5 killer stats to start your week

1. M&A activity falls

M&A activity in the marketing comms sector fell in the first half of this year. A total of 184 deals worth $4.1bn were tracked, down 39% year on year.

There was an uptick in M&A activity from agency holding groups, as well as more brands, including Domino’s Pizza, Yelp and Time Inc, buying digital agencies.

Source: R3

2. Debit cards overtake cash

Debit cards accounted for more than half of all retail transactions by volume for the first time last year as investment in new payment technology, most notably contactless, drove up card sales.

Debit cards were used for 42.6% of transactions, while notes and coins accounted for 42.3%, down almost five percentage points in a year.

Source: BRC

3. The problems of staff churn

Media and ad companies are the most likely to battle with staff churn with just 54% of employees in this sector seeing themselves at their current organisation in two year’s time.

The media and ad industry is also home to London’s unhappiest workers, with 37% claiming to be slightly or very dissatisfied.

Source: Qualtrics

4. The rise of online video viewing

Online video viewing will rise 20% in 2017, with global consumers spending an average of 47.4 minutes a day viewing videos online, up from 39.6 minutes in 2016.

The increase is being driven by a 35% increase in viewing on mobile devices, while desktop, laptops and smart TVs will rise by 2%.

Source: Zenith

5. Inserts industry continues to decline

Direct marketing via magazine and newspaper inserts has reduced by 12.5% from 4.54 billion in 2015 to 3.98 billion in 2016.

70% of the decrease comes from a drop in newspaper inserts, while magazines stayed stable and third-party sources increased. The figures mean the inserts industry has declined by 18.8% since 2014

Source: DMA