Australian marketers are grappling with significant maturity gaps, underutilised tech, restructures and talent woes against a backdrop of massive AI disruption and economic upheaval, a new report has highlighted.
The Digital, Marketing & eComm in Focus 2025 report, launched today, charts striking trends across the strategic and technological maturity of brands engaging with digital, marketing and eCommerce in Australia.
The report has surfaced a wealth of arresting key insights from across the local marketing landscape, including:
- Almost 75% of Australian brands are either currently resizing their business or are planning to do so in the future
- 73% of leaders state their marketing budget has remained static or been reduced
- 59% of brands are experimenting with or scaling efforts around GenAI and AI more broadly to drive personalisation
- Only 19% of brands feel they have semi / strong utilisation of their marTech tools
- More than half (53%) of Australian brands self-report lagging behind in customer and first-party data capabilities
- Just 14% of Australian brands believe they’re making meaningful progress towards a unified view of the customer
- Only 4 in 10 leaders agree their brands have clear plans to evolve in line with proposed privacy act changes
- ‘Emerging technologies’ is now the number one skill gap in marketing teams
- When comparing themselves with global leaders, 75% of brands feel as though their eCommerce maturity lags
- Over half (54%) of respondents have low levels of trust in retail media networks
Produced by Melbourne based digital, data and eCommerce advisory & consultancy Arktic Fox in collaboration with recruitment firm Six Degrees Executive, the study, now in its fifth year, surveyed more than 200 senior marketing and business leaders on the topics of strategic priorities, customer experience (CX), marTech, AI, data & analytics, privacy, skills, eCommerce, and retail media.
The study suggests that while most brands are aware of the key trends impacting the broad marketing and digital landscape, such as the acceleration of generative AI, the importance of first-party data, privacy law amendments, skills challenges, and the rise of retail media, investment and capability is often not currently aligned with such ambitions.
Arktic Fox Founder & Director and report author Teresa Sperti says this year’s study painted an eye-opening picture of the Australian marketing and digital industry, set against a backdrop of rising economic pressure, intensifying competition and shifting customer expectations.
“We see a host of maturity gaps and lag across marTech, data and analytics, customer experience and more,” she says. “We are also seeing a clear shift in mindset from brands this year around generative AI. Some are moving beyond experimentation: re-skilling teams, embedding AI in workflows, and building governance to support scale.”
In 2025, there is a clear shift toward more emphasis on AI and GenAI
This year’s report findings reflect this groundswell of AI utilisation intent and adoption, with data suggesting solid experimentation and some brands starting to scale AI use cases.
The report reveals that 59% of brands are experimenting with or scaling efforts around generative AI and AI more broadly to drive personalisation efforts. Half of brands are experimenting with GenAI for content generation, and almost a quarter (24%) are scaling up efforts here.
Nearly half (49%) of brands are experimenting with using AI for insights generation, with 19% scaling up.
The opportunity for growth in the AI space remains considerable. Currently, more advanced levels of AI adoption are typically confined to larger companies. Just 13% of leaders believe their organisation is advanced in leveraging predictive analytics, with these mostly being brands with revenues in excess of $100 million.
“But while adoption is growing, most brands still face barriers to unlocking AI’s full potential,” Arktic Fox’s Sperti says. “Only 14% have a mature, unified customer view, despite it being a key investment area. Without strong data foundations, efforts to use AI for personalisation and experience delivery will fall short.
“Based on what we are observing in market, AI utilisation is still being driven by efficiency based plays and whilst some brands are scaling their efforts more sophisticated use of AI/ genAI for experience delivery is still an opportunity for most.”
Significant CX and personalisation maturity challenges revealed
In the customer experience space, 82% of leaders rate CX as a strategic priority, and investment in CX is holding up, with 86% of brands intending to maintain or increase their overall investment in CX over the next 12-18 months.
However, challenges in CX maturity remain. A considerable 39% of leaders say their digital/marketing team’s capability in CX is lagging in the market, and only 37% feel their organisation is truly aligned around a CX vision. Without a shared vision, teams often pull in different directions, prioritising their own interpretations of what matters most.
Having a clear vision, investment planning, roadmaps and cross functional collaboration contributes significantly to successful CX strategies, with the report noting that market-leading brands in CX were 270% more likely to have a clear CX vision that the organisation is aligned around.
Looking to personalisation, maturity is also lacking, with 57% of leaders saying their marketing team’s personalisation capability is lagging in the market. Personalisation is seen to be important or very important, strategically, to 72% of surveyed leaders’ overall marketing and digital strategy over the next 12-24 months, but for many the capability gaps will plague their ability to drive material progress.
Jaye Vernon, Area Vice President for cloud-based customer engagement platform Braze, notes the criticality of having a partner at the table that brings an evidence-based perspective to help shape strategy and drive tangible business outcomes.
“The brands that lead are those that align cross-functionally, engage customers in the moments that matter, and treat every interaction as an opportunity to build trust,” Vernon says.
“Taking it a step further, those that are focusing on making human, responsive engagement not just possible but practical at scale is what sets successful CX strategies apart.”
