5 killer stats to start your week

1. Young people don’t see marketing as a career destination

More than half (51%) of students aged between 18 and 24 say marketing was ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ mentioned at their school, with just 1% reporting that marketing was talked about ‘a lot’.

When asked which industry they think offers the best career opportunities, 16% of respondents say medicine, followed by business management (12%) and engineering (11%). Marketing was singled out by just 3% of young people.

Students say medicine (14%) and business and management studies (14%) will set them up for the best career in the long term, followed by engineering (9%) and law (8%). Marketing is the lowest-rated degree for delivering the best possible career, chosen by only 2% of respondents.

Yet despite concerns about the ability of marketing to deliver career success, 57% of those questioned say they would consider a career in marketing, showing that the profession still has the chance to influence their decisions.

Source: Marketing Week/Unidays

2. Marketers undervalue the impact of traditional media channels

Marketers are undervaluing the impact of traditional media channels, with magazines, newspapers and radio all much better at building brand campaigns than advertisers and agencies think, while online video and social media deliver much less value than they are perceived to.

To gather the results, 116 senior executives working for brands and agencies were given a list of 12 attributes and forced to trade them off against one another to determine what they think are the most, and least, important for growing a brand over the long term and then which media channels they think performs best.

To assess the actual performance of each channel, secondary data from sources including Ebiquity and the IPA was used.

According to advertisers and agencies TV ranked as the overall number one, followed by online video, social media and out-of-home.

However, the evidence suggests that TV tops the chart, followed by radio, newspapers and magazines.

In terms of audience measurement, online video and online display were rated the highest of any channel by marketers for their ability to measure response instantly and in detail. But the evidence suggests newspapers magazines, TV, radio and outdoor were top.

Source: Radiocentre and Ebiquity

3. Major multinationals go beyond auditing as independent advisor role evolves

Major multinationals are using an expanding array of services to support their media management challenges that go beyond simply price auditing.

Based on a survey of 56 advertisers representing companies spending more than $90bn on marketing, it found nine out of 10 advertiser respondents used media auditing and price benchmarking services.

However, 73% of clients, 92% of agencies and 87% of advisors believe that ‘the industry needs to move away from outmoded media price judgments to focus on value-based assessments’.

Additionally, nearly all clients (96%) agree that ‘digital media requires a different assessment methodology to offline media’.

And two-thirds of advisors agree that ‘digital evaluations offered by media advisors have advanced considerably in recent years’ – clients are more sceptical, with just 23% agreeing.

Source: WFA

4. Tesco and Morrisons rise to top the big four in a buoyant market

Grocery sales have grown 3.2% year on year for the 12 weeks to 25 February 25, marking the 12th consecutive period in a row that total market sales have exceeded 3%, and that each of the big four retailers has seen positive growth.

Tesco and Morrisons both experienced sales growth of 2.7%, while Sainsbury’s was up 1.1% and Asda 2.3%, its highest growth since June 2014.

Aldi pipped Lidl as the fastest growing supermarket, with sales up 13.9%.

Source: Kantar

5. TV ad revenue declines for first time in seven years

TV advertising revenue has declined for the first time in seven years, falling 3.2% year on year in 2017 to £5.11bn in 2017,

However, FMCG spend on TV advertising in the fourth quarter of 2017 grew by 8% compared to 2016. And analysts predict TV advertising in the UK will return to annual growth in 2018, forecasting a 1.5% increase in total investment.

Online businesses remain the biggest advertisers on TV (£682m), followed by food(£559m) and cosmetics/personal care (£431m).

Thinkbox’s figures represent all money invested by advertisers in commercial TV across all formats and on any screen including linear spot and sponsorship, product placement, broadcaster VoD, addressable and interactive.

Source: Thinkbox