Marketing Investments for 2007

Just came upon an interesting article at DM News by Brent Hieggelke. The article, entitled "Marketing Executives Facing New Issues, Investments in 2007" begins:

Two recently published surveys around marketing indicate a shift in issues marketers face and the resulting change in investments planned by organizations as a result.

The annual Association of National Advertisers survey results show a switch in the top issues faced by marketers today: Number one this year is "integrated marketing communications," which ranked fourth in last year’s survey.

The second highest concern is "accountability," a top concern a year ago, and still a key issue for marketers to address. The next was "aligning marketing organization with innovation," which was second a year ago and continues to be a key issue marketers are focusing on again this year.

One of the most interesting moves in position comes from "Consumer control over what/how they view advertising." That moved up two spots to number six this year, from number eight last year.

The rankings from the ANA survey reflect the shift in Internet-based collaboration, consumer control, and user-generated content; which are pushing marketers to rethink how they invest their resources and address emerging opportunities.

This begs the question, how are marketers and marketing organizations planning to address these top concerns?