Data sharing, deflation, six-second ads: 5 killer stats to start your week

1. British brands lag behind when it comes to AI

British brands lag behind their European counterparts with it comes to AI implementation despite the majority, 91%, of UK businesses saying it’s important to for success.

Just 31% are happy with the amount of AI they’re using as part of their customer experience strategies, compared to 42% in Germany, and 35% in Switzerland and France.

Despite the fact 92% of British brands plan to implement AI by the end of 2020, the research reveals UK brands have major roadblocks to achieving these goals. Firstly, 59% of British brands can’t process customer data fast enough, and 52% say they collect too much data from too many sources.

Skill shortages are also a problem with 74% of UK businesses saying they need to train their staff in order to meet AI goals, while 71% are having to bring in new talent to the business.

Nearly half (49%) of respondents say the EU’s new data protection regulation has also slowed them down.

Source: Adobe

2. British consumers are worried about data sharing

Two-fifths (40%) of British consumers say they’ve become more anxious about personal data sharing in the last year.

Their top concerns are associated with: hacking of their financial, medical, or other personal information (35%); theft of their credit card details while shopping online (32%); and tracking of their online shopping habits (29%).

UK consumers are also nervous when it comes to social media, with 60% saying they don’t trust anyone with their social media data, compared to 37% globally.

Source: KPMG

3. Shop prices return to deflation

Average shop prices fell in October, a reversal of two months of mild inflation, dropping by 0.2% year on year compared to the 0.2% increase seen in September.

Non-food deflation deepened in October to 1.1%, from 0.9% in September, while food inflation slowed to 1.3% from 1.9% in September and August respectively.

Meanwhile, fresh food inflation slowed to 1.0% in October from 1.6% the month prior, as did ambient food inflation which also decelerated to 1.8% from 2.4%.

Prices of vegetables are also falling, although the hot dry weather experienced during summer is still pushing up on the prices of some domestically grown products. 

Source: BRC 

4. Marketers worry over GDPR compliancy

Just half (50%) of marketers say they felt confident they were fully compliant when GDPR came into effect on 25 May.

While 25% confess they had to remove 23% of marketing records to achieve compliance, only 73% of marketers now feel they are working with a cleaner database. Another 63% believe they’re now more effective when it comes to both sales and marketing.

However, becoming GDPR compliant came with a host of challenges.

For instance, 43% report training their marketing team on data handling guidelines has been the biggest challenge and 38% say they struggled with their restricted access to consumer data.

Marketers have had to alter their internal marketing function too, with 67% having introduced defined new data management policies. More than half (53%) have implemented new data systems or customer engagement tools, while 42% have hired a data protection officer or team.

Source: TransUnion 

5. Six-second ads lack in emotional impact

Six-second ads have a lower emotional impact than those that last for 30 seconds, according to new research. The study of creative from 75 brands used facial coding software to score users’ ‘emotional reactions’ out of 10. It found six-second ads have an average view-through rate (VTR) of 55% on mobile devices, however they only receive an emotional reaction score of 3.6, compared to 5.1 for 30-second ads.

Six-second mobile ads that were able to tell a story performed significantly better, scoring a 4.1 with a narrative, compared to 3.1 without.

And just 16% of six-second ad creatives tested included a call-to-action.

Source: Teads/Realeyes