Over three quarters (76%) of marketers believe ad-blocking will encourage greater creativity, although, 38% conceded it could lead to a decline in online marketing, according to a new study by The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
The project also asked its respondents – UK marketers of both B2B and B2C disciplines – about their priorities for the coming year, and found personalisation (42%), data-driven marketing (37%) and influencer marketing (31%) topped the list.
Customer strategy is marketing-led in 32% of companies, so it’s unsurprising that CX continues to be a huge concern for marketers – 20% identified it as the primary focus for 2017.
With consumer-focused companies such as Uber and Amazon reshaping CX with technology, marketers on both sides are feeling the strain to follow suit: half (49%) said they are under great pressure to reinvent CX in their own organisations.
But this stress looks set to pay itself off: almost a third (32%) of respondents see marketing as a pathway to senior management.
Separate research from affilinet found over half of Brits are currently using an ad blocker, with a third of respondents citing ‘irrelevant’ ads as the primary reason.
Chris Daly, chief executive of CIM, commented: “Marketers […] have a natural thirst for creativity. So it was positive to see the majority of respondents rising to the challenge of ad-blocking.
“It was also encouraging to see that while marketers are starting to look at new technologies, the fundamental skills of their profession in terms of delivering more personalised, targeted and influential campaigns, still sit at the core of marketers’ everyday lives.”