According to a new study by The Reference, Belgian marketers are choosing the path of digital marketing. In 2012 they will focus on social media marketing, mobile sites and monitoring performance, their main challenges being turning data into actionable insights and creating sufficient return on investment. Join the conversation on twitter #refdata or on http://www.referencedata.be

1. Reference Data edition 1, January 13th 2012:
DIGITAL MARKETING LANDSCAPE IN BELGIUM
Current investments and trends for the future
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2. In this Reference Data report…
I BUDGET & ALLOCATION
II SATISFACTION & 2012 PLANS
III DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES
IV APPENDIX
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3. Total & Digital Marketing budget
150 K TOTAL MARKETING BUDGET (ONLINE & OFFLINE)
TOTAL DIGITAL
MARKETING MARKETING BUDGET SHARE
BUDGET 2011 BUDGET 2011
ALL COMPANIES € 150.000 € 30.000 20%
20% TARGET GROUP
B2C € 750.000 € 150.000 20%
B2B € 37.500 € 13.125 35%
Other € 150.000 € 30.000 20%
LOCATION
Flanders € 150.000 € 30.000 20%
Brussels / Wallonia € 400.000 € 100.000 25%
SIZE
80% Small (1-50) € 37.500 € 13.125 35%
Medium (51-250) € 250.000 € 62.500 25%
Large (250+) € 750.000 € 131.250 18%
On average, 20% of the total marketing budget is invested in digital
marketing initiatives. Total (and therefore online as well) marketing budgets
Spent on digital marketing Spent on offline marketing
tend to be smaller among pure B2B players and companies operating in
Flanders. Finally, the larger the company, the higher the budget (although
Q1 : How much is the total marketing budget (online, print, TV, outdoor, etc.) of your
company for 2011?
the share of online marketing tends to drop among large industry players).
Q2: What percentage of your total marketing budget do you spend on digital marketing?
N = 150 | Filter: none
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4. Evolution digital marketing budget
€ 160,000
€ 150,000
€ 140,000
€ 130,000
€ 120,000
€ 110,000
€ 100,000
€ 90,000
€ 80,000
€ 70,000
€ 60,000
€ 50,000
€ 40,000
€ 30,000
€ 20,000
€ 10,000
€0
All companies B2C B2B Other Flanders Brussels / Small (1-50) Medium (51-250) Large (250+)
Wallonia
Budget growth 2012 Budget growth 2011 Digital marketing budget 2010
Q1 : How much is the total marketing budget (online, print, TV, outdoor, etc.) of your company for 2011? As mentioned before, digital marketing budgets are
Q2: What percentage of your total marketing budget do you spend on digital marketing?
 Q1 and Q2 used to calculate the digital marketing budget 2011 higher in B2C, companies in Brussels / Wallonia and
Q3: To what extent has the digital marketing budget for 2011 changed compared with 2010? companies with 250+ employees. On average, budgets
 Q3 used to estimate the digital marketing budget 2012 (based on 2011 budget)
Q4: To what extent will the digital marketing budget alter in 2012 compared with 2011? grew with 5,5% in 2011 (compared to 2010) and the
 Q4 used to estimate the digital marketing budget 2012 (based on 2011 budget) same growth rate is to be expected in 2012.
N = 150 | Filter: none 4

5. Digital marketing budget allocation
30 K DIGITAL MARKETING BUDGET SPENT ON
Who is the main decision making unit when
Classic websites 22% it comes to digital marketing initiatives?
Social presence 12%
MAIN DMU DIGITAL MARKETING
SEO 11% Marketing 51%
(Senior) management 30%
E-mail marketing 11%
Communication / PR 13%
SEA 8% IT 0%
E-commerce sites
HR 0%
6%
Other department 6%
Web analytics 6%
Banner advertising 5%
FTE’s on average involved in
Social media monitoring
Social ads
5%
4%
4 digital marketing initiatives
(strategy, planning, execution, follow-up)
Mobile sites 4%
Mobile apps 3% The main areas of investment are (1) corporate websites (brand and
Mobile ads 1% product sites included, (2) social presence !, (3) SEO optimization
and (4) e-mail marketing. Mobile is pretty much unexplored
Mobile games 0%
territory for most Belgian companies.
Q1 : If you could invest EUR 100 in the following forms of digital marketing, how would you
divide up this EUR 100?
Digital marketing is in the hands of the marketing department or
Q2: Which department in your company takes the most decisions about your digital marketing management (especially among small enterprises).
strategy?
Q3: How many employees work on digital marketing (strategy, budget
Finally, on average there are 4 people working full-time on digital
management, coordination, implementation and follow-up) in your company? marketing within their company. 5
N = 150 | Filter: none

