Marketing spend, consumer concerns, online shopping: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Just 7% of brands investing more in marketing

Just 7% of UK marketers say their brands are taking a strategic approach to invest more in marketing during the coronavirus pandemic, with the vast majority forced to maintain or cut spend in the face of business disruption.

That compares to 29% who say their approach is to ‘stay the course’ by maintaining budgets and 50% who say they are making cuts so they can ‘live to fight another today’. A further 14% say it is too early to know what their strategic response to marketing will be.

Almost half of UK marketers say that if they asked to increase media spend, their leadership team would say that, while they understand the motivation, there is no cash to spend. Some 32% of marketers said finance would ask them to prove the case before they would consider it, while just 13% said finance would ask for a plan on how to do it.

One in 10 believe finance would say they were wasting their time.

Source: Marketing Week and Econsultancy

Consumer concerns over income due to coronavirus start to decline

Consumer concerns over household income and spending are starting to ease as the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK continues. While 39% of households say their income has reduced over the past two weeks, 30% expect it to decline in the next two weeks. Similarly, 50% say household spending has reduced over the past two weeks, but 36% expect it to reduce in the next two weeks.

Some 65% now expect their finances to be impacted for more than two months, down from 72% in the middle of April. However, consumers still expect to decrease spending across all categories except on groceries, where a net 7% expect to increase spending, and on home entertainment (9%).

Not knowing how long the situation will last is the biggest concern for Britons, cited by 58%, alongside public health, the UK economy and the health of relatives in a vulnerable position.

Source: McKinsey and Company

UK ad spend to plummet in 2020, ending 10 years of growth

UK ad spend is set to plummet in 2020 – ending 10 years of growth – as the Covid-19 outbreak hits investment.

Prior to the pandemic, the market had been forecast to experience year-on-year growth of 5.2%, taking its value to more than £26bn. However, this has been revised to a decline of 16.7% year on year to £21.13bn. Spend is expected to return to growth in 2021 with a rise of 13.6%, but absolute levels of investment are not expected to surpass the 2019 total.

While digital is forecast to decline by less than traditional formats, it is expected to fall for the first time. Search will swing from 17.8% growth in 2019 to a 12.1% fall this year, while online display will go from 17.4% growth last year to a 12.7% decline in 2020. Video on demand grew 15.5% last year, but will dip by 6.3% in 2020.

Source: AA/Warc

Online grocery market to experience 33% growth in 2020

The online grocery market is forecast to experience growth of 33% this year to reach an estimated value of £16.8bn, up from £12.7bn in 2019. This follows four consecutive years of slowing growth – the lowest of which came in 2019 when growth was just 2.9%.

Research during the very early stages of the coronavirus outbreak (28 February – 13 March) in the UK found that 7% of Britons had increased the total amount they spend shopping online across both food and non-food. But in research conducted once the UK was in lockdown (16-23 April), 36% say they have increased their online shopping.

Source: Mintel

Just one in 10 consumers confident enough to return to normal when lockdown eases

Just one in 10 (10%) consumers say they would return to normality when the lockdown eases, versus 40% who said they would remain “extremely cautious” and 37% who said they will will remain “a bit cautious”. Some 13% said they would remain in lockdown.

More than a quarter (28%) of consumers said the pandemic will have a permanent impact on the way they shop, versus the 24% who say it will change how they communicate, 22% how they travel and 22% how they work.

Source: Retail Economics