERIENCESCHANNELSANALYTICSPLATFORMS

Data Collection and Execution

(6 Questions)

CustomerMeasurement(1 Question)

Customer Identification/ Measurement(4 Questions)

Cross-Channel Content Delivery

(2 Questions)

Digital DataStrategy

(1 Question)

Insight/Analysis

(1 Question)

Customer NeedsDelivery

(1 Question)

Insights Applied Across Digital Channels

(1 Question)

ContentDevelopment(1 Question)


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