Welcome to What We’re Reading, a weekly rundown of news stories, marketing columns, and specific b2b industry news that caught our eye.

Deloitte CMO survey measures marketing budget size

According to a CMO survey sponsored by Deloitte LLP, mining and construction companies are spending 13% of their overall budget on marketing, while manufacturing companies tend to spend 8 percent on average. Consumer packaged goods are the big spenders, allocating 24% of their budget to marketing, dwarfing even the tech software companies.

The survey doesn’t just talk budget size, however. It also looks at how those expenses are allocated, breaking it down by B2B product/service and B2C product/service.

Also, some useful insight on sales/marketing alignment:

“A deeper analysis reveals that marketing spending is higher at companies that give marketing responsibility for sales (17.7 percent of overall budgets) than at firms where sales is responsible for marketing (10.1 percent of budgets). Marketing’s more strategic, customer-driven focus can help ensure that sales activities do not become tactical and short-term. When the sales function sits within marketing, sales can be driven to focus on the acquisition and retention of the most valuable customers for the long run.”

It's worth the full read, which you can do by clicking here.

Cloudy, with a 95% chance of anxiety

“What should marketing look like in the age of anxiety,” is the central question in this Globe and Mail piece.

Seismic shifts in the political landscape, social media jabbering, and constant, never-ending news alerts have built-up an anxiety-inducing climate recently. It’s a topic we’ve been discussing for well-over a year here at the office — we don’t live and market in a vacuum, and need to adjust our approach based on social, political, and economic climates.

So, short of playing Marvin Gaye tracks 24/7 and investing in puppies, what’s a brand to do? “Establish a clear moral compass and stick to your principles,” advises the Globe columnist. “Focus on what unites us, rather than what divides us. Celebrate the things that will balance what is happening elsewhere in the world. Counteract the anxiety-inducing messages we are inundated with every day.”

Good advice, but we’ve also seen how the “we’re-all-in-this-together-fa-la-la” approach can go horribly, horribly wrong.

Which is to say, don’t fake it. A little sincerity may go a long way these days.

Not your grandfather’s WYSIWYG

Our tech team is rejoicing over the release of CK Editor 5. “This is a really big deal for developers,” explained MOTUM’s VP of Technology, Mark Whiting. “We’ve been using the previous version to handle the text editing in the admin area of almost all our clients’ sites, and this changes the game completely on how the world’s most popular WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor works.”

How does it change the game? Our tech team is still deconstructing it, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, you can read more about it on the CK Editor blog here.

Reality-altering tech developments

We’re keeping an eye on a new development in augmented reality called AR.js, which lets you browse in AR on your phone. Yea. AR on your phone. Pokémon GO says hi.

After reading about the JavaScript based open-source solution, we can’t stop thinking about the possibilities (like, say, building a physical wall for a tradeshow booth, adding some QR-type squares, and when someone points their phone at it, sweet augmented reality graphics and info about Product X will be displayed).

You can find AR.js on github or get the full scoop on Upload.