5 killer stats to start your week

1. Ad viewability hits three-and-a-half year high

The viewability of ads in the UK hit its highest level since the first quarter of 2014 in the final three months of 2017, jumping to 56%.

The UK, which traditionally lags behind seven other European nations, has leapfrogged Switzerland (48%), Poland (50%) and Germany (55%).

However, Austria leads the way on 67%, followed by Italy (63%), France (62%) and Sweden (61%).

Additionally, the average time a UK ad was in view (but not necessarily viewed) rose by 15% to 24.3 seconds. Ads only need to be in view for one second to be counted.

Source: Meetrics

2. UK ad spend sees record 2017

The UK experienced record ad spend in 2017, up 3.4% year on year to £22.1bn, marking the eighth consecutive year of market growth.

The UK’s total ad spend for 2017 also contributed to a 4.8% share of global spend, making it the fourth-largest advertising market in the world after the US, China and Japan.

It also accounts for a fifth of European ad spend and almost a quarter of Western European advertising spend.

Source: The Advertising Association and WARC

3. Online retail shows tough 2018 to come

Online retail growth slowed to 12.1% year on year during 2017, compared with 15.9% in 2016.

That growth was 2% under the predicted 14%, leading forecasts for 2018 to be cut to 9%, the first time it has been in single figures.

Sales on smartphone also slowed to 50% between July and December, down from 77% in the same period in 2016.

Growth through tablets also stalled to just 0.7% last year, and December’s year-on-year growth was 9.1%.

Source: Capgemini

4. Data concerns dominate complaints over direct marketing

Issues around data, privacy and its accuracy were the biggest concerns for consumers in 2017. Breaches of UK data protection laws last year attracted 35 fines totalling £3.25m, almost double the fines in 2016.

Of the 39 cases investigated, 69% related to data, privacy and quality. The remaining complaints were split between contractual (21%) and customer service (10%) issues.

Source: DM Commission

5. Why baby boomer women aren’t interested in advertising

72% of women aged between 53 and 72 say they don’t pay attention to advertising, while 91% wish advertisers would treat them like people, not stereotypes.

Yet 78% of people aged 50+ control the purchase decision in their households and the over 50s account for half of consumer spending in the UK. This means brands are missing out on a huge potential opportunity.

Source: JWT