NEW YORK – Only 22 percent of footwear brands strongly agree that their senior managers have a good grasp on the potential of digital channels for their organizations, according to a research session at Fairchild Fashion Media's Footwear News Summit 2012. Whereas other industry channels have a better idea of how to leverage social media and other digital media, footwear seems to be falling behind in this area. However, given that it is still a relatively new advertising vehicle, there are opportunities for improvement. “Many companies are using digital efforts and many are expected to become more significant,” said John Jonas, founder/CEO of The Jonas Group, New York. “Not one of the digital channels studied dipped below, and they are expected to have a big impact, none more so than social media. “However, footwear is dedicating smaller marketing spend to digital than other industries,” he said. Tangled Web The top five challenges for digital marketing include identifying correct priorities, finding staff with suitable digital skills, focusing on short-term revenue targets, building cast for investment and a lack of senior management buy-in with digital teams. Most footwear companies are using digital marketing platforms. The most-commonly used are Web analytics, paid search, social media management, CRM, conversion and optimization, online reputation/buzz monitoring, marketing automation, multichannel campaign management and attribution management. However, footwear is still falling behind. This could be because companies are not allocating necessary budget and personnel to digital marketing. This could be because the cost to manage digital channels runs high. “Footwear is dedicating a much smaller marketing spend in digital than other industries,” Mr. Jonas said. “This does not mean that they should not have digital, rather it is important to go into this with eyes open and to have a budget and staff allocated for each initiative,” he said. Looking up There is no doubt that digital media will continue to play an integral role in footwear marketing. The top-three expected growth areas are social media, email and mobile. However, only 22 percent of brands agree that their senior managers have a good grasp on the potential of digital channels for their organizations. Most footwear brands, 36.5 percent, have specialists for social media within the marketing team. Meanwhile, 23.1 percent of brands use the marketing department as a whole in charge of social media. Meanwhile, 13.5 percent leave social media in the hands of customer service, while 15.4 percent of them outsource it all together. Twenty percent of brands surveyed agree that digital channels are fully recognized and integrated into their annual planning and budgeting processes, but it is clear that the industry has not made necessary internal adjustments to take advantage of all responsibilities, according to Mr. Jonas. However, there are some changes that can be made. Tips include creating a clear mandate, establishing best practice for digital marketing, allocating a budget for experimentation and demonstrating value. “It is only by providing evidence of success that future investment can be justified,” Mr. Jonas said. Final Take Rachel Lamb, associate reporter on Luxury Daily, New York