Every year, the Path to Purchase Institute conducts our annual Trends survey, polling our audience of CPG brand commerce marketers on everything from investment and budgeting to new strategies they’re leveraging and challenges they’re facing.
This year, we split the survey into two parts: part 1 (which was released in the January/February edition of P2PI Magazine) asked respondents to rate the retailer media networks with which they work based on their relative strengths in targeting effectiveness, measurement capabilities, ROI, data sharing, sales growth, creative freedom and traffic-driving capabilities. This first half of the survey also delved into retail media a bit deeper, polling our audience on investment and budget allocations, measurement, organizational mapping and predictions for the “next frontier” of retail media.
In this edition of the magazine, we now share the results from part 2 of the survey, which focuses on broader topics in commerce marketing, like overall budgeting, in-store marketing, social media and artificial intelligence (AI), among other subjects. However, retail media still rose to the forefront of part 2 of the survey. When asked how their organization’s investment in certain areas had changed in 2023 vs. 2022, 70% of respondents said their investment in retailer media networks had increased, the most for any area we identified. Social media (66%), e-commerce content (58%), digital media other than retail media (55%) and insights & analytics (54%) were the other areas most identified as having increased.
Furthermore, when asked to select up to three strategies/tactics from our list that have been most important to their organizations in the last year, 40% identified retailer media networks. Only e-commerce content (48%) was selected more, while search (SEO/SEM) and social media garnered similar percentages to RMNs.
In addition to retail media, AI was also (unsurprisingly) at the top of our survey takers’ minds. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said their organizations were already leveraging AI in their 2023 marketing strategies — 48% qualified their use as minimal and 11% as moderate or extensive. For 2024, 87% said they will leverage it — 61% minimally and 26% moderately or extensively.
These are just some of the factoids you’ll find in our report. (Editor’s note: Members of P2PI also get access to the full research deck at P2PI.com).
Also in this issue, we bring you another longstanding P2PI tradition — our annual Hall of Fame inductees. Each year since 1994, the editors of the Path to Purchase Institute have selected three industry leaders for induction into the Hall of Fame. From their daily business practices to the work they produce, these honorees represent the very best of the commerce marketing industry. Collectively, these professionals have proven that they don’t just follow the path to purchase; rather, they help build it. The 2024 inductees are Tammy Ackerman, Treasury Wine Estates; Stephen Bettencourt, CVS Health; and Pamela Velarde, Mattel.
We profile these inspiring individuals and their contributions to the commerce marketing industry. And this spring we’ll celebrate these honorees at an awards ceremony and reception during Future Forward, May 13-15 in Philadelphia.
As our industry rolls into the rest of 2024 after a very busy, fast-paced Q1, I think this advice from inductee Ackerman is particularly good to keep in mind: “Follow your passions with experiences and exposure to things, and then prioritize relationships, stay tech-savvy and always keep the consumer at the forefront of your decisions.”
