In its Getting Digital Right report which has input from more than 300 senior executives from advertisers, agencies and media companies, it found that identifying the data that’s important to an organisation, and using it to uncover insights, was one of the biggest challenges for organisations today.

As well as being more confident in their use of data, it was media companies and agencies that expected greater increase in their research budgets. Sixty-four per cent of media, 57% of agencies and 46% of brands expected their research budget to increase in the next three years.

The top three research tools expected to increase in use were identified as: sales linkage/ROI studies; behavioural insights and advertising effectiveness.

Behavioural insights are needed to understand the customer journey which was identified as a problem point. Only 45% of marketers felt confident their organisation understands the consumer journey, implying that more than half of marketers aren’t sure they know how and where to reach people along that consumer journey.

Integration strategies were also highlighted as a problem area – nearly one third of marketers aren’t setting integrated digital strategies across desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and social platforms.