China marketers demand more accountability : R3

According to the study commissioned across 200 companies, 82 per cent of marketers intend to increase their digital spend in 2011 while 88 per cent said they are unsure or have no confidence they are getting what they pay for. 

"It's time for greater transparency and results," said Greg Paull, principal of R3.

Social media, followed by search (29 per cent) and video (24 per cent), will enjoy the fastest growth in spend with a 41 per cent share of increase. Portals make up the remaining 6 per cent of increase. Interestingly mobile and ad networks do not feature.

“Marketers in China were late to social media, compared to their US counterparts, but there’s been a massive interest and investment in the last 24 months,” said Paull. “There’s now more than 191 million online engaged in social media, more than there are internet users in the US,” he added. 

More than three quarters of respondents intend to audit their digital media in 2011. To this point, Paull said marketers will only continue to invest more in digital if they can enjoy the same levels of accuracy and insight as with other media.

To help tackle these issues, R3 has formed a partnership with Admaster to combine their unique 'dual cookie technology' for online tracking with R3's experience in cost benchmarking media in China to drive better results for marketers.

R3 and Admaster will collaborate on existing and new clients with the latter providing the technology solution against click fraud and R3 combining the results with spend data from more than 30 marketers to give digital cost analysis on a scale not currently available in China.  

“We’re delighted to be partnering with R3 on digital auditing in China. We believe within the decade, digital will become the dominant medium in this country, and we want to be at the forefront together of providing insights and solutions,” said Vincent Yan, CEO of Admaster China.