Innovation, women’s sport, ad spend: 5 killer stats to start your week

We arm you with all the marketing-related numbers you need such as: the UK experiences its 19th consecutive quarter of ad spend growth and Britain sees 1.5 million new car registrations in 2018.

1. UK CMOs fall behind on innovation

Just 25% of UK marketers identify “leading disruptive innovation” as a core functional priority. This is well below international average of 35%, putting the UK at bottom of a list featuring 10 countries.

In the US, however, 46% of CMOs see innovation as key to their roles. Even in Spain, which came second bottom of the list, 30% of marketers see innovation as a key functional role of marketing.

Rather than innovation, UK CMOs are more likely to be focused on “developing the overall customer experience”, with 64% picking this option as one of their top three priorities. This is just ahead of “delivering business growth” (63%) and “ensuring effective brand management” (52%).

Source: Dentsu Aegis

2. More than half of the UK population have an active interest in women’s sport

Despite new data revealing a tangible and gender balanced interest in women’s sport, brands are still hesitant to get involved.

The data shows 59% of the UK population are interested in at least one women’s sport. This breaks down to 87% interested in both men’s and women’s athletics, tennis (83%), cycling (72%), hockey (71%), golf (57%), football (38%) and rugby union (36%).

Looking at women’s sport alone, 21% of the UK are interested in women’s football, 16% in women’s rugby and 16% in women’s cricket.

Of the 59% who are interested in at least one women’s sport, 51% are female and 49% male. This is compared to the overall sports fan, which skews as 65% male versus 35% female.

Source: Nielsen Sports

3. UK ad spend marks 19th consecutive quarter of growth

UK ad spend for the first quarter of 2018 climbed 5.9% year on year to reach £5.7bn, marking the 19th consecutive quarter of growth and 1.3 percentage points more than the forecast figure.

Radio (+12.5%) recorded its strongest growth in four years, while internet (+10.8%), out of home (+5.3%) and TV (+5.0%) were all positive during the quarter

Ad spend growth forecasts for this year and 2019 have been upgraded by 0.6 percentage points to 4.8% and 0.7 percentage points to 4.5% respectively. If proven accurate correct, these figures would mark a decade of continuous growth,.

Source: Advertising Association/Warc

4. UK sees 1.5 million new car registrations in 2018

The UK’s new car market grew 1.2% year on year in July, with 163,898 joining British roads.

While registrations by businesses with fleets of 25 cars or fewer fell by 10.2%, demand from private buyers was up by 0.1% year on year. Larger fleets also grew by 2.6%.

When it comes to fuel type, diesel registrations fell 24.4% as petrol demand grew 20.1% and alternately fuelled vehicles also climbed 21.0%.

The market share of hybrids and plug-ins reached a record 6.5%. And growth was particularly strong for plug-in hybrids, up by 33.5%, while hybrid registrations grew 17.5%, followed by battery electric cars, up 2.4%. Car sales are seen as a key indicator of consumer confidence and economic growth.

Source: SMMT

5. Online sales to drive half of retail growth in Western Europe

Over the next five years, online sales will drive almost half of retail growth in Western Europe, with Italy and Spain experiencing the fastest online sales growth.

Almost a quarter (21%) of non-grocery retail sales will be online by 2023, up from 13% in 2017. Overall, Western European retail sales are expected to grow by 2.8% this year.

Principal analysis Michael O’Grady says: “We are seeing an increasing consumer confidence that is driving retail sales growth. In addition to the consumer confidence, employment rates haven’t been seen so high since the 2008 banking crisis. As expected, online is playing an ever-increasing role in the mix.”

Source: Forrester

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