Carbon offsetting, Christmas ads, B2B spend: 5 interesting stats to start your week

We arm you with all the numbers you need to tackle the week ahead.

Carbon offset stats

British consumers reject carbon offsetting programmes

More than six in 10 Brits (66%) prefer companies to reduce their own carbon emissions rather than using carbon offsetting programmes, new research reveals.

Conducted by Mintel in the run up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop26), the survey of 2,000 UK adults, 2,000 US adults and 3,000 Chinese adults finds that consumers are also demanding greater transparency from brands.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Brits say it should be compulsory for food and drink companies to show how environmentally friendly a product is on the label. That figure rises to 81% among Chinese consumers, but drops to 56% in the US.

Over half (55%) of Brits also agree that more environmentally harmful products should cost more, compared to 48% of US consumers and 43% of Chinese consumers.

Meanwhile, with a recent UN report concluding that fossil fuel production investment and usage are still rising, as many as half (52%) of Brits believe the country where they live should stop investing in fossil fuel energy, markedly higher than the 43% of Americans who agreed.

Source: Mintel

Consumers brand Christmas ads cheesy and premature

Christmas ads statsConsumers are more than twice as likely to think Christmas is more important this year than previously, but only around a quarter (16%) are looking to spend more, according to data from Kantar.

In fact, more than a quarter (26%) of people are planning on spending less this year than last year, while 51% are expecting to spend around the same.

And while half (51%) of consumers say they “love” Christmas ads, 42% also think they can be cheesy, including nearly half of men and 51% of over-65s.

Timing should also be a key consideration for brands. Of the 1,241 British adults surveyed by Kantar last month, 63% said Christmas ads appear too early in the year. However, 37% also claimed to have already started festive shopping.

Meanwhile, turkeys and car fuel have been highlighted as the items people are most worried about being available in the lead up to Christmas day. A quarter of 16 to 34-year-olds are actively worried about Christmas, compared to 4% of over-55s.

Source: Kantar 

Industry anticipates highest ever level of Christmas ad spend

Christmas ad spendWith Christmas on the horizon, total UK advertising investment over the fourth quarter of 2021 is expected to reach £7.9bn, the highest level ever recorded and almost £1bn more than last year, according to the latest Expenditure Report from the Advertising Association and WARC.

The report has subsequently raised its growth forecast for UK ad spend overall this year to 24.8%, amounting to a total spend of £29.3bn. This is the largest annual rise on record and marks a 6.6 percentage point increase on July’s growth projection of 18.2%. A 7.7% increase in spend is now expected for 2022, up to over £31.5bn.

This year Christmas ad spend will focus on online shopping, with search advertising – which includes ecommerce spend – forecast to be one of the quickest growing media in the fourth quarter. Search spend is forecast to rise 15.3% to £2.7bn over the period and next year growth in search is expected to continue, with an anticipated rise of 11.4%.

Looking at spend over the second quarter of this year, all media saw a strong recovery as the nation emerged from its third pandemic lockdown. Out-of-home spend rose 276.8%, digital magazine brands saw investment up 155.5% and direct mail grew 104%.

These figures suggest the UK is still on course to achieve the fastest ad trade recovery of any major European market this year, bouncing back from its £1.8bn decline in 2020, the report claims.

Source: Advertising Association/Warc 

Advertising investment to drive B2B spend up by £10bn

B2B spend statsB2B spend in the UK grew by £7bn year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021, according to the second edition of American Express’s Global Business Spend Indicator, produced in partnership with the Centre for Economic and Business Research.

This positive growth is expected to have continued during the third quarter of the year, with businesses anticipating a £10bn rise in B2B spending. That marks a 2.5% increase on the third quarter of 2020.

According to the report, a key driver of this uptick in B2B spend is advertising investment, with 38% of businesses expecting to spend more on advertising, sales and marketing in the third quarter compared to the second. Outdoor and broadcast advertising is the fastest growing subcategory reported by UK businesses for both quarters.

However, inflation is also playing a role in the growth. More than half (55%) of UK businesses that spent more in the second quarter of the year than the first say this was, to some extent, due to price rises. With expectations that inflation could rise further, 59% of businesses expecting to spend more in Q3 say this is likely to be impacted by price increases.

Source: American Express/Centre for Economic and Business Research

Women’s sport on track to beat UK audience records

Women's sport statsThe Women’s Sport Trust (WST) has revealed 2021 is likely to beat all records for the total broadcast audience of women’s sport in the UK, up from 46.8 million in 2019 to an estimated 51.1 million by the end of this year.

The figure marks a significant increase on 2020’s audience of 27.3 million, when Covid-19 had a damaging impact on the visibility of women’s sport.

This year has seen the launch of cricket’s ‘The Hundred’ competition, which features men’s and women’s teams, as well as a new broadcast deal for the FA Women’s Super League.

Conducted by Future Sport, the research also showed that gender parity of coverage was being achieved in broadcast for both established events, like the Olympic Games and Wimbledon, as well as new competitions.

Almost half (47%) of total audio mentions on the BBC’s live linear broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games were about female athletes, while the broadcaster’s Wimbledon coverage saw more ladies’ singles matches on BBC One than men’s singles (34 vs 30), although more men’s games were shown on BBC Two.

Nearly half (47%) of total live coverage hours of The Hundred across the BBC and Sky were dedicated to the women’s game, with women’s matches generating 36% of live viewing hours. The opening match of the competition was the most watched women’s cricket match ever in the UK.

However, women’s sport still needs to address building greater habit and repeat viewership, as it lags behind men’s sport on the percentage of viewers who watched a property more than once. Some 45% of the women’s The Hundred audience watched the competition on TV more than once, compared to 55% for the men’s.

Source: Women’s Sport Trust/Future Sport

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