Sabrina Sanchez
Aug 19, 2021

PHD: Marketers spend more time reporting than creating

A study by the media agency shows most marketers spend the bulk of their time on reporting tasks—but that will change over time.

PHD: Marketers spend more time reporting than creating

Marketers are often attracted to the discipline because of its creative aspects, but reporting has come to dominate day-to-day roles, according to a study conducted by PHD and WARC.

Surveying 1,721 global senior brand marketers, PHD found that the amount of time marketers spend on reporting tasks has increased by 57% percent over the last 10 years. Globally, more than 88% of marketers say they spend most of their time on reporting tasks, including tracking performance, creating competitive analyses and producing audience insights. Marketers also said they spend more time on planning (83%) and analysing investments (74%) than 10 years ago.

As AI and automation become more widespread, marketers are spending less time executing campaigns, which dropped from the fourth to the fifth most regularly carried out task over the past year, as well as producing campaigns, which dropped from the third to the fourth most frequent task. 

As time spent tracking and optimizing increases, marketers estimate they spend just 18% of their time thinking creatively and coming up with new ideas. 

The data has strong implications for what marketing and creative roles will look like in the future, said Mark Holden, worldwide strategy and planning director at PHD. 

“Ultimately, AI will enable a junior creative to operate as if they are an executive creative director,” he said. “It will produce a range of [assets], and the creative can decide which ones they want to work with.”

But marketers seem to agree that the pendulum has swung too far toward rote tasks like reporting. Ninety-one percent of survey respondents predicted that in 10 years, ideation will once again dominate the role. Respondents also agree that analytics will take up 16% more of their time over the next decade.

Marketers will be able to focus on more creative tasks as the industry builds out its reporting capability and infrastructure, Holden said. “When you start to look towards the future, [time spent on] reporting starts to drop because people can turn their minds back to how to grow brands with creativity.”

Given the shifts underway, agencies should already have data and analytics infrastructure, as well as talent with niche analytics skills in place to keep up, Holden advised.

“We must apply the same precision mindset that we had applied to technology to talent,” he said. “[Talent] is not a cost to be reduced, but as an investment for growth.”

  Most common marketing functions (global averages)              
                         
  10 Years Ago     Today   %Ch     In 10 Years   %Ch
1 Originating 73%   1 Reporting 88% 57%   1 Originating 91% 6%
2 Reporting 56%   2 Originating 86% 18%   2 Reporting 90% 3%
3 Producing 51%   3 Planning 83% 69%   3 Producing 90% 10%
4 Executing 50%   4 Producing 82% 61%   4 Planning 89% 7%
5 Planning 49%   5 Executing 81% 64%   5 Analyzing 86% 16%
6 Analyzing 46%   6 Analyzing 74% 62%   6 Executing 83% 2%
    54%       82%         88%  
  Source:  WARC and PHD 2021                

 

Source:
Campaign US

Related Articles

Just Published

2 hours ago

Dentsu Q3 2024 earnings: Japan's growth contrasts ...

Despite a robust 2.8% Q3 increase in Japan, Dentsu has downgraded its full-year outlook to flat (0%) due to a sharp fall in the APAC region.

6 hours ago

Junior creatives: 'It's okay to take it slow'

An agency CEO responds to a junior creative's heartbreaking confession, offering practical advice and a much-needed dose of empathy.

7 hours ago

PHD wins $35 million Bosch China media account

EXCLUSIVE: The multimillion dollar corporate media mandate moves after a competitive review process in Q2.

7 hours ago

Beyond Wall Street: Dow Jones on redefining legacy ...

As the media industry navigates a mercurial landscape, Dow Jones’ global CCO, CMO, and EVP and GM for leadership, luxury, and events sit down with Campaign to discuss why their news goes well beyond the parishioners of finance.