IntroductionToday more than ever before, marketing is the steward of the entire customer journey and building a bond with customers wherever they are. Marketing is in the driver’s seat but with that power comes responsibility and pressure for marketers to be exceptional. But, in a crowded space it’s harder and harder to be exceptional. In today’s world marketing is crowded and your audience is constantly bombarded with marketing messages. You find yourself facing the challenge of how you can break through the noise. To accept the challenge and excel in marketing you need to embrace the shift from talking at people to engaging with people, and work to build meaningful, life-long and personal relationships. In order to build those relationships you will have to shift how you think about and how you do your marketing. You need to be innovative.

This ebook explores innovation in today’s marketing world. It will show you how marketers think about, foster, and deploy innovation in their organizations and are making the shift from mass marketing to the new era of engagement marketing.

“Times have already changed; customer

engagement is the new battle ground on which we will be measured.”

— DREW NICHOLSON, CEO,

OGILVYONE DNX

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Key Take-AwaysAs part of Marketo’s 2014 Marketing Nation Roadshow Tour, we surveyed the attendees at the London stop about innovation in marketing and the state of innovation in their organization. Survey participants were comprised of senior-level marketers, representing a wide variety of sectors, both business-to-consumer and business-to-business. From the resulting data, we distilled five key take-aways:

• A deep understanding of your customers and prospects is the #1 driver of marketing innovation. 46% of respondents say it precedes and drives things like risk-taking and executive backing.

• Innovation is undeniably important. 80% of marketers say it ‘is important’ and 44% say it is ‘very important’.

• Consumer brands are still generally perceived as being more innovative than B2B brands.

• If marketers could innovate freely in any area, they would prioritize three things: market research and insight, marketing automation and technology, and multi-channel integrated campaigns.

• The urge to innovate is being constrained. Only 1 in 10 (10%) say they find their organizations’ marketing is innovative. The ‘average’ marketer finds her own innovation blocked by a risk-averse culture (77% describe their company culture in this way).

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INNOVATION IS CORE TO MARKETING

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Two Types of InnovationOur recent survey of marketers in the UK revealed another important observation about innovation. It means different things to different people. We see that marketers often fall into two camps based on who they are innovating against—themselves or others:

• Two fifths (40%) of marketers have what could be considered a ‘traditional’ view of innovation, believing that it has to involve experimentation, develop never-before-seen ideas, and release them to see how they fare. To these marketers, innovation is a relative concept—something you do that others don’t.

• The majority, however, have a different, more pragmatic definition of innovation. More than one half (52%) feel that the best point of comparison is not what others are doing, but what you yourself have done. To them, innovation means simply adopting new marketing methods that you have not previously used; it’s about continuous improvement.

“You must constantly experiment—if more than 50% of your experiments

work, you are doing great. But always learn from your failures and

move on.”

— STEPHEN YEO, MARKETING

DIRECTOR, PANASONIC SYSTEM

COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE

40% 52%

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Innovation MattersRegardless of which definition is used, almost all marketers agree that innovation matters. 80% see marketing innovation as an important part of their role; almost half (44%) describe it as ‘very important’. While there is an obvious bias toward the importance of innovation, it is still easier said than done. 8 in 10 (80%) agree that marketing innovation is important, but only 1 in 10 marketers (10%) say that a great deal of their organization’s marketing is innovative.

The desire to innovate exists, but something prevents it from occurring regularly. Looking at the most innovative marketing organizations offers some perspective and suggests a necessary catalyst.

“Innovation in marketing is all about outcomes, not fads. And whilst

innovation might involve creativity, not all creative ideas are useful innovations.”

— BOB APOLLO, CEO,

INFLEXION-POINT

Very Important

see marketing innovation as an important part of

their role

Important Nice to Have Not Important

44%

36%

19%

1%

80%

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The Traits of Innovative BrandsWhen it comes to marketing innovation, marketers have identified five brands as the top innovators—Coca-Cola, Apple, Google, Amazon and Red Bull.

Probe deeper and we see that there are four traits that innovative companies share. And no, one of them isn’t budget —only 3% of marketers feel that their ability to innovate depends on a well-resourced team. Rather, marketers believe that an innovative mind-set includes:

• A spirit of adventure. It’s in their DNA to be one step ahead, to be open to new ideas and to try out new things.

• An obsessive focus on the customer. All of their innovation is based on a deep understanding of the consumer and their fundamental needs.

• The ability to embrace change. Although in a state of constant change, they stay consistently true to one central brand idea.

• Showmanship. They execute their ideas with flair and enthusiasm.

The first two traits are especially important because they define the organizational ethos and support for innovation.

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Google

Red Bull

Apple19%

12%Coca-Cola

8%

7%

Amazon

6%

A Culture of InnovationA large percentage of marketers—(46%) feel that a deep understanding of the target market is the single most important requirement in driving innovation. An obsessive focus on the customer is vital in driving innovation in marketing. Innovation without customer understanding operates without focus, which is necessary to ensure that innovation is relevant and appealing.

