Business leader confidence, CMOs scaling AI, influencer gifting: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Business leader confidence in the UK economy falls to record low

Business leaders’ confidence in the UK economy, as measured by the Institute of Directors Economic Confidence Index, has fallen to its lowest level since the index was introduced in 2016.

Looking ahead at the prospects for the UK economy, business leaders’ confidence fell to -74 in September 2025 from -61 in August. This exceeds the record low of -72, recorded earlier this year in July, and is the lowest reading since the introduction of the index in July 2016.

The data also records business leaders’ confidence in their own companies, which recorded a sharp fall to -7 last month, versus +1 in August.

Rising costs are a major factor dampening the confidence of business leaders. Cost expectations among business leaders rose to +89 in September, from +85 in August. September’s cost expectations exceeds the previous high recorded in February 2025 (+87).

Amid a record lack of confidence in the UK economy and rising costs, investment expectations among business leaders declined. Investment expectations in September declined sharply to -20, versus -8 in the previous month.

Source: Institute of Directors

CMOs struggling to scale AI pilot schemes

Just 17% of CMOs report using AI as a foundational capability across their marketing operations, finds research from Making Science and Forrester Consulting.

This lack of integration of the technology comes despite four in five (80%) CMOs reporting access to AI tools. More than a third (35%) of the CMOs surveyed are stuck in what the research authors call “pilot purgatory”, where AI shows promise in some channels but fails to reach enterprise-wide adoption.

The report reveals the complexity that CMOs face in the channels they use, which goes some way to explain the gap between experimentation and widespread, strategic adoption. Over half of CMOs (57%) are managing seven or more active channels.

While more than three-quarters (77%) of CMOs work with two or more external agencies, nearly half (46%) place the orchestration burden on in-house teams. Less than a third (29%) reuse creative efficiently across channels.

Source: Making Science and Forrester Consulting

Less than one in five marketers see returns from influencer gifting

The vast majority (93%) of marketers have sent free products to creators from their brands, however, less than one in five (19%) report receiving any meaningful brand advocacy in return, according to data from Socially Powerful.

Over two-fifths (43%) say that finding the right creators is the biggest challenge in influencer gifting (also known as product seeding). This challenge has led to some marketers adopting a “spray and pray” approach, with over a third (35%) of marketers admitting that casting a net too wide with creators is reducing campaign effectiveness.

This approach is potentially damaging relationships with creators, with 23% of marketers reporting receiving low quality or irrelevant influencer content.

Despite challenges in the area, recommendations remain a powerful tool for brands, with 92% of consumers stating they trust peer recommendations more than any other form of advertising.

Source: Socially Powerful

Stagnation in representation in advertising since 2019

Despite 77% of people agreeing that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is important in advertising, representation across UK ads has largely remained unchanged, or worsened, over the past six years.

Channel 4’s latest ‘Mirror On The Industry’ report in partnership with research agency Tapestry, shows that progress on minority representation in TV advertising remains inconsistent. The study draws on six years of analysis covering 6,000 UK TV ads and surveys of 12,000 consumers.

Pregnant women appear in just 0.1% of UK adverts, while LGBTQIA+ people feature in 2% of ads – down from the 3% average from 2018 to 2023 – and below the 3.2% share of the population, according to the 2021 Census. 

Disabled people appear in 4% of ads, compared with 17.8% of the UK population, a figure unchanged since Channel 4 began tracking representation in 2019.

One of the few areas of progress is the representation of black people, which rose from 37% of ads in 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, to 51% in 2024.

Since 2023, the share of people who believe DEI in advertising is important has grown from 72% to 77%. Meanwhile, 62% of consumers say they have noticed brands putting more emphasis on inclusion and diversity in their ads.

Source: Channel 4 and Tapestry

British brands are missing out on $10bn of value

UK brands are back in growth for the first time in three years, but they continue to lag behind their international peers in terms of brand value growth, according to new data.

Kantar’s BrandZ ranking of the top 75 most valuable UK brands, finds British brands are missing out on $10bn (£7.4bn) of value. This is because brand is contributing to only 29% of the total company value, compared to 33% for global brands.

According to Kantar, disruption within a category has been responsible for 71% of incremental brand value growth for the top 100 brands globally since 2006, which represents $6.6trn (£4.9trn) in additional value, but UK disruptor brands are down 19% in value since 2019.

HSBC has taken the top spot for the first time in the UK ranking, with its brand value at $21.6bn (£16.07bn), up 14% year on year.

It pushes Vodafone into second place, following a 3% year-on-year decrease in brand value to $18.5bn (£13.7bn). Shell follows closely in third at $17.1bn (£12.7bn).

Overall, financial services brands make up nine of the 10 fastest growing UK brands, with their strong performance contributing to the UK top 75 reversing last year’s 5% decline to an 8% growth overall in 2025, despite the global lag in brand value.

Source: Kantar