Corporate marketers predict that digital technologies will fundamentally transform marketing.

• Position: MARKETING NEWS

SEVENTY-EIGHT PERCENT OF MARKETING EXECUTIVES BELIEVE corporate marketing will undergo a fundamental transformation over the next five years due to the use of analytics, digital and mobile technologies, according to a new global survey by New York-based Accen-ture, the management consulting company.

However, a similar number of respondents (79 percent) believe their company will not be a fully operationalized digital business in the same amount of time.

Accenture Interactive's new report, "CMOs: Time for Digital Transformation or Risk Being Left on the Sidelines," notes that marketing executives are chasing the digital vision as more than one third of the executives surveyed expect digital spending to account for more than 75 percent of their marketing budgets within five years, and 41 percent believe their spending on digital marketing will increase by more than five percent next year alone. This is a key finding from the new report based on survey responses of nearly 600 executives in 11 countries conducted between November 2013 and January 2014.

"As marketing executives are increasingly embracing digital they can be catalysts to help their company take advantage of the wider digital opportunity and protect against broader digital threats," says Brian Whipple, senior managing director, Accenture Interactive. "Marketing executives are well positioned to assume this role because the opportunities, as well as the potential and real threats, are all about the customer, the brand, the interface with the customer and how the customer is empowered. To be part of their enterprise's digital transformation, marketing executives should extend their vision of marketing beyond traditional boundaries."

Only 62 percent of survey respondents, however, believe their company currently provides a good customer experience. To turn this situation around, the report says that companies will have to improve their ability to build long-lasting customer relationships, design and deliver branded customer experiences, and make use of multiple channels, including an increased leverage of digital channels.

The report recommends...