Additionally, innovative organizations need to have a culture that supports risk takers and accepts failure. Of the marketers we surveyed, one in five (19%) cited an innovation supportive culture as the single most important factor behind marketing innovation.

When it comes to creating that culture, an organization’s leadership is responsible for setting the tone and establishing expectations and boundaries. Over 18% of marketers believe that having a CEO who passionately encourages innovation is the most important catalyst.

Deep Understanding of Target Market

What is Most Important if You are to Innovate in Marketing?

CEO Who Passionately Encourages Innovation

Willingness to Take Risks and Fail

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46%

19%

18%

Unleash your Inner-InnovatorSo it seems that the average marketer knows what’s important to do— so what’s stopping them?

For many, the problem is that their organization just doesn’t have a spirit of adventure. They listen with interest, and possibly excitement, when a marketing maverick shares innovative ideas, but fail to facilitate the ideas into action. Of the marketers we surveyed, 87% say that the most innovative marketing thinkers in their organization are generally respected by others, but not always listened to. Unfortunately ideas rarely translate to action because the majority of organizations are fundamentally risk-adverse.

“Innovative marketing teams usually have a high level of intelligence and

resourcefulness— be relaxed and confident in what they do. Do not be afraid of failure. It’s

important to have a good sense of humour and finally, BE HUNGRY and AMBITIOUS.”

— STEPHEN YEO, MARKETING

DIRECTOR, PANASONIC SYSTEM

COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE

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say that innovative marketing thinkers are

respected, but not always listened to

87% Highly Valued and Respected

Generally Listened to but Not Always

Fighting a Losing Battle

41%

46%

13%

Unleash your Inner-InnovatorWe asked marketers to categorize themselves on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is extremely cautious and 5 is borderline reckless, and here is what we uncovered:

• One third (31%) classify themselves as ‘Nervous Nellies’ with a rating of a 1 or 2.

• Half (46%) are ‘Conservative’ giving their culture a rather moderate score of 3 out of 5.

• Just one fifth (22%) describe themselves as ‘Mavericks’ with a rating of 4 or 5

So, if you want your organization to be at the cutting edge of marketing innovation, the first step should be to start a cultural change program. With this as a foundation, you will have fertile ground in place, and you can plant the seeds of innovation.

9%

1 2 3 4 5

22%

46%

19%

3%

Extremely Cautious Borderline Reckless

“Nervous Nellies” “Mavericks”

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Resourcing InnovationWhat innovative campaign they would choose if their CEO gave them unlimited resources? We discovered three common answers:

• Invest in market research and insights. More than one in ten (12%) said they’d invest in marketresearch and insight to create a rich understanding of the target market.

• Create a multi-channel, integrated campaign. The same number (12%) dreamed of integrated, cross-channel campaigns.

• Invest in marketing automation and technology. A similar proportion (15%) said that they’d put marketing automation and technology in place to manage, track and optimise their activity.

“Innovation is FREE. In fact, the more squeezed

the budget, the more innovation I have seen.”

— STEPHEN YEO, MARKETING

DIRECTOR, PANASONIC SYSTEM

COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE

New People & Structure

PersonalizationSomething

WackyContent

Marketing

Marketing Automationand Technology

15% 12%Multi-Channel

Integration 12%Research and

Insight

9%9%7%

9%

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SummaryAs the face of marketing changes, marketers believe that innovation is the solution to help them move beyond the status quo. The survey shows that marketers are leading this innovation by focusing their energy on engagement marketing over mass marketing. Marketers are tracking brands that consistently innovate, and working to develop cultures of innovation in their marketing organizations. In their view knowing their customer is the highest priority in a marketing organization looking to foster innovation. With engagement marketing, knowing the customer extends well beyond capturing demographic data, but instead focuses on listening and responding to their customers in order to create personal, continuous conversations that are the foundations to on-going relationships.

About the survey:

The Marketing Innovation survey was completed by 214 marketers attending Marketo’s Marketing Nation Roadshow held in London in September 2014. Participants were senior-level marketers representing a wide variety of sectors, both business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Survey data was collated, verified and interpreted by independent B2B research company Circle Research.

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Marketo (NASDAQ: MKTO) provides the leading marketing software and solutions designed to help marketers master the art and science of digital marketing. Through a unique combination of innovation and expertise, Marketo is focused solely on helping marketers keep pace in an ever-changing digital world. Spanning today’s digital, social, mobile and offline channels, Marketo’s Engagement Marketing Platform powers a set of breakthrough applications to help marketers tackle all aspects of digital marketing from the planning and orchestration of marketing activities to the delivery of personalized interactions that can be optimized in real-time. Marketo’s applications are known for their ease-of-use, and are complemented by the Marketing Nation®, a thriving network of 400 third-party solutions through our LaunchPoint® ecosystem and over 50,000 marketers who share and learn from each other to grow their collective marketing expertise. The result for modern marketers is unprecedented agility and superior results. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA with offices in Europe, Australia and Japan, Marketo serves as a strategic marketing partner to more than 3,400 large enterprises and fast-growing small companies across a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit marketo.com.

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