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.

 1. Advertisers invest more in digital despite concerns over effectiveness

Advertisers are not shifting money away from online advertising despite growing concerns over effectiveness.

Advertisers are expected to spend 40.2% of their budgets on online advertising this year, up from 37.6% in 2017 and 34.3% in 2016.

This growth in spend is part of the wider process of digital transformation, as advertisers invest in technology, data and innovation.

Online advertising grew by 13.7% in 2017 to US$204bn (£142bn), accounting for 37.6% of global advertising expenditure that year. And by 2020, analysts expect online advertising to account for 44.6% of global ad spend.

Additionally, in 2017 online advertising already accounted for more than 55% of ad spend in the UK, China and Sweden.

Source: Zenith

2. UK retail sales rise for first time in three months

UK retail sales increased by 0.8% in February, the first increase in three months.

However, retail sales in the three months to the end of February were down by 0.4% on the previous quarter, with many experts blaming the ‘Beast from the East’ for the sales decline.

Analysts say it would take a 2% increase in March for retail sales in the first quarter of 2018 to match the 0.5% rise in the final three months of 2017.

Source: ONS

3. Fit for purpose ads are the best way to advertise to smartphone users

Fit for purpose ads are the best way to advertise to smartphone users. 84% of UK adults prefer to access online content for free in exchange for viewing ads, as opposed to paying for an ad-free experience. 78% say they’re annoyed by ads that aren’t tailored to their smartphone device.

And when seeing a bad or poorly designed smartphone ad, 37% of respondents blamed the website or platform and 33% blamed the advertised brand.

When testing optimised and non-optimised assets, the study found a significant percentage increase in several key brand metrics including preference (+44%), brand consideration (+56%), likelihood to find out more (+50%), trust (+33%) and perception of premium (+21%) for the smartphone-optimised ads.

Source: IAB UK

4. Consumers fail to report millions of issues with products and services to brands

Consumers experienced 173 million issues with products and services in 2017, but just 27% of these were reported to companies.

This means consumers ignored 78 million issues last year, an increase of three million from 2016.

A whopping 40% of UK shoppers ‘walked out’ or ‘gave up’ before completing a purchase offline or online, up from 29% last year. 30% chose to switch providers or spend less because of disappointing experiences.

According to a new study, long-term frustration is to blame, with 29% of consumers suggesting you can only get a result from a complaint if they kick up a big fuss.

Another 20% did not take their complaint further as they had previously raised an issue but nothing changed, leaving many disillusioned.

And 28% of consumers now trust companies less than they did three years ago.

Source: Ombudsman Services

5. Brands pursue the ‘Chinese Dream’

Tech-giant Tencent is China’s most valuable brand, growing by 25% to $132.2bn, according to this year’s Top 100 Chinese Portfolio Brands.

Market-driven brands are producing the most growth with a 271% rise over the past five years.

China’s largest ecommerce company, Alibaba, continues to grow, increasing 53% year-on-year to achieve a brand value of $88.6bn.

The brands in this year’s report achieved record growth. With a 23% rise in brand value, from $557.1bn a year ago to $683.9bn in 2018.

The BrandZ report combines financial data with consumer opinions gathered from interviews with over 400,000 Chinese consumers to give a dollar value to how brand powers business.

Source: Kantar Millward Brown

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