Tech marketers have
switched priorities

With traditional methods cut off, marketers turned to design and creativity to reach their customers.

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Q1.

What would you say are the three most important focus areas for marketing teams in the current environment?

Enterprise / SME comparison
UK / US comparison

Q2.

Since the start of the pandemic are your organisation’s marketing priorities any more focused on any of the following?

Enterprise / SME comparison
UK / US comparison

Q3.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, have you felt frustrated at all by the limits the subsequent restrictions have imposed on your ability to use traditional marketing channels e.g. live events / networking?

Enterprise / SME comparison
UK / US comparison

Expert view

“Everything in our communications now is about brainstorming alongside our customers.”

Barbara Moreno
Head of Marketing, Amadeus NDC

Can creativity drive empathy?

This pandemic has forced us not just to be creative in our marketing efforts, but also to be more empathetic than before. Everything in our communications now is about brainstorming alongside our customers and saying, “we are all together in this situation. How can we make your life easier?”

We chose to push stories that are focused on our customers: working with them to decide how to move forward, and providing them technology to make it happen.

Pick another chapter

Did COVID make tech marketing braver?

Changing attitudes to creativity and risk

Does martech limit creativity?

How the pandemic changed engagement

Tech marketers have switched priorities

New channels for a new normal

Which channels are working now?

What marketers want from an agency

Key lessons and takeaways

Conducted in February 2021 by Opinium, Perspective 2021 is a survey of over 200 senior marketers in medium to large tech companies in US and UK.

Analysis

Tech marketers have switched priorities

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Here’s the proof.

The rules have changed, and tech marketers responded by getting creative.

Roughly half of respondents found themselves frustrated by not being able to use their traditional marketing methods. This was especially true in the largest companies: 59% versus 48% in smaller businesses.

But that change forced marketers to look again at their priorities. The most popular switch
was to focus more on design and creativity; 60% made this a priority, followed by 57% emphasising performance marketing, and 55% looking at marketing research.

This shift to creativity was particularly pronounced among enterprise marketers and in the US. Again, there’s a clear divergence in the priorities for different sizes of business. Aside from creativity, large enterprise marketers focused on brand and performance marketing.

Meanwhile, the change in trading conditions has forced small business marketers to redouble their focus on lead generation. 57% have made it their top priority during the pandemic – understandably working hard to keep the lights on, at the expense of exploring other approaches.

Back to results

60%

of tech marketers say design and creativity are more of a focus than before the pandemic.

59%

Most large-company marketers were frustrated at being unable to use traditional marketing methods; most in small companies were not.

41%

of enterprise tech marketers say strategy is the most important focus area.