What’s Top of Mind for CMOs in 2021?

As the year 2021 begins, marketers face a key challenge when either creating or developing marketing and communication strategies for their companies; as recovering from the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and adapting to the changes in consumer buying habits requires effective strategies for rebuilding.

CMOs magazine reveals WARC’s annual “Marketer’s Toolkit 2021” that has been released recently for marketers who want to seize more opportunities, this year.

The Toolkit brings together insights from 1000+ marketers, 20+ leading CMOs and a review of WARC’s latest proprietary research, best practices and case studies; to help brands navigate through uncertainty, seek new opportunities and develop effective and relevant strategies to grow their business as the world economy starts to rebuild.

The guide is built around six key drivers of change, as follows:

Responding to recession

• 73% of respondents expect to allocate budget to influencer marketing in 2021.
• 70% of respondents expect budget cuts to brand advertising.
• 64% of respondents agree that advertising suffered from a lack of distinctiveness during quarantine.
• 62% of respondents expect 2021 to be better than 2020.
• 58% of respondents anticipate budgetary improvement on 2020.
• 57% of respondents are adapting to economic recession by focusing on quality of customer experiences.
• 53% of respondents are cutting budgets around sponsorships and partnerships.
• 49% of respondents anticipate cuts to new creative development.
• 44% of respondents plan to spend more on TikTok in 2021.
• 38% of respondents are adapting to economic recession by focusing on customer retention over acquisition
• 33% of respondents say there is a greater focus on proving the effectiveness of their creativity.
• 12% of client-side respondents believe they are doing an excellent job of balancing short-term and long-term brand strategies versus 3% of agency respondents believe this of their brands.

Staying effective in the age of e-commerce

• 80% of respondents plan to increase or maintain DTC activity in 2021.
• 67% of client-side respondents expect the shift to e-commerce to be permanent. 63% in retail, 47% in food and drink and 44% in FMCG agree most strongly with this statement.
• 64% of respondents are addressing the shift to e-commerce by focusing on improving online customer experience.
• 62% of client-side respondents agree or strongly agree that they actively consider the impact of packaging and delivery on customer experience.
• 59% of client-side respondents say they have a strategy for actively collecting first-party customer data.
• 53% of respondents say shopping online is having the biggest impact on marketing strategies. 52% said increased time spent at home.
• 48% of respondents expect live streaming and live video to be important emerging technologies in China. 38% in North America. 37% in Europe. 35% in Asia (ex China).

Engaging at-home consumers

• 74% of respondents said post-pandemic changes in consumer behavior will impact 2021 marketing strategies.
• 52% of respondents say the shift to increased time spent at home will impact strategies.
• 32% of respondents say consumer cutbacks in travel and leisure are impacting 2021 strategies.

Succeeding in the closed web

• 81% of respondents agree that COVID-19 has only served to concentrate power in the hands of ‘big tech’; while 83% of respondents agree or strongly agree that those firms should be subject to “greater regulation” to help level the playing field.
• 67% of respondents believe the Facebook boycott in the US failed to drive impactful change.
• 59% of client-side respondents agree or strongly agree that their brand has a strategy to actively gather first-party data.
• 34% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they or the brands they serve are prepared for life after the cookie. 29% of advertisers claim they have no plan in place to collect and manage customer data.
• 29% of respondents reveal they have no modeling in place to measure the impact of marketing investments across walled garden platforms.

Structuring for volatility

• 93% of respondents agree that the pace of digital transformation has been hastened by Covid-19.
• 50% of respondents say customer experience is a top priority of digital transformation (same as last year).
• 47% of respondents say drawing insights from big data is a top priority of digital transformation (up from 39% last year).
• 78% of respondents believe that purpose is now more important as a result to the disruption to society.
• 46% of respondents agree that Covid-19 has accelerated the in-housing trend.
• 41% of client-side respondents believe the marketing team has more influence now than a year ago.
• 49% of brand respondents and 44% of agency respondents admit that their company either doesn’t have a diversity and inclusion policy at all or that it is not a focus. 33% of brand respondents and 32% of agency respondents believe they have a clear, documented and fully implemented approach to diversity and inclusion.

Finding the white space in wellness

• 91% of respondents agreed that health and hygiene concerns will impact their marketing plans.
• 80% of respondents say wellness, self-care, burnout and stress are an issue for consumers and employees in 2021.
• 40% of client-side respondents said they were developing a new product offering in response to the recession.