Customer experience, Amazon’s ad business, sustainability: 5 killer stats to start your week

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

1. CMOs shift focus away from customer experience

More than half (53%) of CMOs say customer experience is one of their top three priorities this year but its importance is set to decline over the next two to three years, with just 47% predicting it to be one of their top three priorities by 2022.

Understanding consumer and market trends is also expected to drop down the priority list, with 53% citing it as one of their top three priorities in 2018 but just 47% expect it to still be in the top three in two to three years’ time.

Delivering business transformation and leading disruptive innovation are the only two areas which are predicted to gather more attention, up from 38% to 40% and 33% to 36%, respectively. However, both are considered the least important priorities overall.

Source: Dentsu Aegis

2. Cinema ad spend reports biggest first half of the year ever

Digital Cinema Media (DCM) has reported a 12% climb in ad spend year on year in the first six months of 2019, its biggest ever revenue in the January-to-June period.

The top-spending categories were entertainment and leisure, automotive, finance, government, social and political, and telecoms. DCM represents 82% of the cinema ad industry.

The growth comes as cinema audiences hit their highest level in 50 years, boosted by blockbuster releases such as Avengers: Endgame, which to date has generated £88.6m at the UK box office.

That film was most popular among younger audiences, who are driving up cinema attendance. Those aged between 16 and 34 are responsible for almost half of all cinema tickets sold each year.

Source: DCM

3. Supermarket sales fall for first time in three years

Supermarket sales fell 0.5% year on year for the 12 weeks to 14 July, marking the first  decline in the sector since 2016.

Falling sales are in part due to a tough comparison with last year, when warm weather boosted spend spend on categories such as ice-cream and alcohol, which both saw sales declining this year.

Ocado was the fastet growing supermarket, with up 11.9%. It has grown its shopper base by 6% over the past year.

Aldi had a record share of the market, accounting for 8.1% of sales and with growth up 6.7% year on year, while Lidl was the fastest growing bricks-and-mortar retailer with sales growth of 7%.

The Co-op also kept its run of growth going, with sales up 0.2%, meaning it has seen sales increase consistently since May last year.

Source: Kantar

4. Brits seek greater transparency around sustainable purchases

Almost three-quarters (69%) of British consumers aged between 16 and 44 are more likely to purchase an item if information about the sustainability and environmental impact of the product is provided.

Another 66% of those surveyed who would purchase products from abroad if they were a cheaper price, say they would reconsider their purchases if retailers shared more data and product content about environmental impact of delivery.

A fifth of consumers say they only buy sustainable products.

When assessing the key factors considered when committing to a purchase, sustainable packaging (6%), materials (6%), ethical production (5%) and carbon footprint of delivery (4%) were all listed as the most important.

However, price (41%) and quality (25%) remain the key purchase drivers.

Source: inRiver

5. Amazon grows ad business

Amazon’s ad sales business grew by 37% to $3bn (£2.43bn) year on year during the second quarter, up from a growth of 34% during Q1.

Amazon’s Sponsored Products ads – a cost-per-click format that appears on search results pages and product detail pages – are a key driver of direct sales for marketers with the ads generating 3% of ad impressions.

Sponsored Products ads resulting in product sales more than doubled (up 102%) in Q2 from a year earlier, outpacing the 53% gains for Sponsored Brands ads.

The growth in ad revenue was faster than the company’s 20% overall revenue gain in the second quarter. Amazon generated $63bn (£51.1bn) in revenue during the quarter.

Source: Amazon

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