Digital ad spend, consumers’ concerns and the mobile industry: 5 killer stats to start your week

1. US digital ad spend will surpass traditional in 2019

US digital ad spending is predicted to exceed traditional ad spending this year, growing 19% to $129.3bn and totalling 54.2% of all US ad spending.

Mobile will continue its dominance, accounting for more than two-thirds of digital ad spending, at $87.1bn.

While digital is growing, other sectors are in decline. Directories such as Yellow Pages will take the biggest hit, down 19% this year. Print will see an 18% decline and TV is also predicted to decline 2.2% to $70.8bn.

Overall, traditional’s share of ad spend in the US will drop to 45.8% in 2019, from 51.4% last year.

In digital, Amazon is expected to steal share from Google and Facebook. Its US ad business is predicted to grow by more than 50% this year, increasing share of the digital ad market to 8.8%.

Source: eMarketer

2. Majority of brands could vanish and consumers wouldn’t care

Some 81% of brands sold across Europe could vanish and consumers wouldn’t care. Globally that figure is 77%.

In the UK, 90% of the British population expect brands to provide content but 63% believe the content being created by brands is Britain is poor. Some 61% say they want brands to provide content that is interesting, entertaining, or offers useful experiences or services that stand apart from the brand’s usual services.

This figure climbs to 78% among millennials.

Despite the fact 68% of the British population believe brands should play a role in improving their quality of life and wellbeing, only 33% believe brands are actually working hard to do so.

Meanwhile, 55% of consumers globally says companies have a more important role than governments today in creating a better future, although this figure drops to 46% among British consumers.

Source: Havas

3. 5G to account for 15% of global mobile industry by 2025

5G will account for 15% (1.4 billion) of global mobile connections in 2025, with that figure climbing to 30% in markets such as China and Europe.

Following the launch of 5G in South Korea and the US last year, another 16 major markets are expected to follow suit and switch on commercial 5G networks in 2019.

Meanwhile, 4G will also see strong growth over this period, accounting for almost 60% of global connections by 2025 – up from 43% last year.

One billion new unique mobile subscribers been added in the four years since 2013, bringing the total to 5.1 billion by the end of 2018, and representing about two-thirds of the global population.

More than 700 million new subscribers are also forecast to be added over the next seven years, while an additional 1.4 billion people are expected to start using the mobile internet during the same period, bringing the total number of mobile internet subscribers globally to 5 billion by 2025. This is more than 60% of the population.

Source: GSMA Intelligence

4. Online retail sales growth suppressed again in January

Online retail recorded its worst January sales growth in three years of just 0.7%, as the industry’s recent poor sales performance carried into the New Year.

January provided little relief to retailers on the back of December’s all-time low sales growth, as it recorded just over half the 13.9% growth figure achieved a year ago.

Last month growth was slightly higher than the three-month average of 6.3% but that is likely due to a lack-lustre December. However, when compared to the six and 12-month averages, January fell well below the growth rates of 7.9% and 11.2% respectively.

Health and beauty is the best performing sector, recording 8.1% growth in January. Gifts and electrical performed the worst, with sales declining by 25.8% and 19.1% respectively.

Source: IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index

5. Data, privacy and quality of data lead consumer complaints

Concerns about data, privacy and its accuracy were the biggest concerns facing consumers for the year to the end of June 2018.

Of the complaints made to The DM Commission that were about members of the DMA, 83% related to data, privacy and quality, up from 69% last year. The remaining complaints split between customer service (14%) and contractual (3%) issues.

Over the year, the Commission formally investigated two businesses and found one in breach.

However, the number of complaints overall was down, with the Commission dealing with just over 100 complaints, compared to more than 200 in the prior 12 months. Some 76 of those complaints were made about non-members, which are referred to organisations such as Trading Standards, the Information Commissioners’ Office or Ofcom. 18 were about consumer companies and nine about B2B.

Source: DM Commission