Nielsen’s annual marketing report
By Data and Insights
Nielsen recently released their ROI/marketing report for 2022- full of data backed tips and tricks for marketers and brands. We’re going to deep dive into the key takeaways and insights.
The report shows that despite the difficulty of the past two years, brands are continuing to rebalance their marketing efforts after widespread pullbacks in 2020. WPP’s GroupM expects a good year for the ad market in 2022, forecasting global growth of 9.7%. In select digital channels, the planned increase will be as high as 53%.
Nielsen said: “Consumer behaviour isn’t just in flux—it has changed. As it always has been, data is a marketer‘s guiding light. But that data—which should be increasingly rooted in an effective first- party data strategy—should be plugged into scalable marketing solutions that brands of all sizes can use to approach all decisions with precision to arrive at reliable, growth-driving outcomes.”
There were four clear takeaways from the report for brands and marketers to focus their efforts on. Here’s the breakdown:
Brand awareness has never been more important:
Global marketers are united in stating that building brand awareness is their top objective. However, today, amid media fragmentation and sources of brand equity evolving, brands need to leverage an array of channels to reach the widest audiences.
The report suggests aligning your marketing strategy with KPIs that can be achieved through established tactics.
The last several years have been up and down in momentum for brands, so it's only natural that marketers now want to put their money in channels and tactics that deliver immediate ROI whilst they can. To do this and stay top-of-mind with consumers- marketers must place themselves across the platforms and channels their consumers spend their time. Many traditional sources of brand equity have become less visible in recent years, as people spend more time at home or do more of their shopping online. And this increased pressure on non-marketing sources of equity only elevates the importance of marketing in the view of preserving a brand’s health.
Nielsen says to further this- lean into the mass reach capabilities of digital channels. We know, linear TV is, one of the most effective channels for driving long-term sales lift, but other channels like online video and CTV are increasingly growing in their ability to engage very wide audiences and can help round out well-balanced and holistic marketing strategies- casting the net wider.
The industry has been having the same conversation over the years, with the rapid growth of online and more choice for consumers, but the next few years are crucial for brand awareness and perception through marketing channels - There is more and more choice in the market now and consumers need to be able to identify brands quickly, trust them and engage with them which takes a balance of mass media brand awareness, and audience first approaches. Even brands that are perceived to be top of their game are still investing; Just Eat have recently announced a £100million addition to their marketing budget for example.
Un-silo your measurement:
Consumer journeys have never been siloed, but increasing media fragmentation amplifies the need for holistic measurement. Nielsen says that you should leverage the technology that delivers on your needs. Marketing budgets are no stranger to scrutiny, but the past two years shine an even brighter light on the importance of efficient and effective spending. Having insight into the consumer is the best way to stay agile and adaptive. Overall, investments in trusted and robust data sources will be money well spent.
Use data to champion personalized marketing strategies:
Nielsen states that globally, marketers understand the need for audience data, yet they struggle with varying aspects of their data strategies, citing notable challenges with data access, identity resolution and being able to derive actionable insights. But by investing in high-quality, deterministically sourced data will ultimately help marketers keep pace with consumers even when change seems constant. Many traditional targeting solutions aren’t built for engaging with consumers across channels like CTV and podcasting, but by combining contextual and behavioural data, marketers can be more effective and efficient with their marketing campaigns- meeting consumers on these newer channels.
Make your brand promise indicative of your brand experience, who you are, what you do or what makes you special:
Nielsen states that No marketing should exist without purpose- and that much is true. Focus on who you are as a brand, what you want from consumers and what consumers want from you. This is your chance to communicate something vital about your experience, products, services or beliefs!
Amy Roberts, our Head of Media Planning commented: “From a Data and Insight perspective within marketing and advertising solutions, we are in a period that is so exciting! New developments in audience targeting are being announced all the time, which we can utilise in terms of specific messaging, creative order delivery, time of day and so much more to ensure that an audience first approach really can shine. From a planning perspective, we need to work with brands and data & insight teams to ensure the mix of audience targeting and wider audience brand building is balanced to ensure brand awareness and future proofing is present also.”