6. Overview digital marketing actions
Classic websites 96% 3%
Web analytics 82% 11% 4% 3%
E-mail marketing 75% 11% 11% 4%
SEO 70% 18% 7% 5%
Social presence 62% 14% 18% 6%
SEA 54% 10% 19% 17%
Banner advertising 53% 9% 12% 25%
Social media
46% 17% 25% 11%
monitoring
E-commerce sites 33% 10% 22% 35%
Social ads 27% 15% 32% 26%
Mobile sites 15% 17% 49% 19%
Mobile apps 15% 11% 38% 36%
Mobile ads 7% 5% 35% 53%
Mobile games 2%2% 19% 77%
Done In progress In consideration No interest
Compared to the budget allocation ranking we see higher positions for web analytics and e-mail marketing, meaning most
companies invested more in these areas in the earlier stages of their digital marketing efforts. Nowadays, we see an investment
shift to search engine marketing (seo/sea) and social presence. Mobile marketing is still fairly new for most companies, but more
than 2 in 5 are considering “doing something” on mobile (mainly optimizing their site for mobile).
Q : Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing?
N = 150 | Filter: none
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7. Overview digital marketing actions
B2C versus B2B
B2C B2B % done reported
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Classic websites SEO Social presence Social media monitoring E-commerce sites Mobile sites Mobile games
The main gap between B2C and B2B companies when it comes to the uptake of digital marketing forms are the
following: e-commerce integration (33% lower in B2B), web bannering (32% lower in B2B), social media monitoring
(22% lower in B2B) and social presence (20% lower in B2B).
Q : Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing? (% done reported)
N = 150 | Filter: none
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8. Overview digital marketing actions
Split company size
Small (1-50) Medium (51-250) Large (250+) % done reported
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Classic websites E-mail marketing Social presence SEA E-commerce sites Mobile apps Mobile ads
All companies (large and small) are investing in their website (larger companies do tend to integrate more e-commerce elements
into it), web analytics, e-mail marketing and SEO. Smaller companies tend to be slightly more present on social channels, whereas
larger companies invest more in classic banner ads. Larger companies are more into online conversation monitoring.
Q : Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing? (% done reported)
N = 150 | Filter: none
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9. In this report…
I BUDGET & ALLOCATION
II SATISFACTION & 2012 PLANS
III DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES
IV APPENDIX
9

10. Satisfaction digital marketing initiatives
% TOP 2
Web analytics
(n=122)
13% 52% 25% 7% 3% 65%
Classic websites
(n=143)
13% 50% 20% 14% 4% 62%
Social media
monitoring 10% 52% 28% 10% 62%
(n=68)
SEO
(n=104)
10% 47% 31% 11% 2% 57%
SEA
(n=80)
13% 44% 25% 18% 1% 56%
Social presence
(n=92)
11% 40% 27% 20% 2% 51%
Social ads
(n=41)
49% 32% 15% 5% 49%
E-commerce sites
(n=50)
6% 42% 32% 18% 2% 48%
E-mail marketing
(n=111)
4% 42% 32% 18% 4% 46%
Banner advertising
(n=78)
3% 39% 36% 21% 3% 41%
Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Not satisfied Not at all satisfied
It’s quite surprising that most Belgian companies aren’t that happy with the effectiveness of their digital marketing initiatives, even
with the most commonly adopted forms such as their corporate web presence, web analytics and SEO. Based on more in-depth
analysis, there is no specific segment (in terms of size, customer audience, region) which is more (dis)satisfied.
Q : To what extent are you satisfied with the effectiveness of the following forms of digital marketing in your company?
N = 150 | Filter: only for the digital marketing initiatives currently implemented. Note: mobile sites, mobile ads, mobile games and mobile apps excluded because of low counts (<25).
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11. 2012 investments digital marketing
Top 2 Leaders (*) Diff
Social presence 6% 49% 35% 6% 3% 55% 59% 3%
SEO 5% 45% 45% 4% 50% 44% -6%
Classic websites 9% 41% 43% 7% 49% 51% 2%
E-mail marketing 4% 42% 47% 6% 46% 37% -9%
Social media
monitoring
3% 43% 47% 4% 3% 46% 59% 13%
SEA 2% 35% 51% 7% 5% 37% 46% 10%
Web analytics 3% 33% 59% 4% 36% 34% -2%
Social ads 2% 33% 53% 6% 6% 35% 44% 9%
Mobile sites 4% 31% 49% 5% 11% 35% 39% 4%
E-commerce sites 6% 25% 55% 4% 10% 31% 32% 0%
Banner advertising 23% 61% 9% 7% 24% 24% 0%
Mobile apps 3% 21% 56% 5% 15% 24% 20% -5%
Mobile ads 17% 59% 7% 16% 19% 24% 6%
Mobile games 3% 62% 6% 28% 4% 0% -4%
Far more More As much Less Far less
Despite mixed feelings in terms of satisfaction, companies understand the importance of digital marketing. Social presence is a key area of
investment with 55% planning to invest more in social media in 2012. Lead generation via search engines (seo) and e-mail marketing are
strategic pillars in their digital marketing plans as well. Companies that claim to be leading in terms of digital marketing are planning to
invest significantly more in social media monitoring and social / mobile advertising.
Q : To what extent is your company planning to invest more or less in the following forms of digital marketing in 2012?
N = 150 | Filter: none
(*) Leading = the respondents who reported to be (far) ahead in terms of digital marketing compared to their main competitors (n=46)
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12. Digital marketing focus quadrant
2012 investment intention
RUNNER-UPS CERTAINTIES
Few companies are currently adopting These are digital marketing initiatives
these digital marketing techniques, but which have been adopted by most
many companies see potential in them in Belgian companies. Moreover, most
the near future. If companies keep companies are planning to invest more
investing in them and they turn out to into these areas, meaning these actions
deliver added value / ROI, these will remain the foundations for their
initiatives might evolve into certainties. digital marketing plans.
NICHE MATURE
These are areas that are quite These are digital marketing actions which
unexplored by Belgian companies: there are used quite common among Belgian
is a low uptake and investments don’t companies. Companies will keep
seem to increase significantly in the near investing into these areas, but allocated
future. budgets won’t increase that much
anymore.
Currently implemented
Q currently implemented : Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing? (% we do it at the moment reported)
Q 2012 investment intention: To what extent is your company planning to invest more or less in the following forms of digital marketing in 2012? (% more + far more reported)
N = 150 | Filter: none 12

