Marketers Feel More Influential and Confident in Consumer Spending in the Second Half of 2018

Marketers are more optimistic about their power and influence than they were six months ago, according to the latest Marketers’ Confidence Index.

The July 2018 index — a survey by the American Marketing Association and Kantar Consulting that captures marketers’ optimism on customer spending, marketing budgets and investment climate — also revealed an improvement in marketers’ confidence in consumer spending and brand consistency across digital channels.

In the January 2018 index, 61% of marketers believed the power and influence of marketing would increase over the next few years, 71% believed the same in the second half of the year.

The report also finds that marketers are far more confident about consistently managing their brand across digital channels than they were last year. In the July 2018 index, 61% say they’re confident that their team can preserver brand consistency as marketing goes digital, up 9% from August 2017.

Marketers say that they’re excited by analytics, marketing automation, data science and artificial intelligence going into the future. They also believe that CMOs need to learn more about these tools and how they will help marketing teams achieve their goals.

Marketers’ expectations for revenue growth dropped slightly since January. While 59% of marketers expected their revenue to improve in the January index, 55% expected revenue to increase in the new index. However, more marketers believe that their revenue growth is better than competitors — 58% this index versus 56% in January’s index.

Marketing budget allocations remained the same since January, but marketers slightly increased their spending on creative and sponsoring. Marketers decreased spending slightly on market research and insights, as well as analytics.

This report — conducted via a short online survey from July 3 to July 17, 2018 — had 291 participants, the majority (63%) of which were female. Forty-nine percent of respondents were 45 years old or younger. Managers or vice president/director-level marketers comprised 55% of respondents.

The Marketers Confidence index is a collaboration between Kantar Consulting and the American Marketing Association.