Women’s sport, consumer confidence, Christmas ads: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Women’s sports helps drive streaming success

Women’s sports success helped drive streaming figures in the third quarter, according to data from Worldpanel by Numerator.

In Great Britain, victories for England teams in the UEFA European Cup and Rugby World Cup drove high viewership of women’s sports among sport viewers. Some 60% of GB sports viewers watched women’s games, in France this was even higher, at 64%.

The data also looks more generally at streaming membership in the quarter. Ad-supported tiers continue to see investment from audiences and accounted for 31% of new video-on-demand subscriptions worldwide, up slightly from 30% a year ago. However, country level differences remain: while adoption in the US is flat year on year, markets such as Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia saw solid growth.

In terms of the platforms that saw the most growth, Amazon Prime Video captured the most new subscribers, with 13% of the new sign-ups in the quarter. Netflix and Paramount+ followed closely, securing just below 13% of new subscriptions in the third quarter.

Netflix claimed the top two most watched streaming shows in the third quarter. The second season of Wednesday dominated both ‘most watched’ and ‘most enjoyed’ lists, while season three of Squid Game also proved a major hit.

Source: Worldpanel by Numerator

Prioritisation ‘paradox’ emerging around adoption of gen AI

There is a growing divide between the urgency marketing leaders ascribe to adopting generative AI and how important this tech is to the day-to-day running of the marketing function.

The State of Marketing Europe shows implementing generative AI and agents is seen as a top-three priority for the 500 surveyed marketing leaders across Europe – alongside branding, budgeting and ROI. However, when these same marketers were asked to rank the top 20 marketing topics by order of importance to the business, AI came in a lowly 17th.

The data reveals a growing “paradox” in that marketers are aware of the strategic and investment opportunities that can come from bringing AI into the marketing function, but are struggling to push it to the top of their priority list.

This attitude could see them give up significant competitive advantage, the research suggests.

AI is seen as a top five priority for what McKinsey dubs “AI leaders”, whereas it ranks at the bottom of the list for “AI laggards”. This distinction is playing out in efficiency savings.

One in four companies have already achieved marketing efficiency gains of more than 20% in the past two years using gen AI. According to the data, companies with high gen AI maturity have unlocked average marketing efficiency gains of 22% and are projecting 28% gains in the next two years.

Source: McKinsey

Consumer confidence falls ahead of budget

Consumer confidence dropped by two points in November, continuing a pattern of low sentiment regarding the economy among the general public.

The Consumer Confidence Index fell to -19 this month, with all the measures making up the headline figure dropping since October. The scores make for gloomy reading ahead of the crucial retail month of December, with consumers clearly feeling downcast in advance of the Labour government’s autumn budget next week.

Over the past 12 months, the index score has fallen between -23 and -17. While scores have fluctuated, with no clear direction of travel, the index has remained firmly negative.

The sharpest fall recorded across the five measures this month was in the major purchase index, which fell by three points since October.

Meanwhile, sentiment about the general economic situation dropped by one point when looking back over the last 12 months and two points when looking forward to the next 12 months. Consumers are also downcast about their own financial situation, with people’s perceptions of their personal financial situation dropping by two points, both when looking to the next 12 months and thinking about the last 12 months.

Source: GfK

One in three Brits ‘feel nothing’ when they see Christmas ads

Just under one in three (29.8%) consumers say that they “feel nothing” when they see Christmas campaign messages. Only around a fifth (21.6%) say the messages make them feel inspired to shop, as is the intention behind many Christmas ads.

Some 21% say they feel frustrated or overwhelmed by irrelevant or excessive festive messaging, and a similar proportion say they feel pressured to spend beyond their means over the festive season.

Although almost one in four (22.5%) say they intend to spend less this year, 16% feel guilty for not being able to buy more for others this Christmas.

Almost one in 10 (8.5%) consumers report feeling lonely because they have no one to buy for.

Source: Braze and Censuswide

Sainsbury’s has ‘most recognised’ Christmas ad

Sainsbury’s ‘The Unexpected Guest’ is the most recognised Christmas ad, according to exclusive Ipsos Race to Christmas data.

Half (50%) of respondents to the survey, which was conducted on 17 November, identified the Sainsbury’s ad starring the BFG when shown debranded stills. This marks a significant increase from 33% last week, when it ranked fourth.

The second part of Aldi’s Christmas campaign, ‘pear-shaped stag do’, follows in second place with 47% recognition, while Asda’s ‘A Very Merry Grinchmas’ records 45%.

Ipsos also asked those who recognised the ads whether they could correctly recall the brand. Aldi’s campaign featuring Kevin the Carrot’s stag do leads branded recognition at 32%, up 11 percentage points week on week.

Asda’s campaign led ad recognition last week. In week two, it continues to perform strongly for branded recognition but splits consumers on whether they rank it their favourite or not.

Sainsbury’s and M&S Food follow in joint second place on 31% for recognition, with Coca-Cola third at 29%.

Burberry’s Christmas ad is the least recognised, with 10% identifying it from debranded stills and just 1% correctly associating it with the brand. Despite this, it ranks top for ad empathy, with 59% strongly agreeing the ad is for ‘people like me’.

Source: Ipsos