13. Digital marketing focus quadrant
60% Bubble size = current budget allocation
Runner-ups Certainties
Classic websites
Social presence
50% Social media monitoring SEO
40% E-mail marketing
Mobile sites Social ads
2012 higher investment intention
SEA Web analytics
Mean all items
E-commerce sites
30%
Mobile apps
Banner advertising
20%
Mobile ads
10%
Mobile games
0% Mature
Niche
Mean all items
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Currently implemented
Q currently implemented : Where does your company stand with regard to the following forms of digital marketing? (% we do it at the moment reported)
Q 2012 investment intention: To what extent is your company planning to invest more or less in the following forms of digital marketing in 2012? (% more + far more reported)
N = 150 | Filter: none 13

14. In this report…
I BUDGET & ALLOCATION
II SATISFACTION & 2012 PLANS
III DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES
IV APPENDIX
14

15. Digital marketing challenges
% TOP 2
Hard to generate
insights from the huge
quantity of company
2% 43% 25% 28% 2% 45%
data
Hard to determine ROI
digital marketing
9% 36% 17% 30% 7% 45%
Hard to find / keep
people with digital 4% 35% 35% 23% 3% 39%
marketing expertise
Hard to obtain budget
for digital marketing
4% 31% 23% 35% 7% 35%
Hard to find competent
3rd parties for digital 5% 24% 29% 36% 6% 29%
marketing
Hard to stay abreast of
latest digital trends
3% 23% 21% 40% 13% 25%
Agree entirely Agree Neutral Dont agree Dont agree at all
One of the main challenges for Belgian companies in the coming years is the ability to turn a vast amount of company data into insights.
Measuring the return of investment on digital marketing remains an issue among companies: 45% agrees that ROI calculations are hard
to determine. Finally, 4 out of 10 companies have difficulties finding or keeping people with proficient digital marketing skills
Q : To what extent do you agree with the following statements?
N = 150 | Filter: none
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16. Digital marketing outsourcing
18%
82% IS OUTSOURCING DIGITAL MARKETING
digital marketing activities
3,4 outsourced on average
Classic websites 62%
Banner advertising 48%
82%
SEO 45%
SEA 44%
Mobile apps 41%
Outsourcing digital marketing Not outsourcing digital marketing
E-commerce sites 37%
More than 4 out of 5 Belgian companies are outsourcing at least 1 Mobile sites 35%
digital marketing activity (with an average of 3,4 outsourced activities). Social ads 30%
The main outsourced activities are website creation /
maintenance, bannering and search engine marketing. Scanning the E-mail marketing 27%
social landscape and setting up a presence is relatively more done in-
Web analytics 21%
house. Only 1 in 5 consults an external party for web analytics
purposes. Social media monitoring 20%
Q : Which of the following forms of digital marketing are outsourced to an external party, whether partially Social presence 10%
or entirely (e.g. a digital agency, advertising agency, etc.)?
N = 150 | Filter: none 16

