B2C Marketers Tout Coming Impact of “Brandstanding”

January 31, 2022

B2C marketers believe that influencer marketing, new social networks and first-party data collection were the tactics that had the most impact last year. And while brandstanding was further down the list for 2021 in terms of effectiveness, this year it ranks on top, per a report [download page] from Wpromote and Ascend2.

Earlier research shows that a majority of consumers believe it’s important for brands to take a stand on social issues. B2C marketers are getting the message. Some 3 in 10 of the more than 200 B2C marketers surveyed believe that brandstanding — also referred to as mission- or value-based marketing — will have the most impact on marketing performance this year. 

Respondents also feel that new social networks (28%) and experiential/interactive content (25%) will have an outsized impact on marketing performance in 2022, while influencer marketing and first-party data collection are further down the list.

Additionally, some B2C brands intend to add these tactics to their marketing mix this year, with a little more than one-quarter (27%) including brandstanding in their marketing strategy this year. They are also allocating budget for testing new marketing strategies. More than 8 in 10 (83% of) respondents agree that they will receive sufficient budget to test new marketing strategies this year. 

What Channels Will Marketers Be Using Most?

Along with email and SMS, most respondents plan to include paid social and paid search in their marketing strategy this year. Much like last year when marketers from across the globe increased their advertising investment in social media and paid search, about half of the senior marketers surveyed reveal that they plan to increase their budgets for paid social (48%) and paid search (47%).

It’s clear as to why B2C marketers continue to use and increase their investment in these channels. Not only do marketers believe that paid search, paid social, email and SMS were most effective in helping to achieve marketing objectives last year, but they also foresee these channels having the most impact on marketing performance in 2022.

B2C brands appear to be putting a good chunk of their budgets behind creating awareness, with more than half (54%) of respondents allocating at least one-quarter of marketing budgets to upper-funnel initiatives. Paid search is thought to have the most impact in the coming year on these initiatives, followed by YouTube and paid social. These are also the channels that will have the most allocated budget for upper-funnel objectives this year, per the report. 

Marketers Are Planning Ahead

While one-quarter of respondents say they plan their marketing strategy 6 months in advance, a larger share (35%) say they plan their overall strategy a full year in advance. A plurality also say that, in the year ahead, they will allocate their marketing budget a full year in advance. 

The full report can be found here.

About the Data: Findings are based on a November 2021 survey of 210 senior-level B2C marketers at companies with at least $50 million in annual revenue.

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