5 killer stats to start your week

We arm you with all the stats you need to prepare for the coming week and help you understand the big industry trends.

Exports of UK ad services hit record £5.8bn

Exports of UK advertising services hit a new high of £5.8bn in 2016, with £3.2bn of that, or 55%, exported to EU nations.

That figure is an increase of 35% on the previous year, outstripping UK service exports growth overall which was up by just 7% in comparison.

The UK’s balance of payments surplus for advertising was the biggest in Europe – £2.9bn, while the export of advertising services has more than doubled in less than a decade, up from a figure of £2.4bn in 2009.

The US is the largest market for UK advertising services in terms of individual countries, accounting for £1.1bn of UK advertising services exports. It is followed by France (£655m), Germany (£619m), Ireland (£454m), and The Netherlands (£350m).

Source: The ONS and Credos

Snapchat’s UK ad revenue to pass £100m in 2018

Snapchat is expected to generate £100m in revenue in the UK this year, almost doubling the amount from the prior year.

In 2015, 95.9% of Snapchat’s global ad revenue came from the US. This year, that proportion is expected to fall to 75.8%, as the platform continues to add users outside its core geography. The UK will account for 10% of Snap’s worldwide revenues in 2018.

However, despite the growth, Snapchat will make up less than 1% of UK digital ad spend this year, behind Instagram on 5%.

Google and Facebook continue to dominate, accounting for 39.6% and 21.3% of the UK digital ad marketing respectively.

Source: eMarketer

Marketers face challenges to recruit in-house media buyers

The need for talent has been identified as the biggest obstacle to marketers seeking to expand in-house buying efforts because of the lack of variety and clear career progression in these fields.

In a survey from 130 media, marketing and procurement executives, respondents rated accessing the best quality talent to be the most important factor (2.5 out of 3) to expanding in-house media buying.

Other key factors identified as challenges were measuring success, deciding on technology, keeping on top of innovation and accessing good quality data.

Business results (17%), financial transparency (15%) and brand safety (13%) were rated as the three most important indicators of success in media trading for advertisers.

Of those who ranked business results as the most important, 68% were advertisers and 32% were agency respondents.

Source: ID Comms

Those with disabilities face negative stereotyping

New research reveals how the mentally and physically disabled are being stereotyped in the UK – and why the ad industry needs to do more about it.

Those with a mental disability are the most likely (64%) to be negatively stereotyped – 64% think so, rising to 75% who actually have a mental health condition. 52% think people with physical disabilities are negatively stereotypes and 66% of those with physical disabilities think society tries to ‘sweep them under the rug’.

Yet 63% of those with physical disabilities think that seeing more disabled people in ads will help remove the stigma.

And people want to see advertising better reflecting society. 54% want to see more people with physical disabilities in ads, while 52% want to see more of those with mental disabilities.

When asked why those with mental disabilities aren’t currently visible enough in UK advertising, 62% of Brits say it’s because they ‘make people uncomfortable’, while 43% say it’s because Brits aren’t exposed enough to people in this community.

Source: UM

One in three UK brands say negative content is damaging their business

Brands’ number one concern when it comes to damaging their business is negative press (26%), followed by poor reviews (14%) and social media posts (10%).

And the threat from media coverage has grown from 17% to 26% since 2014, while one in 20 brands say negative content has already cost them more than £500,00.

A further 5% say they’ve lost between £100,000 and £500,000, while 14% have lost up to £50,000.

Another 25% say content posted by competitors that had caused the most damage – or had the potential to do so.

However, 10% say they haven’t seen a financial impact yet but are concerned that they will in future.

As a result many British brands and businesses are taking preventative action with 95% of respondents now actively monitoring or measuring reputation.

Source: Igniyte

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