Branding and Marketing in the New Abnormal How has COVID-19 shifted marketing KPIs and budgets? October 2020 CONTENTS 01 | Why are we doing this survey now? 03 02 | The new reality: the art of doing more with less 07 03 | Marketing priorities & KPIs: What keeps marketers up at night? 14 04 | Marketing measurement: what tools are being used 18 to optimize marketing ROI? 05 | COVID-19: Refocusing marketing priorities & goals 29 06 | How should marketers future-proof their strategies? 33 BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 2 WHY ARE WE DOING 01 THIS SURVEY NOW? “COVID-19 has not only disrupted s the world continues to grapple with the THE SURVEY Acoronavirus, the global health crisis is also businesses globally but also shed light forcing marketing leaders to contend with shifting With the above in mind, Campaign Asia partnered with on future-readiness of brands and KPIs and shrinking budgets. GfK for a survey, Branding and Marketing in the New Abnormal, to gain a better understanding of shifting marketers to drive growth in the new This survey — conducted amidst the pandemic — marketing priorities and budgets. abnormal. The survey findings portray a took a litmus test of a time when pre-COVID-19 priorities were still fresh in the minds of executives, The questions we asked were primarily focused around clear gap between their business goals but they were also needing to adapt to the four areas: and the tools they leverage to achieve economic impact brought about by the pandemic. A. What are marketers’ priorities B. How is marketing effectiveness being measured them. In a post-pandemic environment, This report clearly shows that priorities have been C. How have budgets shifted during COVID-19 it is vital for brands to quickly realign upended as marketers strive to make sense of the D. How has COVID-19 changed the way marketers ‘new abnormal’. For some, driving short-term sales engage with consumers objectives, measure effectiveness and has become an urgent priority. For others, KPIs lead through digital transformation.” have shifted to longer-term goals such as digital transformation — and as part of that — gaining a fuller view of the customer journey. Karthik Venkatakrishnan, Regional Leader, Marketing and Consumer Intelligence, GfK Asia These challenges are compounded by the fact that many marketers are still struggling with measurement - both what to measure and how best to do it. Couple this with the need to maximize marketing ROI across the board and marketers are in a situation that necessitates an ever more careful planning of spend, channels and budget. BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 4 “Marketing leaders need to Survey background contend with shifting KPIs, shrinking budgets and in some cases, a recalibration of 144 entire marketing funnels” respondents across 13 markets in ASIA From July 27 to September 3 2020, we surveyed 144 THE GOAL brand marketers across Asia. They included directors, VPs and managers from 13 countries, encompassing With this survey, our goal is two-fold: to get a China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, better understanding of how marketing priorities Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the and budgets are shifting, and to allow marketers Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. 11+ industries, to benchmark themselves against their fellow including automobile, financial services, retail, tech/ colleagues. We do not encourage a one-size-fits- 11+ telecommunications, FMCG, travel, healthcare and the all approach and any analysis coming out of the INDUSTRIES media, are represented. report should be used as a guide, instead of a be-all and end-all solution. BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 5 Job titles How many employees are in your organization worldwide? 26% Head, AVP & VP 18% 10,000+ 14% 36% SVP & above 1-250 13% 5001-10000 19% Director 12% 1001-5000 12% % 9% 251-500 41 501-1000 Manager BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 6 THE NEW REALITY: 02 THE ART OF DOING MORE WITH LESS f the marketing leads we have talked to in the past few months, most — if not BUDGETS HAVE DECREASED…UNSURPRISINGLY Oall — say that COVID-19 has upturned not only priorities and budgets, but the way they arrive at these priorities and budgets. This is also reflected in Campaign We asked how overall marketing budgets have shifted post-COVID-19. Asia and GfK’s Branding and Marketing in the New Abnormal report. Unsurprisingly, a huge majority (73%) say that budgets have decreased, with those in FMCG and healthcare hit hardest. How has your overall marketing budget changed Financial services since COVID-19? 