5 interesting stats to start your week

Almost two in three marketers believe business will improve next year

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of marketers expect business will improve in 2025, the highest level of optimism recorded in three years, according to research from WARC.

Almost three in four (72%) think economic conditions will significantly impact their marketing strategy next year. That wariness around the macroeconomic situation is perhaps impacting positivity around budgets, with the prevailing sentiment (44%) being that marketing budgets are likely to be maintained next year.

There is a smaller but still significant (34%) segment of marketers who believe their budget will increase in 2025, which is down from last year when 41% expected to see increases in 2024.

There is markedly less optimism on budgets among agencies than there is among brand-side marketers. Just over a quarter (28%) of agency respondents expect budgets to increase compared to nearly half (46%) of brands.

As for how budgets are likely to be spent, slightly more marketers across the board expect budget increases on performance advertising (38%) versus brand advertising (35%).

The research also looks at attitudes to measurement, finding almost all (93%) marketers employ one or more measurement techniques. While more than two in three (67%) marketers conduct brand health tracking, less than half (45%) use econometrics and marketing mix modelling (MMM).

Source: WARC

Global advertising spend forecast to increase 7.9% next year

In 2024, global advertising spend is forecast to grow by 9.5%, reaching $1.04trn, according to GroupM.

Most of that growth is expected to benefit the big digital advertising companies (Google, Meta, Amazon, ByteDance and Alibaba), with these firms likely to earn more than half of all advertising revenue this year.

Looking to next year, ad revenue in 2025 is expected to grow by 7.9% to reach $1.1trn. Of that total, pure-play digital advertising will account for 72.9% of the total spend in 2025, or 81.7% if all the digital extensions of traditional advertising, such as streaming TV, digital out-of-home (DOOH) and digital newspaper and magazine revenue are included.

Global retail media is one significant area of investment highlighted in the report. Next year, it is forecast to reach $176.9bn, surpassing TV advertising revenue for the first time. It is forecast to represent 15.9% of total advertising revenue next year.

Source: GroupM

M&S is the UK’s most considered fashion brand

Marks & Spencer is the UK’s most considered fashion brand, according to data from YouGov, beating rivals like Nike, Adidas and Next to the crown.

M&S achieved a consideration score of 50.5% among UK consumers, beating the second-most considered brand Nike, which achieved 41.2%, by a considerable distance.

The high street retailer, which was crowned Marketing Week’s Brand of the Year last month, has also made its way among YouGov’s list of the “most improved” fashion retail brands. M&S’s consideration score for fashion has increased from 47.8% in 2023, making it the fourth most improved UK fashion brand.

Levi’s is the most improved fashion brand, with its consideration score having improved to 17.6% from 14.5% last year. While Adidas and Gucci (both with a 3% improvement) come in second and third, respectively.

Adidas is also the third most-considered fashion brand in the UK overall, scoring 38.9%. Next (37.9%) and Primark (31.9%) are, respectively, the fourth and fifth most-considered fashion brands.

M&S has traditionally been a brand that has an older demographic, but attracting younger consumers, in addition to keeping its traditional base, has been a key focus of the fashion team in recent years. These efforts have borne fruit, with M&S now being the fifth most-considered UK fashion brand among Gen Z consumers, scoring 31.7% on consideration.

Source: YouGov

Over three in five marketers have increased investment in brand ambassadors

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of marketers have increased investment in brand ambassadors over the past year, according to research from Billion Dollar Boy.

A brand ambassador is someone paid by a brand to present it in a positive light. Examples of celebrity brand ambassadors include actor Jamie Dornan for Diet Coke, George Clooney for Nespresso, and Eva Longoria for L’Oréal Paris.

Investment in brand ambassadors is expected to rise in 2025, with the survey finding an extra 73% of marketers planning to invest more in ambassador programmes over the next 12 months.

The top reason why marketers are investing in brand ambassadors is because they believe it improves the authenticity of the partnership or content (36%). This is closely followed by it allowing for faster content approval (34%) and delivering strong ROI (34%).

Around a third (32%) of marketers also say they invest in brand ambassadors because it delivers better campaign engagement (32%) and builds better relationships with the creators. Other reasons for investment are that it improves the creator’s understanding of brand messaging (31%), is more cost-effective (28%) and increases recall (28%).

Source: Billion Dollar Boy

Just 7% of websites score highly for accessibility

Less than one in 10 (7%) websites score highly for accessibility, according to an audit of the most visited websites across six countries – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US, assessing across 17 different accessibility criteria.

Over half (56%) of the audited websites lacked accessibility statements, highlighting a significant gap in transparency.

The audit scored websites out of 10, with 93% failing to achieve nine or more. In general, public sector websites outperformed private sector sites, with an average score of 7.8, compared to 6.4 across all sectors audited.

Ecommerce and media websites average the lowest out of all the sectors audited, with scores of 5.4 and 5.8 out of 10, respectively.

Out of the countries where the websites originate, the US is the top performer, scoring 7.0 out of 10 on average. The UK ranks second scoring 6.5 out of 10, making it the top performing European country.

Source: The Contentsquare Foundation