Nearly two thirds of Marketing Executives in the US have planned new marketing initiatives and innovations. More than one-fifth of Marketing Executives wished they had been less dependent on “tried-and-true” marketing tactics last year and that they had found more creative ways to reach their audiences. Although most executives planned to kick off a new ad campaign this year, they did not necessarily expect advertising to have the biggest effect on their business.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said they would implement new innovation or line extensions. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they would implement new marketing initiatives, fifty-three percent would implement new advertising campaigns, thirty-eight percent would use product enhancement or redesign, thirty percent would reposition, and twenty eight percent would use packaging redesign. Other marketing initiatives that executives said they would use were clarifying the role and defining the characteristics of each brand, product line and or brand reduction, and major brand relaunch.

There is a great deal of uncertainty about the effect of advertising, which is understandable with all the changes in media consumption. For those of us who have been online for a while, we have been watching these trends and how and where they have been taking us. The most important thing we can do is to automate as much as possible, keeping a personal touch with that automation and make sure we try new marketing tactics, watch what works and why it works. Keep your marketing ideas fresh and innovative.

The best way to succeed at any resolution is to keep it simple. Your plan for 2008 should be to Innovate, review the ad media mix and don’t rely only on the tried-and-true. Find out more here …