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DACH Marketers Slash Display Ads, Embrace Organic Content

The fifth edition of Digital Marketing Benchmarks 2023, a joint study by the DDV Deutscher Dialogmarketing Verband and Absolit Dr. Schwarz Consulting, surveyed 5,025 companies across 247 sectors in the DACH region to map digital-marketing activities. It finds a shift toward organic content on social media and a tightening of paid advertising, with display advertising bearing the largest cut. Social activity is rising for 28% of respondents, with Instagram posting up 42% year over year and LinkedIn up by about one-third; posting on Xing declines by 36%, and postings on YouTube and TikTok are also down. Paid advertising usage declines for 26% of firms, and display advertising usage falls by four percentage points to 59%; 17% of respondents had tested display since 2020 but have since excluded it from their marketing mix. Finance and IT sectors tighten display most, while SEA budgets are reduced in six of nine sectors. The authors note a shift from paid to organic content as a more sustainable approach.

Deutsche Verbraucher betrachten ihre Daten als Kapital

German consumers increasingly treat their personal data as capital within the digital advertising ecosystem. A December 2021 study by the Global Data & Marketing Alliance (GDMA) in collaboration with Acxiom and with input from the German Dialog Marketing Association (DDV) surveyed over 1,000 Germans on privacy. Key findings show that 77% are aware of and accept their participation in data exchanges; 44% view their data as capital they can use to negotiate better prices and offers. Many would share data for free access to services, with 39% for email apps, 32% for messaging apps, and 26% for social networks. Younger adults (18–24 and 25–34) are more likely to be data pragmatists. Transparency is increasingly prioritized: 73% want to understand how data is used, and 72% desire flexible privacy policies to control data scope. Acxiom’s European Privacy Officer, Dr. Sachiko Scheuing, emphasizes a fair give-and-take and trust as prerequisites for mutual value.

Utopia.de: Sustainable Publisher Scales via SEO and Social

Utopia.de is a German sustainability-focused publisher founded in 2007 that was acquired in 2014 by a SPD-linked media investment (via DDVG / Tivola Ventures, now Green Lifestyle Group). In an OMR interview, CEO Dr. Meike Gebhard describes growth driven mainly by SEO and Facebook communities, recent investment in content and engineering, and a mixed monetization model. The site reports roughly five million visits per month (management figure) and has grown visibility according to third‑party tools. Traffic sources are dominated by search (around 60%), social media (20–25%, primarily Facebook groups) and direct/newsletter traffic (~10%). Utopia monetizes via direct premium media sales and programmatic remnant inventory, native advertorials and product tests, affiliate marketing, and paid partnerships; media is reported to account for about 30–35% of revenue. The company says it is profitable and projected ~€2m revenue for 2018 and ~€3m for 2019, with about 25 employees.