Online ad spend, high street footfall, Amazon’s revenues: 5 killer stats to start your week

1. CMO tenure falls in the US

The average time spent by CMOs in their roles fell by a month in 2018 as the job becomes ever more complex.

At the 100 top US ad spenders, the average tenure was 43 months last year, compared to 44 months in 2017. The median tenure was 27.5 months, down from 31 months the year before.

The research suggests that the rapidly evolving nature of the role is behind the drop. CMOs now are often tasked not just with branding, marketing and advertising but also customer experience as well as managing ad tech.

On diversity, just a third (34%) of CMOs at the top US ad spenders were women, although that is up from 28% in 2018. Just nine are from ethnic minorities, down from 11 in 2017.

Source: Spencer Stuart

2. Almost two-thirds of UK ad spend to be online by 2020

UK advertisers are set to spend almost two-thirds (62%) of their budget online by 2020, up from 57% last year.

That makes the UK the largest online ad market in Europe and the third largest globally. And it is the largest in relation to the size of its economy, with online ad spend equating to 0.63% of GDP in the UK.

In 2018, £13.4bn of the total £23.6bn that was spent on advertising went online. Just two decades ago, online expenditure didn’t even register in published statistics and Google didn’t launch AdWords until 2000, when online ad spend was just £153m.

It is not just big brands advertising online, with small and medium-sized businesses making use of online. Some 42% of SMEs advertised online in 2017, up from 30% in 2013.

Source: Credos and Enders Analysis

3. High street footfall plummets in May, marking six-year low

Footfall fell by 3.5% in May, compared to a 0.4% decline during the same period last year, marking the steepest drop in six years.

High street footfall fell by 4.8% over the four weeks between 28 April and 25 May, a significant shift from the 0.5% increase in May last year.

Retail park footfall was up down 0.8%, while shopping centre footfall also dropped by 3.6%, compared to a 2.9% decline year on year. This was steeper than the three-month average decrease of 2.1%.

Source: BRC

4. Amazon to account for a fifth of online spend in the UK by 2024

Amazon’s UK retail revenue is set to soar by 58.2% during the next five years to reach £15.7bn, meaning it will account for almost a fifth of all online spend.

That will take its share of the ecommerce market to 19.8% in 2024, up from 16.6% in 2019.

The food and grocery sector is anticipated to be the largest growth area  for Amazon, with revenue rising 174.7% between 2019 and 2024. In comparison, the total grocery sector is forecast to grow by 15.5% over the same period.

Almost a fifth (19.4%) of UK online shoppers are Amazon Prime subscribers.

Source: GlobalData

5. UK new car market declines once again

The UK new car market declined by 4.6% in May, with just 183,724 new cars registered.

The fall reflects continued uncertainty over diesel and clean air zones, as well as the removal of incentives for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Underlying economic and political instability also continues to affect consumer and business confidence.

Declines were recorded across all sales types during the month, with registrations by private consumers, fleets and business buyers plunging by 5%, 3% and 29% respectively.

“Confusing policy messages and changes to incentives continue to affect consumer and business confidence, causing drivers to keep hold of their older, more polluting vehicles for longer,” says SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes.

Source: SMMT