Three quarters (74per cent) of UK marketers say the industry is stuck in ‘survival mode’, with nearly two thirds (64per cent) admitting they spend most of their time reacting to short-term requests rather than planning ahead.
The findings come from The Marketer’s Survival Guide, a new report from Optimizely. Based on a survey of 100 UK marketers, the report explores how AI hasn’t yet delivered on its promise to lighten the load, leaving marketers trapped in a cycle of reactive execution with little time for creativity or long-term planning.
It’s not just an industry-level problem; individual marketers feel it too. Nearly three-quarters (72per cent) of marketers admit they themselves spend too much time in survival mode, reacting to demands and requests.
The research suggests that marketers aren’t lacking ambition or creative ideas. What they are lacking is the time to act on it. More than half (54per cent) say they move from campaign to campaign without enough time to properly evaluate performance, while 51per cent feel stuck in a cycle of constant execution without a comprehensive strategy. Almost six in 10 (59per cent) say the amount of admin they deal with has increased over the last three years, and 31per cent say admin has increased ‘dramatically.’
“Operating in survival mode might get a campaign over the line, but it’s not how great marketing gets made,” said Tara Corey, SVP, Marketing at Optimizely. “What this research shows is that the ambition is still there, and so is the creativity. But too often, teams are stuck in ways of working that leave very little room for either. Businesses need to build the conditions for their marketing teams to thrive, not just survive.”
However, the findings also reveal that marketers are actively looking for ways out of survival mode. 85per cent of marketers say a unified platform for content, personalisation and experimentation would dramatically improve productivity, while 43per cent see better integration of AI with marketing tools as the biggest opportunity for improved efficiency and optimisation.
Many organisations have already started to tackle the problem. Nearly half (46per cent) of marketers say their organisation has invested in all-in-one marketing and workflow platforms in the past year, while 44per cent have introduced more automation to reduce manual work.
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