Atlanta, Ga. — May 23, 2024 — Cella by Randstad Digital, a leader in creative, marketing and digital staffing solutions, announces the launch of its highly anticipated 2024 Cella Intelligence Report. In its 14th edition, Cella surveyed almost 500 respondents across 30 industries, such as software, banking and financial services, consumer products, healthcare and more. The data collected delves into marketing and creative operations managers' current core challenges as they have evolved in comparison to previous years and offers invaluable insights into applying data-driven strategies to navigate today’s dynamic business landscape.
This year’s report shed light on the dynamics that marketing and creative operations teams experience across the industry as well as within their specific organizational structures. New to the report this year, is a section focused on artificial intelligence (AI), which has been catapulted into the forefront of marketing and creative teams’ operational consciousness. While discussions around AI are ubiquitous and enthusiasm is high, the report finds that adoption, productivity strategies and implementation are still in their infancy for most organizations.
Survey trends reveal a growing recognition of the need to develop strategies for training and upskilling existing talent to ensure they remain up to date with technological advancements. Notably, 57% of respondents anticipate exploring AI's utility in various activities within the next year. However, despite being a prevalent topic, knowledge and adoption rates remain modest, with just over 50% of respondents indicating investment in AI. While AI is viewed as an extra set of hands to expedite existing workloads, more consideration must be given to how it should reshape work processes and provide strategic insights into prioritizing tasks.
“The Cella Intelligence Report captures the current state of marketing and creative operations, benchmarking trends and providing analysis that can be universally applied by leaders,” said Cella Global Head, Jackie Schaffer. “This year, we’re highlighting how using a data-driven strategy has the power to create personalized customer experiences, harness the power of AI and inform strategies that can transform organizations.”
The report also addresses persistent resourcing challenges faced by marketing and creative teams, including limited staffing resources, potential solutions provided by offshore teams, balancing planning and priorities, and time constraints inhibiting creativity. As a result, there's been a notable shift in operational focus, with forecasting and planning now taking precedence as the primary function within marketing ops teams. This shift reflects a narrative change around resourcing, emphasizing the need to maximize current resources while strategically planning for additional needs. Further noting the urgency around the subject, planning cycles have shortened, with partners indicating they need to operate on a 1-3 month timeframe, down from 3-6 months. Yet, while 72% of marketing ops teams lead the forecasting and planning process, only 39% of creative ops teams have a seat at the planning table. This presents a built-in opportunity for both sides to have balanced representation in order to develop strategic plans together.
Some of the additional findings from the report include:
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59% of creative leaders consider having adequate resources as the greatest challenge in 2024, compared to 33% the previous year
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Creative teams are embracing AI and demonstrate higher AI knowledge than their Marketing counterparts (27%) and are focused on upskilling current talent in the discipline (51%)
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62% say a marketing leader owns the company's CX strategy and execution, but the journey toward a fully articulated CX strategy remains a work in progress, with only 33% boasting an active, clearly-defined approach to it
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54% of organizations have yet to embrace the adoption of dynamic content optimization – an essential component of personalized customer experiences
The 2024 Cella Intelligence Report illuminates the need to apply strategic integration of essential data points within marketing and creative operations, empowering leaders to make informed decisions that drive transformative results. To interact with the full 2024 Cella Intelligence Report and unlock a wealth of strategic insights, visit https://cellainc.com/insights/cella-intelligence-report/.
For media inquiries or further information, please contact:
Karissa Sachs, Vice President, Marketing
[email protected]
About Cella
Cella by Randstad Digital is an award-winning leader in consulting, staffing and managed solutions for digital, marketing and creative teams. We help people build meaningful careers and partner with companies to help them win and stay ahead of the competition. Our secret sauce? The Cella Trifecta: Combining our knowledge with your experience to achieve extraordinary results. Our industry experts listen to your problems and guide you to the best solutions – from finding the most in-demand talent to providing consulting services that can transform your organization. We are always ready to step up so you can gain the operational edge. Together, we put passion to work. Cella has earned the 2024 Best of Staffing Talent 15-Year Diamond Award as well as the 2024 Best of Staffing Client 10-Year Diamond Award.
About Randstad Digital
Randstad Digital is a trusted digital enablement partner that facilitates accelerated transformation for businesses by providing global talent, capacity, and solutions across specialized domains. Our digital talent solutions allow you to scale your team seamlessly while connecting you with skilled professionals around the world who align with your chosen technologies. Randstad Digital was announced on August 30, 2023 under the umbrella of Randstad, the world's largest talent company and partner of choice to clients. For more information, see www.randstaddigital.com.
