Data-Driven Marketing Study 2024: Limited Application of AI Exposes Fundamental Problem; data quality still a major challenge

Data availability and data quality remain a challenge

The DDMO 2024 shows that data availability and the quality of data is still one of the greatest challenges for many organizations within the marketing sector to work in a data-driven manner. For 33% of organizations, data and insights either remain limited or are not available. The past 3 years have displayed no visible development in this regard; despite a continued focus on data and ongoing developments, data and insights often remain unused within the Netherlands’ marketing sector. Moreover, data tools and platforms are not yet widely utilised, with 24% of the sector representation naming data quality among the top 3 biggest challenges. which is also in line with previous years.

No broad utilisation of AI in the market sector as yet

Despite the fact that it seems to be on everyone’s lips, AI is not yet being broadly implemented within the marketing sector. A total of 1 in 4 organizations regularly implement AI, especially in low-threshold fields such as content creation (25%) and digital marketing (27%). The elements utilised from these applications are predominantly expertise- and user-friendly tooling from sources external to organizations. In those instances where people are more familiar with the (im)possibilities of AI, availability and data quality form the greatest obstacles for the internal use of more complex AI applications within organizations.

Soft skills a key aspect of the data-driven marketing sector

For the future of the marketing profession, paying attention to employees remains the most important theme; not solely the (further) development of skills (72%), but also attention to personal characteristics of employees (67%). Finding (26%) and retaining (19%) suitable employees continues to be a focal point. Due to the shortage of manpower within the labor market and rapid technological developments, soft skills, including communication skills (40%) and teamwork (32%), are considered more relevant than hard skills, which can be taught or brought in from external sources.

Research accountability

The DDMA Data-Driven Marketing Study (DDMO) was conducted in collaboration with research agency GfK, among 520 Dutch people working within the marketing sector, who answered positively to the question whether they mainly perform marketing-related activities. In addition, 88 respondents of DDMA members participated. The results mentioned are solely based on the target group (n=520), except where this is explicitly indicated. 

About the 2024 Data-Driven Marketing Study (DDMO)

The DDMO is an independent initiative of the trade association DDMA in collaboration with the DDMA Data, Decisions & Engagement Committee (DDE). The annual survey maps out how the marketing sector in the Netherlands processes data and uses (customer) data, with the aim of providing insight and advice into how data-driven the marketing sector is, and where opportunities and challenges lie.

In a summary article and three deep dive articles, the most important insights of the DDMO 2024 have been further elaborated. The three deep dive articles address (1) the availability, quality, and application of the data, (2) the importance of soft skills within data-driven marketing, and (3) the current application and challenges of AI within the marketing industry. These articles will be published next month on www.ddma.nl.

Do you have any questions or comments about this study? If so, please send an e-mail to info@ddma.nl.

Ronnie van Nieuwenhoven

Strategy Manager | ING

Lydia de Haan

Directeur Data & Analytics bij Air Miles (Loyalty Management Netherlands)

Mark van der Vlies

Head of BI & Analytics bij de Private Bank van ABN AMRO

Monique Hartvelt-Zwanenburg

Personalisatie marketeer | Achmea

Nanda Appelman

Market Insights Specialist