Barriers to integrated marketing

Research by the World Federation of Advertisers on the challenges that the world's largest advertisers face in developing integrated marketing communications has shown that the biggest gaps arise from people and performance.The findings were based on responses from 33% of WFA's membership across eight categories and annual marketing budgets of around US$32billion.According to the WFA, IMC was the top priority for 80% of the advertisers it surveyed in April 2013.From that survey, top five areas for improvement were identified.Firstly, setting the right KPIs is an issue. A note in the survey highlighted that marketers need a better idea of what success looks like to help them measure the right metrics."This is a particular challenge for single brand companies and those with an annual global ad spend of less than US$500million," the WFA said.Secondly, being able to demonstrate ROI is another challenge. The study said that this is a most pressing problem particularly for the largest marketers - those that spend more than US$2billion annually.It also said that being able to execute a top-down approach was another key challenge."To ensure company-wide adoption, a top-down approach is critical. Based on our sample, this is the top challenge for the world's largest companies. In terms of sectors, those in the food and drinks industry have (on average) the furthest to go to align leadership behind an IMC approach."The fourth challenge was around people. While companies need to recruit and empower dedicated, specialized and experienced teams of staff to lead IMC efforts, the survey said that once again, the biggest gap in having such people were in the biggest spending companies.Finally, the study said that companies still struggle to develop processes that help them develop unifying marketing ideas that can work across multiple channels, or in other words, big ideas."Companies with a single brand are lagging here when compared to companies with more complex brand portfolios," according to the research.Overall, the study found that companies with an average annual ad spend of between US$500million and US$2billion per year are most IMC ready, followed by the largest companies, those spending more than US$2billion  a year. Smaller companies are most likely to struggle, it said.Stephan Loerke, managing director of the WFA, said: "The results show that most companies still have some way to go before they have all the tools and talent in place to deliver truly integrated marketing communications."The complexity of a company's brand portfolio appears to have little impact on IMC readiness but companies in durables and semi durables tend to perform best, followed by non-durables such as FMCG and pharma products. The next place is taken by food and drink producers, added the note.The study was based on outputs from the IMC Scorecard, a tool developed by the WFA in partnership with Naked Communications. The tool is designed to enable advertisers to benchmark their IMC readiness against their peers.