State of Marketing 2012

The outlook is distinctly positive for marketers as executives head into 2013 with renewed confidence in their roles and business performance. The findings of the 2012 “State of Marketing” report indicate that the role of the CMO now encompasses more critical customer touchpoints that directly impact the customer experience, and executives who are up to the challenge are being compensated based on their performance and impact on the business.

The global benchmark of marketing spend and intentions was drawn from the insights and contributions of more than 550 senior marketing executives representing North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and South America. Nearly 65 percent of these marketers report directly to a president, CEO or chief operating officer. More than 30 percent of respondents represent companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales; 11 percent represent companies having between $500 million and $1 billion in sales; and 30 percent are with companies with revenues between $50 million and $500 million.

Through an online audit managed by the CMO Council, data was collected over Q3 and Q4 of 2012, gathering insights about mandates and results from 2011 into 2012, as well as forward-looking intentions for spend and strategy over the next 12 months into 2013.

Key findings that are revealed in the full report that you will not find in the complimentary executive summary include:

• Percentage breakdowns of marketing spend intentions across both program and functional budgets
• Exact breakdowns of media mix allocations across both traditional and digital channels
• Regional variances that emerged across all questions in the survey; for example, who knew that Europe will lead in lead-generation campaign investments while South America will lead the globe in social investments?
• Additional details on compensation breakdown, both from a base salary and inventive standpoint
• Areas of CMO responsibility and control
• Digital marketing progress, direction and metrics for measuring ROI
• Factors influencing regional marketing, including the challenges, complexities and key business dynamics—a must read for marketers overseeing global teams or investigating global market entries
• Approaches to maximizing marketing value and effectiveness
• Procurement of marketing automation solutions and the benefits being realized
• Organization, operational and personal changes and transformations on deck for the coming year

The full report includes an expanded exexcutive summary, charts, graphs and detailed breakdowns of this findings, as well as an infographic series designed to highlight budget advancements and variances over the past several years.