Aussie marketers see growth in teams and budgets

More than half of Australian marketers have larger teams than they had 12 months ago and the majority expect their marketing budgets to increase in the next year, a new survey has found.

Oracle Marketing Cloud’s survey of 235 senior marketers at the ADMA Global Marketing Forum in Sydney on 4-6August found 56 per cent have bigger marketing teams than they did in August last year, up 12 per cent on results recorded in 2014.

Just over 56 per cent of survey respondents also believed their marketing budgets would increase during the coming year, while 37 per cent expected budgets to remain the same.

The results made obvious the complex nature of marketing today, with 84 per cent of respondents describing marketing as a 'challenging' role. A further 8 per cent likened it to 'rocket science'.

In addition, Oracle found more than one third expected to implement cloud marketing technology over the next three years, a sign of the growing automation and digitisation of the marketing function.

Oracle Asia-Pacific and Japan vice-president of customer success, Paul Cross, said marketers must become more comfortable with using data and technology if they’re to meet the ever-higher demands of consumers wanting personalised and more relevant relationships with brands.

“The growth of budgets and teams suggests that organisations are linking smart marketing investment to revenue and profit growth,” he commented. “Today, customer centricity is at the core of modern marketing. Marketers are looking for tools which will allow them to deliver real returns from cross-channel marketing using highly personalised customer outreach but in an automated and orchestrated manner.”