5 killer stats to start your week

1. Online overtakes TV ads for complaints

A record number of ads were amended or withdrawn in 2017, with the internet overtaking TV as the most complained about medium.

Last year the UK’s ad watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), received 27,138 complaints about 19,398 ads, up 14% year on year – 73% of which concerned potentially misleading ads.

A total of 10,932 complaints were made about 9,951 online ads, while 9,466 complaints were made about 4,666 TV ads, resulting in 7,099 ads either being amended or withdrawn – 47% more than in 2016.

Source: ASA

2. Time with online media to surpass linear TV this year

Consumers are expected to spend an average of 9.73 hours with media per day this year, up from 9.68 hours in 2017.

Time spent with online media will also leapfrog time spent with linear TV for the first time, globally, in 2018. Online will have a 38% share, TV 37%, and the balance spread primarily across print and radio.

Source: Group M

3. Chief marketers call for more digital platform transparency

News coverage about inaccurate, questionable and false digital media reporting measures have caused 21% of marketers to reduce advertising spend. More than 70% of brand leaders admit negative news headlines have had an impact on budgets.

Another 95% of marketing leaders surveyed believe digital media must deliver more reliability.

Marketers are also calling “viewability” standards into question as only 3% of respondents agree on the definition advocated by the Media Rating Council.

This negative outlook of the digital media landscape comes as marketers intend to significantly boost investments in online video advertising—a channel that 28% of respondents believe is more important than other media investments and 40% say is growing of importance.

In fact, 95% of marketers intend to increase investments in 2018, with nearly half increasing spend by up to 25%.

Source: CMO Council

4. British businesses complacent to Brexit exporting challenges

The nation’s smaller businesses are naïve to the exporting impact Brexit is expected to have on the UK, according to reports.

About 70% of exporters anticipate an increase in exports over the next three years and only 4% of existing exporters say exports will decrease.

Yet only a third of exporting businesses (34%) say they have an export strategy.

The research also explored the main barriers to UK businesses seeking to export their products and services. 40% of businesses say having the know-how to adapt their marketing strategy to unfamiliar cultures and markets was a major exporting challenge.

Another 26% say they struggle to access the right marketing skills and 33% say they lack confidence in approaching new markets.

Source: PwC

5. Consumers think ads are becoming ‘too repetitive’

More than half (57%) of UK consumers surveyed believe advertisers are better at communicating with them now than in the past, down from 59% last year.

But consumers are getting bored of repetition with 77% saying they see the same ads over and over again. Another 55% of UK consumers say the ads they see on websites are not usually relevant to them, 38% say they dislike advertising and 53% say that they are ambivalent to it.

In terms of ad blocking, 36% of UK consumers saying they use ad blockers sometimes, and 26% of 18-34-year-olds saying they always use them.

Meanwhile, established media forms remain resilient with 96% of respondents still accessing TV via a television set, 86% listening to the radio offline, and 73% and 72% are reading print newspapers and magazines respectively.

Source: Kantar