Sport sponsorship, personalisation, sustainability: 5 killer stats to start your week

1. Sport sponsorship to reach £35bn globally this year

Global sport sponsorship is predicted to climb by 4% this year to reach £35bn.

However, new research claims rights holders are “under-exploiting” sponsorship deals and that there could be an additional £14bn in revenue going unnoticed because of outdated rights packaging.

Financial services is the leading sector for sport sponsorship at 19%, followed by automotive (14%), airlines (13%), gambling (12%), alcohol (9%) and soft drinks (7%).

Sponsorship should also grow by an average of 6% year on year between 2020 and 2024 to reach £48bn.

Source: Two Circles

2. UK commerce growth stagnates

Digital revenue grew by 12% year on year during the first quarter of 2019, with that figure driven by a 10% growth in shopper spend.

However, commerce growth in the UK was relatively flat year on year, up less than half of 1%, compared to a rise of 4% during the last holiday period.

This is likely due to economic uncertainty with Brexit influencing consumer confidence and fewer purchases.

UK retailers also experienced a 4% decline in mobile visits, making it the only region that recorded negative growth.

Despite Brexit’s potential economic impact, the UK active shopper percentage (shoppers who demonstrated a buying signal like searching, adding a product to cart or starting a checkout, during their visit) continued increasing year on year from 18% in 2017 and 19% in 2018 to 20% in 2019 (all Q1).

Source: Salesforce

3. Use of ‘ad’ hashtag skyrockets as influencer transparency grows

The number of influencers using #ad has grown by 133% during the last year, while the use of Instagram stories climbed by 21%.

Today, the majority of influencers are considered micro-influencers and account for more than 80% of influencers in Europe, Asia and Latin America, compared to more than 75% in North America.

During the first quarter of 2019, interactions with influencer sponsored posts compared to non-sponsored posts were the same, indicating that influencers don’t lose engagement when working with brands.

For instance, influencers experience around 415 median interactions on posts using #ad, compared to 442 median interactions when they don’t.

Source: Socialbakers

4. Significant global growth in personalisation investments

Some 83% of marketing leaders and C-Level executives globally say they’ve increased their investments in personalisation this year, with 32% pointing to a significant budget increase.

Data and analytics (41%) and technology platforms (36%) are the main two areas of investment.

However, more than half (52%) say they lack an adequate roadmap and strategic investment plan for their personalisation capabilities. Speed (44%), automation (44%) and budget (40%) are the main pain-points for marketers when producing and delivering more personalised content.

Additionally, lack of budget (40%), limited platform capabilities (37%), channel complexity (37%) and data (35%) are barriers standing in the way of enhanced personalisation.

Source: Sitecore

5. Half of high street retailers fail to offer sustainable alternatives to paper receipts

Around 11.2 billion receipts are printed each year in the UK alone, at a cost of at least £32m.

Despite the fact the plastic pollution problem continues to make headlines, 50% of high street retailers still fail to offer sustainable alternatives to paper receipts.

Uniqlo, Dorothy Perkins, and Evans are the best brands when it comes to encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour. Each of the retailers offer promote e-receipts via signs or tablets in store.

Source: MailJet