LONDON, 12th May, 2020-- Merkle (www.merkle.com/emea), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, released the Q2 2020 instalment of its Customer Engagement Report. Acting as an extension of the previous report which highlighted the barriers to great personalisation, the Q2 report discusses how marketers are leveraging agile marketing to better align organisations and create successful, data-driven campaigns.  

The report features original research, showcasing strong agile adoption numbers across organisations, with 89% of respondents currently implementing it in some function or team. As 85% of respondents plan on increasing their adoption of agile and 57% have formal plans to do so in the next 24 months, the report predicts a continued increase in agile marketing in the coming year.  

Claire Billings, vice president, marketing Merkle EMEA, said: “In the current global situation, companies are having to adapt and make changes to their businesses in weeks and months, which might previously have taken years to implement. And getting companies focused around the same goals is critical to this. Privacy and how new regulations are impacting marketers’ ability to deliver the total customer experience is also high on the agenda right now. The great news here is that 92 percent say they are confident in their ability to comply with recent privacy regulations such as GDPR and 67 percent see them as positively impacting marketing.”

The findings compare how respondents from different verticals have implemented agile in their marketing practices specifically. The retail, financial, and high-tech segments have implemented agile marketing more extensively than other industries, compared to nonprofit, insurance, and travel, media, and entertainment which show a less mature adoption.  

The Q2 2020 report also discusses consumer privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Highlighting how these regulations are impacting marketers’ abilities to deliver the total customer experience, 92% of respondents are confident in their ability to comply and 67% see them as positively impacting their marketing capabilities.  

Despite the impact of these regulations on data practices, marketers still recognise the importance of balancing data sources. When asked what types of data are driving their personalisation efforts, 41% of respondents indicate a mix of first- and third-party data most often. When analysing these responses by region, the report shows that UK marketers select first-party data most often, while US respondents claim using first- and third-party data together 11% more.  

To learn more about the findings, download the Q2 2020 Customer Engagement report here.