The Shrinking Gap Between Digital and Traditional Marketing

Online marketing continued to be the most popular branch of marketing in 2017, as external reports show. However, an analysis by Marketing Week found that the first quarter of the year had been busier for other marketing channels too, including TV, press and cinema advertising. In that article, Paul Smith from IHS Markit said that while the economic outlook was decidedly gloomy back in 2016, marketers’ confidence had grown enough since then to encourage increased investment in the more traditional channels, as part of an effort to protect their market share.

By vacancy count, Digital Marketing was the second-busiest specialism for Marketing roles, the first being Professional Marketing, under which Vacancysoft classifies roles associated with areas such as Account Management and Business Development, and which accounted for 19.3% of all openings in Marketing. In online marketing (17.5% of all Marketing roles), aside from generalist Digital roles, the top specialisms included Content Marketing, SEO/PPC and Social Media. Communications was the third busy area (11.9% of all roles), covering areas such as Direct Marketing and PR.

When analyzing the behaviour of vacancy data over time, it is noticeable that while Marketing overall was on the rise (6.0% year on year), Digital did not do well (it fell by 2.7% year on year). This was in part caused by the slump of Digital roles in late 2016, while openings in Marketing were growing at that time. By contrast 2017 has generally been getting busier over time for both categories. This leads to the conclusion that trends in vacancy volume growth are becoming more similar for Digital and non-Digital positions, while until now the former typically had a head start.

Challenges awaiting digital marketers include new data protection regulation which will come into force in 2018, and the problems that facing Google (including a boycott on Youtube advertising from earlier this year and a fine imposed by the European Union for not complying with relevant regulatory requirements). A broader picture is painted by upcoming Brexit-triggered developments, which will reshape the economic reality in which UK businesses operate, affecting marketing budgets and the advertising market as a result.

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Author: Jan Pawlowski
Data Analyst