This is one of the findings of a global survey – sponsored by Google – compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
However, it also found that executives spend less time assessing the performance of marketing campaigns than either planning or executing them.
It also showed that leading companies believe marketing will play an increasing strategic role in their business, and that online advertising will be central to major campaigns. Over half believe that brand advertising will drive that growth.
Among the other findings were:
45 per cent of respondents believe that the marketing department will become more deeply involved in decisions regarding strategic partnerships.
72 per cent say that in two years' time online will be the media platform that determines how major interactive marketing campaigns are planned and executed (up from only 28 per cent of respondents who believe that today).
29 per cent of companies will re-allocate their marketing budget from offline to online advertising and promotion.
Nigel Holloway, director of research in the Americas for the Economist Intelligence Unit, says: "Online marketing is rapidly maturing, but companies have to make sure their actions catch-up with their aspirations. Executives must not lose sight of the need for specific yardsticks of success in every part of their marketing budget."
The survey also detected little apparent co-ordination between online ad spending with traditional media budget allocations. Integration of online and offline marketing remains the exception rather than the rule, with 52 per cent of executives admitting their online and offline marketing efforts either run in parallel or are not integrated at all.
More than 200 companies participated in the survey, comprising 228 executives in the United States, Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Regional differences were found to be negligible.
