Note – most comments are from the Executive Summary from the Ag Marketing Trends & Insights conducted by Penton Agriculture.
The ag industry marketing benchmark survey conducted by Penton Agriculture, Ag Marketing Trends & Insights, helps answer key questions ag marketers have about where industry marketing dollars are being spent, how marketing initiatives are shifting, feelings around trending topics and how their tactics measure up against marketers beyond the ag sector. Marketers from across the ag industry were invited to participate in this ground-breaking survey and the results were recently released.
Ag commodity price shifts influence ag marketing budgets. The survey shows ag marketing spending has leveled-off and is now flat to slightly down, compared to prior years. (See slide 10 below.) The new budget realities spawn tactical shifts that are resulting in trends to keep delivering ROI and brand impact.
Digital upshot
No surprise to anyone, digital marketing initiatives are trending significantly up from previous years and look to continue to be the highest investment increase over the next 24 months. Marketers are funding their digital activities by scaling back spending around outdoor, direct mail, TV, radio and print. These traditional tactics remain important to marketers, however they are being shaved to fund newer activities, ag necessity given that overall budgets are note increasing. (See slides 6 and 20 below.)
What are the top three tactical spending increases that respondents reported? (See slide 22, below.)
1) Video Advertising
2) Data analytics
3) Social media
Internally, firms are spending more time and resources on site development, SEO/SEM, marketing automation, data analytics and content development. Much of this activity is likely driven by the need to adapt sites for mobile users, to measure marketing efforts, improve target marketing and to develop content used to fuel native programs.
The Payback
ROI will always be a part of any marketing program, today metrics matter even more. While CPM remains the most common metric used for digital advertising measurement, viewability has burst onto the scene and is quickly gaining traction. (See slide 24 below)
Technology transition
Ag marketers face customer variables that the average non-ag B2B marketer has never faced. We have a hybrid market of consumer/business customers. Our most significant customers (large-scale farmers and ranchers) who many times are part of a multi-generational “corporate” structure. Our customers use a high degree of complex technology to accomplish their daily work of feeding a hungry world. Their work locations can change throughout the day – they are on-the-go consumer group with heavy use of mobile devices.
Marketers are being driven to change their approaches to reach these multi-generational levels of decision makers by integrating marketing technology that takes advantage of improved rural connectivity, customers’ heavy use of mobile devices and the consumerization of technology.
This is only a topline summary of the report. Get the full survey report to see what new digital marketing tools are being adopted. Ask your Penton Ag account manager for the full survey report or click here to request it.
