Some 77% of European marketing students say Facebook is the most important social media tool a brand can use to communicate to their generation, according to a recent survey by the MediaSchool Group.
Moreover, just 40% or so agree with a recent statement by Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive officer of WPP Group, that Twitter is not an advertising medium.
Below, additional key findings from the study, The Next Generation of Marcoms, which surveyed 2,000 European students age 20-25 studying advertising, marketing communications, design, PR, and events.
Digital
- 89% of students surveyed say social media is a channel that all marketing practitioners should use and that it is not a standalone discipline.
- 85% either agree or strongly agree that by 2023 standalone social media and digital marketing agencies will disappear as the channels become a discipline for all marketers.
- 70% either agree or strongly agree that 20-25 year-olds today are not digital natives—and that the generation 10 years younger than them are the "true digital natives."
Marketing and Advertising
- 70% agree or strongly agree that "PR thinking," where the creation of word-of-mouth and trust for brands is most important, will dominate the way agencies respond to briefs in 10 years.
- 68% disagree or strongly disagree that TV advertising will be "irrelevant" in 10 years.
- 70% say that, in 10 years, advertising's job will be mostly to "entertain" and not to "sell."
- 81% either agree or strongly agree that content marketing will be an essential part of their job in 10 years.
Careers
- 64% think that in 10 years the agency they work for will pay them the same salary as a member of the opposite sex.
- 73% think that in 10 years they will have the same opportunities as a member of the opposite sex to rise to a position of senior management within an agency.
- 64% think that on average agencies are more meritocratic places to work than in-house.
- 86% want to work for agencies that are as much about the creation of social good as about creating profit for brands.
About the research: The study was based on a survey carried out between March and April 2013 of 2,000 European students age 20-25 studying advertising, marketing communications, design, PR, and events.
