fifi ama ˝ˇ˘ ˝ europe 2019 global industry survey 2019 · 2019-09-04 · integration of all...
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global industry survey 2019
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Not just evolution, growing pains tooIt’s been two years since the last survey, and while we’re
seeing new trends it’s more evolution than revolution.
Progress is stretching some programs to their limits;
fresh demands and increasing scope are causing
discomfort for some.
Programs increasing in importanceFor the fourth straight survey, programs are appearing to
increase in importance, and budgets are generally rising.
While these increases are not stellar, customer reference/
advocacy programs seem to often out-perform other
disciplines for share of the marketing pie.
The unstoppable shift to advocacyThe push for ‘advocacy’ (roughly defined as a sustainable,
formal value exchange with advocates) continues;
tiering of customers has increased, as has Account
Based Marketing (ABM).
In this context, programs that simply ask the question
‘what can we get these customers to do for us?’ are
living in the past.
The move to the on-demand subscription economy
is changing the model for more than the sales force.
Customers demand a relationship with brands. It’s not
about points, web badges or money, it’s a new mindset
of human engagement.
Channel crossingsOne of the major trends is for programs to cross the
channel divide, having to now provide value to internal
teams (brand, BU, etc.), partners and customers.
It’s the same motion as the move to advocacy, and
some programs are feeling out of their comfort zones.
Increasing program importance, the move to advocacy, and expanding channel support are making some programs uncomfortable, for others it’s a coming-of-age opportunity
executive summary
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executive summary
Coming-of-ageIntegration of all customer programs continues.
Silos and empires are crumbling. Community rather
than control is leading.
Programs are coming-of-age from a measurement
perspective too; business metrics as well as
volume metrics.
BoM BaU BooMThe Bill of Materials (BoM) has become business as
usual for the best stories across many programs.
Responses show the number of channels now being
used to promote each story is increasing. Yet increasing
program importance and channel support is taking its toll.
Everyone wants something different from a story.
Brand teams are becoming more vocal about their needs,
BUs (and sales) still want to sell products, and partners
want to produce top billing.
Boom! Aren’t these all customer stories?!?
Thus the rise of perspectives in storytelling, same story
from different angles; increasing relevance for potential
customers while keeping everyone (relatively) happy, is key.
2019Overall this is a happy story to tell. Any discomfort is
driven by the increasing program and customer storytelling
importance, and the move to sustainable advocacy
relationships. Growing pains (and we all need to grow).
Gain exec sponsorship, have healthy sales org and
customer engagement, tell relevant stories, to the right
audiences, through the right channels, and measure it
along the way and you’re onto a winner.
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video storiesFor the first time more
programs are creating video
stories (92%) than PDF stories
(85%). Visual storytelling
shows no sign of slowing.
sales education79% of program owners agree
continuous education of sales
(its largest users) is the biggest
opportunity for program
growth (and measurement).
content sharingEach customer story is
now shared via an average
of 8 channels; the BoM
has arrived with a bang.
channel support74% of programs are now
tasked with supporting channel
as well as direct sales, up from
66%. Uncomfortable for some
programs; meeting partner
needs effectively is a new skill.
multiple perspectivesWith every story in the spotlight
and working harder than ever,
programs are more mindful
of the needs of their wider
audience (brand, BUs, sales,
marketing, customers, partners).
five key takeaways
1. 2. 3. 5.4.
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The Advocate Marketing Academy 2019 Global
Industry Survey aims to better understand the
current state of advocacy marketing, specifically
customer reference and advocacy programs.