9% 5% Increased Increased 18% 25% Stayed the same Stayed the same 73% 70% Decreased Decreased BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 8 How has your overall marketing budget changed since COVID-19? FMCG Retail 0% 22% Increased Increased 0% 33% Stayed the same Stayed the same 100% 44% Decreased Decreased BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 9 How has your overall marketing budget changed since COVID-19? Tech/Telecommunications Manufacturing 12% 23% Increased Increased 41% 15% Stayed the same Stayed the same 47% 62% Decreased Decreased BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 10 We also asked respondents how COVID-19 has affected their business. facing many marketers — according to a WARC study, global ad spend is set to fall A majority (56%) say that business has slowed or come to a screeching halt. by 8.1%. Diving into individual industries, retail is hit hardest, with 80% saying that business has If we compare the figures for budgets and impact on business, it’s immediately slowed, and 10% saying that it has come to a screeching halt, followed by automotive apparent that a greater percentage say budgets have decreased than those who say and consumer durable, with 100% saying business has slowed. This is a new reality business has slowed or come to a screening halt. To what extent has COVID-19 disrupted the Financial services category/ies your brand is present in? 27% 17% 45% 20% More interest, More revenue More interest, More revenue but revenue staying but revenue staying more/less the same/ more/less the same/ has decreased has decreased 11% 0% Business has come 44% Business has come 35% to a screeching halt Business has slowed to a screeching halt Business has slowed BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 11 To what extent has COVID-19 disrupted the category/ies your brand is present in? FMCG Retail 10% 0% More interest, More revenue 18% 18% but revenue staying More interest, More revenue more/less the same/ but revenue staying has decreased more/less the same/ has decreased 10% Business has come 9% to a screeching halt Business has come to a screeching halt 55% 80% Business has slowed Business has slowed BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 12 To what extent has COVID-19 disrupted the category/ies your brand is present in? Tech/Telecommunication Manufacturing 15% 35% 24% More revenue More interest, More revenue but revenue staying more/less the same/ has decreased 39% More interest, but revenue staying more/less the same/ 23% has decreased Business has slowed 6% 35% Business has come Business has slowed to a screeching halt 23% Business has come to a screeching halt For those who have experienced budget cuts and yet are still doing business, and thus, needing to continuously engage with consumers, the challenge is: how to do more with less? Before that question can be answered, we need to consider how marketing priorities have changed. BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 13 MARKETING PRIORITIES & KPIs: 03 WHAT KEEPS MARKETERS UP AT NIGHT? espondents were asked to rank their KPIs When we look at the data another way — where we KPIs R(from ‘1’ to ‘5’) when running marketing only consider the ‘1’ ranking — driving sales and leads campaigns pre-COVID-19. Taken as a consolidated still score highly, but we see maximizing ROI drop to PRE-COVID-19 ranking, driving sales came out significantly ahead the fifth most-selected option, coming behind driving as the top-ranked answer. Maximizing ROI and brand equity and long-term brand building. While many driving leads yielded similar scores, while driving respondents ranked maximizing ROI as one of their top brand equity and long-term brand building came three answers, fewer ranked it as their top answer — out with the same score. other concerns were more important pre-COVID-19. What were your KPIs when you ran marketing campaigns pre-COVID-19? CONSOLIDATED RANKINGS TOP RANKING 1 Driving sales 40% DRIVING SALES 2 Maximizing ROI 18% DRIVING LEADS 3 Driving leads 14% LONG-TERM BRAND BUILDING “Pre-COVID-19, driving sales was top 4 Driving brand equity 13% DRIVING BRAND EQUITY of mind. Post-pandemic, the need to 5 Long term brand building maximize marketing ROI has increased 9% MAXIMIZING ROI Driving perception/behavior change for marketers across the board” 6 6% DRIVING PERCEPTION/BEHAVIOR CHANGE BRANDING AND MARKETING IN THE NEW ABNORMAL 15 Fast forward to marketers’ top priorities at the time of What are the most important topics for you right now as a marketer? this survey launch and it’s quite a different story. The number one priority for marketers today? Maximizing 56% marketing ROI. Maximizing marketing ROI MAXIMIZING MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS Driving sales IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT TOPIC 50% FOR MARKETERS, FOLLOWED BY SALES. for the organization Brand positioning /brand marketing 40% Pre-COVID-19, driving sales was top of mind. Post- pandemic, the need to maximize marketing ROI has Content marketing 36% increased for marketers across the board. This speaks to Digital attribution/ 33% putting a finer emphasis on making sure that money is Multi-touch attribution doing more — or, as mentioned previously, doing more Allocation of 28% with less, given shrinking budgets.