World Cup, ad blocking, Facebook: 5 killer stats to start your week

World Cup to boost global ad spend by £2.4bn

The 2018 World Cup is expected to add $2.4bn to global ad spend this year, and in the UK it will account for an additional £40m.

China is expected to see the biggest increase in dollar terms, with the World Cup generating $835m in additional ad spend, or 1% of the entire market. Host nation Russia will also benefit, seeing a $64m boost, equal to 2.1% of ad expenditure in 2018.

The tournament will be responsible for 10% of all the growth in ad dollars this year.

Source: Zenith

Number of Brits signing up to subscription boxes skyrockets

Almost a fifth of Brits have signed up to subscription boxes that deliver various products to their door, likely due to the  ‘lipstick effect’, where consumers spend money on more affordable regular ’feel good’ treats in tough economic times, rather than ‘big ticket’ items.

About 19% of Brits have signed up for subscription boxes in the last six months, up from the less than 1% that had subscriptions in 2014.

26% say they buy subscription boxes as a treat, 63% because they love receiving a surprise package in the post and 57.8% because they hate it when they only receive bills in the post.

Food and drink is the biggest market, accounting for 18.6%, followed by beauty (16.5%).

Source: uOpen

Third of Brits think Facebook doesn’t care about its users

More than a third (37%) of UK consumers think Facebook does not care about its users.

Almost a third (28%) of those surveyed say they’re cautious about what they post on social media with this figure rising to 34% for those aged 55 and over.

The survey points to growing concerns around data protection, with 44% saying the government should do more to monitor big tech companies and 42% say businesses are not taking enough responsibility for how they use their data.

However, just 9% of respondents say the Facebook scandal led them to delete content from social media sites.

Source: the7stars

Ad blocking levels fall as revenue loss increases

Ad blocking levels peaked at 12.6% in the second quarter of 2016 and have since declined to a low of 11.3% in the third quarter of 2017. The average rate during 2017 was 11.6%, compared to 12.3% in 2016.

Across the last three quarters of 2017, there was also a gradual reduction in the desktop ad blocking rate to 29.9%.

However, ad blocking on mobile has doubled to 1.3% in the last quarter of 2017.

It is estimated a total of £13.7m in revenue was ‘lost’ in 2017 due to ad blocking – a 27% increase in total ‘lost’ revenue over the comparative figure in 2016.

Source: AOP 

UK entertainment and media sector to grow by £8bn over the next four years

The UK’s entertainment and media sector will be worth £68bn by the end of this year, and £76bn in 2022, if it continues to grow at an annual rate of 3.2%.

The fastest growing segments are virtual reality and e-sports, which are predicted to grow by 35% and 22% year on year respectively until 2022. Consumer spend on internet access (mobile phone data and broadband) will generate the most revenue over the forecast period (£17bn by 2022).

Meanwhile, digital music streaming is forecast to almost double in revenue from £779m in 2018 to £1.4bn by 2022.

Source: PwC