It also aims to identify new trends and key
challenges, as well as best practices.
survey methodology and participants
85responses
from reference/advocacy pros
68discrete
programs
48global brands
40%of respondents at Director or above
60%of respondents
have a global remit
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■ Amazon
■ Anaplan
■ Aruba
■ Centrify
■ Ceridian
■ CheckPoint
■ Citrix
■ CloudBees
■ CommVault
■ Corehr
■ Dassault
■ Datel
■ Dell
■ Ensono
■ Finastra
■ FireEye
■ Gladstone
■ Hewlett Packard Enterprise
■ Hexagon
■ Honeywell
■ HP
■ IBM
■ Intel
■ ITSMA
■ Kaspersky Lab
■ Micro Focus
■ Microsoft
■ Nutanix
■ Oracle
■ Orange
■ Palo Alto Networks
■ Qlik
■ QuickBase
■ Red Hat
■ TMF-Group
■ TriZetto
■ Veeam
■ VMware
■ Vodafone
■ WellSky
participating organizations include:
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scope
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• Results largely in line with the previous two surveys;
an enterprise and public-sector focus
• The largest change is with programs now supporting
mid-market; this has virtually doubled in the
last seven years, while the makeup of programs
responding to the survey remains roughly the same
which customer segments does your program support?
enterprise
mid-market
public sector
small office home office
consumer
other
0 20 40 60 80 100
98%
78%
77%
19%
17%
6%
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• A key trend for 2019; three-quarters of programs are now
tasked with supporting channel as well as direct sales,
up from two-thirds in 2017
• This shift is uncomfortable for some programs; meeting
partner needs effectively is a new skill
• For programs that only ask one question ‘what will people
do for us’, having to consider partners is perhaps part
of the journey to advocacy; sustainable value exchange
with customers
does your program support channel partners and/or resellers as well as direct?
yes
no
74%
26%
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• Very similar responses to the 2017 survey
• It’s still a case of marketing and corporate marketing
owning reference and advocacy programs
• We know two things:
1. sales are the largest users of references
2. tracking deals assisted with references
is key for long-term program success
and measurement
• Thus it’s interesting that the sales orgs still have so
little skin in the game. Sales engagement is a massive
program opportunity
where does your program sit within your organization?
marketing organization
corporate marketing
other
sales organization
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
72%
19%
15%
2%
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• The number of programs that are not branded and
customer-facing has reduced down to an all-time
survey low of 15%
• This makes sense; customers want to have a direct
relationship with brands, whether purchasing direct
or via the channel
do you have a branded, external, customer reference/advocacy program?
yes
no
working on it
72%
15%
13%
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• This used to be a 50/50 answer but now 2/3rds of
programs now tier customers
• It’s no surprise; we’re seeing the impact of the increase
of advocacy programs and ABM strategies
do you tier your reference customers, or are they treated equally?
tiered
treated equally
66%
34%
integration
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• Overall, integration with other programs is
increasing across-the-board. This is great to see.
• The biggest change is with ABM/top-account
programs, up to 60% from 31% in 2016
• Now only 9% of programs are reporting zero
integration, down from 12% in 2017
with which other programs does your program integrate?
customer/product adv. boards
account based programs
nps/csat surveys
exec sponsorship program
advocacy program
user groups
customer loyalty programs
none
other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
64%
60%
55%
47%
38%
36%
23%
9%
8%
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• Massive change here, borne out by evidence
across the industry
• 79% of programs cite continuous education
as the most effective way to recruit reference
customers, up from 20% in 2017
• Executive support is a close second, showing
that a top-down approach is always effective
• The remainder of responses are largely in line
with previous surveys
top two methods for engaging sales and mktg to provide reference customers
continual education
senior exec support
adding references to KPIs
financial incentives
other
points programs
penalizing sales people who do not provide references
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
79%
77%
23%
11%
6%
4%
2%
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• With 66% of responses saying ‘no’ and ‘no and I don’t
think any organization should’ we have an almost
identical industry response and opinion to 2017
• 30% of programs are incentivizing sales, or plan to
do you incentivize your sales teams to participate in reference activities?
no
yes
no I don’t think any org should
other
we plan to
51%
15%
3% 5%
26%
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• Financial incentives dominate the rewarding
method to engage sales participation (72%)
if so; which methods do you use?
