Study: 41% of APAC marketers lack time to be creative

Two in five (41%) APAC marketing practitioners cite a lack of time to be creative as a barrier to delivering excellent customer experiences. Crucially, 41% cite workflow issues as a critical barrier holding back their marketing organisations, said Adobe’s 2023 Digital Trends Report. 

In addition, only one-quarter (25%) of APAC practitioners rate their organisations as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at planning, scoping, prioritising and assigning content to achieve measurable outcomes. Historically, efforts to accelerate content creation have come at the cost of employee time and freedom.

As such, leading brands are now prioritising investments in the speed, scale and efficiency of their content creation capabilities and workflows to build stronger customer relationships and succeed in 2023. In parallel, they are enhancing their existing marketing processes and technologies to make the most of their investments and ensure they seize every opportunity throughout the year.

“Customer expectations for content-rich, personalised experiences have reached new heights,” said Duncan Egan, vice president of digital experience marketing, Adobe Asia Pacific and Japan.

According to the research, 79% of senior APAC executives say demand for content has significantly increased. Yet despite this seemingly insatiable appetite from customers – who now crave dynamic digital experiences across a growing range of channels – only a quarter (25%) of brands rate themselves as “good” at creating and delivering content.   

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Enhancing current technologies  

Industry leaders are therefore rethinking and streamlining their content supply chains, which cover content campaign planning, creation, delivery and data analysis. Efficiency and cost-reduction are the focus as 43% of senior APAC executives say they have already made their content processes more efficient.  

To address this issue and strengthen their content machines in 2023, leading APAC brands are prioritising workflow management and digital collaboration across their content teams. More than one-third (37%) have prioritised streamlining or automating collaboration processes so their teams can work faster and better.  

Around 43% have prioritised using workflow automation to improve marketing and customer experience process efficiency. This is higher than the global average of 38%. Almost half (45%) of APAC leaders plan to invest in new marketing and data technologies in 2023, while another third (33%) plan to maximise the value of existing technologies.   

Some brands’ future planning may be suffering due to economic concerns: 65% of senior brand executives in APAC report that emphasising immediate needs has come at the cost of longer-term planning and strategy.

“Business leaders need to prioritise a content supply chain backed by workflow automation, built on a customer-centric strategy and streamlined for the entire content lifecycle,” Egan added.

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