The Reference Digital Marketing Survey for Belgium: Has the Switch to digital happened? Belgian companies are increasingly diverting budgets from offline marketing to digital marketing. A two-yearly survey by The Reference reveals that the number of companies that spend over half of their total marketing budget on digital is rising rapidly, from 26% two years ago to 37% in 2013. More importantly maybe, although 65% of companies plan to raise their digital marketing budgets – exactly as much as 2 years ago – now 50% of companies also plan to lower their offline marketing budgets. Check out www.reference.be for full press release and other findings from the survey. Check out our slide set for graphs and highlights

1. DIGITAL MARKETING LANDSCAPE IN BELGIUM
2013 SURVEY

2. Background
In 2011, we conducted our first survey of the digital
marketing landscape in Belgium
In 2013, we repeated this survey
Same questions
Some additional questions
This presentation mainly: findings about remarkable
evolutions 2011 - 2013

3. Main findings summary
Switch to digital has happened
Digital in total marketing budget
Digital vs Off-line
Breakthrough of social and mobile
Content marketing is very important
In spite of growing adoption and budgets, still
difficult to determine ROI or attribute revenue

5. BUDGET SPENT ON DIGITAL
GROWING FAST

6. % of total marketing budget spent on digital
marketing (2011 – 2013)
Q: What percentage of your total marketing budget do you spend on digital marketing?
Please give a number between 0 and 100.
%ofcompanies
% of digital in total mkt budget
0
5
10
15
20
25
2011 Survey
2013 survey

7. % of digital in total mkt budget
0
5
10
15
20
25
2011 Survey
2013 survey
Digital > 50% of marketing budget:
From 26%(2011) to 37%(2013)
of companies
Q: What percentage of your total marketing budget do you spend on digital marketing?
Please give a number between 0 and 100.
% of total marketing budget spent on digital
marketing (2011 – 2013)
%ofcompanies

8. CHANGES IN
DIGITAL VS OFFLINE MARKETING BUDGETS

9. DIGITAL CHANNELS:
ADOPTION RATES, BUDGET ALLOCATION &
INVESTMENT PLANNING
EVOLUTION 2011 – 2013 / INVESTMENT PLANNING FOR 2014

10. ADOPTION DEGREE
BREAKTHROUGH FOR SOCIAL AND MOBILE

11. Digital channels adoption rates: 2011-2013
%ofcompaniesreporting:
‘Wedoitatthemoment’
Q: Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2011 survey 2013 survey

12. Social adoption 2011 – 2013
From +90% (advertising) to +40% (presence and monitoring)
Social presence set to become as widely adopted as classic website
0
20
40
60
80
100
2011 survey 2013 survey
Digital channels adoption rates: 2011-2013
%ofcompaniesreporting:
‘Wedoitatthemoment’

13. 0
20
40
60
80
100
2011 survey 2013 survey
Mobile adoption
Mobile sites have reached 50% adoption rate (+218%)
Adoption of apps, advertising and games:
Still low, but strong growth 2011 - 2013
Further strong growth expected: +/- 40% of companies report
that they are implementing or considering
Digital channels adoption rates: 2011-2013
%ofcompaniesreporting:
‘Wedoitatthemoment’

14. Digital channels adoption rates: 2011-2013
SEO and SEA: stagnating
Analytics: stagnating
0
20
40
60
80
100
2011 survey 2013 survey
%ofcompaniesreporting:
‘Wedoitatthemoment’

15. Digital channels adoption rates: 2011-2013
0
20
40
60
80
100
2011 survey 2013 survey
New categories in 2013 survey:
Content marketing: 62% adoption
Cross- and multichannel campaign mgt: 53% adoption
%ofcompaniesreporting:
‘Wedoitatthemoment’

16. Divide an investment of 100€: 2011 - 2013
0
5
10
15
20
25
2011 survey 2013 survey
%budgetallocation
Q: If you could invest EUR 100 in the following forms of digital marketing, how would you divide up
this EUR 100? Please give a figure between 0 and 100 per form. The total must equal 100.

17. Divide an investment of 100€: 2011 - 2013
Content marketing (new category in 2013 survey)
immediately becomes second largest investment category
(Lower investment in classic websites (and some other categories)
probably explained by the shift to content management)
0
5
10
15
20
25
2011 survey 2013 survey
%budgetallocation

18. Divide an investment of 100€: 2011 - 2013
Website, Content Marketing, Social Presence, SEO and e-mail marketing
account for 50% of investments
Are budgets becoming too thinly spread?
0
5
10
15
20
25
2011 survey 2013 survey
%budgetallocation

19. Digital channels investment plans 2014%ofcompaniesplanningtoinvestmore
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2011 survey 2013 survey
Q: To what extent is your company planning to invest more or less in the following forms
of digital marketing in 2014?

20. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2011 2013
%ofcompaniesplanningtoinvestmore
Digital channels investment plans 2014
Majority of cies planning to invest more
Large part of cies (>40%) planning to invest more
+/- a third of cies planning to invest more
Only 20% of cies planning to invest more

21. Digital channels investment plans 2014
Heavy investment focus for 2014 on
Content Marketing and Social Presence
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2011 2013
%ofcompaniesplanningtoinvestmore

22. DIGITAL MARKETING FOCUS QUADRANT
2013 COMPARED TO 2011

23. Digital marketing focus quadrant
23
NICHE
These are areas that are quite
unexplored by Belgian companies: there
is a low uptake and investments don’t
seem to increase significantly in the near
future.
RUNNER-UPS
Few companies are currently adopting
these digital marketing techniques, but
many companies see potential in them in
the near future. If companies keep
investing in them and they turn out to
deliver added value / ROI, these
initiatives might evolve into certainties.
CERTAINTIES
These are digital marketing initiatives
which have been adopted by most
Belgian companies. Moreover, most
companies are planning to invest more
into these areas, meaning these actions
will remain the foundations for their
digital marketing plans.
MATURE
These are digital marketing actions which
are used quite common among Belgian
companies. Companies will keep
investing into these areas, but allocated
budgets won’t increase that much
anymore.
2012investmentintention
Currently implemented

24. Digital marketing focus quadrant 2011
24
Runner-ups
Niche
Certainties
Mean all items
Mature
Bubble size = current budget allocation
Classic websites
E-commerce sites
Banner advertising
Web analytics
SEO
SEA
E-mail marketing
Mobile sites
Mobile apps
Mobile games
Mobile ads
Social ads
Social presence
Social media monitoring
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
2012higherinvestmentintention
Currently implemented

25. 25
Runner-ups
Niche
Certainties
Mean all items
Mature
Bubble size = current budget allocation
Classic websites
E-commerce
sites
Banner advertising
Web analytics
SEO
SEA
E-mail marketing
Mobile sites
Mobile apps
Mobile ads
Social ads
Social presence
Social media
monitoring
Content marketing
Multichannel campaign mgt
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Futureinvestment
Implemented
Digital marketing focus quadrant 2013
(Content marketing & multichannel campaign management are new items that were added in the 2013 survey)

26. RETURN ON INVESTMENT

27. ‘It is difficult to
determine the ROI
of my digital marketing efforts’
% of companies
that agree
has risen
from 44%to 48%
‘What percentage of total
revenue can you attribute to
digital marketing?’
(new question in 2013 survey)
55%(!)
of companies
say they ‘don’t know’
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
don't agree at
all
don't agree neutral agree Agree
entirely
2011 2013
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Don't
know we
don't
measure
it
Don't
know,
but we
definitely
plan to
measure
it
Between
0 - 10%
Between
11-20%
Between
21-30%
Between
31-40%
Between
41-50%
Over 50%

28. In view of
continuously rising
investments in
the switch to digital,
these findings are
cause for concern
Together with findings
about analytics
Adoption rate flat
compared to 2011 (79% )
Only 7% of budget
(otherwise thinly spread)
Only 34% planning to
invest more
this evolution is
alarming
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
don't agree at
all
don't agree neutral agree Agree
entirely
2011 2013
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Don't
know we
don't
measure
it
Don't
know,
but we
definitely
plan to
measure
it
Between
0 - 10%
Between
11-20%
Between
21-30%
Between
31-40%
Between
41-50%
Over 50%
‘What percentage of total revenue can
you attribute to digital marketing?’
‘It is difficult to determine the ROI
of my digital marketing efforts’

29. INVESTMENTS IN PEOPLE & KNOWLEDGE

30. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
outsource reasons 2011 outsource reasons 2013
What are the main reasons why you call upon
external parties for your digital marketing
activities? (max 3 answers)

31. Although ‘knowledge reasons’ remain important reasons to call
upon external parties, companies seem to have caught up
with regard to their knowledge in the past 2 years
What are the main reasons why you call upon
external parties for your digital marketing
activities? (max 3 answers)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
outsource reasons 2011 outsource reasons 2013

32. What are the main reasons why you call upon
external parties for your digital marketing
activities? (max 3 answers)
‘Practical reasons’ are becoming more important
to call upon external parties
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
outsource reasons 2011 outsource reasons 2013

33. Divide budget of 100€
over the following domains
(new question in 2013 survey)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Technology New people Developing the skills
of people who are
already in house
Outside agencies
Allocate budget of 100 € in following domains

34. Divide budget of 100€
over the following domains
(new question in 2013 survey)
56% of budgets go to the company’s own people:
Hopefully, this will help to solve the ROI- and attribution problems
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Technology New people Developing the skills
of people who are
already in house
Outside agencies
Allocate budget of 100 € in following domains

35. More information about our services?
www.reference.be
or
info@reference.be