past year, according to the results of a survey carried out by the Online
Marketing show (OMS), which takes place at the Business Design Centre,
London on 26th – 27th June.
One in five respondents now spend more than half of their total marketing
budgets online – almost double that of the previous year. This is good news
for agencies with 47% of respondents indicating they plan to work with a
digital agency in the next 12 months.
61% of those surveyed indicated that online marketing provides the most
accountable return on investment than any other form of marketing spend.
Despite this, the greatest educational need amongst respondents was
effective tracking, and 40% of respondents said they were having trouble
integrating their offline and online marketing.
Email marketing, banner advertising, paid search and search engine
optimisation were the key areas of investment in the past year, with social
media and online PR bursting onto the scene, accounting for more investment
than mobile and iTV channels.
Social media and online PR were citied as focus areas for investment (by
over 50% of respondents) in the upcoming year. Replacing mobile and SEO,
which came top last year.
The OMS study, which surveyed guests who will be attending the 2007 show,
follows research carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau which saw
digital marketing continue to grow, breaking the 2bn mark for the first
time.
Sally Pugmire, Event Director for Online Marketing 2007 comments, “We’ve
been overwhelmed by the commitment to online shown in the survey results.
Marketers are taking areas such as social media, online PR, SEO and paid
search very seriously when considering their budgets.”
Pugmire continues, “The event is a great way to find suppliers and
solutions to help build and integrate marketers’ online and advertising
knowledge.”