financial incentives
other non-financial incentives
points that can be redeemed for rewards
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
72%
28%
22%
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• Almost three in four respondents (73.8%) said that
they do not incentivize customers to participate in
reference activities
• Over a quarter (26%) of respondents currently
incentivize customers or are planning to do so
in the future
do you incentivise your customers to participate in reference activities?
no
no and i don’t think any organization should
yes
we plan to
52%
22%
19%
7%
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• Non-financial incentives make up the majority
of all customer incentive activities
if so; which methods do you use?
points redeemed for rewards
unanticipated rewards, not incentives
other non-financial incentives
we give financial incentives
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
58%
33%
25%
8%
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• There are wild variations in team size,
from one person, to over 50 team members
• The average number of FTEs (full-time-equivalent
staff) for programs (excluding agency) is five
• We tried to correlate team size with organization
size. Clearly larger orgs have larger teams but
there is insufficient data to establish a rule of
x team for each $B in org size
average five full-time headcounts per program
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• 58% of responders engage specialist agencies to
support their program. This equates to 80% of all orgs
using external support
• PR and generalist agencies are at similar levels to 2017,
as are the percentage of companies not using any
external support (28%)
do you use specialist customer reference/ advocacy agencies?
yes
no
no, generic mktg agencies
other
no, we use PR agencies
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
58%
28%
8%
5%
4%
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• We’re seeing no change from 2017; it comes as
no surprise to see writing as the top area in which
agencies support programs
• Every respondent using external consultancies said
that they use the agency for writing
• Equally, programs are using agencies for support
with video production and editing. Around eight
in ten programs use agencies for video creation
in which areas do your agencies assist your program?
writing
video shooting
video editing
design
fulfilling reference requests
strategy
recruiting reference customers
awards submissions
supporting top-account advocacy
0 20 40 60 80 100
100%
81%
74%
52%
50%
26%
21%
14%
15%
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• The question to which everyone wants the answer,
yet this is the question 20% of responders refused
to answer! (or simply did not know)
• The average individual program budget is $400k,
with the most common around $200k
• There are several program budgets of over $2m,
especially when individual program budgets within
one brand are added together
• Again, we tried to correlate budget with organization
size. Clearly larger orgs have larger budgets but there
is insufficient data to establish a rule $x budget for each
$B in org size
$400kaverage program budget
annual level of program investment, excluding people?
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• 2018 program budgets showed some growth,
yet around half of them remained flat
• This is almost the same result as in 2017, comparing
budgets with 2015, so net growth, if anything as
been slow
• That said, many marketing budgets have been slashed
in the last few years, perhaps making customer
reference and advocacy programs successful outliers
compared to 2017, was your program budget up, flat or down?
flat
up
down
51%
38%
11%
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• There seems to be a little more optimism for program
budget growth in 2019, though the underlying numbers
are fairly similar
• The number of programs reporting budget reductions
has almost halved
outlook – 2019 program budgets
flat
up
down
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
55%
40%
6%
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• The vast majority of respondents (83%) say that
reference/advocacy programs are perceived as
being more important within their organizations -
almost exactly the same result as in 2017
• The industry is feeling continued ‘love’ and hearing
how important the programs are; not necessarily
being translated to budget and kudos
compared to two years ago, how is your program perceived internally?
much more important
a little more important
about the same
a little less important
much less important
55%
13%
4% 0%
28%
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• It’s a close-run thing but for the first time more
programs are creating video than PDF stories
• Social has increase from 43% to 66%
(remember, most respondents are B2B)
• Also growing is the percentage of ROI stories
• Audio is slowly emergent, we believe this will
see a further increase in next-year’s survey
in which formats do you create customer stories?