First-party data strategy lags in the age of privacy compliance
In data, analytics and privacy, the report highlights a widening gap between leading organisations in areas of data and analytics vs laggards. Despite growing investment in first-party data strategies, half of all surveyed leaders (53%) acknowledge that their brand’s capability in customer and first-party data strategy is lagging in the market.
At the same time, 83% of brands rank first-party and customer data strategy as important or very important to their strategic direction over the next 12-24 months.
Developing a unified view of the customer topped a list of investment focus areas, with more than half of all brands prioritising the unification of data. Identity resolution, considered a key pillar of enhancing the resolution of customer data, remains a low priority, with only 25% of those surveyed pressing it as a key area of investment.
This point of contrast is illuminating for Amperity Area Vice President for Australia, Billy Loizou.
“For companies with over a billion dollars in revenue, unifying customer data was the number one priority. However identity resolution was a much lower priority,” he says.
“This is really eye opening because you need identity resolution in order to get to a unified view of the customer. Without robust identity resolution, personalisation fails and growth stalls. Closing this gap isn’t optional; it’s a strategic imperative for any business serious about success.”
When it comes to prioritising and understanding privacy, the report reveals that most organisations remain underprepared for upcoming privacy changes. Less than half of surveyed leaders (47%) agree that the Privacy Act changes are well understood by the marketing and/or digital team.
Furthermore, just 4 in 10 leaders agree their brands have a clear plan to evolve in line with the proposed privacy act changes. Under half (48%) of leaders believe their executive group understands the importance of adapting and sees it as a key strategy priority to address how privacy is managed.
Another striking stat, as mentioned, is that just 14% of brands believe they are advancing in their endeavours to build a unified view of the customer. This is particularly noteworthy as we expect a unified customer view to be a primary driver for investment in these kinds of solutions.
Commenting on the data, Arktic Fox’s Sperti notes that while brands have invested heavily in first-party data and marTech, many aren’t seeing the return.
“Too often, unifying data becomes the end goal while activation and insight generation are overlooked,” she says. “So there is a disconnect between ambition and realisation. Data activation and opportunity identification, have to be built as capabilities, if brands are able to really mature in their customer data strategy endeavours and that capability has to be built beyond one or two individuals.”
Rapid growth clashes with low trust in retail media
The report lastly explores the rapid growth of retail media in Australia, a market that reached an estimated $2.6 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow by up to 15% in 2025. Several retailers, including Priceline, Bunnings and Petbarn have launched retail media networks over the past 12 months.
However, there is caution among brands and even a considerable lack of trust in retail media as this sector develops. When asked about their retail media investment strategy over the coming 12 months, 55% of brands said they were planning to invest the same and 8% will reduce spend.
A staggering 96% of brands stated that being able to quantify return, uplift and value from retail media spend is one of their key challenges. Perhaps even more striking is that just over half (54%) of respondents have low levels of trust in retail media networks.
Furthermore, 44% of brand leaders believe their organisation has low levels of capability in-house to effectively manage retail media.
Most brands are making use of multiple retail media networks (RMN), and most surveyed brands are using more than one, with 39% already using four or more networks. One in three of brands are already reporting use of Amazon Ads.
These findings, Arktic Fox’s Sperti says, offer a moment of reflection for retailers.
“Retail media may offer a way to offset eCommerce margin pressure, but many lack the internal capability, across data, audience management, and reporting, for their own growth purposes,” she says.
“Standing up a network while building maturity takes time, yet suppliers, now also customers, expect more. Trust and transparency are hygiene factors. Retailers must demonstrate value beyond ROAS or risk weakened supplier relationships and reduced investment.
“With 60% of FMCG and CPG brands already using marketplaces, platforms like Amazon Ads are well positioned to capitalise; raising the bar for retailers looking to compete.”
Strategic priorities see shift to greater brand building, budgets tightening
Examining responses to questions around brands’ broad strategic priorities, the report reveals that focus has increased, compared to last year, on brand building, up from 36% to 45% against a backdrop of cost pressures.
However, 74% of leaders revealed that their business is either currently resizing or has recently done so. Furthermore, 73% of surveyed leaders stated their budget had remained static (41%) or been reduced (32%). The desire to build brand while facing pressures around budget puts teams in the challenging position to achieve more with fewer resources.
Consistent with last year’s results, the overwhelming majority of leaders (75%) remain focused on advancing their organisation’s growth agenda. Customer acquisition ranks as the second key priority for brands (49%).
“The shift to brand building is being driven by tougher trading conditions,” Arktic Fox’s Sperti says. “Whilst many brands have been trading through more challenging economic conditions, the sustained lower growth environment combined with rising costs of acquisition from digital media, is creating a greater need to drive brand salience and preference for many.”
About the report
The online survey behind the report was conducted between February and April 2025. Respondents worked in industries including retail, FMCG, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, financial services, not-for-profits, manufacturing, education, professional services, and more.
The research was produced with the support of three key sponsors: cloud-based customer engagement platform Braze, customer data cloud platform provider Amperity, and product experience management platform Salsify.
The full report, which contains many more insights, statistics and charts, as well as insights from industry leaders, is now available for download by clicking here.
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