17. Outsourcing reasons and plans
CURRENT REASONS FOR OUTSOURCING DIGITAL MARKETING PLANNING TO OUTSOURCE DIGITAL MARKETING IN THE FUTURE
0%
Insufficient internal Definitely not
56%
resources 4%
Insufficient internal
52%
knowledge
6%
Access to new insights / Probably not
50%
ideas 19%
Access to latest trends /
42%
best practices
22%
Maybe maybe not
Faster execution 24% 44%
Higher flexibility 17%
40%
Probably
Cheaper to outsource 7% 30%
Avoid internal politics 4%
33%
Definitely
Other reason 3% 4%
DIGITAL MARKETING MATURITY(*) Outsourcing digital marketing Not outsourcing digital marketing
OUTSOURCE REASONS (far) behind Same level (far) ahead
Insufficient internal knowledge 63% 53% 40% The main reasons why Belgian companies outsource their digital
Insufficient internal resources 63% 55% 51% marketing initiatives is the lack of internal resources and
Access to new insights / ideas 33% 52% 63% expertise (especially among companies that are less mature
when it comes to digital marketing). Even when there are in-
(*) Self-reported compared to main competitors
house resources, companies still like to call upon external parties
to get access to the latest trends and new ideas.
Q1 :What are the main reasons why you call upon external parties for your digital marketing activities?
Max 3 answers possible. N = 123 | Filter: if currently outsourcing
Hence, the strong intentions of most companies to keep
Q2 :In the future will you call (more frequently) on external parties for your digital marketing activities? outsourcing their digital marketing actions.
N = 150| Filter: none
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18. In this report…
I BUDGET & ALLOCATION
II SATISFACTION & 2012 PLANS
III DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES
IV APPENDIX
18

19. Methodology
• Objectives study
• Give an overview of the digital marketing landscape in Belgium in terms of
budget, resource allocation, satisfaction and plans for 2012.
• Understand the evolution in the different domains of expertise
• Target group
• Responsible for digital marketing initiatives (budget
allocation, schedule, supplier selection, coordination of initiatives) within their
company
• Geographical scope: Belgian companies
• Sample information
• Data collected through online survey
• Field work conducted between 2 – 30 November 2011
• Sample size: 150 respondents responsible for digital marketing within their
company
• Error margin of results: +/- 7,8%
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20. Definition of digital marketing
• By digital marketing we mean:
• Search engine optimization (seo, improving your position in organic search results)
• Search engine advertising (sea, paying search results, e.g. Google Adwords campaigns)
• Banner advertisements
• Websites (company, product and mini websites)
• E-mail marketing
• Social media (monitoring software, presence on social media, advertising on social
media)
• Mobile (advertising, mobile applications)
• Online games
• …
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21. Company and respondent profile
COUNT COLUMN N % COUNT COLUMN N %
GOOD OR SERVICES COMPANY SIZE
Products 41 27% Small (1-50) 73 49%
Services 68 45% Medium (51-250) 34 23%
Both 41 27% Large (250+) 43 29%
B2B OR B2C ESTIMATED TURNOVER 2011
Consumers 36 24% EUR -50K 9 6%
Other companies 58 39% EUR 50-99K 4 3%
The public sector 4 3% EUR 100-250K 4 3%
We have several client groups 52 35% EUR 250-500K 4 3%
COMPANY TYPE EUR 500K-1M 9 6%
A Belgian company without branches 57 38% EUR 1-5M 15 10%
A Belgian parent company with several branches 47 31% EUR 6-10M 5 3%
A branch of a Belgian parent company 2 1% EUR 11-25M 10 7%
A branch of a foreign parent company 44 29% EUR 26-50M 3 2%
LOCATION IN BELGIUM EUR 51-100M 9 6%
Flanders 98 65% EUR 101-250M 2 1%
Brussels 47 31% EUR 251-500M 4 3%
Wallonia 5 3% EUR 501-1000M 2 1%
MAIN TRADING AREA EUR +1000M 6 4%
Belgium only 69 46% I prefer not to say 64 43%
Benelux only 24 16% SECTOR
Europe 23 15% Goods / production Industry 14 9%
Europe and North America 0 0% Public administration 5 3%
Broader than Europe and North America 2 1% Construction 6 4%
Worldwide 32 21% Distribution 14 9%
DEPARTMENT RESPONDENT Hotel and catering 2 1%
(Senior) management 21 14% Transport 3 2%
IT 9 6% Telco & ICT 18 12%
Marketing 86 57% Finance / insurances 14 9%
Communication / PR 23 15% B2B service provider 16 11%
HR 0 0% Health care and social services 7 5%
Other department 11 7% Culture recreation and other personal services 9 6%
Media / publishing 13 9%
Other 29 19%
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22. Contacts for the press:
Anja Cappelle
Managing Director The Reference
0475 92 88 97
09 234 05 36
Vicky Van Daele
Marcom
0468 11 70 50
09 234 05 36
Gianni Cooreman
Digital strategist
0494 52 17 76
09 234 05 36
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