Digital budgets to increase as companies strive to connect with consumers

Gartner's Digital Marketing Spending report, based on a survey of 315 people representing businesses generating more than $500 million in annual revenue in the UK, US, and Canada, shows that, on average, those companies spent just over 10% of their annual 2014 revenue on overall marketing activities.

Half of those businesses plan to increase that spending next year.

Digital spending increases have been evident for the past few years and Gartner's figures come as no big surprise. However, what is interesting is the blurring of the line between traditional and digital marketing.

"For marketers in 2014, it's less about digital marketing than marketing in a digital world," observed Laura McLellan, VP of research at Gartner. "Hence, marketers manage a much more balanced and integrated marketing mix than in previous years, which were characterized by online and offline silos."

Respondents to Gartner's survey were also asked where the additional funding was coming from.

"Gartner's 2014 CEO Survey found that digital marketing was the No. 1-ranked CEO priority for technology-enabled business capability for investment during the next five years," said Yvonne Genovese, managing vice president at Gartner and author of the report. "It therefore comes as a little surprise that the digital marketing spending survey found that over 60% of companies that justified an addition to the marketing budget for digital marketing obtained incremental funding from elsewhere in the organization."

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Tags: digital marketing, marketing budget, research, traditional marketing