Marketing Procurement

Automating marketing procurement to achieve your 2022 goals report

Major Losses

“…between 18% and 48% of all creative assets produced were never used…and brands pay $170 million+ annually on rights infractions”

The report is divided into three sections; part one: shaping your digital strategy, part two: data-driven decision-making and part three: aligning agency procurement models with modern demands.  

You can view and download the report here.

The report highlights how marketing procurement leaders are looking beyond the limitations of conventional sourcing platforms, for specific technology solutions that can lend a competitive edge.

Contributors to the survey are Strategic Director at Extreme Reach Andy Hopkinson, Extreme Reach’s CMO Melinda McLaughlin, Carlota Ibanez Moreno Global Procurement Manager – Creative and Digital Marketing Content at Nestlé, Philipp Schuster – Agency & Marketing Partnerships Lead Global Strategic Marketing Consumer Health at Bayer and Gabriela Garay, Conference Director at ProcureCon Marketing 2022.

In a survey of 100 participants, the respondents explained that developing new customer relationships is a key benefit of automating their marketing processes. Investing in automation technology and data analytics platforms can reveal new insights into customer behaviour and their purchasing habits.

Key findings from the report concern developing customer relationships to automate marketing processes. Here, 67% of respondents view developing new customer relationships as the key benefit of automating marketing processes, with digital technologies and data analytics revealing insights into consumer behaviour and purchasing habits.

With regards to critical innovation areas for 2022, almost two thirds (64%) of respondents consider interoperability between digital asset management (DAM) systems and marketing creative/media as the most critical marketing area for innovation in 2022. While, 61% of respondents put the focus on enterprise marketing solutions that reveal holistic, actionable insight.

When discussing overcoming supplier diversity challenges, 62% of respondents said their major challenge regarding supplier diversity was cost. Other key challenges for respondents include visibility or access to opportunities for recommending diverse suppliers (56%) and staffing resource allocation (56%).

The report also highlights the findings of a recent evaluation, in which global brands revealed that between 18% and 48% of all creative assets produced were never used. It also revealed that brands pay $170 million+ annually on rights infractions.

Philipp Schuster, Agency & Marketing Partnerships Lead, Global Strategic Marketing Consumer Health at Bayer comments, “When you automate something, it’s about efficiency. Everything you can automate is more transactional”. 

He continues, “When it comes to marketing processes, I think efficiency is important. This frees up time for your marketing and procurement teams to focus on the more complicated things. Furthermore, mistakes and human errors are reduced. As a result, the areas that are automated should become more efficient, faster and with less errors. For me, those are the two biggest benefits”.

Gabriela Garay, Conference Director of ProcureCon Marketing 2022, considers, “Automating your marketing processes frees up your time to really understand the insights you get from your customers”. 

Garay adds, “Especially today with the abundance of digital tools, we need to eliminate these kinds of time-consuming processes as much as possible. You should be investing time where you can make a difference and stand out from your competitors who are finding and developing the right insights as well”. 

Carlota Ibanez Moreno, Global Procurement Manager, Creative and Digital Marketing Content, Nestlé states, “With data-driven results, we can construct a more solid business case. Automated processes benefit not only the company but also the relationship with suppliers”. 

Melinda McLaughlin, CMO of Extreme Reach says, “The challenge is not to create more data, but to leverage only what matters; not to add more technology to the stack, but to simplify by replacing point-solution tools with more complete and connected essential software”​​​​.

At a time of uncertainty, inflation, and fluctuating prices, sourcing new digital suppliers was deemed important by well over half of the respondents. 

The report states that gathering data to enhance the marketing procurement process is vital in 2022. By combining data from multiple sources, heads of marketing procurement can build derived metrics that enable informed decision-making and provide a better indication of performance.

As well as this, data can also provide real-time information on behavioural and market conditions, enabling heads of marketing to make projections and trends.

The research found that 49% of respondents have an internal division that owns holistic data analysis and insight and that 34% of respondents are working with a consultancy to manage and mine campaign data.

The marketing procurement function involves creative concepts, and the complex integration of branding efforts such as advertising, events, media buying, and the management of social media. Coupled with the growth in digital media buying and the evolution of new media consumption channels, heads of marketing procurement face a challenge in keeping track of this complex spend category, and the factors contributing to its ROI

Andy Hopkinson Strategic Director, Extreme Reach says “There is more pressure than ever to measure and report marketing ROI. But as more data is generated, it is now actually harder to access key ROI metrics. The responses to this question signal far too much opaqueness and confirm that these key measures are not nearly accessible enough across the industry. The challenge now is to simplify and connect the ROI KPI’s, so they can be made available in near real-time. Only then will the ROI question be answered.”

Schuster highlighted  “The percentage of produced assets that were never used, is an interesting one. This is a concern, especially in global organisations with a lot of markets, a lot of complexities, and so on, but it is an industry issue, not an individual issue. Unfortunately, many things are made and created which are never used, and of course, that’s the biggest waste you can imagine”

He continues “Additionally, we look at how often things are used, and we want to make sure that you are sweating the assets – using them multiple times. The goal must be to use the assets as much as possible. Consider the Coca Cola Christmas truck as an example. If you look at that ad, it has been running for 20 years or so. That is an impressive ROI. If you can use these metrics to increase the usage of assets, then that can be extremely beneficial.”

However, there are some challenges relating to implementing data analytics in the marketing procurement funnel.

The survey’s respondents cited a range of challenges, including high costs as automation technology and processes need constant updates over time. The regulatory environment surrounding data can also hamper decision-making and disrupt data assimilation.

Furthermore, the report highlights that supplier diversity/inclusive procurement space remains a relatively immature field that poses significant challenges. 

Almost two-thirds of respondents cited costs as a key challenge, whilst others said a lack of visibility of diverse suppliers and a lack of staffing resource allocation as their biggest challenges in marketing procurement. Meanwhile, less than a quarter of respondents have set clear diversity goals and have implemented reliable ways to measure their progress.