adobeMany marketers today are still struggling with social media and the increasing number of digital channels, especially with adapting their role and acquiring new knowledge. At least, this has been the conclusion of Adobe's study Digital Roadblock: Marketers struggle to reinvent themselves released earlier this year.

According to the report, almost half of the respondents (40%) stated that they want to structure their scope of duties according to the requirements of the digital development; but only 14% of these marketers have actually a concrete plan for the reorganization in their heads. The rapid changes in today's marketing has been confirmed by a majority of respondents and more than half said more risk-taking is necessary nowadays.

Regarding new technologies, however, marketers have been rather cautious: 65% reported they would only use new technologies, if these are to become mainstream tools; 69% of marketers see in mobile a crucial element of successful marketing activities; 61% of marketers see social media as the most important platform, followed by mobile with 51%; print and TV, however, fall significantly from 9% and 7% respectively.

Last but not least, 63% of marketers said they are more active in social media marketing than last year; more than half also used email campaigns and digital analysis for an improved customer communication - even more than in 2013.

As you can imagine, this development leads to a shift towards more investment in digital marketing issues within a company: Indeed, marketers call the positions of digital/social marketers (47%), data analysts (38%), creative services (38%), and mobile marketers (36%) as central roles in the company to invest in over the next 12 months.

In Adobe’s survey, marketers were asked as well what would be the key changes they would like to see in terms of effectiveness and got the answer: The ability to work better across channels is with 21% at the forefront, followed by the ability to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign (16%).

Although I have covered the study already earlier this year, I thought this summary could still be of interest, especially since Adobe just this week presented its predictions on trends to expect during Singapore’s holiday shopping season, which starts this week until the end of the year. Adobe forecasted in this case that tablets and smartphones will account for 17% of all online sales between now and Christmas. Further, online sales in Singapore are predicted to peak on December 8 as shoppers hunt down the best deals and place their orders in time for delivery before Christmas.

By the way, Adobe’s Holiday Shopping Predictions are the most comprehensive of its kind in the industry. The forecast is based on the analysis of aggregated and anonymous data of more than one trillion visits to 4,500 retail websites over the last six years and 20 billion visits in October 2014 all over the world

The graph below highlights Singapore as the only ASEAN country in the top 10 markets for expected holiday share of online sales this year.

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The holiday season is expected to account for 20% of annual online sales, showing how vital the Christmas spending spree has become for retailers moving into eCommerce, a market forecast to reach S$4.4 billion in 2015 in Singapore, four times its value in 2010.

The analysis also predicted that nine percent of online shopping transactions will be conducted through tablets, but smartphones are poised to take over as the preferred mobile shopping device as they have risen to account for eight percent of transactions.

Stephen Hamill, Adobe Managing Director, Southeast Asia, said the rise of phones as shopping hubs is a signal to retailers that they need to create user-friendly and mobile-optimized digital shop fronts. “With 20% of annual online sales coming during the run up to Christmas as shoppers buy on their mobile devices, it is clear people now see shopping on their phones, tablets and laptops as the norm,” said Hamill.

“People now want to connect and shop from wherever they are and it is becoming easier as phones get bigger screens, better interfaces and mobile data connections continue to improve. Retailers have to keep up with consumer behavior and they have to be able to do so across a range of devices.”

Indeed, the shift to digital marketing requires the use of new technologies, approaches and tools, and in many cases a complete role change in marketing. It’s good to see that marketers recognize the need to change and understand that Big Data, personalization and working on the social channels, web and mobile are becoming increasingly important for them. So, just keep going.

By Daniela La Marca