Innovations, Trends And Challenges For Today's Marketers

Toronto, ON - According to a new Ipsos Reid survey of Canadian marketers -conducted in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association- a good majority (69%) of today's marketers believe that "innovation is alive and strong in Canada". Further, seven in ten (72%) agree that "innovation has become more of a priority for Canadian marketers within the last five years".

When asked to think about trends that exist today, marketers most strongly point to "consumer control of communication channels", followed by "information overload", and "continued fragmentation of media".

And when considering possible challenges that they or their organization may be facing, "continued pressure to demonstrate ROI on marketing initiatives" tops the list, followed closely by "higher expectations on service delivery but unwillingness to pay more", and "short-term focused".

When thinking about the organization for which they currently work, marketers offer the following as categories of their business for which they have seen innovative achievement in the past five years:

• 18% mention "technology" (including online services, online catalogues, online banking, VoIP, etc.);
• 18% mention "customer service" (including more options for customers, focus on CRM, loyalty programs);
• 15% mention "product launches"; and
• 10% mention "advertising" (including more effective advertising, more advertising mediums and tools).

Analysis of the study findings in complete reveal that:

• Canadian marketers face a multitude of customer and organizational trends;
• Canadian marketers are being challenged to demonstrate ROI on marketing initiatives, and to do so in the short term;
• With Canadian marketers facing these trends and challenges most (64%) have no formalized innovation process; and
• Against this background, innovation in Canada is seen as alive and strong - one has to question how deep this runs and to what extent it is based on optimism, hope, a commitment to innovation in the near term and pride in some great Canadian companies.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid survey conducted in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association and fielded from September 7th, to September 19th, 2005. For the survey, 226 mid to senior level marketers were interviewed via an on-line survey instrument. Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Steve Levy
President
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900