New Arktic Fox Report Reveals Only 19% of brands feel they have
semi / strong utilisation of their marTech tools
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.“Grappling with emerging tech, limited budgets and pressure to drive value, brands are being asked to do more with fewer resources than before,” she says. “We see a host of maturity gaps and lag across marTech, data and analytics, customer experience and more.
“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.”
marTech moves towards composable, best of breed solutions, while utilisation falls short
Looking at marTech and state of the marketing technology tool stack in Australian organisations, the report cites several trends impacting the sector. These include AI adoption, expanding tool sets, a shift away from monolithic platforms toward composable, best-of-breed stacks, and a shift toward building homegrown solutions.
Insights suggest that brands want to make most of what they’ve already got, with 51% of brands focused on sweating the assets and implementing the tech they have procured, as opposed to buying more tech or consolidating it. 23% of brands plan to procure and invest in new marTech whilst 18% plan to consolidate, a recurring trend which reinforces that brands are under pressure to deliver ROI and demonstrate value.
While 49% of brands agree they are under pressure to demonstrate return and value from marTech platforms, utilisation remains low; just 19% of brands feel they have semi or strong utilisation of their marTech tools.
Arktic Fox’s Sperti says it’s clear from these figures that utilisation remains a major challenge for many brands.
“Our research shows those who lean towards more flexible, composable stacks (76%) report better uptake and utilisation of their marTech, which is why we’re seeing a shift away from monolithic, single-vendor solutions,” she says.
“The pull towards single-vendor solutions is often from IT which means the real challenge is aligning IT with the broader strategy. Too often, tech team decisions for marTech are made for comfort, cost and control, not capability and impact for the end users.”
Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Jeremy Woodlee, General Manager @ Infillion
In 2025, there is a clear shift toward more emphasis on AI and GenAI
Generative AI is dominating discourse across marketing events, social media and the press.
Tools like ChatGPT, now generating over one billion searches daily, are rapidly becoming part of consumers’ and professionals’ everyday lives and have created the biggest upheaval in search and experience delivery that we have seen in decades.
Brands are moving quickly to adapt. In the US, Amazon’s AI tool Rufus is transforming how
consumers discover and shop for products. Locally, NAB is leveraging AI algorithms to match customers with bankers based on individual needs.
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.
This is also reflected in the skills brands are looking to acquire. After four years of data and analytics being viewed as the top skills gap within marketing & digital teams, emerging technologies has now taken the top spot.
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.”
Marketing Technology News: Latest Advancements In Proximity Marketing
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.”
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.
Arktic Fox is an advisory, consulting and learning organisation partnering with leaders to better exploit opportunities in the digital, data and ecommerce space and drive successful and sustainable outcomes in the digital age. Go to our website or LinkedIn page to find out more about the 2025 study to gain valuable insights about how to steer your brand through these uncertain times and industry challenges.
Write in to psen@itechseries.com to learn more about our exclusive editorial packages and programs.