video
ppt/keynote slides
social media images
collections of stories by industry/solution
website pages
infographic
roi case studies
whitepapers
interactive pdfs/snapshots
audio
estories (phone/tablet)
other
0 20 40 60 80 100
92%
85%
72%
62%
66%
60%
42%
34%
25%
23%
22%
21%
4%
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• After a shock fall in the 2017 survey, it’s good to
see mobile optimization is back and holding steady
• The feeling across the industry seems to focus
more on phone than tablet optimization
are you optimizing your customer stories for mobile devices?
yes
no
not yet, but are planning to
other
there is no need to
0 10 20 30 40 50
49%
30%
17%
4%
2%
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• The process is not over when a customer story
is signed off, far from it
• Double the number of programs now consider
sharing the stories they create
• Not a single responder said there was no need
to optimize
are you optimizing your written or video customer stories for social sharing?
yes
not yet, but are planning to
no
there is no need to
0 20 40 60 80 100
91%
6%
4%
0%
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• Similar split to 2017 with the biggest increase
being in the use of subtitles/closed captions
• This has more than doubled since 2017;
good to see accessibility being taken seriously
(though still work to do)
• Slight increase in the use of vimeo
for video stories, which methods do you use?
short video edits for twitter
subtitle closed captions
short video edits for facebook
short video edits for vimeo
short video edits for instagram
split into multiple episodes
other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
60%
53%
45%
30%
25%
23%
13%
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• As expected, corporate website is universal
• High scoring for LinkedIn and blogs aligns
with the heavy enterprise focus of the
majority of programs
• Instagram use has doubled since 2017
• The rise of the Bill of Materials (BoM)
is no surprise, with so many channels
being utilized to promote each story
which channels do you use to promote your customer stories?
corporate website
blogs
events
demand-gen campaigns
newsletters
brand campaigns
exec briefing centers
media placement
reference-mgt-app created collections (spotlights etc.)0 20 40 60 80 100
98%
87%
81%
79%
77%
72%
64%
58%
59%
57%
47%
36%
29%
28%
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• Alongside the usual ‘number of things’ it’s encouraging
that 53% of responders are measuring $opportunities
influenced with references. Still work to do!
All programs should be able to measure this
• Great to see programs measuring the percentage
of referenceable customers; the tie in with
Net Promoter and other Customer Satisfaction
(CSAT) programs will be helping to drive this
• Even more impressive is the measurement of sales
acceleration and win rate, creeping into the survey
for the first time
which of the following does your program measure?
# of customer stories
# of reference customers
$ of opportunities influenced
% of referenceable customers
story media coverage
age of customer stories
$ influence value of specific reference customers
average bom size (# of assets per story)
sales cycle acceleration
win rate
other
0 20 40 60 80 100
81%
77%
53%
38%
36%
32%
25%
20%
19%
15%
8%
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• Organizations are still prioritizing the movement
to advocacy; increased from 23% in 2017
• Program integration, ABM and customer communities
all score highly and support this move
• Visual content (video, infographics, animation, etc.)
has also increased from 26% to 62%
• Program automation has grown too, while
gamification has stagnated as a focus at 8%
outlook – top four focus areas for 2019
advocate (not just reference) program
more visual content (video, infographic, animation)
abm (account-based marketing)
integration with other programs
customer communities
global standards and processes
bom (multiple story formats)
perspectives (stories from different angles for different audiences)
program automation
mobile content optimisation/delivery
gamification
other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
64%
62%
47%
42%
40%
32%
29%
28%
25%
19%
8%
6%
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Responders thoughts on impact to our industry• A fifth of responders either skipped this question
or admitted they have nothing to say on this topic
• 15% said it’s too early to have an opinion
Negative• Worries about AI replacing teams, tools,
and even reference customers
Positive• Relevance for sales and customers,
timeliness, automation of specific tasks
outlook – artificial intelligence
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We’re a specialist global team known for expertise, creativity and delivery; building the strategies your business needs to unlock the innate trust we all share in authentic, relevant and human stories.
We support our clients with anything customer-advocacy-shaped; from the creation of a few customer stories to multi-language full production videos, fully-outsourced complex global program, and everything in-between.
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