Dive Brief: 

• The Infogroup Targeting Solutions survey of 370 marketers showed that 80% felt more optimistic about their marketing efforts this year than in 2013. 
• The survey focused on data investments and predictions, revealing that 54% have invested in data and 62% plan to expand data budgets. 
• In 2014, 73% say data analysis will be their top priority and 66% say data collection will be No. 1. 

Dive Insight: 

As ITS president David McRae said, "The survey findings…indicate that marketers are moving from the information-gathering stage to the analytics phase of big data adoption." The high adoption of big data and the plans to increase budgets prove that we are moving into a different era. It's a good sign that marketers are optimistic as they approach big changes.